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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39474-8.txt b/39474-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01dd086 --- /dev/null +++ b/39474-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13922 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of From Egypt to Japan, by Henry M. Field + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: From Egypt to Japan + +Author: Henry M. Field + +Release Date: April 18, 2012 [EBook #39474] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + + + + _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ + + FROM THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY + TO THE GOLDEN HORN. + + THE FIRST VOLUME OF + DR. FIELD'S TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD. + + 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, uniform with this volume, $2.00. + _Sent postpaid, on receipt of price, by the Publishers_, + + SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO., + 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. + + + + + FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN. + + BY HENRY M. FIELD, D.D. + + NEW YORK: + SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. + 1877. + + + + + COPYRIGHT BY + SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. + 1877. + + TROW'S + PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING CO., + _205-213 East 12th St._, + NEW YORK. + + + + + To My Brothers, + DAVID DUDLEY, STEPHEN J., AND CYRUS W. FIELD, + ALL THAT ARE LEFT OF A LARGE FAMILY, + This Volume is Dedicated, + IN TOKEN OF THE LOVE OF A LIFETIME, WHICH + WILL GROW STRONGER TO THE END. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. CROSSING THE MEDITERRANEAN--ALEXANDRIA--CAIRO--THE + PYRAMIDS, 1 + + II. ON THE NILE, 15 + + III. THE TEMPLES OF EGYPT--DID MOSES GET HIS LAW FROM + THE EGYPTIANS? 28 + + IV. THE EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE, 37 + + V. THE RELIGION OF THE PROPHET, 45 + + VI. MODERN EGYPT AND THE KHEDIVE, 62 + + VII. MIDNIGHT IN THE HEART OF THE GREAT PYRAMID, 80 + + VIII. LEAVING EGYPT--THE DESERT, 96 + + IX. ON THE RED SEA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN, 106 + + X. BOMBAY--FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA, 115 + + XI. TRAVELLING IN INDIA--ALLAHABAD--THE MELA, 131 + + XII. AGRA--VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES--PALACE OF THE + GREAT MOGUL--THE TAJ, 148 + + XIII. DELHI--A MOHAMMEDAN FESTIVAL--SCENES IN THE + MUTINY, 162 + + XIV. FROM DELHI TO LAHORE, 172 + + XV. A WEEK IN THE HIMALAYAS, 182 + + XVI. THE TRAGEDY OF CAWNPORE, 210 + + XVII. THE STORY OF LUCKNOW, 222 + + XVIII. THE ENGLISH RULE IN INDIA, 236 + + XIX. MISSIONS IN INDIA--DO MISSIONARIES DO ANY GOOD? 249 + + XX. BENARES, THE HOLY CITY OF THE HINDOOS, 265 + + XXI. CALCUTTA--FAREWELL TO INDIA, 280 + + XXII. BURMAH--THE MALAYAN PENINSULA--SINGAPORE, 292 + + XXIII. THE ISLAND OF JAVA, 326 + + XXIV. UP THE CHINA SEAS--HONG KONG AND CANTON, 365 + + XXV. THREE WEEKS IN JAPAN, 397 + + + + +_This volume is complete in itself, though it is the Second Part of a +Journey Round the World, of which the First Part was published a year +ago, with the title "From the Lakes of Killarney to the Golden Horn." +The volumes are uniform in style and naturally go together, though +either is complete without the other._ + + + + +FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +CROSSING THE MEDITERRANEAN--ALEXANDRIA--CAIRO--THE PYRAMIDS. + + +On the Bosphorus there are birds which the Turks call "lost souls," as +they are never at rest. They are always on the wing, like stormy +petrels, flying swift and low, just skimming the waters, yet darting +like arrows, as if seeking for something which they could not find on +land or sea. This spirit of unrest sometimes enters into other +wanderers than those of the air. One feels it strongly as he comes to +the end of one continent, and "casts off" for another; as he leaves +the firm, familiar ground, and sails away to the distant and the +unknown. + +So felt a couple of travellers who had left America to go around the +world, and after six months in Europe, were now to push on to the +farthest East. It was an autumn afternoon near the close of the year +1875, that they left Constantinople, and sailed down the Marmora, and +through the Dardanelles, between the Castles of Europe and Asia, whose +very names suggested the continents that they were leaving behind, and +set their faces towards Africa. + +They could not go to Palestine. An alarm of cholera in Damascus had +caused a _cordon sanitaire_ to be drawn along the Syrian coast; and +though they might get in, they could not so easily get away; or would +be detained ten days in a Lazaretto before they could pass into +Egypt; and so they were obliged at the last moment to turn from the +Holy Land, and sail direct for Alexandria; touching, however, at +Mitylene and Scio; and passing a day at Smyrna and at Syra. With these +detentions the voyage took nearly a week, almost as long as to cross +the Atlantic. + +But it was not without its compensations. There was a motley company +in the cabin, made up of all nations and all religions: English and +Americans, French and Germans and Russians, Greeks and Turks, +Christians and Mohammedans. There was a grand old Turk, who was going +out to be a judge in Mecca, and was travelling with his harem, eight +women, who were carefully screened from the observation of profane +eyes. And there were other Mussulmans of rank, gentlemen in manners +and education, who would be addressed as Effendis or Beys, or perhaps +as Pashas, who did not hesitate to spread their small Persian carpets +in the cabin or on the deck at any hour, and kneel and prostrate +themselves, and say their prayers. + +Besides these, the whole forward part of the ship was packed with +pilgrims (there were four hundred of them) going to Mecca: Turks in +white turbans and baggy trousers; and Circassians in long overcoats, +made of undressed sheepskins, with tall, shaggy hats, like the +bear-skin shakos of Scotch grenadiers. Some of them had their belts +stuck thick with knives and pistols, as if they expected to have to +fight their way to the tomb of the Prophet. Altogether they were not +an attractive set, and yet one could not view, without a certain +respect, a body of men animated by a strong religious feeling which +impelled them to undertake this long pilgrimage; it requires three +months to go and return. Nor could one listen quite unmoved as at +different hours of the day, at sunrise, or midday, or sunset, the +muezzin climbed to the upper deck, and in a wailing voice called the +hour of prayer, and the true believers, standing up, rank on rank, +turned their faces towards Mecca, and reverently bowed themselves and +worshipped. + +On the afternoon of the sixth day we came in sight of a low-lying +coast, with not a hill or elevation of any kind rising above the +dreary waste, the sea of waters breaking on a sea of sand. The sun +sinking in the west showed the lighthouse at Alexandria, but as the +channel is narrow and intricate, ships are not allowed to enter after +sunset; and so we lay outside all night, but as soon as the morning +broke, steamed up and entered the harbor. Here was the same scene as +at Constantinople--a crowd of boats around the ship, and boatmen +shouting and yelling, jumping over one another in their eagerness to +be first, climbing on board, and rushing on every unfortunate +traveller as if they would tear him to pieces. But they are not so +terrible as they appear, and so it always comes to pass, that whether +"on boards or broken pieces of the ship," all come safe to land. + +In spite of this wild uproar, it was not without a strange feeling of +interest that we first set foot in Africa. A few days before we had +touched the soil of Asia, on the other side of the Bosphorus--the +oldest of the continents, the cradle of the human race. And now we +were in Africa--in Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs, out of which Moses +led the Israelites; the land of the Pyramids, the greatest monuments +of ancient civilization. + +As soon as one comes on shore, he perceives that he is in a different +country. The climate is different, the aspects of nature are +different, the people are different, the very animals are different. +Caravans of camels are moving slowly through the streets, and outside +of the city, coming up to its very walls, as if threatening to +overwhelm it, is the "great and terrible" desert, a vast and billowy +plain, whose ever-drifting sands would speedily bury all the works of +man, if they were not kept back from destruction by the waters of the +Nile, which is at once the creator and preserver of Egypt. + +Alexandria, although founded by Alexander the Great, whose name it +bears, and therefore more than two thousand years old--and although in +its monuments, Cleopatra's Needle and Pompey's Pillar, it carries back +the mind to the last of the Ptolemies, the proud daughter of kings, +and to her Roman lovers and conquerors--has yet in many parts quite a +modern aspect, and is almost a new city. It has felt, more than most +places in the East, the influence of European civilization. Commerce +is returning to its ancient seats along the Mediterranean, and the +harbor of Alexandria is filled with a forest of ships, that reminds +one of New York or Liverpool. + +But as it becomes more European, it is less Oriental; and though more +prosperous, is less picturesque than other parts of Egypt; and so, +after a couple of days, we left for Cairo, and now for the first time +struck the Nile, which reminds an American traveller of the Missouri, +or the lower Mississippi. It is the same broad stream of turbid, +yellow waters, flowing between low banks. This is the Great River +which takes its rise in the heart of Africa, beyond the equator, at a +point so remote that, though the Valley of the Nile was four thousand +years ago the seat of the greatest empire of antiquity, yet to this +day the source of the river is the problem of geographers. Formerly it +was a three days' journey from Alexandria to Cairo, but the railroad +shortens it to a ride of four hours, in which we crossed both branches +of the Nile. Just at noon we came in sight of the Pyramids, and in +half an hour were driving through the streets of the capital of Egypt. + +We like Cairo, after two or three weeks, much better than +Constantinople. It has another climate and atmosphere; and is +altogether a gayer and brighter city. The new quarter occupied by +foreigners is as handsomely built as any European city. The streets +are wide and well paved, like the new streets and boulevards of Paris. +We are at the "Grand New Hotel," fronting on the Ezbekieh gardens, a +large square, filled with trees, with kiosks for music, and other +entertainments. Our windows open on a broad balcony, from which we can +hear the band playing every afternoon, while around us is the city, +with its domes and minarets and palm trees. + +The great charm of Egypt is the climate. It is truly the Land of the +Sun. We landed on the first day of December, but we cannot realize +that this is winter. The papers tell us that it is very cold in New +York, and that the Hudson river is frozen over; but here every thing +is in bloom, as in mid-summer, and I wear a straw hat to protect me +from the heat of the sun. But it is not merely the warmth, but the +exquisite purity of the atmosphere, that makes it so delicious. The +great deserts on both sides drink up every drop of moisture, and every +particle of miasm that is exhaled from the decaying vegetation of the +Valley of the Nile, and send back into these streets the very air of +Paradise. + +Having thus the skies of Italy, and a much more balmy air, it is not +strange that Egypt attracts travellers from France, and England, and +America. It is becoming more and more a resort not only for invalids, +but for that wealthy class who float about the world to find the place +where they can pass existence with the most of languid ease. Many come +here to escape the European winters, and to enjoy the delicious +climate, and they are from so many countries, that Cairo has become a +cosmopolitan city. As it is on the road to India, it is continually +visited by English officers and civilians, going or returning. Of late +years it has become a resort also for Americans. A number of our army +officers have taken service under the Khedive, who rendezvous chiefly +at this New Hotel, so that with the travellers of the same country, we +can talk across the table of American affairs, as if we were at +Newport or Saratoga. Owing to the influx of so many foreigners, this +Hotel and "Shepheard's" seem like small colonies of Europeans. +Hearing only English, or French, or German, one might believe himself +at one of the great hotels in Switzerland, or on the Rhine. A stranger +who wishes to pass a winter in Cairo, need not die of ennui for want +of the society of his countrymen. + +Besides these officers in the army, the only Americans here in +official positions, are the Consul General Beardsley, and Judge +Batcheller, who was appointed by our Government to represent the +United States in the Mixed Court lately established in Egypt. Both +these gentlemen are very courteous to their countrymen, while giving +full attention to their duties. As we have sometimes had abroad +consuls and ministers of whom we could not be proud, it is something +to be able to say, that those here now in official position are men of +whom we need not be ashamed as representatives of our country. + +Another household which should not be overlooked, since it gives an +American a home feeling in Cairo, is that of the American Mission. +This has been here some years, and so won the favor of the government, +that the former Viceroy gave it a site for its schools, which proved +so valuable that the present Khedive has recently bought it back, by +giving a new site and £7000 into the bargain. The new location is one +of the best in Cairo, near the Ezbekieh square, and here with the +proceeds of the sale, and other funds contributed for the object, the +Mission is erecting one of the finest buildings for such purposes in +the East, where their chapel and schools, in which there are now some +five hundred children, will be under one roof. + +This Mission School some years ago was the scene of a romantic +incident. An Indian prince, then living in England, was on his way to +India, with the body of his mother, who had died far from her country, +but with the prejudices of a Hindoo strong in death, wished her body +to be taken back to the land of her birth. While passing through +Cairo, he paid a visit to the American Mission, and was struck with +the face of a young pupil in the girls' school, and after due inquiry +proposed to the missionaries to take her as his wife. They gave their +consent, and on his return they were married, and he took her with him +to England. This was the Maharajah Dhuleep Sing, a son of old Runjeet +Sing, the Lion of Lahore, who raised up a race of warriors, that after +his death fought England, and whose country, the Punjaub, the English +annexed to their Indian dominions; and here, as in other cases, +removed a pretender out of the way by settling a large pension on the +heir to the throne. Thus the Maharajah came into the possession of a +large revenue from the British government, amounting, I am told, to +some £30,000 a year. Having been from his childhood under English +pupilage, he has been brought up as a Christian, and finds it to his +taste to reside in England, where he is able to live in splendor, and +is a great favorite at court. His choice of a wife proved a most happy +one, as the modest young pupil of Cairo introduced into his English +home, with the natural grace of her race, for she is partly of Arab +descent, the culture and refinement learned in a Mission school. Nor +does he forget what he owes to the care of those who watched over her +in her childhood, but sends a thousand pounds every year to the school +in grateful acknowledgment of the best possible gift it could make to +him, that of a noble Christian wife. + +Besides this foreign society, there is also a resident society which, +to those who can be introduced to it, is very attractive. The +government of the Khedive has brought into his service some men who +would be distinguished in any European court or capital. The most +remarkable of these is Nubar Pasha, long the Minister of Foreign +Affairs. + +Judge Batcheller kindly took me to the house of the old statesman, who +received us cordially. On hearing that I was on my way around the +world, he exclaimed, "Ah, you Americans! You are true Bedouins!" I +asked him what was the best guide-book to Egypt? He answered +instantly, "The Bible." It was delightful to see his enthusiasm for +Egypt, although he is not an Egyptian. He is not an Arab, nor a Turk, +nor even a Mussulman; but an Armenian by birth and by religion. His +uncle, Nubar Pasha, came over with Mehemet Ali, whose prime minister +he was for forty years; and his nephew, who inherits his name, +inherits also the traditions of that great reign. Though born on the +other side of the Mediterranean, he is in heart an Egyptian. He loves +the country of his adoption, and all his thoughts and his political +ambition are for its greatness and prosperity. He has lived here so +long that he sometimes speaks of himself playfully as "one of the +antiquities of Egypt." "Of the first dynasty?" we ask. "Yes, of the +time of Menes." I do not believe he could exist anywhere else. He +loves not only the climate, but even the scenery of Egypt, which is +more charming to his eyes than the hills and vales of Scotland or the +mountains of Switzerland. "But you must admit," I said, "that it has a +great monotony." "No," he replied, "in Lombardy there is monotony; but +Egypt is immensity, infinity, eternity. The features of the landscape +may be the same, but the eye never wearies." Surely _his_ eye never +does, for it is touched with a poetic vision; he sees more than meets +the common eye; every passing cloud changes the lights and shadows; +and to him there is more of beauty in the sunset flashing through the +palm groves, as the leaves are gently stirred by the evening wind, +than in all the luxuriance of tropical forests. Even if we did not +quite share his enthusiasm, we could not but be charmed by the +pictures which were floating before his mind's eye, and by the +eloquence of his description. As he loves the country, so he loves the +people of Egypt. Poor and helpless as they are, they have won upon his +affection; he says "they are but children;" but if they have the +weakness of children, they have also their simplicity and +trustfulness; and I could see that his great ambition was to break up +that system of forced labor which crushes them to the earth, and to +secure to them at least some degree of liberty and of justice. + +With all its newness and freshness this city retains its Oriental +character. Indeed Grand Cairo is said to be the most Oriental of +cities except Damascus. It has four hundred thousand inhabitants, and +in its ancient portions has all the peculiar features of the East. Not +only is the city different from Constantinople, but the people are +different; they are another race, and speak another language. Turks +and Arabs are as different as Englishmen and Frenchmen. + +We are entertained every time that we go out of doors, with the +animated and picturesque life of the streets. There are all races and +all costumes, and all modes of locomotion. There are fine horses and +carriages. I feel like Joseph riding in Pharaoh's chariot, when we +take a carriage to ride out to Shoobra, one of the palaces of the +Khedive, with syces dressed in white running before to herald our +royal progress, and shout to the people to get out of our way. But one +who prefers a more Oriental mode of riding, can mount a camel, or +stoop to a donkey, for the latter are the smallest creatures that ever +walked under the legs of a man, and if the rider be very tall, he will +need to hold up his feet to keep them from dangling on the ground. Yet +they are hardy little creatures, and have a peculiar amble which they +keep up all day. They are very useful for riding, especially in some +parts of the city where the streets are too narrow to allow a carriage +to pass. + +The donkey-men are very sharp, like their tribe in all parts of the +world. The Arabs have a great deal of natural wit, which might almost +entitle them to be called the Irish of the East. They have picked up a +few words of English, and it is amusing to hear them say, with a most +peculiar accent, "All right," "Very good," "Go ahead." They seem to +know everybody, and soon find out who are their best customers. I +cannot go down the steps without a dozen rushing toward me, calling +out "Doctor, want a donkey?" One of them took me on my weak side the +first day by saying that the name of his animal was "Yankee Doodle," +and so I have patronized that donkey ever since, and a tough little +beast he is, scudding away with me on his back at a great rate. His +owner, a fine looking Arab, dressed in a loose blue gown and snowy +turban, runs barefooted behind him, to prick him up, if he lags in his +speed, or if perchance he goes too fast, to seize him by the tail, and +check his impetuosity. We present a ludicrous spectacle when thus +mounted, setting out for the bazaars, where our experience of +Constantinople is repeated. + +Of course the greatest sight around Cairo is the Pyramids. It is an +event in one's life to see these grandest monuments of antiquity. The +excursion is now very easy. They are eight miles from Cairo, and it +was formerly a hard day's journey to go there and back, as one could +only ride on a donkey or a camel, and had to cross the river in boats; +and the country was often inundated, so that one had to go miles +around. But the Khedive, who does everything here, has changed all +that. He has built an iron bridge over the Nile, and a broad road, +raised above the height of the annual inundations, so as never to be +overflowed, and lined with trees, the rapid-growing acacia, so that +one may drive through a shaded avenue the whole way. A shower which +had fallen the night before we went (a very rare thing in Egypt at +this season) had laid the dust and cooled the air, so that the day was +perfect, and we drove in a carriage in an hour and a half from our +hotel to the foot of the Pyramids. The two largest of these are in +sight as soon as one crosses the Nile, but though six miles distant +they seem quite near. Yet at first, and even when close to them, they +hardly impress the beholder with their real greatness. This is owing +to their pyramidal form, which, rising before the eye like the slope +of a hill, does not strike the senses or the imagination as much as +smaller masses which rise perpendicularly. One can hardly realize that +the Pyramid of Cheops is the largest structure in the world--the +largest probably ever reared by human hands. But as it slopes to the +top, it does not present its full proportions to the eye, nor impress +one so much as some of the Greek temples with their perpendicular +columns, or the Gothic churches with their lofty arches, and still +loftier towers, soaring to heaven. Yet the Great Pyramid is higher +than them all, higher even than the spire of the Cathedral at +Strasburg; while in the surface of ground covered, the most spacious +of them, even St. Peter's at Rome, seems small in comparison. It +covers eleven acres, a space nearly as large as the Washington Parade +Ground in New York; and is said by Herodotus to have taken a hundred +thousand men twenty years to build it. Pliny agrees in the length of +time, but says the number of workmen employed was over three hundred +thousand! + +But mere figures do not give the best impression of height; the only +way to judge of the Great Pyramid is to see it and to ascend it. One +can go to the top by steps, but as these steps are blocks of stone, +many of which are four feet high, it is not quite like walking up +stairs. One could hardly get up at all but with the help of the Arabs, +who swarm on the ground, and make a living by selling their services. +Four of them set upon me, seizing me by the hands, and dragging me +forward, and with pulling and pushing and "boosting," urged on by my +own impatience--for I would not let them rest a moment--in ten minutes +we were at the top, which they thought a great achievement, and rubbed +down my legs, as a groom rubs down a horse after a race, and clapped +me on the back, and shouted "All right," "Very good." I felt a little +pride in being the first of our party on the top, and the last to +leave it. + +These Arab guides are at once very troublesome and very necessary. One +cannot get along without them, and yet they are so importunate in +their demands for backsheesh that they become a nuisance. They are +nominally under the orders of a Sheik, who charges two English +shillings for every traveller who is assisted to the top, but that +does not relieve one from constant appeals going up and down. I found +it the easiest way to get rid of them to give somewhat freely, and +thus paid three or four times the prescribed charge before I got to +the bottom. No doubt I gave far too much, for they immediately quoted +me to the rest of the party, and held me up as a shining example. I am +afraid I demoralized the whole tribe, for some friends who went the +next day were told of an American who had been there the day before, +who had given "beautiful backsheesh." The cunning fellows, finding I +was an easy subject, followed me from one place to another, and gave +me no peace even when wandering among the tombs, or when taking our +lunch in the Temple of the Sphinx, but at every step clamored for +more; and when I had given them a dozen times, an impudent rascal came +up even to the carriage, as we were ready to drive away, and said that +two or three shillings more would "make all serene!"--a phrase which +he had caught from some strolling American, and which he turns to good +account. + +But one would gladly give any sum to get rid of petty annoyances, and +to be able to look around him undisturbed. Here we are at last on the +very summit of the Great Pyramid, and begin to realize its immensity. +Below us men look like mice creeping about, and the tops of trees in +the long avenue show no larger than hot-house plants. The eye ranges +over the valley of the Nile for many miles--a carpet of the richest +green, amid which groups of palms rise like islands in a sea. To the +east beyond the Nile is Cairo, its domes and minarets standing out +against the background of the Mokattam hills, while to the west +stretches far away the Libyan desert. + +Overlooking this broad landscape, one can trace distinctly the line of +the overflow of the Nile. Wherever the waters come, there is greenness +and fertility; at the point where they cease, there is barrenness and +desolation. It is a perpetual struggle between the waters and the +sands, like that which is always going on in human history between +barbarism and civilization. + +In the Pyramids the two things which impress us most are their vast +size and their age. As we stand on the top, and look down the long +flight of steps which leads to the valley below, we find that we are +on the crest of a mountain of stone. Some idea of the enormous mass +imbedded in the Great Pyramid may be gathered from the fact, +ascertained by a careful computation (estimating its weight at seven +millions of tons, and considering it a solid mass, its chambers and +passages being as far as discovered but 1/2000th of the whole), that +these blocks of stone, placed end to end, would make a wall a foot and +a half broad, and ten feet high around England, a distance of 883 +miles--a wall that would shut in the island up to the Scottish border. + +And the Pyramids are not only the greatest, but the oldest monuments +of the human race, the most venerable structures ever reared by the +hand of man. They are far older than any of the monuments of Roman or +Grecian antiquity. They were a marvel and a mystery then as much as +they are to-day. How _much_ older cannot be said with certainty. +Authorities are not fully agreed, but the general belief among the +later chronologists is that the Great Pyramid was built about two +thousand one hundred and seventy years before the time of Christ, and +the next in size a century later. Thus both have been standing about +four thousand years. Napoleon was right therefore when he said to his +soldiers before the battle fought with the Mamelukes under the shadow +of the Pyramids, "From those heights forty centuries behold you." This +disposes of the idea which some have entertained, that they were built +by the children of Israel when they were in Egypt; for according to +this they were erected two hundred years before even the time of +Abraham. Jacob saw them when he came down into Egypt to buy corn; and +Joseph showed them to his brethren. The subject Hebrews looked up to +them in the days of their bondage. Moses saw them when he was brought +up in the court of Pharaoh, and they disappeared from the view of the +Israelites only when they fled to the Red Sea. They had been standing +a thousand years when Homer sang of the siege of Troy; and here came +Herodotus the father of history, four hundred years before Christ, and +gazed with wonder, and wrote about them as the most venerable +monuments of antiquity, with the same curious interest as Rawlinson +does to-day. So they have been standing century after century, while +the generations of men have been flowing past, like the waters of the +Nile. + +We visited the Great Pyramid again on our return from Upper Egypt, and +explored the interior, but reserve the description to another chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ON THE NILE. + + +At last we are on the Nile, floating as in a dream, in the finest +climate in the world, amid the monuments and memories of thousands of +years. Anything more delightful than this climate for winter cannot be +imagined. The weather is always the same. The sky is always blue, and +we are bathed in a soft, delicious atmosphere. In short, we seem to +have come, like the Lotus-eaters, to "a land where it is always +afternoon." In such an air and such a mood, we left Cairo to make the +voyage to which we had been looking forward as an event in our lives. + +To travellers who desire to visit Egypt, and to see its principal +monuments, without taking more time than they have at command, it is a +great advantage that there is now a line of steamers on the Nile. The +boats belong to the Khedive, but are managed by Cook & Son, of London, +the well-known conductors of excursions in Europe and the East. They +leave Cairo every fortnight, and make the trip to the First Cataract +and back in twenty days, thus comprising the chief objects of interest +within a limited time. Formerly there was no way to go up the Nile +except by chartering a boat, with a captain and crew for the voyage. +This mode of travel had many charms. The kind of boat--called a +_dahabeeah_--was well fitted for the purpose, with a cabin large +enough for a single family, or a very small party, and an upper deck +covered with awnings; and as it spread its three-cornered lateen sail +to the wind, it presented a pretty and picturesque object, and the +traveller floated along at his own sweet will. This had only the +drawback of taking a whole winter. But to leisurely tourists, who like +to do everything thoroughly, and so take but one country in a year; or +learned Egyptologists, who wish, in the intervals of seeing monuments, +to make a special study of the history of Egypt; or invalids, who +desire only to escape the damps and fogs of Britain, or the bitter +cold of the Northern States of America--nothing can be imagined more +delightful. There is a class of overworked men for whom no medicine +could be prescribed more effectual than a winter idled away in this +soothing, blissful rest. Nowhere in the world can one obtain more of +the _dolce far niente_, than thus floating slowly and dreamily on the +Nile. But for those of us who are wandering over all the earth, +crossing all the lands and seas in the round world, this slow voyaging +will not answer. + +Nor is it necessary. One can see Egypt--not of course minutely, but +sufficiently to get a general impression of the country--in a much +less time. It must be remembered that this is not like other countries +which lie four-square, presenting an almost equal length and breadth, +but in shape is a mere line upon the map, being a hundred times as +long as it is broad. To be exact, Egypt from the apex of the +Delta--that is from Cairo--to the First Cataract, nearly six hundred +miles, is all enclosed in a valley, which, on an average, is only six +miles wide, the whole of which may be seen from the deck of a steamer, +while excursions are made from day to day to the temples and ruins. It +is a mistake to suppose that one sees more of these ruins on a boat +because he is so much longer about it, when the extra time consumed is +not spent at Denderah or Thebes, but floating lazily along with a +light wind, or if the wind be adverse, tied up to a bank to await a +change. In a steamer the whole excursion is well divided, ample time +being allowed to visit every point of interest, as at Thebes, where +the boat stops three days. As soon as one point is done, it moves on +to another. In this way no time is lost, and one can see as much in +three weeks as in a dahabeeah in three months. + +Our boat carried twenty-seven passengers, of whom more than half were +Americans, forming a most agreeable company. All on deck, we watched +with interest the receding shores, as we sailed past the island of +Rhoda, where, according to tradition, the infant Moses was found in +the bulrushes; and where the Nilometer, a pillar planted in the water +ages ago, still marks the annual risings and fallings of the great +river of Egypt. The Pyramids stood out clear against the western sky. +That evening we enjoyed the first of a series of glorious sunsets on +the Nile. Our first sail was very short--only to Sakkara, a few miles +above Cairo, where we lay to for the night, the boat being tied up to +the bank, in the style of a steamer on the Mississippi. + +Early the next morning our whole company hastened ashore, where a +large array of donkeys was waiting to receive us. These had been sent +up from Cairo the night before. My faithful attendant was there with +"Yankee Doodle," and claimed me as his special charge. We were soon +mounted and pricking over what we should call "bottom lands" in the +valleys of our Western rivers, the wide plain being relieved only by +the palm groves, and rode through an Arab village, where we were +pursued by a rabble rout of ragged children. The dogs barked, the +donkeys brayed, and the children ran. Followed by such a retinue, we +approached the Pyramids of Sakkara, which stand on the same plateau as +those of Ghizeh, and are supposed to be even older in date. Though +none of them are equal to the Great Pyramid, they belong to the same +order of Cyclopean architecture, and are the mighty monuments of an +age when there were giants in the earth. + +There is a greater wonder still in the Tombs of the Sacred Bulls, +which were long buried beneath the sands of the desert, but have been +brought to light by a modern explorer, but which I will not describe +here, as I shall speak of them again in illustration of the religious +ideas of the Egyptians. + +Near the Pyramids of Sakkara is the site of Memphis, the capital of +ancient Egypt, of whose magnificence we have the most authentic +historic accounts, but of which hardly a trace remains. We galloped +our donkeys a long distance that we might pass over the spot where it +stood, but found only great mounds of earth, with here and there a few +scattered blocks of granite, turned up from the soil, to tell of the +massive structures that are buried beneath. The chief relic of its +former glory is a statue of Rameses the Great, one of the most famous +of the long line of the Pharaohs--a statue which was grand enough to +be worthy of a god--being some fifty feet high, but which now lies +stretched upon the earth, with its face downward, all its fine +proportions completely buried in a little pond--or rather puddle--of +dirty water! At certain seasons of the year, when the Nile subsides, +the features are exposed, and one may look upon a countenance "whose +bend once did awe the world;" but at present, seeing only the back, +and that broken, it has no appearance or shape of anything, and might +be a king, or queen, or crocodile. What a bitter satire is it on all +human pride, that this mighty king and conqueror, the Napoleon of his +day--who made nations tremble--now lies prone on the earth, his +imperial front buried in the slime and ooze of the Nile! That solitary +stone is all that is left of a city of temples and palaces, which are +here entombed, and where now groves of palms wave their tasselled +plumes, like weeping willows over the sepulchre of departed greatness. + +Our next excursion was to the remains of a very remote antiquity on +the other side of the Nile--the Rock-Tombs of Beni-Hassan--immense +caverns cut in the side of a mountain, in which were buried the great +ones of Egypt four thousand years ago. Many of them are inscribed with +hieroglyphics, and decorated with frescoes and bas-reliefs, in which +we recognize not only the appearance of the ancient Egyptians, but +even of the animals which were familiar in that day, such as the lion, +the jackal, and the gazelle, and more frequently the beasts of +burden--bulls and donkeys; but in none do we discover the horse, nor, +what is perhaps even more remarkable in a country surrounded by +deserts--the camel. + +In the King's tomb, or sepulchral chamber, a room some forty feet +square, hollowed out of the solid rock, the vaulted roof is supported +by Doric pillars, which shows that the Greeks obtained many of their +ideas of architecture in Egypt, as well as of philosophy and religion. + +As we continue our course up the river, we observe more closely the +features of the valley of the Nile. It is very narrow and is abruptly +bounded by barren and ragged mountains. Between these barriers the +river winds like a serpent from side to side, now to the east, and now +to the west, but inclining more to the range of Eastern or Arabian +hills, leaving the greater breadth of fertility on the western bank. +Here is the larger number of villages; here is the railroad which the +Khedive has built along the valley, beside which runs the long line of +telegraph poles, that sign of civilization, keeping pace with the iron +track, and passing beyond it, carrying the electric cord to the upper +Nile, to Nubia and Soudan. The Khedive, with that enterprise which +marks his administration, has endeavored to turn the marvellous +fertility of this valley to the most profitable uses. He has +encouraged the culture of cotton, which became very extensive during +our civil war, and is still perhaps the chief industry of the country. +Next to this is the growth of the sugar-cane: he has expended millions +in the erection of great manufactories of sugar, whose large white +walls and tall chimneys are the most conspicuous objects at many +points along the Nile. + +Now, as thousands of years ago, the great business of the people is +_irrigation_. The river does everything. It fertilizes the land; it +yields the crops. The only thing is to bring the water to the land at +the seasons when the river does not overflow. This is done by a very +simple and rude apparatus, somewhat like an old-fashioned well-sweep, +by which a bucket is lowered into the river, and as it is swung up the +water is turned into a trench which conducts it over the land. This is +the _shadoof_, the same which was used in the time of Moses. There is +another method by which a wheel is turned by an ox, lifting up a +series of buckets attached to a chain, but this is too elaborate and +expensive for the greater part of the poor people who are the tillers +of the soil. + +We pass a great number of villages, but, larger and smaller, all +present the same general features. At a distance they have rather a +pretty effect, as they are generally embowered in palm trees, out of +which sometimes peers the white minaret of a mosque. But a nearer +approach destroys all the picturesqueness. The houses are built of +unburnt brick, dried in the sun. They are mere huts of mud--as +wretched habitations as an Irish hovel or an Indian wigwam. The floor +is the earth, where all sexes and ages sit on the ground, while in an +enclosure scarcely separate from the family, sheep and goats, and dogs +and asses and camels, lie down together. + +The only pretty feature of an Arab village is the _doves_. Where these +Africans got their fondness for birds, I know not, but their mud +houses are surmounted--and one might almost say _castellated_--with +dove-cotes, which of course are literally "pigeon-holed," and stuck +round with branches, to seem like trees, and these rude aviaries are +alive with wings all day long. It was a pretty and indeed a touching +sight to see these beautiful creatures, cooing and fluttering above, +presenting such a contrast, in their airy flights and bright plumage, +to the dark and sad human creatures below. + +But if the houses of the people are so mean and poor, their clothing +is still worse, consisting generally of but one garment, a kind of +sack of coarse stuff. The men working at the _shadoof_ on the river +brink have only a strip of cloth around their loins. The women have a +little more _dress_ than the men, though generally barefoot and +bareheaded--while carrying heavy jars of water on their heads. The +children have the merest shred of a garment, a clout of rags, in such +tatters that you wonder how it can hold together, while many are +absolutely naked. + +This utter destitution would entail immense suffering, and perhaps +cause the whole race to die out, but for the climate, which is so mild +that it takes away in a great degree the need of shelter and raiment, +which in other countries are necessary to human existence. + +This extreme poverty is aggravated by one disease, which is almost +universal. The bright sun, glaring on the white sands, produces an +inflammation of the eyes, which being neglected, often ends in +blindness. I have seen more men in Egypt with one eye, or with none, +than in all Europe. + +It might be supposed that a people, thus reduced by poverty and +smitten by disease, would be crushed out of all semblance of humanity. +And yet this Arab race is one which has a strong tenacity of life. +Most travellers judge them harshly, because they are disgusted by the +unceasing cry for _backsheesh_, which is the first word that a +stranger hears as he lands in Egypt, and the last as he leaves it. But +even this (although it is certainly a nuisance and a pest) might be +regarded with more merciful judgment, if it were considered that it is +only the outward sign of an internal disease; that general beggary +means general poverty and general misery. + +Leaving this noisy crowd, which gathers about us in every village that +we enter, it is easy to find different specimens of Arab character, +which engage our interest and compel our respect. One cannot look at +these men without admiring their physique. They remind me much of our +American Indians. Like them, they are indolent, unless goaded to work +by necessity, and find nothing so pleasant as to sit idly in the sun. +But when they stand up they have an attitude as erect as any Indian +chief, and a natural dignity, which is the badge of their race. Many a +man who has but a single garment to cover him, will wrap it about him +as proudly as any Spanish cavalier would toss his cloak over his +shoulders, and stalk away with a bold, free stride, as if, in spite of +centuries of humiliation, he were still the untamed lord of the +desert. Their old men are most venerable in appearance. With their +long beards, white turbans, and flowing garments, they might stand for +the picture of Old Testament patriarchs. The women too (who do not +cover their faces as much as those in lower Egypt), though coarsely +and meanly dressed, yet as they walk with their water-jars on their +heads, stand more erect than the fashionable ladies of our cities. I +see them every day coming to fill their "pitchers" precisely as +Rebecca and Rachel came three thousand years ago, and if I should +approach one, saying, Give me to drink, (which I might well do, for +the water of the Nile--though containing so much sediment, that it +needs to be filtered--is as soft and sweet as that of our own Croton), +she would let down her jar from her head just as Rebecca let down her +jar for the servant of Abraham, when he came to ask her in marriage +for his master's son Isaac. + +The children too, though often naked, and if clothed at all, always in +rags, yet have fine olive complexions, and dazzling teeth, and those +bright eyes which are the sign of a degree of native intelligence. + +Nor can I refuse to say a word for the poor donkey-boy. Many years ago +a Scotchman in the Cape Colony, South Africa, who was accustomed to +make long journeys in the bush, wrote a little poem, depicting the +joys of that solitary life, which began, + + "Afar in the desert I love to ride, + With the silent bush-boy by my side." + +The donkey-boy is never silent, he is always singing or calling to his +donkey, urging him forward with stick and voice; yet who could wish a +more patient or faithful attendant, who, though on foot, trots by your +side from morning to night, the slave of your caprice, taking meekly +all your rebukes, perhaps undeserved, and content at last with a +pittance for his service? + +So have I had a little girl as a water-carrier, running close to my +saddle all day long, keeping up with the donkey's pace, and carrying a +small jar of water on her head, to wash my hands and face, or assuage +my thirst, thankful at last for a few piastres as her reward. + +We reached Assiout, the capital of Upper Egypt, early Sunday morning, +and laid up for the day. While our boat's company were preparing to go +on shore to see the town, I mounted a donkey and started off to find +the American Mission, which is at work among the Copts, who claim to +be the descendants of the ancient Egyptians. I arrived at the chapel +in time to hear a sermon and an address to the Sunday-school. As the +services were in Arabic, I could not understand what was said, but I +could perceive at once the earnestness of the speakers, and the close +attention of the hearers. After the sermon there was a baptism. The +congregation was a very respectable one both in numbers and +appearance. There were perhaps two hundred present, all decently, +although some were very poorly clad, and presented a striking contrast +to the ragged and dirty people around them. In the quiet and orderly +worship, and the songs that were sung, which were Arabic words to +American tunes, there was much to make one think of home. There was +nothing to distinguish the congregation except the Oriental turbans +and dress, and the fact that the women sat apart from the men, +separated by a screen, which shows that the seclusion of women is not +confined to the Mohammedans. It is an Oriental custom, and is observed +by the Copts as well as the Moslems. I am told that even among +Christian families here, it is not considered quite "the thing" for +women to go abroad and show impertinent curiosity, and that ladies of +good position, who are as intelligent as most Orientals, have never +seen the Nile, but two miles distant! Such is the power of fashion +even in Africa. In the church are several men of wealth, who give +freely of their means, as well as use their influence, for its +support. The Copts are nominal Christians, although, like most of the +Christian sects of the East, they are very ignorant and very +superstitious. But they have not the fanatical hatred to Christianity +of the Mussulmans. They acknowledge the authority of the Bible, and +are thus more open to argument and persuasion. Besides this +congregation, the mission has some dozen schools in the surrounding +country. In the town itself, besides the schools for the poorest +children, it has a boarding-school for those of a better class, an +academy which is the beginning of a college, and half a dozen young +men are preparing for the ministry. The field is a very hopeful one, +and I was assured that the success of the mission was limited only by +the means at its disposal. + +After visiting the schools, Rev. Mr. Strang accompanied me through the +town. It has over twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and is the point +of departure for the caravans which cross the Great Desert to Darfour +and the far interior of Africa, returning laden with ivory and ostrich +feathers, as in the days of King Solomon. We saw in an open square, or +market-place, some hundred camels, that, as they lay wearily on the +earth, looked as if they might have made the long journey over the +trackless sands. Laborers were at work, with no respect for the day, +for Friday is the Mohammedan Sabbath; and my friend pointed out, where +a number of workmen were building a house, the "taskmaster" sitting on +the top of the wall to overlook them, as in the days of the Bible. As +we returned by an old portal in the city walls, we found a number of +long-bearded and venerable men, who were "sitting in the gate" as +"elders" to administer justice. The city gate is the place of honor +and of justice now, as it was thousands of years ago. + +In the mountain behind the town are a great number of tombs, like +those of Beni-Hassan, vast chambers hewn out of the rock ages ago for +burial places. We walked along by these silent memorials of the mighty +dead, to the summit, from which is one of the most beautiful views of +the valley of the Nile. Below the plain is spread out for many miles, +well watered like the garden of the Lord, the emerald green coming up +to the very foot of the barren hills. But there it ceases instantly, +giving place to the desert. + +These contrasts suggest some comparisons between the scenery and the +climate of Egypt, and our own country. Whoever breathes this balmy +air, and looks up to this cloudless sky, must feel that the Lord of +all the earth has been bountiful to Egypt. As we read of the winter +storms now raging over half of Europe, we bless the more kindly skies +that are over us now. But after a few weeks of this dreamy, languid +life, one begins to feel the want of something else to stir his blood. +He finds that nature in Egypt, like the works of man, like the temples +and the pyramids, is a sublime monotony. The landscapes are all the +same. There are four or five grand features, the river, the valley, +the hills that enclose it, and beyond the boundless desert, and over +all the burning sun and sky. These are the elements that enter into +every landscape. There is no change, no variety. Look where you will, +there is no vision in the distance of lofty peaks dark with pines, or +white with snow, no torrents leaping down the mountain side (the +_silence_ of Egypt is one of the things that most oppress me), no +brooks that run among the hills, no winding paths along their banks +that invite the stranger to lose himself in their shade. I see indeed +hills on either horizon, but they are barren and desolate. On all +this double range, for six hundred miles, there is not a single green +thing--not a tree, not a shrub, not a blade of grass, not even a rock +covered with moss, only a waste of sand and stone. If you climbed +those hills yonder across the valley you would look off upon a +boundless plain of sand that stretches to the Red Sea; while behind +where we stand is the Libyan Desert, which is only an arm of the Great +Sahara, that crosses almost the whole of the continent. In all this +waste the valley of the Nile is the one narrow strip of fertility. And +even this is parched and burnt up to the very water's edge. Hence the +monotony of vegetation. There is not a forest in all Egypt, only the +palm groves, which are planted like garden flowers, but no tangled +wild wood, no lofty elms, no broad-spreading oaks that cast their +grateful shadow on the burning plains. All that variety of nature, +with which in other lands she beguiles the weary heart of man, is +wanting here. It is indeed the land of the sun, and in that is at once +its attraction and its terror, as the fiery orb beats down upon it, +withering man and beast, and turning the earth into a desert. + +Seeing this monotony of nature, and feeling this monotony of life, one +begins to pine after awhile, for a return to the scenes more varied, +though more wild and rugged, of his own more northern clime. We hear +much of the beauty of a "cloudless sky." It is indeed a relief for a +few weeks to those who escape from wintry storms, from bitter winds +and blinding snow. But who would have sunshine _forever_? The light +and warmth are better when softened and subdued by clouds that +intercept the overpowering rays. But here the clouds are few, and they +do not "return after the rain," for there _is_ no rain. In Lower Egypt +there is what may be called a rainy season. In the Delta, as the +clouds roll up from the Mediterranean, there is sometimes a sound of +abundance of rain. But in Upper Egypt it may be said that it never +rains. In Assiout it has rained but three times in ten years! Of +course the heat is sometimes fearful. Now it is mid-winter, and the +air is comparatively cool and bracing, but in midsummer it reaches 110 +and 112 degrees in the shade! For days and nights together the heat is +so intense that not a leaf stirs in the palm groves. Not only is there +not a drop of rain--there is not a breath of air. This it is to have a +"cloudless sky"! Gladly then would our friend exchange for half the +year the climate of Egypt for that of America. How refreshing it would +be to him to see, just for once, great masses of black clouds +gathering over the Arabian Hills, to see the lightnings flash as he +has seen them in his native Ohio, and to hear the thunder-peals +rolling across the valley from mountain to mountain, and at last dying +away on the Libyan desert. + +Think of this, ye who shiver in your winter storms at home, and sigh +for Egypt. Take it all in all, would you make the exchange? + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE TEMPLES OF EGYPT--DID MOSES GET HIS LAW FROM THE EGYPTIANS? + + +In the distribution of the monuments of Egypt, it is a curious fact +that the Pyramids are found almost wholly in Lower Egypt, and the +great Temples in Upper Egypt. It was not till we had been a week on +the Nile, that we had our first sight of the latter at Denderah. We +have since spent three days at Thebes, the great centre of historical +interest, and have made a regular campaign of sight-seeing, starting +on excursions every morning, and thus have explored the ruins on both +sides of the river--for Thebes, like many other great cities--like +London and Paris--was built on two sides of a river, but one much +greater than the Thames or the Seine, yet not so great but that it was +spanned by a bridge (at least this is inferred from some ancient +sculptures and inscriptions), over which poured a population such as +pours over London Bridge to-day. The site seems made for a great +capital, for here the mountains retire from the river, sweeping round +in a circuit of some fifty miles, leaving a broad plain to be filled +with human habitations. Here four thousand years ago was built a city +greater than that on the banks of the Tigris or the Euphrates, than +Nineveh or Babylon. Here was the centre of power and dominion for two +continents--not only for Africa, but for Asia--to which flocked the +multitudinous nations of Assyria and Arabia and Persia and the +farthest East, as well as the tribes of Ethiopia--as two thousand +years later all the peoples of the earth flocked to Rome. It is easy, +from historical records and monumental inscriptions, to form some +idea of the glory of this capital of the ancient world. We can imagine +the tumult and the roar of this more ancient Rome, when the chariots +of mighty kings, and the tread of armies returning victorious from +distant wars, thundered through her hundred gates. + +Then did the kings of Egypt rear temples and palaces and statues and +obelisks worthy of all that greatness. Then were built the most +gigantic temples ever raised by the hand of man--as much surpassing in +vastness and grandeur those reared centuries afterward by the Greeks, +as the latter surpass anything by the moderns. The temples of +Thebes--including Luxor and Karnac, which are parts of one city--are +as much grander than the Parthenon, as the Parthenon is grander than +the Madeleine at Paris, which is a feeble attempt to copy it. + +We have now been a week--beginning with Denderah--studying these +ruins, and may give certain general impressions. We do not attempt any +detailed description, which must necessarily be inadequate, since +neither words nor figures convey an idea of them, any more than they +do of the Alps. What would be thought of an avenue nearly two miles +long, lined with over twelve hundred colossal sphinxes? Yet such was +the avenue from Luxor to Karnac--an approach worthy to lead to the +temple of the gods. What can we say of a forest of columns, each +twelve feet in diameter, stretching out in long colonnades; of the +massive walls covered with bas-reliefs; and obelisks in single shafts +of granite, of such height and weight that it is the wonder of modern +engineering how they could be cut from the side of the hills, and be +brought a hundred and forty miles, and erected on their firm bases. + +But this temple--or rather cluster of temples and palaces--was not, +like the temple of Solomon, finished in a single reign. Karnac was not +the work of one man, or of one generation. It was twenty-five hundred +years in building, successive kings and dynasties adding to the mighty +whole, which was to represent all the glory of Egypt. + +The general impression of these temples--and the same is true of the +Egyptian statues and sculptures--is one of grandeur rather than +beauty. They seek to overpower the senses by mere size. Sometimes they +overdo the matter. Thus in the temples at Karnac the columns seem to +me too large and too much crowded for the best effect. Ordinary trees +may be planted in a dense grove, but great, broad-spreading oaks or +elms require space around them; and if these columns were a little +more _spaced_--to use a printer's word--the architectural effect would +be still grander. So in the Egyptian sculpture, everything is +colossal. In the granite lions and sphinxes there is always an aspect +of power in repose which is very impressive, and strikes one with awe. +But in any lighter work, such as frescoes and bas-reliefs, there is a +total absence of delicacy and grace. Nothing can be more stiff. They +sometimes have a rude force of drawing, but beauty they have none. +That was born in Greece. All the sculptures on all the temples of +Egypt are not worth--except as historical monuments--the friezes of +the Parthenon. + +One thing else has struck me much as to the plan of these temples, +viz.: that we see in them the types and models of much that has been +reproduced in various forms of ecclesiastical architecture. One has +but to observe with some care the construction of these vast +basilicas, to see how many features of Jewish, and even of Christian +and Moslem architecture, have been adopted from still older temples +and an earlier religion. Thus in the temple at Edfoo there is first +the vast enclosure surrounding the whole, and then within the walls an +outer court open to the sky, corresponding to the Court of the +Gentiles in the Temple at Jerusalem, to the Court of the Fountains +leading to the Mosques, and the cloister surrounding the approaches to +old abbeys and cathedrals. One might find a still closer resemblance +in forms of worship, in the vestments of priests, in the altars, and +in the burning of incense, etc., a parallel which scholars have often +traced. + +And now of all this magnificence and glory of the ancient capital of +Egypt, what remains? Only these vast ruins of temples and palaces. The +"plain of Thebes" is still here, but deserted and silent. A few +columns and statues rise above the plain to mark where the city stood, +but the city itself is gone as much as the people who inhabited it +four thousand years ago. A few miserable mud huts are built against +the walls of mighty temples, and the ploughman drives his team over +the dust of the city of a hundred gates. I saw a fellah ploughing with +a cow and a camel yoked together, and a couple of half-naked Arabs +raising water with their _shadoof_ between the Memnon (the statue +which was said to sing when its stony lips were touched by the rising +of the sun) and its brother statue--the two great Colossi, between +which ran the Royal street to Luxor. Was there ever a more complete +and utter desolation? In the temple called the Rameseum once stood the +largest statue that ever was known--that of Rameses the Great (the +same who had a statue at Memphis, for he erected monuments to himself +everywhere), cut out of a single block of granite brought from the +First Cataract, and weighing nearly nine hundred tons! On this was +inscribed, as Herodotus writes, who saw it twenty-three hundred years +ago: "I am the king of kings: if any man wish to know how great I am, +and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works!" What a comment on +the emptiness of human ambition, that this colossal statue, which was +to last to the end of the world, was long ago pulled down by a later +conqueror, Cambyses, the Persian, and now lies on its back, with its +nose knocked off, and eyes put out, and all its glory in the dust! + +In studying the figures and the inscriptions on the walls of temples, +there are many things which throw light on the manners and customs of +the ancient Egyptians. Here is a scene of hunting, or of fishing, or +of feasting. Here are the different trades, which show the skill of +the people in the mechanic arts, and many scenes which give us an +insight into their domestic life. These have been the subjects of two +learned and most interesting works by Wilkinson, which open the very +interior of ancient Egypt to our modern eyes. They show a very high +degree of civilization--of skill in all the useful arts, a skill fully +equal in many things, and in some greatly superior, to that of our own +day. Wendell Phillips, in his famous lecture on "The Lost Arts," finds +many of his illustrations in ancient Egypt. I could not but think that +this furnished a very effective answer to those advocates of +evolution, who hold that mankind sprung from animals, and have +gradually developed to their present state. How much progress have the +Egyptians made in four thousand years? Here the race has gone +backward, so that there is certainly no inherent tendency in our +nature to advance. + +But I was less interested in studying the domestic life of the ancient +Egyptians, than their religious ideas. Herodotus says that the +Egyptians were a very religious people, excelling all others in the +honors paid to their gods; and this we can well believe, seeing the +temples that they reared for their worship. But what were the gods +they adored, and what sort of worship did they render, and how did all +this act on the life and character of the people? Here we obtain a +less exalted estimate of the ancient Egyptians. The remains which they +have left, while they illustrate the greatness of the empire, which +four thousand years ago had its seat in the valley of the Nile, do not +give a high idea of its Religion. The land was wholly given to +idolatry. The Egyptians had as many gods as the Greeks and Romans, +only baser and lower, indicating baser and lower ideas. They made +gods, not only of the sun, moon, and stars, but of beasts and birds +and reptiles--of the apis and the ibis--of the serpent and the +crocodile. + +At Sakkara we visited one of the most stupendous mausoleums that we +have seen in Egypt--one which Herodotus described, but which for +centuries was so buried by the sands of the desert that its very site +was not known until brought to light by the researches of Mariette +Bey, who has done so much to restore the monuments of ancient Egypt. +The approach to it was by an avenue of sphinxes, which led to a vast +subterranean gallery--twenty feet wide and high--and leading two +thousand feet, more than a third of a mile, under the earth. This +long, vaulted passage is hewn in the solid rock--out of which open on +either side a series of chambers or recesses, like side chapels--each +containing a sarcophagus, 15 × 8 feet. These tombs, hollowed out of +the solid granite, are so huge and massive that we wonder how they +ever could have been got there. Yet these great sarcophagi--fit for +the burial places of a long line of kings--were not for the Pharaohs +or the Ptolemies, but for the Sacred Bulls! Thirty of these sarcophagi +have been found, and on the walls are tablets which record the birth, +and death, and burial of each one of these sacred beasts. These were +the gods of Egypt, mother of the arts, and civilizer of the earth! +This great repository of dead divinities is a colossal monument, at +once of the architectural skill of the ancient Egyptians, and of their +degrading superstition. + +This single fact is enough to answer those who would imply, if they do +not quite dare to assert, that the inspiration of the Books of Moses +was derived from the Egyptians. It is a favorite theory of certain +writers that Moses, being brought up in Egypt, here obtained both the +Law and the Religion which he gave to the Israelites. No doubt he did +learn much from a country that was at that time the most civilized in +the world. He was brought up in a court, and enjoyed every advantage +of a royal education. He was "learned in all the wisdom of the +Egyptians." And it detracts not at all from his inspiration, to +suppose that he may have been instructed to embody in his new and +better code whatever was excellent in the older system, and had been +approved by the experience of centuries. The ceremonial laws--such as +those of purification--may have been adopted from the Egyptians. But +these are the mere fringes of the garment of the great Lawgiver. As +soon as we open the Hebrew Scriptures, we find traces of a wisdom such +as the Egyptians never knew. The very first sentence--"In the +beginning God created the heavens and the earth"--scatters the fables +of Isis and Osiris, and substitutes for the troop of heathen deities +the worship of One Living and True God. This single declaration marks +a stupendous advance in the religious faith and worship of mankind. + +The same first principle appears as the corner-stone of the law given +on Mount Sinai: "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the +land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other +gods before me." + +The second law of the first table breaks in pieces the images of the +gods of the Egyptians: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven +image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, nor in +the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth." This was spoken +to a people that had just come out of a country where they worshipped +beasts and birds and reptiles, and where the walls of the temples were +covered with the images of all kinds of foul and creeping things. + +In this age of the world, and among civilized nations, we cannot +understand the passion for idolatry. Yet it is one of the most +universal and ineradicable instincts of a half barbarous people. They +see tokens of an unseen power in the forces of nature, in clouds and +winds, in lightning and tempest, and they torment themselves with all +imaginable terrors, from which they seek relief and protection in +bowing down to gods of wood and stone. + +The Israelites coming out of Egypt, were out of the house of bondage +in one sense, but they were in it in another. They were continually +relapsing into idolatry. The golden calf of Aaron was but an imitation +of the sacred bulls of Egypt. Often they pined for the products of the +fertile valley of the Nile. With nothing but the burning sands beneath +their feet, they might well long for the shade of the palm tree and +for its delicious fruit, and they said, Why hath this man Moses +brought us up to die in this wilderness? It required forty years of +wandering, and that a whole generation should leave their bones to +whiten the sands of the desert, before their children could be wholly +alienated from the worship of false gods. So not only with the +Israelites, but with all nations of men, ages of fiery discipline have +been necessary to bring back the race to this first article of our +faith: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and +earth." + +We might follow the comparison through all the tables of the law, to +show how absurd is the pretence that what Moses taught to the +Israelites he first learned from the Egyptians. Tell us, ye learned +antiquaries, where on all these temples, and in all the records which +they have left us, is there any trace of the Ten Commandments? + +And yet Egypt is connected very intimately, in history at least, with +the birth of our religion. No other country, except Palestine, figures +so largely in the Bible. Abraham went down into Egypt. Here came the +sons of Jacob to buy corn, and found Joseph ruling in the house of +Pharaoh. And hither centuries later fled the virgin mother with her +child from the wrath of Herod, fulfilling the prediction, "Out of +Egypt have I called my son." + +But Religion--the Divine wisdom which at once instructs and saves +mankind--came not from the valley of the Nile. Abraham and Jacob and +Moses saw the Pyramids standing just as we see them now, but they did +not point them to the true God. That knowledge came from a higher +source. "History," says Bunsen, "was born on that night when Moses, +with the law of God in his heart, led the people of Israel out of +Egypt." And not History only, but Religion then came to a new birth, +that was to be the herald of new and better hopes, and of a higher +civilization than was known to the ancient world. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + + +The valley of the Nile is one vast sepulchre. Tombs and temples! +Temples and tombs! This is the sum of the monuments which ancient +Egypt has left us. Probably no equal portion of the earth's surface +was ever so populous, at once with the living and the dead. It is but +a narrow strip of territory--a line of green between two deserts; and +yet on this mere _ribbon_ of Africa lived the millions that made one +of the most populous and powerful of ancient empires. They were fed by +the marvellous fertility of the Nile valley, till they stood upon it +almost as thick as the ranks of corn that waved around them: and here, +when life was ended, they found a resting-place in the bosom of the +earth that nourished them, on which they slept as children on a +mother's breast. This strip of earth, long and narrow like a grave, +has been the sepulchre of nations. Here the myriads of Egypt's ancient +reigns--from the time of Menes--through the long line of the Pharaohs +and Ptolemies--the generations that built the Pyramids and those that +came after--laid themselves down to sleep in the great valley. Thus +the very dust of Egypt was made up of the dust of ancient Egyptians. + +But this was only the lot of the common people, to mingle their dust +with common clay--their tomb the common earth, their end to be exhaled +into the common air, or to reappear in other natural forms, living in +plants, blooming in flowers, or in broad-leaved palms, casting a +shadow on the earth from which they sprung. But for her great ones, +more enduring monuments were reared to guard their dust and perpetuate +their names. No people, ancient or modern, ever lavished so much on +these sacred and pious memorials. They expended more on the tombs of +the dead than on the houses of the living, for they reasoned that the +latter were but temporary dwellings, while the former were everlasting +habitations. The kings of Egypt cared more for great tombs than great +palaces, and they reared such mausoleums as the earth never saw +before. The Pyramids were their tombs, and the mountains were hollowed +into royal sepulchres. The rock tombs of Beni-Hassan are cut in the +side of the hills. The barren mountain that looks off upon the great +Libyan desert, is honeycombed with vast and silent halls of the dead. +At Thebes the traveller, ascending from the Nile, winds his way among +hills of sand into a valley of desolation. The summits around are not +covered with pines like our own darkly wooded hills, nor do even the +rocks gather moss--but all is bare and desolate. The desert has +overflowed the earth like a sea, and not a shrub nor a blade of grass +has survived the universal deluge. Yet here where not a living thing +can be found, has been discovered underground the most remarkable +series of tombs which exists. A whole mountain is pierced with deep +excavations. Passages open into its rocky sides, running many hundred +feet into the bowels of the earth, and branching off into recesses +like side chapels. These Halls of Death are like kings' palaces, with +stately chambers broad and high, whose sides and ceilings are covered +with hieroglyphics and illustrative symbols. + +A fact so remarkable as this, that the architecture of a great empire +which has built the most colossal structures in the world, has this +tomblike character, must have a meaning. The Egyptians were a very +religious people. They were not a gay and thoughtless race, like some +of their Asiatic and European neighbors. There is something grave even +in their faces, as seen in ancient statues and monuments. Their very +architecture had this heavy and solemn character. These colossal +temples, these silent sphinxes, seem oppressed with some great mystery +which they cannot reveal. These tombs show that the Egyptian mind was +full of the idea of death, and of another life. The Egyptians were not +Atheists, nor Sadducees. They believed devoutly in God, and in a life +to come. + +How strongly the idea of another life had taken hold of the Egyptian +mind is evident from the symbols in their religion. The symbol most +frequently employed is that of the _scarabæus_--or beetle--the image +of which appears everywhere, which by analogy teaches that life, in +passing through death, may be born to a new life. The beetle lays its +eggs in the slime of the Nile; it buries them in mud, which it works +into a ball, and rolls over and over, back to the edge of the desert, +and buries in sand. There its work is ended: nature does the rest. Out +of this grave comes in time a resurrection, and life is born of death. +The ostrich eggs hung up in mosques, have the same symbolical meaning. +The ostrich buries its eggs in the sand, and nature, that kind mother +which watches over all life, gives them being. Thus is conveyed the +same idea as in the analogy of the chrysalis and the butterfly. + +Studying the religious faith of the Egyptians a little more closely, +we see that they believed not only in the immortality of the soul, but +in the resurrection of the body. The doctrine taught by Paul, was long +before taught by the priests of Egypt. Their tombs were not merely +memorials of those who had ceased to live, but resting-places for the +bodies of those whose spirits were absent but would some day return. +For this, bodies were embalmed with religious care; they were buried +in tombs hewn out of the solid rock, laid away in Pyramids, or in +caverns hollowed out of the heart of the mountains. There, embedded in +the eternal rocks, locked up with the bars of the everlasting hills, +it seemed that their remains would rest secure till the morning of +the resurrection day. + +Further, they believed not only in immortality and in resurrection, +but also in retribution. The soul that was to pass into another life, +was to go into it to be judged. There it was to be called to account +for the deeds done in the body. Even the funeral rites indicated how +strong was the belief of a judgment to come for all who departed this +life. After the bodies were embalmed, they were borne in solemn +procession to the Nile (most of the tombs being on the western bank), +or to a sacred lake, across which they were to be ferried. (Did not +this suggest to later Roman mythologists the river Styx, and the +boatman Charon who conveyed departed souls to the gloomy shades of +Pluto?) As the funeral procession arrived at the borders of the lake, +it paused till certain questions were answered, on which it depended +whether the dead might receive burial: or should be condemned to +wander in darkness three thousand years. If it passed this ordeal, it +moved forward, not to its everlasting repose, but to the Hall of +Judgment, where Osiris sits upon his throne as the judge of all +mankind. This scene is constantly represented in sculptures, in +bas-reliefs, and in frescoes on the walls of tombs. In one of them a +condemned wretch is driven away in the shape of a pig! (Was it here +that Pythagoras, who studied in Egypt, obtained his doctrine of the +transmigration of souls?) Before Osiris is the scribe, the recording +angel, who keeps a faithful record of the deeds done in the body. A +long line of judges--forty-two in number--sit arrayed as the final +arbiters of his fate--each with his question, on the answer to which +may depend the destiny of the departed soul. + +The "Book of the Dead" (copies of which are still found wrapped up +with mummies: several are in the British Museum) gives the answers to +be made to these searching questions, and also the prayers to be +offered, and the hymns that are to be sung, as the soul enters the +gloomy shades of the under-world. + +In this Egyptian doctrine of a future life there are Christian ideas. +Some indeed will say that Egypt gave rather than received; that she +was the mother of all learning and all wisdom in the ancient world; +that the Greeks obtained their philosophy from her (for Plato as well +as Pythagoras studied in Egypt); that the Eleusinian mysteries came +from Africa; that Moses here found what he taught the Hebrews; and +that even the Christian mysteries and the Christian faith came from +the banks of the Nile. + +There is certainly much food for reflection in this reappearance of +certain religious ideas in different countries and under different +forms. But there is a contrast as well as a resemblance. While the +Hebrews learned so much from the Egyptians, it is very remarkable that +they did _not_ imbibe that strong faith in the reality of the +invisible world, which lies at the foundation of religion. One would +suppose that the Israelites, coming out of Egypt, would be full of +these thoughts, and of the hopes and fears of a life to come. Yet in +all the books of Moses, rarely, if ever, are these motives addressed +to the Hebrews. The German critics argue from this that the Hebrews +did not believe in another life. The late Dr. Edward Robinson, the +distinguished Hebrew scholar, said that he could not find that +doctrine in the Old Testament. Without admitting such an extreme view, +it is certainly remarkable that that idea is much less prominent in +the Old Testament than in the New. It is not Moses, but Christ who has +brought life and immortality to light. + +But the Egyptian doctrine of a future life, while very curious and +interesting as a study of ancient belief, is utterly unsatisfying. The +ideas are detached and fragmentary, and wholly without evidence or +authority; they are merely the crude fancies of mythology, and not the +precise teachings of Revelation. And so in all the tombs and temples +of Egypt there is nothing which can relieve the doubts of a troubled +mind, or the sorrows of a heavy heart. + +I have had some sober thoughts while floating on the bosom of the +Nile. We cannot but see the world through our own eyes and through our +moods of mind. To those who have left their dead beyond the sea, +foreign travel has many sad and lonely hours. The world seems cold and +empty, and even the most religious mind is apt to be haunted with +gloomy thoughts. This is not a mood of mind peculiar to atheists and +unbelievers. Many devout men, in seasons of mental depression, are +tortured with doubts whether, after all, their religious faith is not +a delusion and a dream. + +And so many dark and bitter questionings come to me here in this land +of sepulchres. I have come to Egypt to learn something of the wisdom +of the Egyptians. Tell me then, ye tombs and temples and pyramids, +about God; tell me about the life to come! But the Pyramids speak not; +and the Sphinx still looks towards the East, to watch for the rising +sun, but is voiceless and mute. This valley of the Nile speaks of +nothing but death. From end to end its rock-ribbed hills are filled +with tombs. Yet what do they all teach the anxious and troubled heart +of man? Nothing! All these hills are silent. Not a sound, or even an +echo, comes from these dark sepulchres. No voice of hope issues out of +the caverns hollowed in the bosom of the hills. The hard granite of +the tombs itself is not more deaf to the cry of human anguish, or the +voice of supplication. + +I turn from the monuments of man to nature. I stand on the bank of the +Great River, and ask if it brings not some secret out of the heart of +Africa? Tell me, ye night winds, blowing from African deserts; tell +me, ye stars shining in the African heaven (this sky of Egypt is so +pure and clear that the stars seem higher and more distant from this +lower world), what light can ye throw on this great mystery of death? +And the stars twinkle, but speak not, and the palm trees quiver in +the night wind, but give no answer; and the great Nile flows on +silently to the sea, as life flows on to eternity. Nature is dumb; the +great secret is not revealed. + +For the revelation of that secret we turn not to Egypt, but to +Jerusalem. While the Egyptians groped darkly after the truth, how do +these dim shadows, these poor emblems and analogies, set forth by +contrast the clearer and better truth of revelation! All that is +written on the tombs of Egypt; all that is carved in stone, or written +in hieroglyphics on ancient sarcophagi; all that is built in temples +and pyramids; is not worth that one saying of our Lord, "I am the +Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in me, though he were +dead, yet shall he live." + +We spent Christmas day at Thebes, where a number of English boats had +drawn up to the landing to keep the day, so dear to the hearts of +Englishmen throughout the world. On Christmas eve they were decorated +with palm branches, and at night were lighted up with Chinese +lanterns, while row-boats were floating about, the Arab boatmen +singing their wild, plaintive melodies. + +Christmas brought a scene, if not so picturesque, yet far more sweet +and tender. It had been our good fortune to meet there Rev. Dr. Potter +of New York, the rector of Grace Church. He was going up the Nile with +Miss Wolfe, of Madison square. They were on two dahabeeahs, but kept +company, and anchored every night together. On Christmas day there was +a service on board Miss Wolfe's boat, which was attended by all the +English parties. It was held on the upper deck, which was spread with +carpets and covered with an awning on the top and sides to protect us +from the sun. Whether it was the strange scene, occurring in a distant +part of the world, or sad memories which were recalled by these +anniversary days, seldom has a service touched me more. It was very +sweet to hear the old, old prayers--some of them almost as old as +Christianity itself--to which we had so often listened in other +lands, and to join with the little company in the Christmas hymn: + + "Hark! the herald angels sing, + Glory to the new-born King; + Peace on earth and mercy mild; + God and man are reconciled." + +Dr. Potter read the service in his clear, rich voice, following it +with a sermon which was quite extempore and brief, but so simple and +so appropriate to the day that it went to every heart. And when at the +close was celebrated the communion, we all felt how pleasant it was in +such a place, so far from home, in a country surrounded by the ruins +of the temples of old idolatries, to join in the worship of Him who on +this day was born to be the Light and the Hope of the world. Better is +this than all that Egypt can teach us about a life to come. + +And so we turn from these great temples and tombs, which only mock our +hopes, to Him who has passed through the grave, and lighted the way +for us to follow Him. Let scholars dispute the first intent of the +words, yet nothing in the Old Testament or the New, more distinctly +expresses what I rest upon than this: "I know that my Redeemer liveth +and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though +worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE RELIGION OF THE PROPHET. + + +In a review of the faiths of Egypt, one cannot overlook that which has +ruled in the land for more than a thousand years, and still rules, not +only in Egypt, but over a large part of Asia and Africa. We arrived in +Cairo a few days too late to witness the departure of the pilgrims for +Mecca. Once in the year there is a gathering of the faithful for a +journey which is the event of their lives. The spectacle is one of the +most picturesque in the East, as a long procession, mounted on camels, +many of which are richly caparisoned, files through the streets of the +city, amid the admiring gaze of the whole population, and takes the +way of the desert. Slowly it moves Eastward to the Red Sea, and +passing around it, turns South to the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. + +A caravan of pilgrims crossing the desert to visit the birthplace of +the prophet, is a proof that religious enthusiasm still lives even in +this unbelieving age. Perhaps the Moslem spirit is not so bigoted here +as at Constantinople. The Turk, with his heavy stolid nature, is a +more obstinate religionist than the Arab. And yet Mohammed was not a +Turk; he was an Arab, and the faith which he taught still fires the +heart of his race. + +In one view Cairo may be considered the capital of Islam, as it is the +seat of the great University, from which its priests go forth to all +parts of the Mohammedan world. This University is nine hundred years +old--older than Oxford, and still flourishes with as much vigor as in +the palmy days of the Arabian conquest. A visit to it is the most +interesting sight in Cairo. There I saw collected together--not one +hundred or two hundred students, such as are found in our Theological +Seminaries in America--but ten thousand! As one expressed it, "there +were two acres of turbans," assembled in a vast inclosure, with no +floor but a pavement, and with a roof over it, supported by four +hundred columns, and at the foot of every column a teacher, surrounded +by pupils, who sat at his feet precisely as Paul sat at the feet of +Gamaliel. As we entered there rose a hum of thousands of voices, +reciting the Koran. These students are not only from Egypt, but from +all parts of Africa, from Morocco to Zanzibar. They come from far up +the Nile, from Nubia and Soudan; and from Darfour beyond the Great +Desert, and from the western coast of Africa. Asia too is largely +represented in students both from Western Asia, from Turkey, Arabia, +and Persia; and from Central Asia, from Khiva and Bokhara, and +Turkistan and Afghanistan, and the borders of China. They come without +staff or scrip. There is no endowment to support them; no Students' +Fund or Education Board. They live on the charities of the faithful, +and when their studies are ended, those who are to be missionaries on +this continent mount their camels, and joining a caravan, cross the +Desert, and are lost in the far interior of Africa. + +This strange sight has set me a-thinking, and the more I think, the +more the wonder grows. A religion that supports great universities +from generation to generation; and that sends forth caravans, that are +like armies, on long pilgrimages, is not dead; it is full of life, and +can bring into the field tremendous forces to uphold its empire in the +East. What is the secret of its power, by which it lives on from +century to century, and seems as if it could not but by annihilating +die? There is no question of more interest to the historical student; +and no one which it is more necessary to understand in order to form +some just idea of the great Eastern War which is already looming above +the horizon. A full recognition of that which is good in Islam, and of +that which gives it power, would prevent many mistakes in forecasting +the future, although it might abate the sanguine confidence of our +missionary friends in the speedy triumph of Christianity over its +hereditary foe. + +First of all, we must recognize the fact of its existence as one of +the great religions of the world. The number of its adherents is +variously estimated at from a hundred and fifty to a hundred and +eighty millions. It holds but a corner of Europe, but extends its +empire over a large part of Asia and Africa. The whole of Africa which +is not Pagan, is Moslem. In Asia Islam disputes the sway of Hindooism +in India, where the Queen has more Moslem subjects than the Sultan +himself, and of Buddhism in the islands of the Malayan Archipelago. +Over so large a part of the earth's surface is extended the wide +dominion of the Prophet. His followers number one-tenth, perhaps +one-eighth, or even one-sixth part of the human race. + +Nor is this dominion a merely nominal thing. On the contrary, the true +believers are strong believers. It may well be doubted, whether among +the nations nominally Christian the mass of the people really believe +with half the firmness and the fervor of Mussulmans. The Moslems are +as sincere, and in their way as devout, as the adherents of any +religion on the face of the globe. No one can enter the mosque of St. +Sophia, and see the worshippers turning their faces towards Mecca, not +only kneeling but prostrating themselves, touching the pavement with +their foreheads, and repeating, in a low, mournful tone, passages from +the Koran, without feeling that these men really believe. Those +prostrate forms, those wailing voices, are not the signs of hypocrisy, +but of a faith that, however mistaken, is at least sincere. In their +own minds they are in the presence of the Highest, and offer worship +to the unseen God. Indeed they are more than believers, they are +zealots, carrying their faith to fanaticism. A body so vast in number, +composed of such fierce religionists, is certainly a great power in +the political and military, as well as religious, forces, that are yet +to contend for the mastery of the Eastern world. + +Nor is this power inactive in spreading its faith; it is full of +missionary zeal. Max Müller divides all the religions of the world +into proselytizing and non-proselytizing. Mohammedanism belongs to the +former class as much as Christianity. The days are past when the +followers of the Prophet swept over large parts of Asia and Africa, +converting tribes and nations by the sword. And yet even at the +present day it keeps up a Propaganda as vigorous as that of the +Catholics at Rome. Its university here is training ten thousand young +apostles. Moslem missionaries preach the Koran, and make proselytes, +in all parts of India. But the chief field of their labors is in +Africa, where they have penetrated far into the interior, and +converted numerous tribes to the faith. It is difficult to obtain +accurate statistics in regard to the spread of Islam in Africa. +Livingstone thought the reports greatly exaggerated. That is quite +possible, and yet, making every allowance, there can be no doubt that +it has obtained a success much greater than that of Christian +missions. + +A religion which has such a foundation on the solid earth, holding +nations and empires in its wide dominion; and which has such a +history, stretching over twelve centuries; is a subject worthy the +closest attention of scholars. Its history is not unlike that of +Christianity itself, in the feebleness of its beginning and the +greatness of its results. It started in an obscure corner of the +world--in the deserts of Arabia--and rapidly conquered the East, +overrunning all the adjacent parts of Asia and Africa, and extending +along the Mediterranean to the Straits of Gibraltar, and thence +crossed into Spain, where it maintained itself for eight hundred +years against all the power of Europe to expel it. Such conquests +show a prodigious vitality--a vitality not yet exhausted, as it still +holds the half of Asia and Africa. A faith which commands the +allegiance of so large a part of mankind must have some elements of +truth to give it such tremendous power. Perhaps we can find the key in +the character of its Founder, and in the faith which he taught. + +A great deal has been written about the life of Mohammed, but even yet +his character is imperfectly understood. Perhaps we cannot fully +understand it, for there are in it contradictions which perplex the +most patient and candid student. By many he is dismissed at once as a +vulgar impostor, a sort of Joe Smith, who invented monstrous lies, and +by stoutly sticking to them got others to believe in them, and as soon +as he rallied a few followers about him, compelled neighboring tribes +to accept his faith by the unsparing use of the sword. + +This is an easy way to get rid of a difficult historical question, but +unfortunately it does not explain the facts. It is by that sort of +cheap reasoning that Gibbon undertakes to explain the rapid spread of +Christianity. But if Mohammed had been a cunning impostor, his first +claim would have been to work miracles, which on the contrary he never +claimed at all, but distinctly repudiated. Nor was he a greedy +mercenary; he was a poor man; his followers relate with pride how he +mended his own clothes, and even pegged his own shoes. But he combined +every element of the visionary and the enthusiast. He had that vivid +imagination that conceives strongly of things invisible to the natural +sense, to which "things that are not become as things that are," and +that ardent temperament that kindles at the sight of these unseen +realities. Perhaps this temperament was connected with his bodily +constitution; from his youth he was subject to epileptic fits, and his +revelations were accompanied with convulsions. Such things are found +in other religions. They are quite common in the history of devout +and passionate Romanists. Nor are they unknown even among Protestants, +who profess to be more sober and rational. Among the Methodists, at +camp-meetings, a very frequent effect of religious emotion has been +that strong men were so prostrated that they fell to the ground and +became as dead, and when they recovered, retained impressions never to +be effaced, as if they had seen things which it was not lawful to +utter. The revelations of Mohammed were all accompanied by these +"physical manifestations." Sometimes the angel spoke to him as one man +to another; at other times something within his bosom sounded like a +bell, which he said "rent him in pieces." At such times he fell to the +ground and foamed at the mouth, or his eyes turned red, and he +streamed with perspiration, and roared like a camel, in his struggle +to give utterance to the revelation of God. This does not look like +imposture, but like insanity. The constitution of such a man is a +psychological study. + +This natural ardor was inflamed by long seclusion. From his youth he +loved solitude. Like the old prophets, he withdrew from the world to +be alone with God. Like Elijah, he hid himself in a cave. Every year, +during the month of Ramadan, he retired to a cave in Mount Hera, three +miles from Mecca, to give himself up to religious contemplation; and +there, it is said, amid spasmodic convulsions, he had his first +vision, in which the angel Gabriel appeared to him. + +This explanation of a mind half disordered, subject to dreams and +visions and fanatical illusions, is much more rational than that of +supposing in him an artful design to impose a new religion on his +countrymen. Like other enthusiasts, he became the victim of his own +illusions. His imagination so wrought upon him that he came to accept +his visions as Divine revelations. In this he was not playing a part; +he was not the conscious hypocrite. No doubt he believed himself what +he wished others to believe. Indeed he made them believe, by the very +sincerity and intensity of his own convictions. + +Mohammedanism may be considered as a system of theology, and as a +system of morality. The former seems to have been derived largely from +Judaism. Mohammed belonged to the tribe of the Koreishites, who +claimed to be descended from Abraham through Ishmael. His family were +the keepers of the Caaba, or holy place of Mecca, where is the black +stone which was brought from heaven, and the spring Zemzem, which +sprang up in the desert to save the life of Hagar and her child. Thus +he was familiar from his earliest years with the traditions of the +patriarchs. + +When a boy of fourteen he made a journey with his uncle into Syria, +where he may have learned more of the ancient faith. Much is said of +his becoming acquainted with a Nestorian bishop or monk, from whom he +is supposed to have learned something of Christianity. But he could +not have learned _much_, for his views of it were always extremely +vague. It is doubtful whether he ever saw the New Testament, or had +any knowledge of it other than that derived from some apocryphal +books. There is no trace in the Koran of the sublime doctrines of the +Gospel, or even of its moral precepts. Although Mohammed professed +great reverence for Jesus, whom with Moses he considers the greatest +of prophets next to himself, yet his ideas of the Religion which He +taught were of the most indefinite kind. + +But one thing he did learn, which was common to Judaism and +Christianity--that there is but one God. The Monotheism of the Hebrews +took the stronger hold of him, from its contrast to the worship around +him, which had degenerated into gross idolatry. The tribes of Arabia +had become as base idolaters as the Canaanites. Even the holy Caaba +was filled with idols, and the mission of the prophet--as he regarded +it--was to restore the worship of the One Living and True God. His +first burst of prophetic fire and prophetic wrath was a fierce +explosion against idolatry, and it was a moment of triumph when he was +able to walk through the Caaba, and see the idols dashed in pieces. + +Here then is the first and last truth of Islam, the existence of one +God. The whole is comprehended in this one saying, "God is God, and +Mohammed is his prophet." + +With the homage due to God, is the respect due to His revealed will. +Moslems claim for the Koran what many Christians do not claim for the +Bible--a literal and verbal inspiration. Every word is Divine. + +And not only is the unity of God the cardinal truth, but it is vital +to salvation. In this respect Islam is a Religion. It is not a mere +philosophy, the acceptance or rejection of which is a matter of +indifference. It is not merely a system of good morals--it is a Divine +code for the government of mankind, whose acceptance is a matter of +life and death--of salvation or damnation. + +The doctrine of _retribution_ is held by the Moslems in its most rigid +form--more rigid indeed than in the Christian system: for there is no +atonement for sin. The judgment is inexorable; it is absolute and +eternal. Before their eyes ever stands the Day of Judgment--the Dies +Iræ--when all men shall appear before God to receive their doom. + +But in that last day, when unbelievers shall be destroyed, the +followers of the prophet shall be saved. They can go to the tribunal +of their Maker without trembling. One day riding outside the walls of +Constantinople, we approached a cemetery just as a funeral procession +drew near, bearing the form of the dead. We stopped to witness the +scene. The mourners gathered around the place where the body was laid, +and then the ulema approached the grave, and began _an address to the +dead_, telling her (it was a woman) not to be afraid when the angel +came to call her to judgment, but to appear before the bar of the +Almighty, and answer without fear, for that no follower of the prophet +should perish. + +The religious observances of the Moslems are very strict. As God is +the sole object of worship, so the great act of Religion is communion +with Him. Five times a day the voice of the muezzin calls them to +prayer. The frequent ablutions were perhaps derived from the Jewish +law. Fasting is imposed with a severity almost unknown in the +Christian world. The most rigid Catholics hardly observe the forty +days of Lent as the Moslems do the month of Ramadan. Almsgiving is not +only recommended, but required. Every true believer is commanded to +give one-tenth of his income to charity. + +As to the moral results of Mohammedanism, it produces some excellent +effects. It inculcates the strictest temperance. The Koran prohibits +the use of wine, even though wine is one of the chief products of the +East. In this virtue of total abstinence the Moslems are an example to +Christians. + +So in point of integrity; the honesty of the Turk is a proverb in the +East, compared with the lying of Christians. Perhaps this comes in +part not only from his religion, but from the fact that he belongs to +the conquering race. Tyrants and masters do not need to deceive, while +falsehood and deceit are the protection of slaves. Subject races, +which have no defence before the law, or from cruel masters, seek it +in subterfuge and deception. But this claim of integrity may be pushed +too far. However it may be in Asia Minor, among simple-minded Turks, +who have not been "spoiled by coming in contact with Christians," +those who have to do with Turks in the bazaars of Constantinople, are +compelled to confess, that if they do not tell lies, they tell very +big truths. However, as between the Turk and the Greek, in point of +honesty, it is quite possible that those who know them both would give +the preëminence to the former. + +Whatever the weakness of Mohammedanism, it does not show itself in +_that sort_ of vices. His very pride makes the Mussulman scorn these +meaner sins. His religion, as it lifts him up with self-esteem, +produces an effect on his outward bearing. He has an air of +independence which is unmistakable. I think I never saw a Mussulman +that was afraid to look me in the face. He has none of the sneaking +servility that we see in some races. This is a natural consequence of +his creed, according to which God is so great that no man is great in +his sight. Islam is at once a theocracy and a democracy. God is sole +Lawgiver and King, before whom all men stand on the same level. Hence +men of all nations and races fraternize together. In Constantinople +blacks and whites, the men of Circassia and the men of Ethiopia, walk +arm in arm, and stand on the level of absolute equality. + +This democratic spirit is carried everywhere. There is no caste in +Islam, not even in India, where it is at perpetual war with the castes +of Hindooism. So as it spreads in the interior of Africa, it raises +the native tribes to a degree of manliness and self-respect which they +had not known before. It "levels up" the African race. Our +missionaries in Liberia, who come in contact with certain Moslem +tribes from the interior, such as the Mandingoes, will testify that +they are greatly superior to those farther South, on the Gold Coast, +the Ashantees and the people of Dahomey, who have filled the world +with horror by their human sacrifices. All this disappears before the +advance of Islam. It breaks in pieces the idols; it destroys devil +worship and fetichism and witchcraft, and puts an end to human +sacrifices. Thus it renders a service to humanity and civilization. + +So far Islam is a pretty good religion--not so good indeed as +Christianity, but better than any form of Paganism. It has many +elements of truth, derived chiefly from Judaism. So far as Mohammed +followed Moses--so far as the Koran followed the Old Testament--they +uttered only the truth, and truth which was fundamental. The unity of +God is the foundation of religion. It is not only a truth, but the +greatest of truths, the first condition of any right religious +worship. In declaring this, Mohammed only proclaimed to the Arabs what +Moses had proclaimed to the Hebrews: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God +is one Lord." But he repeated it with great vehemence and effect, +wielding it as a battle-axe to break in pieces the idols of the +heathen. And so far--as against idolatry--Islam has served a great +purpose in history. But there its utility ends. It teaches indeed that +there is but one God. But what a God is that which it presents to our +worship! "This God is not our God." The Mohammedan idea of God is very +different from the Christian idea of a Father in heaven. It is the +idea of the Awful, the Invisible--grand indeed, yet cold and distant +and far away, like the stars on the desert, or in the Arctic night, +"wildly, spiritually bright," shining with a glittering splendor, but +lofty and inaccessible, beyond the cries of human agony or despair. +This view of God is so limited and partial as to produce the effect of +positive error. In a just religious system there must be included the +two ideas of God and man; and these in their proper relation to each +other. Exclusive contemplation of either leads astray. When man +fastens on the idea of one God, he plants himself on a rock. But he +must not bow himself upon the rock, and clasp it so as to forget his +own separate individuality, lest the mighty stone roll over upon him +and crush him. This the Mussulman does. He dwells so on the idea of +God, that his own existence is not only lost sight of, but +annihilated. The mind, subdued in awe, is at length overpowered by +what it beholds. Man is nothing in that awful presence, as his life is +but a point in the Divine eternity. + +It cannot be denied that the idea of God, and God alone, may produce +some grand effects on human character. It inspires courage. If God be +for us, who can be against us? That God _is_ for him, the Mussulman +never doubts; and this confidence inspires him in danger, and on the +field of battle, so that he fights with desperation. But if the +fortune of war be against him, who so well as the devout Mussulman +knows how to suffer and to die? He murmurs not; but bows his head, +saying "God is great," and submits to his fate. Thus his creed carried +out to its logical consequence ends in fatalism. He believes so +absolutely in God, that the decrees of the Almighty become a fixed +fate, which the will of man is impotent to resist. All this comes from +an imperfect idea of God. Here Islam is defective, just where +Christianity is complete. + +There is nothing in Mohammedanism that brings God down to earth, +within the range of human sympathy or even of human conception. There +is no incarnation, no Son of God coming to dwell among men, hungry and +weary, bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows, suffering in the +garden, and dying on the cross. + +The Mussulman does not feel his need of such help. In his prayers +there is no acknowledgment of sin, no feeling of penitence, no +confession of unworthiness. He knows not how poor and weak he is, with +a religion in which there is no Saviour and Redeemer, no Lamb of God +that taketh away the sin of the world, no Holy Spirit to help our +infirmities, to strengthen our weaknesses. + +So with Moslem morality; if we scan it closely, we find it wanting in +many virtues. Some writers give the most elevated ideas of it. Says +Chambers' Cyclopædia: "Aside from the domestic relations, the ethics +of the Mohammedan religion are of the highest order. Pride, calumny, +revenge, avarice, prodigality, and debauchery, are condemned +throughout the Koran; while trust in God, submission to His will, +patience, modesty, forbearance, love of peace, sincerity, frugality, +benevolence, liberality, are everywhere insisted upon." + +This is very high praise. But mark the exception: "Aside from the +domestic relations." That exception takes out of the system a whole +class of virtues, and puts a class of vices in their place. Here is +the great crime of Islam against humanity--its treatment of woman. We +will not charge against it more than belongs to it. The seclusion of +woman is not a Mohammedan custom so much as an Oriental one, and one +of a very ancient date. When Abraham sent a servant to find a wife for +Isaac, and he returned bringing Rebekah, as the caravan drew near +home, and Isaac went out to meditate at eventide, as soon as Rebekah +saw him in the distance, she lighted off from her camel and "veiled +herself." Polygamy too existed before Mohammed: it existed among the +patriarchs. It is claimed that Mohammed repressed it, limiting a man +to four wives, although he far exceeded the number himself. Gibbon, +who never misses an opportunity of making a point against the Bible, +says: "If we remember the seven hundred wives and three hundred +concubines of the wise Solomon, we shall applaud the modesty of the +Arabian who espoused no more than seventeen or fifteen wives." But +this pretence of self-restraint is a mockery. It is notorious that +Mohammed was a man of the grossest licentiousness; and the horrible +and disgusting thing about it is that he grew more wicked as he grew +older; and while trying to put restraint upon others put none upon +himself. He punished licentiousness with a hundred stripes, and +adultery with death, and yet he was a man of unbounded profligacy, and +to make it worse, pleaded a Divine revelation to justify it! + +This example of the prophet has had its influence on all the +generations of his followers. It has trailed the slime of the serpent +over them all. Any one who has been in a Mohammedan country must have +felt that the position of woman is a degradation. One cannot see them +gliding through the streets of Cairo or Constantinople, with their +faces veiled as if it were a shame to look on them, and passing +swiftly as if indeed it were a sin for them to be seen abroad, +without a feeling of pity and indignation. + +And in what a position are such women at home, if it can be called a +home, where there is no family, no true domestic life! The wife of a +Mohammedan--the mother of his children--is little better than a slave. +She is never presented to his friends--indeed you could not offer a +greater insult to a Turk than to ask after his wife! Of course there +is no such thing as society where women are not allowed to appear. +Such a society as that of London or Paris, composed of men eminent in +government, in science and literature--a society refined and elevated +by the presence of women of such education and manners and knowledge +of the world as to be the fit companions of such men--could not +possibly exist in Constantinople. + +But the degradation of woman is not the only crime to be charged to +Islam. In fit companionship with it is cruelty. Mohammed had many +virtues, but he had no mercy. He was implacable toward his enemies. He +massacred his prisoners, not from hard necessity, but with a fierce +delight. Fanaticism extinguished natural compassion, and he put his +enemies to death with savage joy. In this his followers have "bettered +his instructions." The Turks are cruel, perhaps partly by nature, but +partly also because any tender sympathies of nature are kept down by a +fiery zeal. Their religion does not make them merciful. When a people +have become possessed with the idea that they are the people of God, +and that others are outcasts, they become insensible to the sufferings +of those outside of the consecrated pale. + +In the Greek Revolution the people of Scio joined in the rebellion. A +Turkish army landed on the island, and in two months put 23,000 of the +inhabitants to the sword, without distinction of age or sex; 47,000 +were sold into slavery, and 5,000 escaped to Greece. In four months +the Christian population was reduced from 104,000 to 2,000. + +What the Turks are in Europe and Asia, the Arabs are in Africa. The +spread of Mohammedanism is a partial civilization of some heathen +tribes. But, alas, the poor natives come in contact with +"civilization" and "religion" in another way--in the Arab +slave-hunters, who, though they are Mohammedans, and devoutly pray +toward Mecca, are the most merciless of human beings. One cannot read +the pages of Livingstone without a shudder at the barbarities +practised on defenceless natives, which have spread terror and +desolation over a large part of the interior of Africa. + +These cruel memories rise up to spoil the poetry and romance which +some modern writers have thrown about the religion of the prophet. +They disturb my musings, when awed or touched by some features of +Moslem faith; when I listen to the worship in St. Sophia, or witness +the departure of pilgrims for Mecca. Whatever Oriental pomp or +splendor may still survive in its ancient worship, at its heart the +system is cold, and hard, and cruel; it does not acknowledge the +brotherhood of man, but exalts the followers of the prophet into a +caste, who can look down on the rest of mankind with ineffable scorn. +Outside of that pale, man is not a brother, but an enemy--an enemy not +to be won by love, but to be conquered and subdued, to be made a +convert or a slave. Not only does the Koran not bid mercy to be shown +to unbelievers, but it offers them, as the only alternatives, +conversion, or slavery, or death. + +Needs it any argument to show how impossible is good government under +a creed in which there is no recognition of justice and equality? I +think it is Macaulay who says that the worst Christian government is +better than the best Mohammedan government. Wherever that religion +exists, there follow inevitably despotism and slavery, by which it +crushes man, as by its polygamy and organized licentiousness, it +degrades and crushes woman. Polygamy, despotism, and slavery form the +trinity of woes which Mohammedanism has caused to weigh for ages, +like a nightmare, on the whole Eastern world. Such a system is as +incompatible with civilization as with Christianity, and sooner or +later must pass away, unless the human race is to come to a +standstill, or to go backward. + +But when and how? I am not sanguine of any speedy change. Such changes +come slowly. We expect too much and too soon. In an age of progress we +think that all forms of ignorance and superstition must disappear +before the advance of civilization. But the _vis inertiæ_ opposes a +steady resistance. It has been well said, "We are told that knowledge +is power, but who has considered the power of ignorance?" How long it +lives and how hard it dies! We hear much of the "waning crescent," but +it wanes very slowly, and it sometimes seems as if the earth itself +would grow old and perish before that waning orb would disappear from +the heavens. Christian Missions make no more impression upon Islam +than the winds of the desert upon the cliffs of Mount Sinai. + +I do not look for any great change in the Mohammedan world, except in +the train of political changes. That religion is so bound up with +political power, that until that is destroyed, or terribly shaken, +there is little hope of a general turning to a better faith. War and +Revolution are the fiery chariots that must go before the Gospel, to +herald its coming and prepare its way. Material forces may open the +door to moral influences; the doctrines of human freedom and of human +brotherhood may be preached on battle plains as well as in Christian +temples. When the hard iron crust of Islam is broken up, and the +elements begin to melt with fervent heat, the Eastern world may be +moulded into new forms. Then will the Oriental mind be brought into an +impressible state, in which argument and persuasion can act upon it; +and it may yield to the combined influence of civilization and +Christianity. The change will be slow. It will take years; it may +take centuries. But sooner or later the fountains of the great deep +will be broken up. That cold, relentless system must pass away before +the light and warmth of that milder faith which recognizes at once the +brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. + +In that coming age there may be other pilgrimages and processions +going up out of Egypt. "The dromedaries shall come from far." But +then, if a caravan of pilgrims issues from Cairo, to cross the desert, +to seek the birthplace of the founder of its religion, it will not +turn South to Mecca, but North to Bethlehem, asking with the Magi of +old, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his +star in the East, and are come to worship him." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MODERN EGYPT AND THE KHEDIVE. + + +Egypt is a country with a long past, as we found in going up the Nile; +may we not hope, also, with a not inglorious future? For ages it was +sunk so low that it seemed to be lost from the view of the world. No +contrast in history could be greater than that between its ancient +glory and its modern degradation. Its revival dates from about the +beginning of the present century, and, strange to say, from the +invasion of Egypt by Napoleon, which incidentally brought to the +surface a man whose rise from obscurity, and whose subsequent career, +were only less remarkable than his own. When Napoleon landed in Egypt +at the head of a French army of invasion, among the forces gathered to +oppose him was a young Albanian, who had crossed over from Greece at +the head of three hundred men. This was Mehemet Ali, who soon +attracted such attention by his daring and ability, that a few years +after the French had been driven out, as the country was still in a +distracted state, which required a man of vigor and capacity, he was +made Pasha of Egypt--a position which he retained from that time +(1806) until his death in 1850. Here he had new dangers, which he +faced with the same intrepidity. That which first made his name known +to the world as a synonym of resolute courage and implacable revenge, +was the massacre of the Mamelukes. These had long been the real +masters of Egypt--a terror to every successive government, as were the +Janissaries to the Sultan in Constantinople. Mehemet Ali had been but +five years in power, when, finding that he was becoming too strong +for them, they plotted to destroy him. He learned of the conspiracy +just in time, and at once determined to "fight fire with fire;" and, +inviting them to the Citadel of Cairo for some public occasion, +suddenly shut the gates, and manning the walls with his troops, shot +them down in cold blood. Only one man escaped by leaping his horse +from the wall. This savage butchery raised a cry of horror throughout +Europe, and Mehemet Ali was regarded as a monster of treachery and of +cruelty. It is impossible to justify such a deed by any rules of +civilized warfare. But this, it is said, was not civilized warfare; it +was simply a plot of assassination on one side, forestalled by +assassination on the other. I do not justify such reasoning. And yet I +could not but listen with interest to Nubar Pasha (the most eloquent +talker, as well as the most enlightened statesman, of Egypt), as he +defended the conduct of his hero. He, indeed, has a hereditary +allegiance to Mehemet Ali, which he derived from his uncle, the prime +minister. Said he: "The rule of the Mamelukes was anarchy of the worst +kind; it was death to Egypt, and IT IS RIGHT TO KILL DEATH." The +reasoning is not very different from that by which Mr. Froude +justifies Cromwell's putting the garrison of Drogheda to the sword. +Certainly in both cases, in Egypt as in Ireland, the end was peace. +From that moment the terror of Mehemet Ali's name held the whole land +in awe; and from one end of the valley of the Nile to the other, there +was perfect security. "Every tree planted in Egypt," said Nubar Pasha, +"is due to him; for till then the people in the country did not dare +to plant a tree, for the Mamelukes or the wandering Bedouins came and +pitched their tents under its shade, and then robbed the village." But +now every wandering tribe that hovered on the borders of the desert, +was struck with fear and dread, and did not dare to provoke a power +which knew no mercy. Hence the plantations of palms which have sprung +up around the Arab villages, and the beautiful avenues of trees which +have been planted along the roads. + +It is not strange that such a man soon became too powerful, not only +for the Mamelukes, but for Turkey. The Sultan did not like it that one +of his subjects had "grown so great," and tried more than once to +remove him. But the servant had become stronger than his master, and +would not be removed. He raised a large army, to which he gave the +benefit of European discipline, and in the latter part of his life +invaded Syria, and swept northward to Damascus and Aleppo, and was +only prevented from marching to Constantinople by the intervention of +foreign powers. It seems a pity now that France and England +interfered. The Eastern question might have been nearer a solution +to-day, if the last blow to the Grand Turk had been given by a Moslem +power. But at least this was secured, that the rule of Egypt was +confirmed in the family of Mehemet Ali, and the Viceroy of Egypt +became as fixed and irremovable as the Sultan himself. + +Mehemet Ali died in 1850, and was succeeded by his son Ibrahim Pasha, +who inherited much of his father's vigor. Ismail Pasha, the present +Khedive, is the son of Ibrahim Pasha, and grandson of Mehemet Ali. +Thus he has the blood of warriors in his veins, with which he has +inherited much of their proud spirit and indomitable will. + +No ruler in the East at the present moment attracts more of the +attention of Europe. I am sorry to go away from Cairo without seeing +him. I have had two opportunities of being presented, though not by +any seeking or suggestion of my own. But friends who were in official +positions had arranged it, and the time was fixed twice, but in both +cases I had to leave on the day appointed, once to go up the Nile, and +the other to embark at Suez. I cannot give therefore a personal +description of the man, but can speak of him only from the reports of +others, among whom are some who see him often and know him well. The +Khedive has many American officers in his service, some of them in +high commands (General Stone is at the head of the army), and these +are necessarily brought into intimate relations with him. These +officers I find without exception very enthusiastic in their +admiration. This is quite natural. They are brought into relations +with him of the most pleasant kind. He wants an army, and they +organize it for him. They discipline his troops; if need be, they +fight his battles. As they minister to his desire for power, and for +military display, he gives them a generous support. And so both +parties are equally pleased with each other. + +But making full allowance for all these prepossessions in his favor, +there are certain things in which not only they, but all who know the +present ruler of Egypt, agree, and which therefore may be accepted +without question, which show that he has a natural force of mind and +character which would be remarkable in any man, and in one of his +position are still more extraordinary. Though living in a palace, and +surrounded by luxury, he does not pass his time in idleness, but gives +himself no rest, hardly taking time for food and sleep. I am told that +he is "the hardest-worked man in Egypt." He rises very early, and sees +his Ministers before breakfast, and supervises personally every +department of the Government to such extent indeed as to leave little +for others to do, so that his Ministers are merely his secretaries. He +is the government. Louis XIV. could not more truly say, "I am the +State," than can the Khedive of Egypt, so completely does he absorb +all its powers. + +Such activity seems almost incredible in an Oriental. It would be in a +Turk. But Ismail Pasha boasts that "he has not a drop of Turkish blood +in his veins." It is easy to see in his restless and active mind the +spirit of that fierce old soldier, Mehemet Ali, though softened and +disciplined by an European education. + +This may be a proof of great mental energy, but it is not necessarily +of the highest wisdom. The men who accomplish most in the world, are +those who use their brains chiefly to plan, and who know how to choose +fit instruments to carry out their plans, and do not spend their +strength on petty details which might be done quite as well, or even +better, by others. + +The admirers of the Khedive point justly to what he has done for +Egypt. Since he came into power, the Suez Canal has been completed, +and is now the highway for the commerce of Europe with India; great +harbors have been made or improved at Alexandria, at Port Said, and at +Suez; canals for irrigation have been dug here and there, to carry +over the country the fertilizing waters of the Nile; and railroads +have been cut across the Delta in every direction, and one is already +advanced more than two hundred miles up the Nile. These are certainly +great public works, which justly entitle the Khedive to be regarded as +one of the most enlightened of modern rulers. + +But while recognizing all this, there are other things which I see +here in Egypt which qualify my admiration. I cannot praise without +reserve and many abatements. The Khedive has attempted too much, and +in his restless activity has undertaken such vast enterprises that he +has brought his country to the verge of bankruptcy. Egypt, like +Turkey, is in a very bad way. She has not indeed yet gone to the +length of repudiation. From this she has been saved for the moment by +the sale of shares of the Suez Canal to England for four millions +sterling. But this is only a temporary relief, it is not a permanent +cure for what is a deep-seated disease. The financial troubles of +Egypt are caused by the restless ambition of the Khedive to accomplish +in a few years the work of a century; and to carry out in an +impoverished country vast public works, which would task the resources +of the richest country in Europe. The Khedive has the reputation +abroad of being a great ruler, and he certainly shows an energy that +is extraordinary. But it is not always a well regulated energy. He +does too much. He is a man of magnificent designs, and projects public +works with the grandeur of a Napoleon. This would be very well if his +means were at all equal to his ambition. But his designs are so vast +that they would require the capital of France or Great Britain, while +Egypt is a very poor country. It has always of course the natural +productiveness of the valley of the Nile, but beyond that it has +nothing; it has no accumulated wealth, no great capitalists, no large +private fortunes, no rich middle class, from which to draw an imperial +revenue. With all that can be wrung from the miserable fellahs, taxed +to the utmost limit of endurance, still the expenses outrun enormously +the income. + +It is true that Egypt has much more to show for her money than Turkey. +If she has gone deeply in debt, and contracted heavy foreign loans, +she can at least point to great public works for the permanent good of +Egypt; although in the construction of some of these she has +anticipated, if not the wants of the country, at least its resources +for many years to come. + +For example, at the First Cataract, I found men at work upon a +railroad that is designed to extend to Khartoum, the capital of +Soudan, and the point of junction of the Blue and the White Nile! In +the latter part of its course to this point, it is to cross the +desert; as it must still farther, if carried eastward, as projected, +to Massowah on the Red Sea! These are gigantic projects, but about as +necessary to the present commerce of Egypt as would be a railway to +the very heart of Africa. + +But all the money has not gone in this way. The Khedive has had the +ambition to make of Egypt a great African Empire, by adding to it vast +regions in the interior. For this he has sent repeated expeditions up +the Nile, and is in a continual conflict with his barbarous +neighbors, and has at last got into a serious war with Abyssinia. + +But even this is not all. Not satisfied with managing the affairs of +government, the Khedive, with that restless spirit which characterizes +him, is deeply involved in all sorts of private enterprises. He is a +speculator on a gigantic scale, going into every sort of mercantile +adventure. He is a great real estate operator. He owns whole squares +in the new parts of Cairo and Alexandria, on which he is constantly +building houses, besides buying houses built by others. He builds +hotels and opera houses, and runs steamboats and railroads, like a +royal Jim Fisk. The steamer on which we crossed the Mediterranean from +Constantinople to Alexandria, belonged to the Khedive, and the +railroad that brought us to Cairo, and the hotel in which we were +lodged, and the steamer in which we went up the Nile. + +Nor is he limited in his enterprises to steamers and railroads. He is +a great cotton and sugar planter. He owns a large part of the land in +Egypt, on which he has any number of plantations. His immense sugar +factories, on which he has expended millions of pounds, may be seen +all along the valley of the Nile; and he exports cotton by the +shipload from the port of Alexandria. + +A man who is thus "up to his eyes" in speculation, who tries to do +everything himself, must do many things badly, or at least +imperfectly. He cannot possibly supervise every detail of +administration, and his agents have not the stimulus of a personal +interest to make the most of their opportunity. I asked very often, +when up the Nile, if these great sugar factories which I saw _paid_, +and was uniformly answered "No;" but that they _would_ pay in private +hands, if managed by those who had a personal stake in saving every +needless expense, and increasing every possible source of income. But +the Khedive is cheated on every side, and in a hundred ways. And even +if there were not actual fraud, the system is one which necessarily +involves immense waste and loss. Here in Cairo I find it the universal +opinion that almost all the Khedive's speculations have been gigantic +failures, and that they are at the bottom of the trouble which now +threatens the country. + +Such is the present financial condition of the Khedive and of Egypt. I +couple the two together; although an attempt is made to distinguish +them, and we hear that although Egypt is nearly bankrupt, yet that the +Khedive is personally "the richest man in the world!" But the accounts +are so mixed that it is very difficult to separate them. There is no +doubt that the Khedive has immense possessions in his hands; but he +is, at the same time, to use a commercial phrase, enormously +"extended;" he is loaded with debt, and has to borrow money at ruinous +rates; and if his estate were suddenly wound up, and a "receiver" +appointed to administer upon it, it is extremely doubtful what would +be the "assets" left. + +Such an administrator has appeared. Mr. Cave has just come out from +England, to try and straighten out the Khedive's affairs. But he has a +great task before him. Wise heads here doubt whether his mission will +come to anything, whether indeed he will be allowed to get at the +"bottom facts," or to make anything more than a superficial +examination, as the basis of a "whitewashing report" which may bolster +up Egyptian credit in Paris and London. + +But if he does come to know "the truth and the whole truth," then I +predict that he will either abandon the case in despair, or he will +have to recommend to the Khedive, as the only salvation for him, a +more sweeping and radical reform than the latter has yet dreamed of. +It requires some degree of moral courage to talk to a sovereign as to +a private individual; to speak to him as if he were a prodigal son who +had wasted his substance in riotous living; to tell him to moderate +his desires, and restrain his ambition, and to live a quiet and sober +life; and to "live within his means." But this he must do, or it is +easy to see where this brilliant financiering will end. + +If Mr. Cave can persuade the Khedive to restrain his extravagance; to +stop building palaces (he has now more than he can possibly use); and +to give up, once for all, as the follies of his youth, his grand +schemes of annexing the whole interior of Africa, as he has already +annexed Nubia and Soudan; and to "back out" as gracefully as he can +(although it is a very awkward business), of his war with Abyssinia; +and then to follow up the good course he has begun with his Suez Canal +shares, by selling all his stock in every commercial company (for one +man must not try to absorb all the industry of a kingdom); if he can +persuade him to sell all the railways in Egypt; and to sell every +steamship on the Mediterranean, except such as may be needed for the +use of the government; and every boat on the Nile except a yacht or +two for his private pleasure; to sell all his hotels and theatres; his +sugar factories and cotton plantations; and abandoning all his private +speculations, to be content with being simply the ruler of Egypt, and +attending to the affairs of government, which are quite enough to +occupy the thoughts of "a mind capacious of such things;" then he may +succeed in righting up the ship. Otherwise I fear the Khedive will +follow the fate of his master the Sultan. + +But impending bankruptcy is not the worst feature in Egypt. There is +something more rotten in the State than bad financial management. It +is the want of justice established by law, which shall protect the +rights of the people. At present, liberty there is none; the +government is an absolute despotism, as much as it was three thousand +years ago. The system under which the Israelites groaned, and for +which God brought the plagues upon Egypt, is in full force to-day. The +Khedive has obtained great credit abroad by the expeditions of Sir +Samuel Baker and others up the Nile, which were said to be designed to +break up the slave trade. But what signifies destroying slavery in +the interior of Africa, when a system still more intolerable exists in +Egypt itself? It is not called slavery; it is simply _forced labor_, +which, being interpreted, means that when the Khedive wants ten +thousand men to dig a canal or build a railroad, he sends into the +requisite number of villages, and "conscripts" them _en masse_, just +as he conscripts his soldiers (taking them away from their little +farms, perhaps, at the very moment when their labor is most needed), +and sets them to work for himself, under taskmasters, driving them to +work under the goad of the lash, or, if need be, at the point of the +bayonet. For this labor, thus cruelly exacted, they receive absolutely +nothing--neither pay _nor food_. A man who has constructed some of the +greatest works of Modern Egypt, said to me, as we were riding over the +Delta, "I built this railroad. I had under me twenty thousand men--all +forced labor. In return for their labor, I gave them--_water_!" "But +surely you paid them wages?" "No." "But at least you gave them food?" +"No." "But how did they live?" "The women worked on the land, and +brought them bread and rice." "But suppose they failed to bring food, +what became of the workmen?" "They starved." And not only were they +forced to work without pay and without food, but were often required +to furnish their own tools. Surely this is making bricks without +straw, as much as the Israelites did. Such a system of labor, however +grand the public works it may construct, can hardly excite the +admiration of a lover of free institutions. + +On all who escape this forced labor, the _taxation_ is fearful. The +hand of the government is as heavy upon them as in the ancient days. +To one who was telling me of this--and no man knows Egypt better--I +said, "Why, the government takes half of all that the country yields." +"Half?" he answered, "_It takes all._" To the miserable fellahs who +till the soil it leaves only their mud hovels, the rags that scarcely +hide their nakedness, and the few herbs and fruits that but just keep +soul and body together. Every acre of ground in Egypt is taxed, and +every palm tree in the valley of the Nile. What would our American +farmers say to a tax of twelve dollars an acre on their land, and of +from twenty-five to fifty cents on every apple tree in their orchards? +Yet this enormous burden falls, not on the rich farmers of New +England, or New York, or Ohio, but on the miserable fellahs of Egypt, +who are far more destitute than the negroes of the South. Yet in the +midst of all this poverty and wretchedness, in these miserable Arab +villages the tax gatherer appears regularly, and the tax, though it be +the price of blood, is remorselessly exacted. If anybody refuses, or +is unable to pay, no words are wasted on him, he is immediately +bastinadoed till his cries avail--not with the officers of the law, +who know no mercy, but with his neighbors, who yielding up their last +penny, compel the executioner to let go his hold. + +Such is the Egyptian Government as it presses on the people. While its +hand is so heavy in ruinous taxations, the administration of justice +is pretty much as it was in the time of the Pharaohs. It has been in +the hands of a set of native officials, who sometimes executed a rude +kind of justice on the old principle of strict retaliation, "an eye +for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," but commonly paid no regard to +the merits of a case, but decided it entirely by other considerations. +In matters where the Government was concerned, no private individual +had any chance whatever. The Khedive was the source of all authority +and power, a central divinity, of whom every official in the country +was an emanation, before whom no law or justice could stand. In other +matters judges decided according to their own pleasure--their like or +dislike of one or the other of the parties--or more often according to +their interest, for they were notoriously open to bribes. Thus in the +whole land of Egypt justice there was none. In every Arab village the +sheik was a petty tyrant, who could bastinado the miserable fellahs at +his will. + +This rough kind of government answered its purpose--or at least there +was no one who dared to question it--so long as they had only their +own people to rule over. But when foreigners came to settle in Egypt, +they were not willing to be subjected to this Oriental justice. Hence +arose a system of Consular Courts, by which every question which +concerned a foreigner was argued and decided before a mixed tribunal, +composed of the Consul of the country and a native judge. This seemed +very fair, but in fact it only made confusion worse confounded. For +naturally the Consul sided with his own countryman (if he did not, he +would be considered almost a traitor), his foreign prejudices came +into play; and so what was purely a question of law, became a +political question. It was not merely a litigation about property +between A and B, but a matter of diplomatic skill between France (or +any other foreign power) and Egypt; and as France was the stronger, +she was the more likely to succeed. Hence the foreigner had great +advantages over the native in these Consular Courts, and if in +addition the native judge was open to a bribe, and the foreigner was +willing to give it, the native suitor, however wronged, was completely +at his mercy. + +Such was the state of things until quite recently. But here at least +there has been a reform in the introduction of a new judicial system, +which is the greatest step forward that has been taken within half a +century. + +The man who was the first to see what was the radical vice of the +country, the effectual hindrance to its prosperity, was Nubar Pasha. +He had the sagacity to see that the first want of Egypt was not more +railroads and steamboats, but simple justice--the protection of law. +How clearly he saw the evil, was indicated by a remark which I once +heard him make. He said: "The idea of justice does not exist in the +Oriental mind. We have governors and judges, who sit to hear causes, +and who decide them after the Oriental fashion--that is, they will +decide in favor of a friend against an enemy, or more commonly in +favor of the man who can pay the largest bribe; but to sit patiently +and listen to evidence, and then decide according to abstract justice, +is something not only foreign to their customs, but of which they have +absolutely no idea--they cannot conceive of it." He saw that a feeling +of insecurity was at the bottom of the want of confidence at home and +abroad; and that to "establish justice" was the first thing both to +encourage native industry, and to invite the capital of France and +England to expend itself in the valley of the Nile. To accomplish this +has been his single aim for many years. He has set himself to do away +with the old Oriental system complicated by the Consular Courts, and +to introduce the simple administration of justice, by which there +should be one law for natives and foreigners, for the rich and the +poor, for the powerful and the weak. + +To inaugurate such a policy, which was a virtual revolution, the +initiative must be taken by Egypt. But how could the Khedive propose a +change which was a virtual surrender of his own absolute power? He +could no longer be absolute _within the courts_: and to give up this +no Oriental despot would consent, for it was parting with the dearest +token of his power over the lives and fortunes of his subjects. But +the Khedive was made to see, that, if he surrendered something, he +gained much more; that it was an immense advantage to himself and his +country to be brought within the pale of European civilization; and +that this could not be until it was placed under the protection of +European law. + +But Egypt was not the only power to be consulted. The change could +only be made by treaty with other countries, and Egypt was not an +independent State, and had no right to enter into negotiations with +foreign powers without the consent of the Porte. To obtain this +involved long and tedious delays at Constantinople. And last of all, +the foreign States themselves had to be persuaded into it, for of +course the change involved the surrender of their consular +jurisdiction; and all were jealous lest it should be giving up the +rights of their citizens. To persuade them to the contrary was a slow +business. Each government considered how it would affect its own +subjects. France especially, which had had great advantages under the +old Consular Courts, was the last to give its consent to the new +system. It was only a few days before the New Year, at which it was to +be inaugurated, that the National Assembly, after a debate lasting +nearly a week, finally adopted the measure by a majority of three to +one, and thus the great judicial reform, on which the wisest statesman +of Egypt had so long fixed his heart, was consummated. + +The change, in a word, is this. The old Consular Courts are abolished, +and in their place are constituted three courts--one at Cairo, one at +Alexandria, and one at Ismailia--each composed of seven judges, of +whom a majority are nominated by the foreign powers which have most to +do with Egypt: France, England, Germany, Austria, Russia, and the +United States. In the selection of judges, as there are three benches +to be filled, several are taken from the smaller states of Europe. +There is also a higher Court of Appeal constituted in the same way. + +The judges to fill these important positions have already been named +by the different governments, and so far as the _personnel_ of the new +courts is concerned, leave nothing to be desired. They are all men of +reputation in their own countries, as having the requisite legal +knowledge and ability, and as men of character, who will administer +the law in the interest of justice, and that alone. The United States +is represented by Judge Barringer at Alexandria, and Judge Batcheller +at Cairo--both of whom will render excellent service to Egypt, and do +honor to their own country. + +The law which these courts are to administer, is not Moslem law (until +now the supreme law of Egypt was the Koran, as it still is in Turkey), +nor any kind of Oriental law--but European law. Guided by the same +intelligence which framed the new judicial system, Egypt has adopted +the Code Napoleon. The French language will be used in the courts for +the European judges, and the Arabic for the native. + +In administering this law, these courts are supreme; they cannot be +touched by the Government, or their decisions annulled; for _they are +constituted by treaty_, and any attempt to interfere with them would +at once be resented by all the foreign powers as a violation of a +solemn compact, and bring down upon Egypt the protest and indignation +of the whole civilized world. + +The change involved in the introduction of such a system can hardly be +realized by Europeans or Americans. It is the first attempt to +inaugurate a reign of law in Egypt, or perhaps in any Oriental +country. It is a breakwater equally against the despotism of the +central power, and the meddlesomeness of foreign governments, acting +through the Consular Courts. For the first time the Khedive is himself +put under law, and has some check to his power over the lives and +property of his subjects. Indeed we may say that it is the first time +in the history of Egypt that there has been one law for ruler and +people--for the Khedive and the fellah, for the native-born and for +the stranger within their gates. + +The completion of such a system, after so much labor, has naturally +been regarded with great satisfaction by those who have been working +for it, and its inauguration on the first of the year was an occasion +of congratulation. On that day the new judges were inducted into +office, and after taking their official oaths they were all +entertained at the house of Judge Batcheller, where was present also +Mr. Washburne, our Minister at Paris, and where speeches were made in +English, French, German, and Arabic, and the warmest wishes expressed +both by the foreign and native judges, that a system devised with so +much care for the good of Egypt, might be completely successful. Of +course it will take time for the people to get accustomed to the new +state of things. They are so unused to any form of justice that at +first they hardly know what it means, and will be suspicious of it, as +if it were some new device of oppression. They have to be educated to +justice, as to everything else. By and bye they will get some new +ideas into their heads, and we may see a real administration of +justice in the valley of the Nile. That it may realize the hopes of +the great man by whom it has been devised, and "establish justice" in +a country in which justice has been hitherto unknown, will be the wish +of every American. + +This new judicial system is the one bright spot in the state of Egypt, +where there is so much that is dark. It is the one step of real +progress to be set over against all the waste and extravagance, the +oppression and tyranny. Aside from that I cannot indulge in any +rose-colored views. I cannot go into ecstasies of admiration over a +government which has had absolute control of the country for so many +years, and has brought it to the verge of ruin. + +And yet these failures and disasters, great as they are, do not abate +my interest in Egypt, nor in that remarkable man who has at present +its destinies in his hands. I would not ask too much, nor set up an +unreasonable standard. I am not so foolish as to suppose that Egypt +can be a constitutional monarchy like England; or a republic like +America. This would be carrying republicanism to absurdity. I am not +such an enthusiast for republican institutions, as to believe that +they are the best for all peoples, whatever their degree of +intelligence. They would be unsuited to Egypt. The people are not fit +for them. They are not only very poor, but very ignorant. There is no +middle class in Egypt in which to find the materials of free +institutions. Republican as I am, I believe that _the best possible +government for Egypt is an enlightened despotism_; and my complaint +against the government of the Khedive is, not that he concentrates all +power in himself, but that he does not use it wisely--that his +government unites, with many features of a civilized state, some of +the very worst features of Oriental tyranny. + +But with all that is dark in the present state of this country, and +sad in the condition of its people, I believe that Egypt has a great +future before it; that it is to rise to a new life, and become a +prosperous State of the modern world. The Nile valley has a great part +yet to play in the future civilization of Africa, as an avenue of +access to the interior--to those central highlands where are the Great +Lakes, which are the long-sought sources of the Nile; and from which +travellers and explorers, merchants and missionaries, may descend on +the one hand to the Niger, and to the Western Coast; or, on the other, +to those vast regions which own the rule of the Sultan of Zanzibar. I +watch with interest every Expedition up the Nile, if so be it is an +advance, not of conquest, but of peaceful commerce and civilization. + +Perhaps the Khedive will rise to the height of the emergency, and +bring his country out of all its difficulties, and set it on a new +career of prosperity. He has great qualities, great capacity and +marvellous energy. Has he also the gift of political wisdom? + +Never had a ruler such an opportunity. He has a part to act--if he +knows how to act it well--which will give him a name in history +greater than any of the old kings of Egypt, since to him it is given +to reconstruct a kingdom, and to lead the way for the regeneration of +a continent. If only he can see that his true interest lies, not in +war, but in peace, not in conquering all the tribes of Africa, and +annexing their territory, but in developing the resources of his own +country, and in peaceful commerce with his less civilized neighbors, +he will place himself at the head of a continent, and by the powerful +influence of his example, and of his own prosperous State, become not +only the Restorer of Egypt, but the Civilizer of Africa. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MIDNIGHT IN THE HEART OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. + + +Our last night in Cairo we spent in riding out to Ghizeh by moonlight, +and exploring the interior of the Great Pyramid. We had already been +there by day, and climbed to the top, but did not then go inside. +There is no access but by a single narrow passage, four feet wide and +high, which slopes at a descending angle, so that one must stoop very +low while he slides down an inclined plane, as if he were descending +into a mine by a very small shaft. There is not much pleasure in +crouching and creeping along such a passage, with a crowd of Arab +guides before and behind, lighting the darkness with their torches, +and making the rocky cavern hideous with their yells. These creatures +fasten on the traveller, pulling and pushing, smoking in his face, and +raising such a dust that he cannot see, and is almost choked, and +keeping up such a noise that he cannot hear, and can hardly think. One +likes a little quiet and silence, a little chance for meditation, when +he penetrates the sepulchre of kings, where a Pharaoh was laid down to +rest four thousand years ago. So I left these interior researches, on +our first visit to the Pyramid, to the younger members of our party, +and contented myself with clambering up its sides, and looking off +upon the desert and the valley of the Nile, with Cairo in the +distance. + +But on our trip up the Nile, I read the work of Piazzi Smyth, the +Astronomer Royal of Scotland, "Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid," +and had my curiosity excited to see again a structure which was not +only the oldest and greatest in the world, but in which he thought to +have discovered the proofs of a divine revelation. Dr. Grant of Cairo, +who had made a study of the subject, and had spent many nights in the +heart of the Pyramid, taking accurate measurements, kindly offered to +accompany us; and so we made up a party of those who had come down the +Nile--an Episcopal clergyman from New England, a Colonel from the +United States Army, a lady from Cambridge, Mass., and a German lady +and her daughter who had been with us for more than two months, and my +niece and myself. It was to be our last excursion together, as we were +to part on the morrow, and should probably never all meet again. + +At half-past eight o'clock we drove away from the Ezbekieh square in +Cairo. It was one of those lovely nights found only in Egypt. The +moon, approaching the full, cast a soft light on everything--on the +Nile, as we crossed the long iron bridge, and on the palms, waving +gently in the night wind. We rode along under the avenue of trees +planted by old Mehemet Ali, keeping up an animated conversation, and +getting a great deal of information about Egypt. It was two hours +before we reached the Pyramid. Of course the Arabs, who had seen the +carriages approaching along the road, and who like vultures, discern +their prey from a great distance, were soon around us, offering their +services. But Dr. Grant, whose experience had taught him whom to seek, +sent for the head man, whom he knew, who had accompanied him in his +explorations, and bade him seek out a sufficient number of trusty +guides for our party, and keep off the rest. + +While the sheik was seeking for his retainers, we strolled away to the +Sphinx, which looked more strange and weird than ever in the +moonlight. How many centuries has he sat there, crouching on the +desert, and looking towards the rising sun. The body is that of a +recumbent lion. The back only is seen, as the giant limbs, which are +stretched out sixty feet in front, are wholly covered by the sand. +But the mighty head still lifts its unchanged brow above the waste, +looking towards the East, to see the sun rise, as it has every morning +for four thousand years. + +On our return to the Pyramid, Dr. Grant pointed out the "corner +sockets" of the original structure, showing how much larger it was +when first built, and as it stood in the time of the Pharaohs. It is +well known that it has been mutilated by the successive rulers of +Egypt, who have stripped off its outer layers of granite to build +palaces and mosques in Cairo. This process of spoliation, continued +for centuries, has reduced the size of the Pyramid _two acres_, so +that now it covers but eleven acres of ground, whereas originally it +covered thirteen. Outside of all this was a pavement of granite, +extending forty feet from the base, which surrounded the whole. + +By the time we had returned, the sheik was on hand with his swarthy +guides around him, and we prepared to enter the Pyramid. It was not +_intended_ to be entered. If it had been so designed--as it is the +largest building in the world--it would have had a lofty gateway in +keeping with its enormous proportions, like the temples of Upper +Egypt. But it is not a temple, nor a place for assembly or for +worship, nor even a lofty, vaulted place of burial, like the tombs of +the Medici in Florence, or other royal mausoleums. Except the King's +and Queen's chambers (which are called chambers by courtesy, not being +large enough for ordinary bedrooms in a royal palace, but more like a +hermit's rocky cell), the whole Pyramid is one mass of stone, as solid +as the cliff of El Capitan in the Yo Semite valley. The only entrance +is by the narrow passage already described; and even this was walled +up so as to be concealed. If it were intended for a tomb, whoever +built it sealed it up, that its secret might remain forever inviolate; +and that the dead might slumber undisturbed until the Judgment day. It +was only by accident that an entrance was discovered. About a +thousand years ago a Mohammedan ruler, conceiving the idea that the +Pyramid had been built as a storehouse for the treasures of the kings +of Egypt, undertook to break into it, and worked for months to pierce +the granite sides, but was about to give it up in despair, when the +accidental falling of a stone led to the discovery of the passage by +which one now gains access to the interior. + +In getting into the Pyramid one must stoop to conquer. But this +stooping is nothing to the bodily prostrations he has to undergo to +get into some passages of the temples and underground tombs. Often one +has not only to crouch, but to crawl. Near the Pyramid are some tombs, +the mouths of which are so choked up with sand that one has actually +to forego all use of hands and knees. I threw myself in despair on the +ground, and told the guides to drag me in by the heels. As one lies +prone on the earth, he cannot help feeling that this horizontal +posture is rather ridiculous for one who is in the pursuit of +knowledge. I could not but think to what a low estate I had fallen. +Sometimes one feels indeed, as he is thus compelled to "lick the +dust," as if the curse of the serpent were pronounced upon him, "On +thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy +life." + +We had trusted to the man in authority to protect us from the horde of +Arabs; but nothing could keep back the irrepressible camp-followers, +who flocked after us, and when we got into the King's chamber, we +found we had twenty-four! With such a bodyguard, each carrying a +lighted candle, we took up our forward march, or rather our forward +_stoop_, for no man can stand upright in this low passage. Thus +bending one after another, like a flock of sheep, we vanished from the +moonlight. Dr. Grant led the way, and, full of the wonders of the +construction of the Pyramid, he called to me, as he disappeared down +its throat, to look back and see how that long tube--longer and larger +than any telescope that ever was made--pointed towards the North +Star. But stars and moon were soon eclipsed, and we were lost in the +darkness of this labyrinth. The descent is easy, indeed it is too +easy, for the sides of the passage are of polished limestone, smooth +as glass, and the floor affords but a slight hold for the feet, so +that as we bent forward, we found it difficult to keep our balance, +and might have fallen from top to bottom if we had not had the strong +arms of our guides to hold us up. With such a pair of crutches to lean +upon, we slid down the smooth worn pavement till we came to a huge +boulder, a granite portcullis, which blocked our way, around which a +passage had been cut. Creeping around this, pulled and hauled by the +Arabs, who lifted us over the dangerous places, we were shouldered on +to another point of rock, and now began our ascent along a passage as +slippery as that before. Here again we should have made poor progress +alone, with our boots which slipped at every moment on the smooth +stones, but for the Arabs, whose bare feet gave them a better hold, +and who held us fast. + +And now we are on a level and move along a very low passage, crouching +almost on our hands and knees, till we raise our heads and stand in +the Queen's Chamber--so called for no reason that we know but that it +is smaller than the King's. + +Returning from this, we find ourselves at the foot of the Grand +Gallery, or, as it might be called, Grand Staircase (as in its lofty +proportions it is not unlike one of the great staircases in the old +palaces of Genoa and Venice), which ascends into the heart of the +Pyramid. This is a magnificent hall, 157 feet long, 28 feet high, and +7 feet wide. But the ascent as before is over smooth and polished +limestone, to climb which is like climbing a cone of ice. We could not +have got on at all but for the nimble Arabs, whose bare feet enabled +them to cling to the slippery stone like cats, and who, grasping us in +their naked arms, dragged us forward by main force. The ladies shrank +from this kind of assistance, as they were sometimes almost embraced +by these swarthy creatures. But there was no help for it. This kind of +bodily exercise, passive and active, soon brought on an excessive +heat. We were almost stifled. Our faces grew red; I tore off my cravat +to keep from choking. Still, like a true American, I was willing to +endure anything if only I got ahead, and felt rewarded when we reached +the top of the Grand Gallery, and instead of looking _up_, looked +_down_. + +From this height we creep along another passage till we reach the +object of our climbing, in the lofty apartment called the King's +Chamber. This is the heart of the Great Pyramid--the central point for +which apparently it was built, and where, if anywhere, its secret is +to be found. At one end lies the sarcophagus (if such it was; if the +Pyramid was designed to be a tomb) in which the great Cheops was +buried. It is now tenantless, except by such fancies as travellers +choose to fill it withal. I know not what sudden freak of fancy took +me just then, perhaps I thought, How would it seem to be a king even +in his tomb? and instantly I threw myself down at full length within +the sarcophagus, and lay extended, head thrown back, and hands folded +on my breast, lying still, as great Cheops may have lain, when they +laid him in his royal house of death. It was a soft bed of dust, +which, as I sank in it, left upon my whole outward man a _marked_ +impression. It seemed very like ordinary dust, settled from the clouds +raised by the Arabs in their daily entrances to show the chamber to +visitors. But it was much more poetical to suppose that it was the +mouldering dust of Cheops himself, in which case even the mass that +clung to my hair might be considered as an anointing from the historic +past. From this I was able to relieve myself, after I reached home +that night, by a plentiful application of soap and water; but alas, my +gray travelling suit bore the scars of battle, the "dust of conflict," +much longer, and it was not till we left Suez that a waiter of the +ship took the garment in hand, and by a vigorous beating exorcised the +stains of Egypt, so that Pharaoh and his host--or his dust--were +literally cast into the Red Sea. + +And now we were all in the King's Chamber, our party of eight, with +three times the number of Arabs. The latter were at first quite noisy, +after their usual fashion, but Dr. Grant, who speaks Arabic, hushed +them with a peremptory command, and they instantly subsided, and +crouched down by the wall, and sat silent, watching our movements. One +of the party had brought with him some magnesium wire, which he now +lighted, and which threw a strong glare on the sides and on the +ceiling of the room, which, whether or not intended for the sepulchre +of kings, is of massive solidity--faced round with red granite, and +crossed above with enormous blocks of the same rich dark stone. With +his subject thus illuminated, Dr. Grant pointed out with great +clearness those features of the King's Chamber which have given it a +scientific interest. The sarcophagus, which is an oblong chest of red +granite, in his opinion, as in that of Piazzi Smyth, is not a +sarcophagus at all; indeed it looks quite as much like a huge bath-tub +as a place of burial for one of the Pharaohs. He called my attention +to the fact that it could not have been introduced into the Pyramid by +any of the known passages. It must, therefore, have been built in it. +It is also a singular fact that it has no cover, as a sarcophagus +always has. No mummy was ever found in it so far as we have any +historic record. Piazzi Smyth, in his book, which is full of curious +scientific lore, argues that it was not intended for a tomb, but for a +fixed standard of measures, such as was given to Moses by Divine +command. It is certainly a remarkable coincidence, if nothing more, +that it is of the exact size of the Ark of the Covenant. But without +giving too much importance to real or supposed analogies and +correspondences, we must acknowledge that there are many points in +the King's Chamber which make it a subject of curious study and of +scientific interest; and which seem to show that it was constructed +with reference to certain mathematical proportions, and had a design +beyond that of being a mere place of burial. + +After we had had this scientific discussion, we prepared for a +discussion of a different kind--that of the lunch which we had brought +with us. A night's ride sharpens the appetite. As the only place where +we could sit was the sarcophagus itself, we took our places in it, +sitting upon its granite sides. An Arab who knew what we should want, +had brought a pitcher of water, which, as the heat was oppressive, was +most grateful to our lips, and not less acceptable to remove the dust +from our eyes and hands. Thus refreshed, we relished our oranges and +cakes, and the tiny cups of Turkish coffee. + +To add to the weirdness of the scene, the Arabs asked if we would like +to see them perform one of their native dances? Having our assent, +they formed in a circle, and began moving their bodies back and forth, +keeping time with a strange chant, which was not very musical in +sound, as the dance was not graceful in motion. It was quickly over, +when, of course, the hat was passed instantly for a contribution. + +The Colonel proposed the health of Cheops! Poor old Cheops! What would +he have said to see such a party disturbing the place of his rest at +such an hour as this? I looked at my watch; it was midnight--an hour +when the dead are thought to stir uneasily in their graves. Might he +not have risen in wrath out of his sarcophagus to see these frivolous +moderns thus making merry in the place of his sepulture? But this +midnight feast was not altogether gay, for some of us thought how we +should be "far away on the morrow." For weeks and months we had been +travelling together, but this excursion was to be our last. We were +taking our parting feast--a fact which gave it a touch of sadness, as +the place and the hour gave it a peculiar interest. + +And now we prepared to descend. I lingered in the chamber to the last, +waiting till all had gone--till even the last attendant had crawled +out and was heard shouting afar off--that I might for a moment, at +least, be alone in the silence and the darkness in the heart of the +Pyramid; and then, crouching as before, followed slowly the lights +that were becoming dimmer and dimmer along the low and narrow passage. +Arrived at the top of the Grand Gallery, I waited with a couple of +Arabs till all our party descended, and then lighting a magnesium +wire, threw a sudden and brilliant light over the lofty walls. + +It was one o'clock when we emerged from our tomb to the air and the +moonlight, and found our carriages waiting for us. The moon was +setting in the West as we rode back under the long avenue of trees, +and across the sacred Nile. It was three o'clock when we reached our +hotel, and bade each other good-night and good-bye. Early in the +morning two of us were to leave for India on our way around the world, +and others were to turn their faces towards the Holy Land and Italy. +But however scattered over Europe and America, none of us will ever +forget our Midnight in the Heart of the Great Pyramid. + +In recalling this memory of Egypt, my object is not merely to furnish +a poetical and romantic description, but to invite the attention of +the most sober readers to what may well be a study and an instruction. +This Pyramid was the greatest of the Seven Wonders of the World in the +time of the Greeks, and it is the only one now standing on the earth. +May it not be that it contains some wisdom of the ancients that is +worthy the attention of the boastful moderns; some secret and sacred +lore which the science of the present day may well study to reveal? It +may be (as Piazzi Smyth argues in his learned book) that we who are +now upon the earth have "an inheritance in the Great Pyramid;" that +it was built not merely to swell the pride of the Pharaohs, and to be +the wonder of the Egyptians; but for our instruction, on whom the ends +of the world are come. Without giving our adhesion in advance to any +theory, there are certain facts, clearly apparent, which give to this +structure more than a monumental interest. For thousands of years it +had been supposed to have been built for a royal tomb--for that and +that only. So perhaps it was--and perhaps not. At any rate a very +slight observation will show that it was built also for other +purposes. For example: + +Observe its geographical position. It stands at the apex of the Delta +of the Nile, and Piazzi Smyth claims, in the centre of the habitable +globe! He has a map in which its point is fixed _in_ Africa, yet +between Europe and Asia, and which shows that it stands in the exact +centre of the land surface of the whole world. This, if it be an +accident, is certainly a singular one. + +Then it is exactly on the thirtieth parallel of latitude, and it +stands four-square, its four sides facing exactly the four points of +compass--North, South, East, and West. Now the chances are a million +to one that this could not occur by accident. There is no need to +argue such a matter. It was certainly done by design, and shows that +the old Egyptians knew how to draw a meridian line, and to take the +points of compass, as accurately as the astronomers of the present +day. + +Equally evident is it that they were able to measure the solar year as +exactly as modern astronomers. Taking the sacred cubit as the unit of +measure there are in each side of the Pyramid just 365¼ cubits, which +gives not only the number of days in the year, but the six hours over! + +That it was built for astronomical purposes, seems probable from its +very structure. Professor Proctor argues that it was erected for +purposes of astrology! Never was there such an observatory in the +world. Its pinnacle is the loftiest ever placed in the air by human +hands. It seems as if the Pyramid were built like the tower of Babel, +that its top might "touch heaven." From that great height one has +almost a perfect horizon, looking off upon the level valley of the +Nile. It is said that it could not have been ascended because its +sides were covered with polished stone. But may there not have been a +secret passage to the top? It is hard to believe that such an +elevation was not made use of by a people so much given to the study +of the stars as were the ancient Egyptians. In some way we would +believe that the priests and astrologers of Egypt were able to climb +to that point, where they might sit all night long looking at the +constellations through that clear and cloudless sky; watching Orion +and the Pleiades, as they rose over the Mokattam hills on the other +side of the Nile, and set behind the hills of the Libyan desert. + +There is another very curious fact in the Pyramid, that the passage by +which it is entered points directly to the North Star, and yet not to +the North Star that now is, but to Alpha Draconis, which was the North +Star four thousand years ago. This is one way in which the age of the +Pyramid is determined, for it is found by the most exact calculations +that 2170 years before Christ, a man placed at the bottom of that +passage, as at the bottom of a well, and looking upward through that +shaft, as if he were looking through the great telescope of Lord +Rosse, would fix his eye exactly on the North Star--the pole around +which was revolving the whole celestial sphere. As is well known, this +central point of the heavens changes in the lapse of ages, but that +star will come around to the same point in 25,800 years more, when, if +the Pyramid be still standing, the observers of that remote period can +again look upward and see Alpha Draconis on his throne, and mark how +the stars "return again" to their places in the everlasting +revolutions of the heavens. + +As to the measurement of _time_, all who have visited astronomical +observatories know the extreme and almost infinite pains taken to +obtain an even temperature for clocks. The slightest increase of +temperature may elongate the pendulum, and so affect the duration of a +second, and this, though it be in a degree so infinitesimal as to be +almost inappreciable, yet becomes important to the accuracy of +computations, when a unit has to be multiplied by hundreds of +millions, as it is in calculating the distances of the heavenly +bodies. To obviate this difficulty, astronomical clocks are sometimes +placed in apartments under ground, closed in with thick walls (where +even the door is rarely opened, but the observations are made through +a glass window), so that it cannot be affected by the variations of +temperature of the outer world. But here, in the heart of this +mountain of stone, the temperature is preserved at an absolute +equilibrium, so that there is no expansion by heat and no contraction +by cold. What are all the observatories of Greenwich, and Paris and +Pulkowa, to such a rock-built citadel as the Great Pyramid? + +But not only was the Pyramid designed to stand right in its position +towards the earth and the heavenly bodies; but also, and perhaps +chiefly (so argues Prof. Smyth) was it designed for metrological (not +met_eo_rological) purposes--to furnish an exact standard of weights +and measures. The unit of lineal measure used in the Pyramid he finds +to correspond not to the English _foot_, nor to the French _metre_, +but to the Hebrew _sacred cubit_. This is certainly a curious +coincidence, but may it not prove simply that the latter was derived +from the former? Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, +and may have brought from the Valley of the Nile weights and measures, +as well as customs and laws. + +But this cubit itself, wherever it came from, has some very remarkable +correspondences. French and English mathematicians and astronomers +have had great difficulty to fix upon an exact standard of lineal +measure. Their method has been to take some length which had an exact +relation to one of the unchangeable spaces or distances of the globe +itself. Thus the English inch is one five hundred millionth part of +the axis of the earth. But Prof. Smyth finds in the Great Pyramid a +still better standard of measure. The cubit contains twenty-five of +what he calls "Pyramid inches," and fifty of these are just equal to +one ten-millionth part of the earth's axis of rotation! He finds in +the Pyramid a greater wonder still in a measure for determining the +distance of the earth from the sun, which is the unit for calculating +the distances of the heavenly bodies! That which scientific +expeditions have been sent into all parts of the earth within the last +two years to determine by more accurate observations of the transit of +Venus, is more exactly told in the Great Pyramid erected four thousand +years ago! + +It is a very fascinating study to follow this learned professor in his +elaborate calculations. He seems to think the whole of the exact +sciences contained in the Great Pyramid. The vacant chest of red +granite in the King's Chamber, over which Egyptologists have puzzled +so much, is to him as the very ark of the Lord. That which has been +supposed to be a sarcophagus, with no other interest than as having +once held a royal mummy, he holds not to be the tomb of Cheops, or of +any of the kings of Egypt, but a sacred coffer intended to serve as a +standard of weights and measures for all time to come. He thinks it +accomplishes perfectly the arithmetical feat of squaring the +circle!--the height being to the circumference of the base, as the +radius is to the circumference of a circle. + +But the Great Pyramid has, to Professor Smyth, more than a +scientific--it has a religious interest. He is a Scotchman, and not +only a man of science, but one who believes, with all the energy of +his Scotch nature, in a Divine revelation; and as might be supposed, +he connects this monument of scientific learning with One who is the +source of all wisdom and knowledge. However great may have been the +wisdom of the Egyptians, he does not believe that they had a knowledge +of geodesy and astronomy greater than the most learned scientific men +of our day. He has another explanation, that the Great Pyramid was +built by the guidance of Him who led the Israelites out of Egypt, and +who, as he shone upon their path in the desert, now shines by this +lighthouse and signal tower upon the blindness and ignorance of the +world. He believes that the Pyramid was constructed by Divine +inspiration just as much as the Jewish Tabernacle; that as Moses was +commanded to fashion everything according to the pattern showed to him +in the Mount, so some ancient King of Egypt, working under Divine +inspiration, builded better than he knew, and wrought into enduring +stone, truths which he did not perhaps himself understand, but which +were to be revealed in the last time, and to testify to a later +generation the manifold wisdom of God. As to its age he places it +somewhere between the time of Noah and the calling of Abraham. Dr. +Grant even thinks it was built before the death of Noah! But mankind +could hardly have multiplied in the earth in the lifetime of even the +oldest of the patriarchs, so as to be capable of building such +monuments. The theory is that it was not built by an Egyptian +architect. There is a tradition mentioned in Herodotus of a shepherd +who came from a distant country, from the East, who had much to do +with the building of the Pyramid, and was regarded as a heavenly +visitant and director. Prof. Smyth thinks it probable, that this +visitor was Melchisedek! He even gives the Pyramid a prophetic +character, and thinks that the different passages and chambers are +designed to be symbolical of the different economies through which God +educates the race. The entrance at first _descends_. That may +represent the gradual decadence of mankind to the time of the Flood, +or to the exodus of the Israelites. Then the passage begins to +_ascend_, but slowly and painfully, which represents the Jewish +Dispensation, when men were struggling towards the light. After a +hundred and twenty-seven feet of this stooping and creeping upward, +there is a sudden enlargement, and the low passage rises up into the +Grand Gallery, just as the Mosaic economy, after groping through many +centuries, at last bursts into the full glory of the Christian +Dispensation. + +Believing in its inspired character, he finds in every part of this +wonderful structure signs and symbols. Taking it as an emblem of +Christian truth, where is the chief corner-stone? Not at the base, but +at the top--the apex! At the bottom, there are four stones which are +equal--no one of which is above another--the _chief_ corner-stone +therefore must be the capstone! + +It will be perceived that this is a very original and very sweeping +theory; that it overturns all our ideas of the Great Pyramid; that it +not only turns Cheops out of it, but turns Science and Revelation +together into it. We may well hesitate before accepting it in its full +extent, and yet we must acknowledge our indebtedness to Prof. Smyth. +He has certainly given a new interest to this hoary monument of the +past. Scientific men who reject his theory are still deeply interested +in the facts which he brings to light, which they recognize as very +extraordinary, and which show a degree of scientific knowledge which +not only they did not believe to exist among the Egyptians, but which +hardly exists in our day. + +So much as this we may freely concede, that the Pyramid has a +scientific value, if not a sacred character; that it is full of the +wisdom of the Egyptians, if not of the inspiration of the Almighty; +and that it is a storehouse of ancient knowledge, even if it be not +the very Ark of the Covenant, in which the holiest mysteries are +enshrined! + +Leaving out what may be considered fanciful in the speculations of +the Scotch astronomer, there is yet much in the facts he presents +worthy the consideration of the man of science, as well as the devout +attention of the student of the Bible, and which, if duly weighed, +will at once enlarge our knowledge and strengthen our faith. + +Such are the lessons that we derive from even our slight acquaintance +with the Great Pyramid; and so, as we looked back that night, and saw +it standing there in the moonlight, its cold gray summit, its "chief +corner-stone," pointing upwards to the clear unclouded firmament, it +seemed to point to something above the firmament--to turn our eyes and +thoughts to Heaven and to God. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +LEAVING EGYPT--THE DESERT. + + +We left Cairo the next morning. Our departure from Egypt was not +exactly like that of the Israelites, though we came through the land +of Goshen, and by the way of the Red Sea. We did not flee away at +night, nor hear the rush of horses and chariots behind us. Indeed we +were very reluctant to flee at all; we did not like to go away, for in +those five or six weeks we had grown very fond of the country, to +which the society of agreeable travelling companions lent an +additional charm. + +But the world was all before us, and necessity bade us depart. It was +the 6th of January, the beginning of the feast of Bairam, the +Mohammedan Passover. The guns of the Citadel ushered in the day, +observed by all devout Mussulmans, which commemorates the sacrifice by +Abraham--not of Isaac, but of _Ishmael_, for the Arabs, who are +descendants of Ishmael, have no idea of his being set aside by the +other son of the Father of the Faithful. On this day every family +sacrifices the paschal lamb (which explains the flocks of sheep which +we had seen for several days in the streets of the city), and +sprinkles its blood upon the lintels and doorposts of their houses, +that the angel of death may pass them by. The day is one of general +rejoicing and festivity. The Khedive gives a grand reception to all +the foreign representatives at his palace of Gezireh, at which I had +been invited to be present. But from this promised pleasure I had to +tear myself away, to reach the steamer at Suez on which we were to +embark the next day for India. But if we missed the Khedive, we had at +least a compensation, for as we were at the station, who should appear +but Nubar Pasha! He had just resigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, +which took a load off his shoulders, and felt like a boy out of +school, and was now going off to a farm which he has a few miles from +Cairo, to have a holiday. He immediately came to us and took a seat in +the same carriage, and we sat together for an hour, listening to his +delightful conversation, as he talked of Egypt with a patriot's love +and a poet's enthusiasm. There is no man who more earnestly wishes its +prosperity, and it would be well for the Khedive if he were always +guided by such advisers. At the station his servants met him with one +of those beautiful white donkeys, so much prized in the East, and as +he rode away waving his hand to us, we felt that we were parting from +one of the wisest and wittiest men whom it had been our good fortune +to meet in all our travels. + +At Zagazig, the railroad from Cairo unites with that from Alexandria. +Here we stopped to dine, and while waiting, a special train arrived +with Mr. Cave, who has come out from London to try and put some order +into the financial affairs of Egypt. If he succeeds, he will deserve +to be ranked very high as a financier. He was going on to Ismailia to +meet M. de Lesseps, that they might go through the Suez Canal +together. + +And now we leave behind us the rich land of Goshen, where Joseph +placed his father Jacob and his brethren, with their flocks and herds; +we leave the fertile meadows and the palm groves. We are on the track +of the Israelites; we have passed Rameses, the first station in their +march, and entered the desert, that "great and terrible wilderness" in +which they wandered forty years. We enter it, not on camels or horses, +but drawn by a steed of fire. A railway in the desert! This is +progress indeed. There is something very imposing to the imagination +in the idea of an iron track laid in the pathless sands, over which +long trains move swifter than "the swift dromedaries," and carrying +burdens greater than the longest caravans. These are the highways of +civilization, which may yet carry it into the heart of Africa. Here, +too, are the great ships, passing through the Suez Canal, whose tall +masts are outlined against the horizon, as they move slowly from sea +to sea. + +And now we are approaching the border line between Asia and Africa. It +is an invisible line; no snow-capped mountains divide the mighty +continents which were the seats of the most ancient civilization; no +sea flows between them: the Red Sea terminates over seventy miles from +the Mediterranean; even the Suez Canal does not divide Asia and +Africa, for it is wholly in Egypt. Nothing marks where Africa ends and +Asia begins, but a line in the desert, covered by drifting sands. And +yet there is something which strangely touches the imagination, as we +move forward in the twilight, with the sun behind us, setting over +Africa, and before us the black night coming on over the whole +continent of Asia. + +So would I take leave of Africa--in the Night and in the Desert. Byron +closes his Childe Harold with an apostrophe to the Ocean, his Pilgrim +ending his wanderings on the shore. The Desert is like the Sea: it +fills the horizon, and shuts out the sight of "busy cities far away," +leaving one on the boundless plain, as on the Ocean--alone with the +Night. Perhaps I may be indulged in some quiet musings here, before we +embark on the Red Sea, and seek a new world in India. + +But what can one say of the desert? The subject seems as barren as its +own sands. _Life_ in the desert? There is _no_ life; it is the very +realm of death, where not a blade of grass grows, nor even an insect's +wing flutters over the mighty desolation; the only objects in motion, +the clouds that flit across the sky, and cast their shadows on the +barren waste below; and the only sign that man has ever passed over +it, the bleaching bones that mark the track of caravans. + +But as we look, behold "a wind cometh out of the North," and stirring +the loose sand, whirls it into a column, which moves swiftly towards +us like a ghost, as if it said: "I am the spirit of the desert; man, +wherefore comest thou here? Pass on. If thou invadest long my realm of +solitude and silence, I will make thy grave." We shall not linger, but +only "tarry for a night," to question a little the mystery that lies +hidden beneath these drifting sands. + +We look again, and we see shadowy forms coming out of the +whirlwind--great actors in history, as well as figures of the +imagination. The horizon is filled with moving caravans and marching +armies. Ancient conquerors pass this way for centuries from Asia into +Africa, and back again, the wave of conquest flowing and reflowing +from the valley of the Tigris to the valley of the Nile. As we leave +the Land of Goshen, we hear behind us the tramp of the Israelites +beginning their march; and as the night closes in, we see in another +quarter of the horizon the wise men of the East coming from Arabia, +following their guiding star, which leads them to Bethlehem, where +Christ was born. + +And so the desert which was "dead" becomes "alive;" a whole living +world starts up from the sands, and glides into view, appearing +suddenly like Arab horsemen, and then vanishing as if it had not been, +and leaving no trace in the sands any more than is left by a wreck +that sinks in the ocean. But like the sea, it has its passing life, +which has a deep human interest. And not only is there a life of the +desert, but a literature which is the expression of that life--a +history and a poetry, which take their color from these peculiar forms +of nature--and even a music of the desert, sung by the camel-drivers, +to the slow movement of the caravan, its plaintive cadence keeping +time to the tinkling of the bells. + +It has been one of the problems of physical geographers: What was the +_use_ of deserts in the economy of nature? A large part of Africa is +covered by deserts. The Libyan Desert reaches to the Sahara, which +stretches across the continent. All this seems an utterly waste +portion of the earth's surface. The same question has been raised in +regard to the sea: Why is it that three-fourths of the globe are +covered by water? Perhaps the same answer may be given in both cases. +These vast spaces may be the generators and purifiers of the air we +breathe--the renovators of our globe's atmosphere. + +And the desert has its beauty as well as its utility. It is not all a +dead level, a boundless monotony, but is billowy like the sea, with +great waves of sand cast up by the wandering winds. The color, of +course, is always the same, for there is no green thing to relieve the +yellow sand. But nature sometimes produces great effects with few +materials. This monotony of color is touched with beauty by the glow +of sunset, as the light of day fades over the wide expanse. Sunrise +and sunset on the desert have all the simple but grand effects of +sunrise and sunset on the ocean. What painter that has visited Egypt +has not tried to put on canvas that after-glow on the Nile, which is +alike his wonder and his despair? Egypt is one of the favorite +countries sought by European artists, who seek to catch that +marvellous color which is the effect of its atmosphere. They find many +a subject in the desert. With the accessories of life, few as they +are, it presents many a scene to attract a painter's eye, and +furnishes full scope to his genius. A great artist finds ample +material in its bare and naked outlines, relieved by a few solitary +figures--the Arab and his tent, or the camel and his rider. Perhaps +the scene is simply a few palm trees beside a spring, under whose +shade a traveller has laid him down to rest from the noon-tide heat, +and beside him are camels feeding! But here is already a picture. With +what effect does Gérome give the Prayer in the Desert, with the camel +kneeling on the sands, and his rider kneeling beside him, with his +face turned towards Mecca; or Death in the Desert, where the poor +beast, weary and broken, is abandoned to die, yet murmurs not, but has +a look of patience and resignation that is most pathetic, as the +vultures are seen hovering in the air, ready to descend on their prey! + +A _habitat_ so peculiar as the desert must produce a life as peculiar. +It is of necessity a lonely life. The dweller in tents is a solitary +man, without any fixed ties, or local habitation. Whoever lives on the +desert must live alone, or with few companions, for there is nothing +to support existence. It must be also a nomadic life. If the Arab +camps, with his flocks and herds, in some green spot beside a spring, +yet it is only for a few days, for in that time his sheep and cattle +have consumed the scanty herbage, and he must move on to some new +resting-place. Thus the life of the desert is a life always in motion. +The desert has no settled population, no towns or villages, where men +are born, and grow up, and live and die. Its only "inhabitants" are +"strangers and pilgrims," that come alone or in caravans, and pitch +their tents, and tarry for a night, and are gone. + +Such a life induces peculiar habits, and breeds a peculiar class of +virtues and vices. Nomadic tribes are almost always robbers, for they +have to fight for existence, and it is a desperate struggle. But, on +the other hand, their solitary life as well as the command of the +prophet, has taught them the virtue of hospitality. Living alone, they +feel at times the sore need of the presence of their kind, and welcome +the companionship even of strangers. An Arab sheik may live by preying +on travellers, but if a wanderer on the desert approaches his tent and +asks shelter and protection, he gives it freely. Even though the old +chief be a robber, the stranger sleeps in peace and safety, and his +entertainer is rewarded by the comfort of seeing a human face and +hearing a human voice. + +To traverse spaces so vast and so desolate would not be possible were +it not for that faithful beast of burden which nature has provided. +Horses may be used by the Bedouins on their marauding expeditions, but +they keep near the borders of the desert, where they can make a dash +and fly; but on the long journey across the Great Sahara, by which the +outer world communicates with the interior of Africa, no beast could +live but the camel, which is truly the ship of the desert. Paley might +find an argument for design in the peculiar structure of the camel for +its purpose; in its stomach, that can carry water for days, and its +foot, which is not small like that of the horse, but broad, to keep +the huge animal from sinking in the sands. It serves as a snow-shoe, +and bears up both the beast and his rider. Then it is not hard like a +horse's hoof, that rings so sharp on the pavement, but soft almost +like a lion's paw. And tall as the creature is, he moves with a +swinging gait, that is not unpleasant to one accustomed to it, and as +he comes down on his soft foot, the Arab mother sits at ease, and her +child is lulled to rest almost as if rocked in a cradle. + +Thus moving on in these slow and endless marches, what so natural as +that the camel-riders should beguile their solitude with song? The +lonely heart relieves itself by pouring its loves and its sorrows into +the air; and hence come those Arabian melodies, so wild and plaintive +and tender, which constitute the music of the desert. Some years since +a symphony was produced in Paris, called "The Desert," which created a +great sensation, deriving its peculiar charm from its unlikeness to +European music. It awakened, as it were, a new sense in those who had +been listening all their lives to French and German operas. It seemed +to tell--as music only tells--the story of the life of the desert. In +listening one could almost see the boundless plain, broken only by the +caravan, moving slowly across the waste. He could almost "feel the +silence" of that vast solitude, and then faintly in the distance was +heard the tinkling of the camel-bells, and the song of the desert rose +upon the evening air, as softly as if cloistered nuns were singing +their vesper hymns. The novel conception took the fancy of the +pleasure seekers of Paris, always eager for a new sensation. The +symphony made the fame of the composer, Felicien David, who was +thought to have shown a very original genius in the composition of +melodies, such as Europe had not heard before. The secret was not +discovered until some French travellers in the East, crossing the +desert, heard the camel-drivers singing and at once recognized the +airs that had so taken the enthusiasm of Paris. They were the songs of +the Arabs. The music was born on the desert, and produced such an +effect precisely because it was the outburst of a passionate nature +brooding in solitude. + +Music and poetry go together: the life that produces the one produces +the other also. And as there is a music of the desert, so there is a +poetry of the desert. Indeed the desert may be almost said to have +been the birthplace of poetry. The Book of Job, the oldest poem in the +world, older than Homer, and grander than any uninspired composition, +was probably written in Arabia, and is full of the imagery of the +desert. + +But while the mind carols lightly in poetry and music, its deeper +musings take the form of Religion. It is easy to see how the life of +the desert must act upon a thoughtful and "naturally religious" mind. +The absence of outward objects throws it back upon itself; and it +broods over the great mystery of existence. Coleridge's Ancient +Mariner, when he was + + "Alone on the wide, wide sea," + +found that + + "So lonely 'twas that God himself + Scarce seemèd there to be." + +But in the desert one may say there is nothing but God. If there is +little of earth, there is much of heaven. The glory of the desert is +at night, when the full moon rises out of the level plain, as out of +the sea, and walks the unclouded firmament. And when she retires, then +all the heavenly host come forth. The atmosphere is of such exquisite +purity, that the stars shine with all their splendor. No vapor rises +from the earth, no exhalation obscures the firmament, which seems all +aglow with the celestial fires. It was such a sight that kindled the +mind of Job, as he looked up from the Arabian deserts three thousand +years ago, and saw Orion and the Pleiades keeping their endless march; +and as led him to sing of the time "when the morning stars sang +together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." + +Is it strange that God should choose such a vast and silent temple as +this for the education of those whom He would set apart for his own +service? Here the Israelites were led apart to receive the law from +the immediate presence of God. The desert was their school, the place +of their national education. It separated them from their own history. +It drew a long track between them and the bitter past. It was a fit +introduction to their new life and their new religion, as to their new +country. + +In such solitudes God has had the most direct communion with the +individual soul. It was in the desert that Moses hid himself in a +cleft of the rock while the Lord passed by; that the Lord answered Job +out of the whirlwind; and from it that John the Baptist came forth, as +the voice of one crying in the wilderness. + +So in later ages holy men who wished to shun the temptations of +cities, that they might lead lives of meditation and prayer, fled to +the desert, that they might forget the world and live for God alone. +This was one of the favorite retreats of Monasticism in the early +Christian centuries. The tombs of the Thebaïd were filled with monks. +Convents were built on the cliffs of Mount Sinai that remain to this +day. + +We do not feel the need of such seclusion and separation from the +world, but this passing over the desert sets the mind at work and +supplies a theme for religious meditation. Is not life a desert, +where, as on the sea, all paths are lost, and the traveller can only +keep his course by observations on the stars? And are we not all +pilgrims? Do we not all belong to that slow moving caravan, that +marches steadily across the waste and disappears in the horizon? Can +we not help some poor wanderer who may be lonely and friendless, or +who may have faltered by the way; or guide another, if it be only to +go before him, and leave our footprints in the sands, that + + "A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, + Seeing may take heart again?" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ON THE RED SEA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN. + + +Suez lies between the desert and the sea, and is the point of +departure both for ships and caravans. But the great canal to which it +gives its name, has not returned the favor by giving it prosperity. +Indeed the country through which it passes derives little benefit from +its construction. Before it was opened, Egypt was on the overland +route to India, from which it derived a large revenue. All passengers +had to disembark at Alexandria and cross by railroad to Suez; while +freight had to be unshipped at the one city and reshipped at the +other, and thus pay tribute to both. Now ships pass directly from the +Mediterranean into the canal, and from the canal into the Red Sea, so +that the Englishman who embarks at Southampton, need not set his foot +on the soil of Egypt. Thus it is not Egypt but England that profits by +the opening of the Suez Canal; while Egypt really suffers by the +completion of a work which is of immense benefit to the commerce of +the world. + +Though the Suez Canal is an achievement of modern times, yet the idea +is not modern, nor indeed the first execution. It was projected from +almost the earliest period of history, and was begun under the +Pharaohs, and was at one time completed, though not, as now, solely +for the passage of ships, but also as a defence, a gigantic moat, +which might serve as a barrier against invasions from Asia. + +There is nothing in Suez to detain a traveller, and with the morning +we were sailing out in one of the native boats, before a light wind, +to the great ship lying in the harbor, which was to take us to India. +We had, indeed, a foretaste, or rather fore_sight_, of what we were +soon to look upon in the farthest East, as we saw some huge elephants +moving along the quay; but these were not familiar inhabitants, but +had just been disembarked from a ship arrived only the day before from +Bombay--a present from the Viceroy of India to the Viceroy of Egypt. + +Once on board ship I was as in mine own country, for now, for the +first time in many months, did I hear constantly the English language. +We had been so long in Europe, and heard French, German, Italian, +Greek and Turkish; and Arabic in Egypt; that at first I started to +hear my own mother tongue. I could not at once get accustomed to it, +but called to the waiter "garçon," and was much surprised that he +answered in English. But it was very pleasant to come back to the +speech of my childhood. Henceforth English will carry me around the +globe. It is the language of the sea, and of "the ends of the earth;" +and it seems almost as if the good time were coming when the whole +earth should be of one language and of one speech. + +And now we are on the Red Sea, one of the historical seas of the +world. Not far below the town of Suez is supposed to be the spot where +the Israelites were hemmed in between the mountains and the sea; where +Moses bade the waves divide, and the fleeing host rushed in between +the uplifted walls, feeling that, if they perished, the waters were +more merciful than their oppressors; while behind them came the +chariots of their pursuers. + +It was long before we lost sight of Egypt. On our right was the +Egyptian coast, still in view, though growing dimmer on the horizon; +and as we sat on deck at evening the gorgeous sunsets flamed over +those shores, as they did on the Nile, as if reluctant to leave the +scene of so much glory. + +On the other side of the sea stretched the Peninsula of Sinai, with +its range of rugged mountains, among which the eye sought the awful +summit from which God gave the law. + +This eastern side of the Red Sea has been the birthplace of religions. +Half way down the coast is Jhidda, the port of Mecca. Thus Islam was +born not far from the birthplace of Judaism, of which in many features +it is a close imitation. + +I have asked many times, What gave the name to the Red Sea? Certainly +it is not the color of the water, which is blue as the sea anywhere. +It is said that there is a phosphorescent glow, given by a marine +insect, which at night causes the waters to sparkle with a faint red +light. Others say it is from the shores, which being the borders of +the desert, have its general sandy red, or yellow, appearance. I +remember years ago, when sailing along the southern coast of Wales, a +gentleman, pointing to some red-banked hills, said they reminded him +of the shores of the Red Sea. + +But whether they have given it its name or not, these surrounding +deserts have undoubtedly given it its extreme heat, from which it has +become famous as "the hottest place in the world." The wind blowing +off from these burning sands, scorches like a sirocco; nor is the heat +much tempered by the coolness of the sea--for indeed the water itself +becomes heated to such a degree as to be a serious impediment to the +rapid condensation of steam. + +We began to feel the heat immediately after leaving Suez. The very +next day officers of the ship appeared in white linen pantaloons, +which seemed to me a little out of season; but I soon found that they +were wiser than I, especially as the heat increased from day to day as +we got more into the tropics. Then, to confess the truth, they +sometimes appeared on deck in the early morning in the most negligé +attire. At first I was a little shocked to see, not only officers of +the ship, but officers of the army, of high rank, coming on deck after +their baths barefoot; but I soon came to understand how they should be +eager, when they were almost burning with fever, to be relieved of +even the slightest addition to weight or warmth. In the cabin, +_punkas_, long screens, were hung over the tables, and kept swinging +all day long. The deck was hung with double awnings to keep off the +sun; and here the "old Indians" who had made this voyage before, and +knew how to take their comfort in the hot climate, were generally +stretched out in their reclining bamboo-chairs, with a cigar in one +hand and a novel in the other. + +The common work of the ship was done by Lascars, from India, as they +can stand the heat much better than English sailors. They are docile +and obedient, and under the training of English officers make +excellent seamen. + +But we must not complain, for they tell us our voyage has been a very +cool one. The thermometer has never been above 88 degrees, which +however, considering that this is _midwinter_, is doing pretty well! + +If such be the heat in January, what must it be in July? Then it is +fairly blistering; the thermometer rises to 110 and 112 degrees in the +shade; men stripped of clothing to barely a garment to cover them, are +panting with the heat; driven from the deck, they retreat to the lower +part of the ship, to find a place to breathe; sometimes in despair, +the captain tells me, they turn the ship about, and steam a few miles +in the opposite direction, to get a breath of air; and yet, with all +precautions, he adds that it is not an infrequent thing, that +passengers overpowered sink under a sunstroke or apoplexy. + +Such heat would make the voyage to India one of real suffering, and of +serious exposure, were it not for the admirable ships in which it can +be made. But these of the Peninsular and Oriental company are about as +perfect as anything that swims the seas. We were fortunate in hitting +upon the largest and best of the fleet, the Peshawur. Accustomed as we +have been of late to the smaller steamers on the Mediterranean, she +seems of enormous bulk, and is of great strength as well as size; and +being intended for hot climates, is constructed especially for +coolness and ventilation. The state-rooms are much larger than in most +sea-going steamers, and though intended for three persons, as the ship +was not crowded (there were berths for 170 passengers, while we had +but 34, just one-fifth the full complement) we had each a whole +state-room to ourselves. There were bath-rooms in ample supply, and we +took our baths every morning as regularly as on land. + +On the Peshawur, as on all English ships, the order and discipline +were admirable. Every man knew his place, and attended to his duty. +Everything was done silently, and yet so regularly that one felt that +there was a sharp eye in every corner of the ship; that there was a +vigilant watch night and day, and this gave us such a sense of safety, +that we lay down and rose up with a feeling of perfect security. + +Besides, the officers, from the captain down, not only took good care +for the safety of our lives, but did everything for our comfort. They +tried to make us feel at home, and were never so well pleased as when +they saw us all pleasantly occupied; some enjoying games, and others +listening to music, when some amateur was playing on the piano, at +times accompanied by a dozen manly and womanly voices. Music at sea +helps greatly to beguile the tedium of a voyage. Often the piano was +brought on deck, at which an extemporized choir practised the hymns +for public service; among which there was one that always recurred, +and that none can forget: + + "Eternal Father, strong to save, + Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, + Who bid'st the mighty ocean deep + Its own appointed limits keep: + Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee + For those in peril on the sea." + +And when the Sunday morning came and the same prayers were read which +they had been accustomed to hear in England, many who listened felt +that, whatever oceans they might cross, here was a tie that bound them +to their island home, and to the religion of their fathers. + +On the morning of the sixth day we passed the island of Perim, which +guards the Gates of the Red Sea, and during the day passed many +islands, and were in full sight of the Arabian coast, and at the +evening touched at Aden. Here the heat reaches the superlative. In +going down the Red Sea, one may use all degrees of comparison--hot, +hotter, hottest--and the last is Aden. It is a barren point of rock +and sand, within twelve degrees of the Equator, and the town is +actually in the crater of an extinct volcano, into which the sun beats +down with the heat of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. But the British +Government holds it, as it commands the entrance to the Red Sea, and +has fortified it, and keeps a garrison here. However it mercifully +sends few English soldiers to such a spot, but supplies the place +chiefly with native regiments from India. All the officers hold the +place in horror, counting it a very purgatory, from which it is +Paradise to be transferred to India. + +But from this point the great oppression of the heat ceased. Rounding +this rock of Aden, we no longer bore southward (which would have taken +us along the Eastern coast of Africa, to the island of Zanzibar, the +point of departure for Livingstone to explore the interior, and of +Stanley to find him), but turned to the East, and soon met the +Northeast monsoon, which, blowing in our faces, kept us comparatively +cool all the way across the Indian Ocean. + +And now our thoughts began to be busy with the strange land which we +were soon to see, a land to which most of those on board belonged, and +of which they were always ready to converse. Strangers to each other, +we soon became acquainted, and exchanged our experiences of travel. +Beside me at the table sat a barrister from Bombay, and next to him +three merchants of that city, who, leaving their families in England, +were returning to pursue their fortunes in India. One had been a +member of the Governor's Council, and all were familiar with the +politics and the business of that great Empire. There was also a +missionary of the Free Church of Scotland, who, after ten years' +service, had been allowed a year and a half to recruit in the mother +country, and was now returning to his field of labor in Bombay, with +whom I had many long talks about the religions of India and the +prospects of missions. There was a fine old gentleman who had made his +fortune in Australia, to which he was returning with his family after +a visit to England. + +The military element, of course, was very prominent. A large +proportion of the passengers were connected in some way with the army, +officers returning to their regiments, or officers' wives returning to +their husbands. Of course those who live long in India, have many +experiences to relate; and it was somewhat exciting to hear one +describe the particulars of a tiger hunt--how the game of all kind was +driven in from a circuit of miles around by beaters, and by elephants +trained for the work; how the deer and lesser animals fled frightened +by, while the hunter, bent on royal game, disdained such feeble prey, +and every man reserved his fire, sitting in his howdah on the back of +an elephant till at last a magnificent Bengal tiger sprang into view, +and as the balls rained on his sides, with a tremendous bound he fell +at the feet of the hunters; or to hear a Major who had been in India +during the Mutiny, describe the blowing away of the Sepoys from the +mouths of cannon; with what fierce pride, like Indian warriors at the +stake, they shrank not from the trial, but even when not bound, stood +unmoved before the guns, till they were blown to pieces, their legs +and arms and mangled breasts scattered wide over the field. + +There was a surgeon in the Bengal Staff Corps, Dr. Bellew, who had +travelled extensively in the interior of Asia, attached to several +missions of the Government, and had published a volume, entitled "From +the Indus to the Tigris." He gave me some of his experiences in +Afghanistan, among the men of Cabul, and in Persia. Three years since +he was attached to the mission of Sir Douglas Forsyth to Kashgar and +Yarkund. This was a secret embassy of the government to Yakoob Beg, +the Tartar chief, who by his courage as a soldier had established his +power in those distant regions of Central Asia. In carrying out this +mission, the party crossed the Himalayas at a height far greater than +the top of Mont Blanc. Our fellow traveller gave us some fearful +pictures of the desolation of those snowy wastes, as well as some +entertaining ones of the strange manners of some parts of High Asia. +He passed through Little Thibet, where prevails the singular custom of +polyandry--instead of one man having many wives, one woman may have +many husbands, although they cannot be of different families. She can +marry half a dozen brothers at once, but must not extend her household +into another family. He was now bound for Nepaul, under the shadow of +the Himalayas, being ordered to report at once to the Maharajah, who +is preparing to receive the Prince of Wales, and to entertain him with +the grandest tiger hunt ever known in India. + +With such variety of company, and such talk to enliven the hours, as +we sat on deck at twilight, or by moonlight--for we had the full moon +on the Indian Ocean--the days did not seem long, and we were almost +taken by surprise as we approached the end of our voyage. + +On the afternoon of the twelfth day from Suez we were nearing our +destined port, and eyes and glasses were turned in that direction; but +it was not till the sun was setting that his light shone full on the +Ghauts, the range of mountains that line the western coast of +India--steps, as their name implies, to the high table-land of the +interior. Presently as the darkness deepened, the revolving light of +the lighthouse shot across the deep; signal guns from the city +announced the arrival of the mail from England; rows of lamps shining +for miles round the bay lighted up the waters and the encircling +shore; and, there was India! + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BOMBAY--FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA. + + +Never did travellers open their eyes with more of wonder and curiosity +than we, as we awoke the next morning and went on deck and turned to +the unaccustomed shore. The sun had risen over the Ghauts, and now +cast his light on the islands, covered with cocoanut palms, and on the +forest of shipping that lay on the tranquil waters. Here were ships +from all parts of the world, not only from the Mediterranean and from +England, but from every part of Asia and Africa, and from Australia. A +few weeks before had been witnessed here a brilliant sight at the +landing of the Prince of Wales. A long arched way of trellis work, +still hung with faded wreaths, marked the spot where the future +Emperor of India first set foot upon its soil. Our ship, which had +anchored off the mouth of the harbor, now steamed up to her moorings, +a tug took us off to the Mazagon Bunder, the landing place of the +Peninsular and Oriental Company, where we mounted a long flight of +granite steps to the quay--and were in India. + +Passing through the Custom House gates, we were greeted not by the +donkey-boys of Egypt, but by a crowd of barefooted and barelegged +Hindoos, clad in snowy white, and with mountainous turbans on their +heads, who were ambitious of the honor of driving us into the city. +The native carriage (or _gharri_, as it is called) is not a handsome +equipage. It is a mere box, oblong in shape, set on wheels, having +latticed windows like a palanquin, to admit the air and shut out the +sun. Mounting into such a "State carriage," our solemn Hindoo gave +rein to his steed, and we trotted off into Bombay. As our destination +was Watson's Hotel, in the English quarter at the extreme end of the +city, we traversed almost its whole extent. The streets seemed +endless. On and on we rode for miles, till we were able to realize +that we were in the second city in the British empire--larger than any +in Great Britain except London--larger than Liverpool or Glasgow, or +Manchester or Birmingham. + +Of course the population is chiefly native, and this it is which +excites my constant wonder. As I ride about I ask myself, Am I on the +earth, or in the moon? Surely this must be some other planet than the +one that I have known before. I see men as trees walking, but they are +not of any familiar form or speech. Perhaps it is because we are on +the other side of the world, and everything is turned topsy-turvy, and +men are walking on their heads. We may have to adopt the Darwinian +theory of the origin of man; for these seem to be of another species, +to belong to another department of the animal kingdom. That old Hindoo +that I see yonder, sitting against the wall, with his legs curled up +under him, seems more like a chimpanzee than a man. He has a way of +sitting on his _heels_ (a posture which would be impossible for a +European, but which he will keep for hours), which is more like an +animal than a human creature. + +Truly we have never been in such a state of bewilderment since we +began our travels, as since we landed in Bombay. Constantinople seemed +strange, and Egypt stranger still; but India is strangest of all. The +streets are swarming with life, as a hive swarms with bees. The +bazaars are like so many ant-hills, but the creatures that go in and +out are not like any race that we have seen before. They are not white +like Europeans, nor black like Africans, nor red like our American +Indians; but are pure Asiatics, of a dark-brown color, the effect of +which is the greater, as they are generally clad in the garments which +nature gives them. The laboring class go half naked, or more than +half. It is only the house-servants that wear anything that can be +called a costume. The coolies, or common laborers, have only a strip +of cloth around their loins, which they wear for decency, for in this +climate they scarcely need any garment for warmth. One thing which is +never omitted is the turban, or in its place a thick blanket, to +shield the head from the direct rays of the sun. But there is nothing +to hide the swarthy breast or limbs. Those of a better condition, who +do put on clothing, show the Oriental fondness for gorgeous apparel by +having the richest silk turbans and flowing robes. The women find a +way to show their feminine vanity, being tricked out in many colors, +dark red, crimson and scarlet, with yellow and orange and green and +blue--the mingling of which produces a strange effect as one rides +through the bazaars and crowded streets, which gleam with all the +colors of the rainbow. The effect of this tawdry finery is heightened +by the gewgaws which depend from different parts of their persons. +Earrings are not sufficiently conspicuous for a Hindoo damsel, who has +a ring of gold and pearl hung in her nose; which is considered a great +addition to female beauty. Heavy bracelets of silver also adorn her +wrists and ankles. Almost every woman who shows herself in the street, +though of the lowest condition, and barefoot, still gratifies her +pride by huge silver anklets clasping her naked feet. + +But these Asiatic faces, strange as they are, would not be +unattractive but for artificial disfigurements--if men did not chew +the betel nut, which turns the lips to a brilliant red, and did not +have their foreheads striped with coarse pigments, which are the +badges of their different castes! + +Imagine a whole city crowded with dark skinned men and women thus +dressed--or not dressed--half naked on the one hand, or bedizened like +harlequins on the other, walking about, or perchance riding in little +carriages _drawn by oxen_--a small breed that trot off almost as fast +as the donkeys we had in Cairo--and one may have some idea of the +picturesque appearance of the streets of Bombay. + +We are becoming accustomed to the manners and customs of this eastern +world. We never sit down to dinner but with the punka swinging over +us, and the "punka-walla," the coolie who swings it, is a recognized +institution. In the hot months it is kept swinging all night, and +Europeans sleep under it. These things strike us strangely at first, +but we soon get used to these tropical devices, and in fact rather +like them. In a few days we have become quite Oriental. To confess the +truth, there are some things here in the East that are not at all +disagreeable to the natural man, especially the devices for coolness +and comfort, and the extreme deference to Europeans, which we begin to +accept as naturally belonging to us. + +At first I was surprised and amused at the manners of the people. It +was a new sensation to be in this Asiatic atmosphere, to be surrounded +and waited upon by soft-footed Hindoos, who glided about noiselessly +like cats, watching every look, eager to anticipate every wish before +they heard the word of command. I was never the object of such +reverence before. Every one addressed me as "Sahib." I did not know at +first what this meant, but took it for granted that it was a title of +respect--an impression confirmed by the deferential manner of the +attendants. I could not walk through the corridor of the hotel without +a dozen servants rising to their feet, who remained standing till I +had passed. I was a little taken aback when a turbaned Oriental, in +flowing robe, approached me with an air of profound reverence, bending +low, as if he would prostrate himself at my feet. If he desired to +present a petition to my august majesty (which was, probably, that I +would buy a cashmere shawl), he bowed himself almost to the ground, +and reached down his hand very low, and then raising it, touched his +forehead, as if he would take up the dust of the earth and cast it on +his head, in token that he was unworthy to enter into such an awful +presence. I never knew before how great a being I was. There is +nothing like going far away from home, to the other side of the world, +among Hindoos or Hottentots, to be fully appreciated. + +After a little experience, one learns to accept these Hindoo salaams +and obeisances. Now, when I walk down the passages of the hotel, and +snowy turbans rise on either side in token of homage, I bow in +acknowledgment, though very slightly, so as not to concede a particle +of my dignity, or encourage any familiarity. When I open my door in +the morning, I find half a dozen coolies in the passage, who have +curled up on mats and slept there all night, as Napoleon's Mameluke +slept before his master's door. It gives one a sense of dignity and +importance to be thus served and guarded and defended! I suspect all +of us have a little (or a good deal) of the Asiatic in our +composition, and could easily play the pasha and drop into these soft +Eastern ways, and find it not unpleasant to recline on a divan, and be +waited on by dusky slaves! + +We find that we are in a tropical climate by the heat that oppresses +us. Although it is midwinter, we find it prudent as well as pleasant +to remain indoors in the middle of the day (time which is very +precious for writing), and make our excursions in the morning or +evening. + +Morning in the tropics is delightful. There is a dewy freshness in the +air. Rising at daylight we take a small open carriage--a kind of "one +horse shay"--for our ride. It has but one seat, but the Hindoo driver, +nimble as a cat, crouches at our feet, with his legs dangling over the +side in front of the wheels, and thus mounted we gallop off gayly. + +One of our morning excursions was to the Flower Market, where the +fruits and flowers of the country are displayed with truly tropical +profusion. The building, designed with English taste, is of great +extent, surrounding a spacious court, which is laid out like a +garden, with fountains and ferns, and flowering shrubs and creepers +growing luxuriantly. Here are offered for sale all kinds of poultry +and birds, parrots, and even monkeys. The Flower Market is especially +brilliant, as flowers are the customary offerings at temples. They are +very cheap. Five cents bought a large bunch of roses. White jessamines +and yellow marigolds are wrought into wreaths and garlands for their +festivities. The fruits we liked less than the flowers. They were very +tempting to the eye, but too rich for our appetite. The famous mango +cloyed us with its sweetness. Indeed, I made the observation here, +which I had to repeat afterwards in Java, that the tropical fruits, +though large and luscious, had not the delicate flavor of our Northern +fruits. A good New Jersey peach would have been far sweeter to my +taste than the ripest orange or mango, or the longest string of +bananas. + +In the evening we ride out to Malabar Hill, or go to the public +gardens which English taste has laid out in different parts of the +city. Although Bombay is a city of Hindoos, yet the stamp of English +rule is everywhere impressed upon it. Like the cities of Great +Britain, it is thoroughly governed. The hand of a master is seen in +its perfect police, its well ordered and well lighted streets. There +are signs of its being gained by conquest and held by military power. +The English quarter is still called the Fort, being on the site of an +old fortress, the ramparts of which are all swept away, and in their +place are wide streets (indeed too wide for shade), and a number of +public buildings--Government offices, the Postoffice, and the +Telegraph Building, and the University--which would be an ornament to +any city in England. Here English taste comes in to add to its natural +beauty in the laying out of open squares. Our windows at the Hotel +look out upon the Esplanade, a large parade ground, the very spot +where the Sepoys were shot away from the guns after the mutiny, and +upon the sea, from which comes at evening a soft, delicious air from +the Indian ocean. It is a pretty sight to go here at sunset, when the +band is playing and there is a great turnout of carriages, bringing +the fashion and wealth of Bombay to listen to the music and inhale the +fresh breezes from the sea, that no doubt are sweeter to many in that +they seem to come from their beloved England. In the crowd of well +dressed people wealthy Parsees (distinguished by their high hats), and +Hindoos by their turbans, mingle with English officers, and the +children of all run about together on the lawn. My companion noticed +particularly the Parsee children, whose dresses were gay with many +colors--little fellows shining in pink trousers, blue shirts, green +vests, and scarlet caps! Others had satin trousers and vests of some +bright color, and over all white muslin or lace trimmings. The effect +of such a variety of colors was as if parterres of flowers were laid +out on the smooth shaven lawn. In another part of the city the +Victoria Gardens are set out like a Botanical Garden, with all manner +of plants and trees, especially with an endless variety of palms, +under which crowds saunter along the avenues, admiring the wonders of +tropical vegetation, and listening to the music that fills the evening +air. + +The environs of Bombay are very beautiful. Few cities have a more +delightful suburb than Malabar Hill, where the English merchant, after +the business of the day is over, retreats from the city to enjoy a +home which, though Indian without, is English within. Hundreds of +bungalows are clustered on these eminences, shaded with palms and +embowered in tropical foliage, with steep roofs, always thatched as a +better protection from the sun. Here the occupants sit at evening on +the broad verandahs, stretched in their long bamboo chairs, enjoying +the cool air that comes in from the sea, and talk of England or of +America. + +There are not many Americans in Bombay, although in one way the city +is, or was, closely connected with our country. Nowhere was the +effect of our civil war more felt than in India, as it gave a great +impetus to its cotton production. Under the sudden and powerful +stimulus, Bombay started up into an artificial prosperity. Fortunes +were made rapidly. The close of the war brought a panic from which it +has not yet recovered. But the impulse given has remained, and I am +told that there is at this moment more cotton grown in India than ever +before, although the fall in prices has cut off the great profits. But +the cost of transportation is much less, as the railroads constructed +within a few years afford the means of bringing it to market, where +before it had to be drawn slowly over the mountains in ox-carts. This +flow of cotton to the seaports has been turned to account by the +erection of cotton mills (several of which have been started here in +Bombay), which, under the direction of Englishmen, and having the +double advantage of native cotton and native labor, may yet supplant +English fabrics in the markets of India. + +Though there are few Americans (except the missionaries) here, yet +there is one who has all the enterprise of his countrymen, Mr. +Kittredge, who came out to India many years ago, and is now the head +of the old house of Stearns, Hobart & Co. He has introduced that +peculiarly American institution, the street railway--or tramway, as it +is called here--which is a great comfort in moving about the city, +where transportation before was chiefly by little ox-carts. The cars +run smoothly, and as they are open at the sides are delightfully cool. +The Hindoos, though slow in adopting new ideas or new ways, take to +these as an immense convenience. Not the least good effect is the +pressure which they bring to bear on caste, by forcing those of +different castes to sit side by side! + +A very singular people, found in Bombay, and nowhere else in India, +are the Parsees, who differ from the Hindoos both in race and +religion. They are followers of Zoroaster, the philosopher of Persia, +from which they were driven out centuries ago by the merciless +followers of the Prophet, and took refuge in Western India, and being, +as a class, of superior intelligence and education, they have risen to +a high position. They are largely the merchants of Bombay, and among +them are some of its wealthiest citizens, whose beautiful houses, +surrounded with gardens, line the road to Parell, the residence of the +Governor. They are fire-worshippers, adoring it as the principle of +life. Morning and evening they may be seen uncovering their heads, and +turning reverently to the rising or the setting sun, and offering +their adoration to the great luminary, which they regard as the source +of all life on earth. As I have seen them on the seashore, turning +their faces to the setting sun, and lifting their hands as if in +prayer, I have thought, that if this be idolatry, it is at least not +so degrading as that of the Hindoos around them, for if they bow to a +material object, it is at least the most glorious which they see in +nature. The more intelligent of them, however, explain that it is not +the sun itself they worship, but only regard it as the brightest +symbol and manifestation of the Invisible Deity. But they seem to have +an idolatrous reverence for fire, and keep a lamp always burning in +their houses. It is never suffered to go out day nor night, from year +to year. The same respect which they show to fire, they show also to +the other elements--earth, air, and water. + +A revolting application of their principles is seen in their mode of +disposing of the dead. They cannot burn them, as do the Hindoos, lest +the touch of death should pollute the flames; nor can they bury them +in the earth, nor in the sea, for earth and water and air are all +alike sacred. They therefore expose the bodies of their dead to be +devoured by birds of the air. Outside of Bombay, on Malabar Hill, are +three or four circular towers--called The Towers of Silence, which are +enclosed by a high wall to keep observers at a distance. When a Parsee +dies, his body is conveyed to the gates, and there received by the +priests, by whom it is exposed on gratings constructed for the +purpose. + +Near at hand, perched in groves of palms, are the vultures. We saw +them there in great numbers. As soon as a funeral procession +approaches, they scent their prey, and begin to circle in the air; and +no sooner is a body uncovered, and left by the attendants, than a +cloud of black wings settles down upon it, and a hundred horned beaks +are tearing at the flesh. Such are their numbers and voracity, that in +a few minutes--so we are told--every particle is stripped from the +bones, which are then slid down an inclined plane into a deep pit, +where they mingle with common clay. + +Compared with this, the Hindoo mode of disposing of the dead, by +burning, seems almost like Christian burial. Yet it is done in a mode +which is very offensive. In returning from Malabar Hill one evening, +along the beautiful drive around the bay, we noticed a number of +furnace-like openings, where fires were burning, from which proceeded +a sickening smell, and were told that this was the burning of the +bodies of the Hindoos! + +This mode of disposing of the dead may be defended on grounds of +health, especially in great cities. But, at any rate, I wish there was +nothing worse to be said of the Hindoos than their mode of treating +the forms from which life has departed. But their religion is far more +cruel to the living than to the dead. + +To one who has never been in a Pagan country, that which is most new +and strange is its idolatry. Bombay is full of temples, which at +certain hours are crowded with worshippers. Here they flock every +morning to perform their devotions. There is nothing like the orderly +congregation gathered in a Christian house of worship, sitting quietly +in their places, and listening to a sermon. The people come and go at +will, attending to their devotions, as they would to any matter of +business. A large part of their "worship" consists in washing +themselves. With the Hindoos as with the Mohammedans, bathing is a +part of their religion. The temple grounds generally enclose a large +tank, into which they plunge every morning, and come up, as they +believe, clean from the washing. At the temple of Momba Davi (the god +who gives name to Bombay), we watched these purifications and other +acts of worship. Within the enclosure, beside the temple filled with +hideous idols, there was the sacred cow (which the people would +consider it a far greater crime to kill than to kill a Christian) +which chewed her cud undisturbed, though not with half so much content +as if she had been in a field of sweet-scented clover; and there stood +the peepul tree, the sacred tree of India (a species of banyan), round +which men and women were walking repeating their prayers, and leaving +flowers as offerings at its foot. This latter custom is not peculiar +to Pagan countries. In Christian as well as in heathen lands flowers +are laid on the altar, as if their beauty were grateful to the Unseen +Eye, and their perfume a kind of incense to the object of devotion. +Inside the enclosure men were being washed and shaved (on their heads +as well as on their faces), and painted on their foreheads (as +Catholics might be with the sign of the cross) to mark the god they +worship. And not only in the temples, but along the streets, in the +houses, which were open to the view of passers-by, people were taking +plentiful ablutions, almost a full bath, and making their toilet, +quite unembarrassed by the presence of strangers. + +These observances (if divested of any religious value) are not to be +altogether condemned. The habit of frequent bathing is very useful in +a sanitary point of view, especially in this hot climate. But that +which most excites our admiration is the scrupulous regularity of the +Hindoos in their worship. They have to "do their pooja" (that is, make +their offerings and perform their devotions) before they go to their +work, or even partake of food! Here is an example of religious +fidelity worthy of Christian imitation. + +The religious ideas of the Hindoos show themselves in other ways, +which at least challenge our respect for their consistency. In their +eyes all life is sacred, the life of beast and bird, nay, of reptile +and insect, as well as of man. To carry out this idea they have +established a Hospital for Animals, which is one of the institutions +of Bombay. It is on a very extensive scale, and presents a spectacle +such as I do not believe can be seen anywhere else in the world. Here, +in an enclosure covering many acres, in sheds, or stables, or in the +open grounds, as may best promote their recovery, are gathered the +lame, the halt, and the blind, not of the human species, but of the +animal world--cattle and horses, sheep and goats, dogs and cats, +rabbits and monkeys, and beasts and birds of every description. Even +poor little monkeys forgot to be merry, and looked very solemn as they +sat on their perch. The cows, sacred as they were, were yet not beyond +the power of disease, and had a most woe-begone look. Long rows of +stables were filled with broken-down horses, spavined and ring-boned, +with ribs sticking out of their sides, or huge sores on their flanks, +dripping with blood. In one pen were a number of kittens, that mewed +and cried for their mothers, though they had a plentiful supply of +milk for their poor little emaciated bodies. The Hindoos send out +carts at night and pick them up wherever they have been cast into the +street. Rabbits, whom no man would own, have here a snug warren made +for them, and creep in and out with a feeling of safety and comfort. +In a large enclosure were some hundred dogs, more wretched-looking +than the dogs of Constantinople--"whelps and curs of low degree." +These poor creatures had been so long the companions of man that, +ill-treated as they were, starved and kicked, they still apparently +longed for human society, and as soon as they saw us they seemed to +recognize us as their deliverers, and set up a howling and yelping, +and leaped against the bars of their prison house, as if imploring us +to give them liberty. + +And here is a collection of birds to fill an extensive aviary, though +in their present condition they do not look exactly like birds of +Paradise. There are not only "four black crows," but more than any +farmer would like to see in his wheat field (for India is the land of +crows). Tall cranes, that had been wont to step with long legs by the +marshy brink of rivers, here were bandaged and splintered till they +could walk once more. Broken-winged seagulls, that could no more sweep +over the boundless sea, free as its own waves, were nursed till they +could fly again. + +The spectacle thus presented was half touching and half ludicrous. One +cannot but respect the Hindoo's regard for life, as a thing not to be +lightly and wantonly destroyed. And yet they carry it to an extent +that is absurd. They will not take the life of animals for food, nor +even of creatures that are annoying or dangerous to themselves. Many +will not crush the insects that buzz around them and sting them, nor +kill a cobra that crawls into their houses, even when it threatens to +bite them or their children. It has been said that they even nurse +serpents, and when recovered, turn them loose into the jungle; but of +this we saw no evidence. But certainly many wretched creatures, whose +existence is not worth keeping, which it were a mercy to let die, are +here rescued and brought back to life. + +While walking through these grounds in company with a couple of +missionaries, I thought how much better these animals were cared for +than some men. I was thinking of some of our broken-down ministers at +home, who, after serving their people faithfully for a whole +generation, are at last sent adrift without ceremony, like an old +horse turned out by the roadside to die! What lives of drudgery and +toil do such ministers lead! They are "beasts of burden," more than +any beast of the field. And when their working days are over, can +they not be cared for as well as the Hindoos care for old horses and +camels? If only these shattered wrecks (and magnificent wrecks some of +them are) were towed into port and allowed to rest in tranquil waters; +or (to change the figure) if these old veterans were housed and warmed +and fed and nursed as carefully as the Hindoos nurse their broken-down +animals, we should have fewer of those instances of cruel neglect +which we sometimes hear of to our sorrow and shame! + +Of the antiquities of India, one of the most notable is found here in +the Caves of Elephanta, which are on an island lying off the harbor. +We set apart a day to this visit, which we made with a couple of +Americans and a couple of Englishmen, the latter of whom we met first +in Bombay, but who were to keep us company a large part of our journey +around the world. We were to embark at the Apollo Bunder, and while +waiting here for our boat (a steam launch which is used for this +purpose), a snake-charmer desired to entertain us with the dexterous +manner in which he handled cobras, taking them up like kittens, +coiling them round his neck, and tossing them about in a very playful +and affectionate manner. No doubt their fangs had been completely +extracted before he indulged in these endearments. A very cruel form +of sport was to throw one on the ground, and let it be set upon by a +mangoose, a small animal like a weasel, that is not poisoned by the +bite of serpents, and attacks them without hesitation. One of these +the man carried in a bag for the purpose. As soon as let loose, the +little creature flew at the snake spitefully, as a terrier dog would +at a rat, and seized it by the head, and bit it again and again with +its sharp teeth, and left it covered with blood. As we expressed our +disgust at this cruelty, the juggler assured us that the deceitful +reptile was not dead (in fact as soon as laid on the ground it began +to wriggle), and that he would take it by the tail and hold it up, +and pour water on its head, and it would come all right again. He did +not say, but no doubt thought, "and will be all ready for torture when +the next American or Englishman comes along." + +By this time the steam launch had come round to the Bunder, and we got +on board. It was a little mite of a vessel, just big enough for the +half dozen of us, with a steam boiler not much larger than a teapot, +that wheezed as if it had the asthma. But it did its work well, and +away we shot swiftly across the beautiful bay. The island of Elephanta +is seven miles from the city, and takes its name from a gigantic +statue of an elephant that once stood upon its shore. Landing here, we +found ourselves at the foot of a rocky hill, which we mounted by +several hundred steps, and stood at the entrance of a gigantic cave or +cavern cut into the hill-side, with a lofty ceiling, pillared like a +temple. The main hall, as it might be called, runs back a hundred and +thirty feet into the solid rock. + +The first thing that struck me on entering was the resemblance to the +temples of Egypt. Though in size and extent it does not approach the +ruins of Karnak, yet one recognizes the same massive architecture in +this temple, which is literally "cut out of a mountain," its roof the +overhanging cliff, supported by rows of heavy columns. + +The resemblance to Egypt appears also in the symbol of divinity and +the objects of worship; the sacred bull in one country answering to +the sacred cow in the other; and the serpent, the same hooded cobra, +rearing its head on the front of the Temples of Thebes, and in the +Caves of Elephanta. + +At the end of the great hall are the objects of worship in three +colossal images of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. This is the Hindoo +Trinity, and the constant recurrence of these figures in their +mythology shows how the idea of a Trinity pervaded other ancient +religions besides our own. It is a question for scholars, whence came +the original conception of this threefold personality in the Divine +Being, whether from revelation, or from a tradition as old as the +human race. + +The faces are Egyptian--immobile like the Sphinx, with no expression +of eagerness or desire, but only of calm and eternal repose. Such was +the blessedness of the gods, and such the beatitude sought by their +worshippers. + +The age of the Caves of Elephanta is not known, but they must be of a +great antiquity. For many centuries this rock-temple has been the +resort of millions of worshippers. Generation after generation have +the poor people of India crossed these waters to this sacred island, +and climbed wearily up this hill as if they were climbing towards +heaven. + +That such a religion should have lived for thousands of years, and be +living still (for the worship of Brahma and Vishnu and Shiva is still +the religion of India), is a reflection that gives one but little hope +for the future of the human race. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +LEAVING BOMBAY--TRAVELLING IN INDIA--ALLAHABAD--THE MELA. + + +We had been in Bombay a week, and began to feel quite at home, when we +had to leave. A man who undertakes to go around the world, must not +stop too long in the soft places. He must be always on the march, or +ready to start at the tap of the drum. We had a long journey before +us, to the North of India, and could not linger by the way. So we set +out just at evening. Much of the travelling in India is at night, to +avoid the heat of the day. The sun was setting over the waters as we +moved slowly out of the station at Bombay, and sweeping around the +shores, caught our last glimpse of the Western sea, and then rushed +off for the mountains. + +"You'll need to take beds with you," said our friends, foreseeing that +we might have to lie down in rough places. So we procured for each of +us what is called a resai, a well-stuffed coverlet, which answered the +purpose of a light mattress. There are no sleeping-cars in India; but +the first-class carriages have generally a sofa on either side, which +may be turned into a sort of couch. On these sofas, having first +secured a whole compartment, we spread our resais, with pillows on +which to rest our weary heads, and stretch ourselves "to +sleep--perchance to dream." But the imagination is so busy that sleep +comes but slowly. I often lie awake for hours, and find a great peace +in this constant wakefulness. + +It was quite dark when we found ourselves climbing the Ghauts (what in +California would be called the Coast Range), a chain of mountains not +very high, but which separates the coast from the table-land of the +interior. As the train moved more slowly, we perceived that we were +drawing up a heavy incline. This slow motion soothes one to slumber, +and at length we closed our eyes, and when the morning broke, found +that we had passed the summit, and were rushing on over an open +country, not unlike our Western prairies. These were the Plains of +India--a vast plateau, broken here and there, but preserving its +general character across the whole peninsula from Bombay to Calcutta, +and North to the Himalayas. + +In this month of January, these plains are without verdure to give +them beauty. The trees keep their foliage, and here and there is a +broad-spreading banyan, or a mango grove, with its deep shade. But we +miss the fresh green grass and the flowers that come only with the +Spring. Landscapes which are not diversified in surface by hills and +valleys are only relieved from monotony by varieties of color. These +are wanting now, and hence the vast plain is but "a gray and +melancholy waste" like the sea. We visit India in winter because the +summer would be too oppressive. But in choosing this season, we have +to sacrifice that full glory when nature comes forth in all the +richness of tropical vegetation. It is in the rainy season that the +earth bursts suddenly into bloom. Then the dead plain, so bleak and +bare, in a few days is covered with a carpet of green, and decked with +innumerable flowers. But there are drawbacks to that gorgeous time and +that prodigality of nature. With the bursting into light of the +vegetable world, the insect world also comes forth. All the insects +that buzz and sting, fill the summer air; and then the reptile world +creeps abroad. Out of millions of holes, where they have slept all +winter long, crawl cobras and other deadly serpents, and all slimy +things. On the whole, therefore, I am content to see India in its +sombre dress, and be spared some other attendants of this tropical +world. + +Nor is there much animal life to give animation to the scene. A few +cattle are grazing here and there. Now a deer startled looks up, as we +go by, or a monkey goes leaping across the fields, but not a wild +beast of any kind is seen--not even a wild-cat or a jackal. As for +birds, storks are at home in India as much as in Holland. Red +flamingoes haunt + + "The plashy brink, or marge of river wide," + +while on the broad open plain the birds most seen are crows! They are +very tame, and quite familiar with the rest of the animal creation, a +favorite perch being the backs of cows or buffaloes, where they light +without resistance, and make themselves at home. They are said to be +very useful as scavengers. That is quite possible; but however useful, +they are certainly not beautiful. + +In these long stretches of course we pass hundreds of villages, but +these do not attract the eye nor form a feature in the landscape, for +the low mud hovels of which they are composed hardly rise above the +level of the plain. There is no church spire to be seen, as from a New +England village, nor even the dome or minaret of a mosque, for we are +not yet in the Mohammedan part of India. + +One feature there is which relieves the monotony--the railway stations +are the prettiest I have seen out of England. Simply but tastefully +built, they are covered with vines and flowers, which with irrigation +easily grow in this climate in the open air at all seasons of the +year. The railway administration has offered prizes for the +embellishment of stations, so that the natives, who are fond of +flowers, and who are thus tempted by the hope of reward, plant roses +and trail vines everywhere, so that the eye is relieved from the +glare of the barren plain by resting on a mass of flowers and +verdure. + +In their internal arrangements, too, these stations are models of +comfort, which might furnish an example to us in America. Wherever we +are to breakfast or lunch ("take tiffin") or dine, we find a table +neatly spread, with soft-footed Hindoos gliding about to serve us, and +with plenty of time to eat in peace, without that rushing which makes +travel in America such a hurry and fatigue. I am often asked about the +difficulty of travelling in India, to which I answer that there is no +difficulty, except from the climate, and that is to be guarded against +by going in the cold season. There are railroads all over the country, +and if Mr. Pullman would only introduce his sleeping-cars, made more +open to give more ventilation in this hot climate, one might travel in +India with as perfect comfort as in any part of Europe or America. + +But with all these comforts, and all that there is to divert the eye, +the way seems long. It is not till one reaches India that he +comprehends how vast a country it is--not only in density of +population, but in extent of territory. In "magnificent distances" it +is almost equal to America itself: all small ideas are dispelled as +soon as one leaves the coast, and penetrates into the interior. Our +first stage from Bombay to Allahabad was 845 miles, which took us not +only the first night and the day after, but the second night also, so +that it was not till the morning of the third day that we found +ourselves crossing the long bridge over the Jumna into the city which +is the great railroad centre in India--a sort of half-way station, +both on the "trunk line" from Bombay to Calcutta, and on the line to +the North of India. + +By this time we were glad of rest, and willingly exchanged our railway +carriage for a hotel, where we found the luxury of baths, which +refreshed us so that in an hour or two we were able to come forth +"clad in fine linen, white and clean," and ride about to see the +sights of the town. + +Allahabad is not a city of so much historical interest as many others, +but it has grown very much within a few years. The railroads have +given such an impulse to its business, and increase to its population, +that it has now 130,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the +Northwest Provinces, and thus has a political as well as a commercial +importance. Owing to its position, it has been chosen as a convenient +centre for missionary operations, and is the seat of one of the best +organized missions of our Presbyterian Board. Here we met some +excellent countrymen, who at once took us to their hearts and homes: +and though reluctant to accept hospitality, or to trespass on their +kindness, yet it was impossible to refuse an invitation so cordially +given, which took us from a great barrack of a hotel to a refined +American home. Our Board is fortunate in owning for its mission +premises a large "compound," an enclosure of many acres, on the banks +of the Jumna--obtained years ago at a nominal price, and which costs +now only the small tax of fifty rupees (twenty-five dollars) a year. +Here under one broad roof were Rev. Mr. Kellogg and his family--a wife +and four children--and Mr. Wynkoop, and Mr. Heyl: Dr. Brodhead had +just left for America. In the compound stands a neat chapel, in which +met three years ago the great conference of missionaries of different +denominations from all parts of India, the most memorable gathering of +the kind ever held in this country. Here there is a service in +Hindostanee every Sabbath. In another building is a school of 300 +pupils, under charge of Mr. Heyl. He has also, to give sufficient +variety to his occupation, to look after an asylum for the blind, and +another for lepers. Rev. Messrs. Holcomb and Johnson live in other +parts of the city, where there is a Printing-press and a large +Depository for the sale of Bibles and Tracts in the different +languages of India. All of these missionaries, besides preaching in +churches, preach in the streets and bazaars, and spend some months of +the year in itinerating through the villages in a large circuit of +country, living in tents, and speaking to the people by the roadside, +or in groves, or in their houses, wherever they can find them--a work +which they enjoy greatly. Thus with preaching in city and country, and +keeping up their schools, and looking after printing presses, writing +and publishing books and tracts, they have their hands full. + +Nor can I overlook our countrywomen in Allahabad. There is here a +"Zenana Mission," supported by the society of the good Mrs. Doremus, +and also two ladies connected with the Presbyterian Board, one of +whom, Miss Wilson, devotes herself to visiting in the Zenanas, while +the other, Miss Seward, is a physician, practising with great success +in many of the best native families, thus rendering a physical as well +as a spiritual service. She is a niece of the late Secretary of State, +William H. Seward, who when in India paid her a visit, and was so +impressed with what she was doing so quietly and yet so effectively; +with the access which her medical skill and her feminine tact gave her +to the interior life of the people; that on his return to America he +summed up the result of all his observations of missions in this brief +counsel: "Make all your missionaries women, and give them all a +medical education." + +Allahabad has a proud name--the City of God; but one sees not much to +render it worthy of that exalted title. It is however, in the +estimation of the Hindoos a sacred city, as it stands at the junction +of the Jumna and the Ganges, the two sacred rivers of India, which +issuing out of the glaciers of the Himalayas, hundreds of miles to the +north, here unite, and flow on in a broader stream, and with an +increased volume of sanctity. The point of junction is of course a +very holy place--one of the most sacred in India--and draws to it more +pilgrims than Mecca. Every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, +come from all parts of India to bathe in these holy waters. This is +the Méla--or great religious festival--which was now in progress. The +missionaries congratulated us that we had arrived at such an opportune +moment, as we had thus an opportunity of witnessing a spectacle which +would show more of Hindooism than any other that we could see in +India, unless it might be in the holy city of Benares. + +On a Saturday evening we rode down to the place of the encampment, +which we found covering a wide sandy plain at the junction of two +rivers. It was a camp-meeting of magnificent dimensions. The tents or +booths were laid out in streets, and sometimes grouped in a hollow +square, which for the time being was a compact and populous city. As +the evening was not the hour for bathing, we did not go down to the +river bank, but strolled among the camps to see the people. At every +tent fires were burning, and they were cooking their food. + +Our friends led the way to the camp of the Sikhs, the famous warrior +race of the Punjaub, who form a sect by themselves, and, strange to +say, are not idolators. They follow the teachings of a prophet of +their own, and like the Mohammedans, make it a special virtue, that +they do not worship idols. But the old instinct is too strong for +them, and while they do not bow to images, they pay a reverence to +their sacred book--the writings of their teacher--which is little +short of idolatry. At several places in their camp was something like +an altar, a raised platform which was too holy for us to ascend, where +sat a priest reading from this volume, before which all knelt as at +the shrine of a saint, while they scattered flowers around it as a +kind of incense or adoration. + +In other parts of the camp men were blowing horns and making all sorts +of hideous noise, as an intense way of offering devotions. This mockery +of religion moved the indignation of our friends, who opened their +mouths boldly in exposure of such folly and superstition, but they +found that those whom they addressed did not shrink from the encounter. +Some of them were very keen in argument. They have a subtle philosophy +at the bottom of their worship, which they explained with a good deal +of ingenuity, and tried to illumine by apt analogies and illustrations. +Like all Hindoos, they were most liberal in their tolerance of other +religions--much more so than the Mohammedans--generously conceding +that our religion was best _for us_, while claiming that theirs was +best _for them_. They did not try to convert us, and saw no reason why +we should try to convert them. This was the Broad Church indeed, large +enough for "all sorts and conditions of men." They even went further, +and paid us not only the respect due to men, but to gods. One of the +fakirs said to us in so many words: "You are God and I am God!" This +tells the whole story in a sentence. Their creed is the baldest +Pantheism: that God is in everything, and therefore everything is God. +As all life comes from Him, He is in everything that lives--not only +in man, but in beasts, and birds, and reptiles. All alike are +incarnations of a Divine life, and hence all alike are fit objects of +adoration. Man can adore himself. He need not carry any burden of +sorrow or guilt; he need not know repentance or shame; for how can he +mourn for impulses which are but the inspirations of the God in him, +or for acts which are but the manifestations of the Universal Soul? + +This was our first close contest with Hindooism, but still we had not +seen the Méla till we had seen the bathing of the pilgrims in the +Ganges, which was still in reserve. The Festival lasts a month--like +the Ramadan of the Mohammedans--and is regulated by the changes of the +moon. The day of the new moon, which was last Wednesday, was the great +day of the feast. On that day there was a grand procession to the +river, in which there were twenty-five elephants, mounted by their +_mahants_ (a sort of chief priests), with hundreds of fakirs on foot, +and a vast crowd in all the frenzy of devotion. On Monday, as the moon +was approaching her first quarter, there was likely to be a large +concourse, though not equal to the first, and we made arrangements to +be on hand to witness a spectacle such as we had never seen before, +and should probably never see again. Rev. Mr. Holcomb came very early +in the morning with his carriage, to take us to the riverside. As we +drove along the roads, we passed thousands who were flocking to the +place of bathing. Some rode in ox-carts, which carried whole families; +now and then a mounted horseman dashed by; while a long row of camels +told of a caravan that had toiled wearily over a great distance, +perhaps from the foot of the Himalayas or the Vale of Cashmere, to +reach the sacred spot. But the greater part of those who came were on +foot, and looked like pilgrims indeed. Most of them carried on their +shoulders a couple of baskets, in one of which was their food, and in +the other the ashes of their dead, which they had brought from their +homes, sometimes hundreds of miles, to cast into the sacred waters of +the Ganges. + +The carriage brought us only to the Bund, near the Fort--a huge +embankment of earth raised to keep out the waters at the time of the +annual risings, and which during the past year had saved the city from +inundation. Here our friends had provided an elephant to take us +through the crowd. The huge creature was waiting for us. The mahout +who stood at his head now mounted in an extraordinary manner. He +merely stepped in front of the elephant, and took hold of the flaps of +his ears, and put up a foot on his trunk, which the beast raised as +lightly as if the man had been a feather, and thus tossed his rider +upon his head. A word of command then brought him to his knees, when a +ladder was placed against his side, and we climbed to the top, and as +he rose up, were lifted into the air. An elephant's back is a capital +lookout for observation. It raises one on high, from which he can +look down upon what is passing below; and the mighty creature has not +much difficulty in making his way through even the densest crowd. He +moved down the embankment a little slowly at first, but once on level +ground, he strode along with rapid strides; while we, sitting aloft, +regarded with amazement the scene before us. + +Indeed it was a marvellous spectacle. Here was a vast camp, extending +from river to river. Far as the eye could reach, the plain was covered +with tents and booths. We had no means of estimating the number of +people present. Mr. Kellogg made a rough calculation, as he stood in +his preaching tent, and saw the crowd pouring by. Fixing his eye on +the tent-pole, with watch in hand, he counted the number that passed +in a minute, and found it to be a hundred and fifty, which would make +nine thousand in an hour. If this steady flow were kept up for four +hours (as it began at daylight, and was continued, though with varying +volume, through the forenoon), it would make thirty-six thousand; and +reckoning those encamped on the ground at twenty thousand, the whole +number would be over fifty thousand. + +This is a very small number, compared with that present at some times. +Last Wednesday it was twice as great, and some years the +multitude--which overflows the country for miles, like an inundation +of the Ganges--has been estimated at hundreds of thousands, and even +millions. Every twelve years there is a greater Méla than at other +times, and the concourse assumes extraordinary proportions. This came +six years ago, in 1870. That year it was said that there were present +75,000 fakirs alone, and on the great day of the feast it was +estimated that a million of people bathed in the Ganges. So fearful +was the crush that they had to be marshalled by the police, and +marched down to the river by ten or twenty thousand at a time, and +then across a bridge of boats to the other side, returning by another +way, so as to prevent a collision of the entering and returning mass, +that might have occasioned a fearful loss of life. That year it was +estimated that not less than two millions of pilgrims visited the +Méla. Allowing for the common exaggeration in estimating multitudes, +there is no doubt whatever that the host of pilgrims here has often +been "an exceeding great army." + +I could not but look with pity at the ignorant creatures flocking by, +but the feeling of pity changed to disgust at the sight of the priests +by whom they were misled. Everywhere were fakirs sitting on the +ground, receiving the reverence of the people. More disgusting objects +I never looked upon, not even in an asylum for the insane. They were +almost naked; their hair, which they suffer to grow long, had become +tangled and knotted, and was matted like swamp grass, and often bound +round with thick ropes; and their faces smeared with filth. The +meagerness of their clothing is one of the tokens of their sanctity. +They are so holy that they do not need to observe the ordinary rules +of decency. Yet these filthy creatures are regarded not only with +reverence, but almost worshipped. Men--and women also--stoop down and +kiss their feet. On Wednesday some three hundred of these fakirs +marched in procession _absolutely naked_, while crowds of women +prostrated themselves before them, and kissed the very ground over +which they had passed. One is amazed that such a disgusting exhibition +was not prevented by the police. Yet it took place under the guns of +an English fort, and--greatest shame of all--instead of being +suppressed, was accompanied and protected by the police, which, though +composed of natives, wore the uniform, and obeyed the orders, of +Christian England! There are not many sights which make one ashamed of +the English government in India, but surely this is one of them.[1] + +How such "brute beasts" can have any respect or influence, is one of +the mysteries of Hindooism. But the common people, ignorant and +superstitious, think these men have a power that is more than human, +and fear to incur their displeasure. They dread their curses: for +these holy men have a fearful power of imprecation. Wherever they +stroll through the country, no man dares to refuse them food or +shelter, lest one of their awful curses should light upon his head, +and immediately his child should die, or disaster should overtake his +house. + +But let us pass on to the banks of the river, where the crowd is +already becoming very great. To go among them, we get down from our +elephant and walk about. Was there ever such a scene--men, women, and +children, by tens of thousands, in all stages of nakedness, pressing +towards the sacred river? The men are closely shaved, as for every +hair of their heads they gain a million of years in Paradise! Some had +come in boats, and were out in the middle of the stream, from which +they could bathe. But the greater part were along the shore. The water +was shallow, so that they could wade in without danger; but to afford +greater security, lines of boats were drawn around the places of +bathing, to keep them from drowning and from suicide. + +It would not have been easy to make our way through such a crowd, had +not the native police, with that respect for Englishmen which is seen +everywhere in India, cleared the way for us. Thus we came down to the +water's edge, passing through hundreds that were coming up dripping +from the water, and other hundreds that were pressing in. They were of +all ages and sexes. It was hard to repress our disgust at the +voluntary debasement of men who might know better, but with these +there were some wretched objects, who could only excite our +pity--poor, haggard old women, who had dragged themselves to this +spot, and children borne on their mothers' shoulders! In former times +many infants were thrown into the Ganges. This was the most common +form of infanticide. But this practice has been stopped by the strong +hand of the government. And now they are brought here only to "wash +and be cleansed." Even the sick were carried in palanquins, to be +dipped in the healing waters; and here and there one who seemed ready +to die was brought, that he might breathe his last in sight of the +sacred river. + +I observed a great number of flags flying from tall poles in different +parts of the ground, which made the place look like a military +encampment. These marked the headquarters of the men who get up these +Mélas, and in so doing contrive to unite business with religion. +During the year they perambulate the country, drumming up pilgrims. A +reputation for sanctity is a stock in trade, and they are not too +modest to set forth their own peculiar gifts, and invite those who +come to the holy water to repair to their shop, where they can be "put +through" in the shortest time, and for the least money. This +money-making feature is apparent in all the arrangements of these +pious pilgrimages. + +In keeping with these coarser features of the scene, was the presence +of dancing girls, who gathered a group around them close to the +bathing places, and displayed their indecent gestures on the banks of +the holy river, to those who had just engaged in what they considered +an act of moral purification. + +In other parts of the camp, retired from the river, was carried on the +business of "religious instruction." Here and there pundits, or +learned Brahmins, surrounded by large companies, chiefly of women, +were reading from the Shasters, which, considering that they got over +the ground with great velocity, could hardly be very edifying to their +hearers. This mattered little, however, as these sacred books are in +Sanscrit, which to the people is an unknown tongue. + +I was glad to see that these blind leaders of the blind did not have +it all their own way. Near by were the preaching-tents of several +missionaries, who also drew crowds, to whom they spoke of a better +religion. Among them was Rev. Mr. Macombie, who is a famous preacher. +He is a native of India, and is not only master of their language, but +familiar with their ideas. He knows all their arguments and their +objections, and if a hearer interrupts him, whether a Hindoo, or a +Mohammedan, he is very apt to get a shot which makes him sink back in +the crowd, glad to escape without further notice. Whether this +preaching converts many to Christianity, there can be no doubt that it +diffuses a widespread sense of the folly of these Mélas, and to this +as one cause may be ascribed the falling-off in the concourse of +pilgrims, who were formerly counted by millions and are now only by +hundreds of thousands. + +While "religion" thus went on vigorously, business was not forgotten. +In the remoter parts of the camp it was turned into a market-place. A +festival which brings together hundreds of thousands of people, is an +occasion not to be lost for traffic and barter. So the camp becomes a +huge bazaar (a vast fair, such as one may see in America at a cattle +show or a militia muster), with streets of shops, so that, after one +has performed his religious duties, as he comes up from the holy +waters and returns to "the world," he can gratify his pride and vanity +by purchasing any quantity of cheap jewelry. + +There are shops for the sale of idols. We could have bought a lovely +little beast for a few pence. They are as "cheap as dirt;" in fact, +they are often made of dirt. As we stood in front of one of the shops, +we saw a group rolling up a little ball of mud, as children make mud +pies; who requested a lady of our party to step one side, as her +shadow, falling on this holy object, polluted it! + +It is hard to believe that even the most ignorant and degraded of men +can connect such objects with any idea of sacredness or religion. And +yet the wretched-looking creatures seemed infatuated with their +idolatries. To bathe in the Ganges washes away their sins. It opens to +them the gates of paradise. Such value do they attach to it that even +death in its sacred waters is a privilege. Formerly suicides were very +frequent here, till they were stopped by the Government. Fanaticism +seems to destroy the common sympathies of life. Last Wednesday, while +the great procession was in progress, a fire broke out in one of the +booths. As they are made of the lightest material it caught like +tinder, and spread so rapidly that in a few minutes a whole camp was +in a blaze. But for the presence of mind and energy of a few English +soldiers from the Fort who were on the ground, and who seized an +engine, and played upon the burning wood and thatch, the entire +encampment might have been destroyed, involving an appalling loss of +life. As it was, some thirty perished, almost all women. Mr. Kellogg +came up in time to see their charred and blackened remains. Yet this +terrible disaster awakened no feeling of compassion for its victims. +They were accounted rather favored beings to have perished in such a +holy spot. Thus does the blindness of superstition extinguish the +ordinary feelings of humanity. + +Weary and heart-sick at such exhibitions of human folly, we mounted +our elephant to leave the ground. The noble beast, who had waited +patiently for us (and was duly rewarded), now seemed as if he could +stand it no longer, and taking us on his back, strode off as if +disgusted with the whole performance, and disdaining the society of +such debased human creatures. + +This Méla, with other things which I have seen, has quite destroyed +any illusions which I may have had in regard to Hindooism. In coming +to India, one chief object was to study its religion. I had read much +of "the mild Hindoo" and "the learned Brahmin," and I asked myself, +May not their religion have some elements of good? Is it not better at +least than no religion? But the more I study it the worse it seems. I +cannot understand the secret of its power. I can see a fascination in +Romanism, and even in Mohammedanism. The mythology of the Greeks had +in it many beautiful creations of the imagination. But the gods of the +Hindoos are but deified beasts, and their worship, instead of +elevating men intellectually or morally, is an unspeakable +degradation. + +Hindooism is a mountain of lies. It is a vast and monstrous system of +falsehood, kept in existence mainly for the sake of keeping up the +power of the Brahmins. Their capacity for deceit is boundless, as is +that of the lower castes for being deceived. Of this I have just had a +specimen. In the fort here at Allahabad is a subterranean passage +which is held in the highest veneration, as it is believed that here a +river flows darkly underground to join the sacred waters of the Jumna +and the Ganges, and here--prodigy of nature--is a sacred tree, which +has been here (they tell us) for hundreds of years, and though buried +in the heart of the earth, still it lives. It is true it does show +some signs of sap and greenness. But the mystery is explained when the +fact comes out that the tree is changed every year. The +sergeant-major, who has been here four years, told me that he had +himself given the order three times, which admitted the party into the +Fort at midnight to take away the old stump and put in a fresh tree! +He said it was done in the month of February, so that with the first +opening of spring it was ready to bloom afresh! How English officers +can reconcile it with their honor to connive at such a deception--even +though it be to please the Brahmins--I leave them to explain. But the +fact, thus attested, is sufficient to show the unfathomable lying of +this ruling caste of India, and the immeasurable credulity of their +disciples. + +A religion that is founded on imposture, and supported by falsehood, +cannot bear the fruits of righteousness. In the essence of things +truth is allied to moral purity. Its very nature is "sweetness and +light." But craft and deceit in sacred things breed a vicious habit of +defending by false reasoning what an uncorrupted conscience would +reject; and the holy name of religion, instead of being a sacrament of +good, becomes a sacrament of evil, which is used to cover and +consecrate loathsome immoralities. Thus falsehood works like poison in +the blood, and runs through every vein till the whole moral being is +spotted with leprosy. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] That we may not do injustice, we add the excuse which is given, +which is, that such attendance of the police is necessary to prevent a +general mélée and bloodshed. It seems that these fakirs, holy as they +are, belong to different sects, between which there are deadly feuds, +and if left to themselves unrestrained, when brought into close +contact in a procession, they might tear each other in pieces. But +this would be no great loss to the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +AGRA--VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES--PALACE OF THE GREAT MOGUL--THE +TAJ. + + +We left Allahabad at midnight, and by noon of the next day were at +Agra, in the heart of the old Mogul Empire. As we approached from the +other side of the Jumna, we saw before us what seemed a royal castle, +of imposing dimensions, strongly fortified, with walls and moat, like +one of the strongholds of the Middle Ages, a castle on the Rhine, +built for a double purpose, half palace and half fortress. As we +crossed the long bridge flags were flying in honor of the Prince of +Wales, who had arrived the week before. His entry into this old Mogul +capital was attended with a display of magnificence worthy of the days +of Aurungzebe. At the station he was met by a great number of Rajahs, +mounted on elephants richly caparisoned, of which there were nearly +two hundred in the procession, with long suites of retainers, who +escorted him to his camp outside of the city. Rev. Mr. Wynkoop (who +came on a few days before to witness the fêtes, and was staying with a +friend who had a tent quite near to that of the Prince), met us at the +station and took us out to the Royal camp. It was indeed a beautiful +sight. The tents, many of which were very large, were laid off in an +oblong square, with the marquee of the Prince at the end, in front of +which floated the royal standard of England. The rest of the camp was +laid off in streets. On the outskirts of the Maidan (or parade ground) +were the military selected from different corps of the Indian army. +Some of the native troops in drill and discipline were equal to the +English. The Punjaubees especially were magnificent fellows. Tall and +athletic in figure, they are splendid horsemen, so that a regiment of +Punjaubee (or Sikh) cavalry is one of the sights of India. English +artillery manned the guns with which they saluted the native princes +according to their rank, as they came to pay their respects. Here, on +the Saturday before, the Prince had held a grand Durbar, to which the +Rajahs came riding on elephants, and each with a body-guard of +cavalry, mounted sometimes on horses and sometimes on camels, making +altogether such a scene of barbaric splendor as could not be witnessed +in any country in the world but India. + +The Prince was absent from the camp, having gone off a day or two +before to pay a visit to the Maharajah of Gwalior, but an hour later, +while we were making a first visit to the Taj, we heard the guns which +announced his return. A day or two after we saw him starting for +Jeypore, when, although he drove off in a carriage very quietly, the +camels and elephants that went rolling along the different roads, as +we drove out once more to the camp, told of the brilliant pageant that +was ended. + +This visit of the Prince of Wales is a great event. It has excited a +prodigious interest in official and military circles. His progress +through the country has been in a blaze of processions and +illuminations. To himself it must have been very gratifying. As he +said, "It had been the dream of his life to visit India." It was a +matter of political wisdom that he should know it, not only through +others but by personal observation. Mr. Disraeli, in proposing it in +Parliament, said justly that "travel was the best education for +princes." It was well that the future King of England, should make +himself acquainted with the great Empire that he was one day to rule. +But whether this royal visit will result in any real benefit to India +to correspond with the enormous expense it has involved, is a question +which I hear a good deal discussed among Englishmen. In some ways it +cannot fail to do good. It has presented to the people of India an +impersonation of sovereignty, a visible representative of that mighty +power, the British Empire. It has conciliated the native princes, who +have been greatly pleased by the frank and manly courtesy of their +future sovereign. In the art of courtesy he is a master. History will +give him this rank among princes, that he was not great, but gracious. +This is a kingly virtue which it was well to have exhibited in the +person of one of such exalted rank, the more as English officials in +India are charged with showing, often in the most offensive way, the +insolence of power. Perhaps it was on this very account that he took +such pains to show a generous and even chivalrous courtesy to natives +of rank, even while he did not hesitate, so I was told by Englishmen, +to "snub" his own countrymen. Such a bearing has certainly commanded +respect, and given him a personal popularity. But it has not converted +the people to loyalty any more than to Christianity. They run to see +the parades, the Rajahs, and the elephants. But as to its exciting any +deeper feeling in them, no Englishman who has lived long in the +country will trust to that for a moment. Even though English rule be +for their own safety and protection, yet their prejudices of race and +religion are stronger than even considerations of interest. It is a +curious illustration of the power of caste that the very Rajahs who +entertain the Prince of Wales with such lavish hospitality, who build +palaces to receive him, and spread before him sumptuous banquets, +still do not themselves sit down at the table; they will not even eat +with their Royal guest; and count his touch of food, and even his +shadow falling upon it, a pollution! Such a people are not to be +trusted very far beyond the range of English guns. The security of +English rule in India is not to be found in any fancied sentiment of +loyalty, which does not exist, but in the overwhelming proof of +English power. British possession is secured by the well-armed +fortresses which overlook every great city, and which could lay it in +ruins in twenty-four hours. The rule that was obtained by the sword, +must be held by the sword. + +But the interest of Agra is not in the present, but in the past. There +are few chapters in history more interesting than that of the +Mohammedan invasion of India--a history dating back to the Middle +Ages, but culminating about the time that Columbus discovered the New +World. Those fierce warriors, who had ravaged Central Asia, had long +made occasional incursions into India, but it was not till the +beginning of the sixteenth century that they became complete masters +of the country, and the throne was occupied by a descendant of the +house of Tamerlane. + +The dominion thus introduced into India was an exotic, but like other +products of the North, transplanted into a tropical clime, it +blossomed and flowered anew. The Moguls (a corruption of Mongols) had +all the wealth of Ormus and of Ind at their feet, and they lavished it +with Oriental prodigality, displaying a royal state which surpassed +the grandeur of European courts. + +The Great Mogul! What power there is in a name! Ever since I was a +child, I had read about the Great Mogul, until there was a magic in +the very word. To be sure, I had not much idea who or what he was; but +perhaps this vagueness itself added to the charm in my imagination. He +was an Oriental potentate, living somewhere in the heart of Asia, in a +pomp and glory quite unknown among barbarians of the West. He was a +sort of Haroun al Raschid, whose magnificence recalled the scenes of +the Arabian Nights. Even more, he was like the Grand Lama, almost an +object of worship. To keep up the illusion, he withdrew from +observation into his Palace, where he sat like a god, rarely seen by +mortal eyes, except by his court, and dwelling in unapproachable +splendor. + +And now here I was in the very Palace of the Great Mogul, walking +through the glittering halls where he held his gorgeous revelries, +entering the private apartments of his harem, and looking out of the +very windows from which they looked down upon the valley of the Jumna. + +The Palace is in the Citadel of Agra, for those old Emperors took good +care to draw fortified walls around their palaces. The river front +presents a wall sixty feet high, perhaps half a mile long, of red +sandstone, which heightens by contrast the effect of the white marble +pavilions, so graceful and airy-like, that rise above it. The Fort is +of great extent, but it is the mere casket of the jewels within, the +Palace and the Mosque, in which one may see the infinite beauty of +that Saracenic architecture, which is found nowhere in Europe in such +perfection, except in the Alhambra. The Mohammedan conquerors of +India, like the same conquerors of Spain, had gorgeous tastes in +architecture. Both aimed at the grandeur of effect produced by great +size and massive construction, combined with a certain lightness and +airiness of detail, which give it a peculiar delicacy and grace. Here +the imagination flowers in stone. The solid marble is made to bend in +vines and wreaths that run along the walls. The spirit of Oriental +luxury finds expression in cool marble halls, and open courts, with +plashing fountains, where the monarch could dally with the beauties of +his court. In all these things the life of the Great Mogul did not +differ from that of the Moorish Kings of Spain. + +The glory of Agra dates from the reign of Akbar the Great who made it +the capital of the Mogul Empire. He built the Fort, with its long line +of castellated walls, rising above the river, and commanding the +country around. Within this enclosure were buildings like a city, and +open spaces with canals, among which were laid out gardens, blooming +with flowers. On the river side of the Fort was a lofty terrace, on +which stood the Palace, built of the purest marble. It was divided +into a number of pavilions whose white walls and gilded domes +glittered in the sun. Passing from one pavilion to another over +tessellated pavements, we enter apartments rich in mosaics and all +manner of precious stones. Along the walls are little kiosks or +balconies, the windows of which are half closed by screens of marble, +which yet are so exquisitely carved and pierced as to seem like veils +of lace, drawn before the flashing eyes that looked out from behind +them. Straying through these rich halls, one cannot but reproduce the +scenes of three centuries ago, when Akbar ruled here in the midst of +his court; when the beauties of his seraglio, gathered from all the +East, sported in these gardens, and looked out from these latticed +windows. + +Of equal beauty with the palace is the mosque. It is called the Pearl +Mosque, and a pearl indeed it is, such is the simplicity of outline, +and such the exquisite and almost tender grace in every arch and +column. Said Bishop Heber: "This spotless sanctuary, showing such a +pure spirit of adoration, made me, a Christian, feel humbled when I +considered that no architect of our religion had ever been able to +produce anything equal to this temple of Allah." + +But these costly buildings have but little use now. The Mosque is +still here, but few are the Moslems who come to pray; and the palace +is tenantless. The great Moguls are departed. Their last descendant +was the late King of Delhi, who was compromised in the Great Mutiny, +and passed the rest of his life as a state prisoner. Not a trace +remains here nor at Delhi of the old Imperial grandeur. Yet once in a +long while these old palaces serve a purpose to entertain some royal +guest. Last week they were fitted up for a fête given to the Prince of +Wales, when the stately apartments were turned into reception rooms +and banqueting halls. It was a very brilliant spectacle, as the +British officers in their uniforms mingled with the native princes +glittering with diamonds. But it would seem as if the old Moguls must +turn in their coffins to hear this sound of revelry in their vacant +palaces, and to see the places where the Mohammedan ruled so long now +filled by unbelievers. + +Perhaps one gets a yet stronger impression of the magnificence of the +Great Mogul in a visit to the Summer Palace of Akbar at +Futtehpore-Sikri, so called from two villages embraced in the royal +retreat. This was the Versailles of the old Moguls. It is over twenty +miles from Agra, but starting early we were able to drive there and +return the same day. The site is a rocky hill, which might have been +chosen for a fortress. The outer wall enclosing it, with the two +villages at its foot, is nine miles in extent. The buildings were on a +scale to suit the wants of an Imperial Court--the plateau of the hill +being laid off in a vast quadrangle, surrounded by palaces, and +zenanas for the women of the Imperial household, and mosques and +tombs. Perhaps the most exquisite building of all is a tomb in white +marble--the resting place of Selim, a Moslem saint, a very holy shrine +to the true believers; although the Mosque is far more imposing, since +before it stands the loftiest gateway in the world. Around the hill +are distributed barracks for troops, and stables for horses and camels +and elephants. The open court in the centre of all these buildings is +an esplanade large enough to draw up an army. Here they show the spot +where Akbar used to mount his elephant, and here his troops filed +before him, or subject princes came with long processions to pay him +homage. + +As this palace was built for a summer retreat, everything is designed +for coolness; pavilions, covered overhead, screen from the sun, while +open at the sides, they catch whatever summer air may be stirring. In +studying the architecture of the Moors or the Moguls, one cannot but +perceive, that in its first inception it has been modelled after forms +familiar to their nomadic ancestors. The tribes of Central Asia first +dwelt in tents, and when they came to have more fixed habitations +built of wood or stone, they reproduced the same form, so that the +canvas tent became the marble pavilion--just as the builders of the +Gothic cathedrals caught the lines of their mighty arches from the +interlacing branches of trees which made the lofty aisles of the +forest. So the tribes of the desert, accustomed to live in tents, when +endowed with empire, falling heir to the riches of the Indies, still +preserved the style of their former life, and when they could no +longer dwell in tents, dwelt in tabernacles. These palaces are almost +all constructed on this type. There is one building of singular +structure, five stories high, which is a series of terraces, all open +at the side. + +If we believe the tales of travellers and historians, nothing since +the days of Babylon has equalled the magnificence of the Great Mogul. +But magnificence in a sovereign generally means misery in his +subjects. The wealth that is lavished on the court is wrung from the +people. So it is said to have been with some of the successors of +Akbar. The latest historian of Mussulman India[2] says: "They were the +most shameless tyrants that ever disgraced a throne. Mogul +administration ... was a monstrous system of oppression and extortion, +which none but Asiatics could have practised or endured. Justice was a +mockery. Magistrates could always be bribed; false witnesses could +always be bought.... The Hindoos were always in the hands of grinding +task-masters, foreigners who knew not how to pity or to spare." + +But Akbar was not merely a magnificent Oriental potentate--he was +truly a great king. A Mohammedan himself, he was free from Moslem +fanaticism and bigotry. Those conquerors of India had a difficult task +(which has vexed their English successors after two centuries), to +rule a people of a different race and a different religion. It was +harder for the Moslem than for the Christian, because his creed was +more intolerant; it made it his duty to destroy those whom he could +not convert. The first law of the Koran was the extermination of +idolatry, but the Hindoos were the grossest of idolaters. How then +could a Mohammedan ruler establish his throne without exterminating +the inhabitants? But the Moslems--like many other conquerors--learned +to bear the ills which they could not remove. Necessity taught them +the wisdom of toleration. In this humane policy they were led by the +example of Akbar, who, though a Mussulman, was not a bigot, and +thought it a pity that subtle questions of belief should divide +inhabitants of the same country. He admitted Hindoos to a share in his +government, and endeavored by complete tolerance to extinguish +religious hatreds. He had even the ambition to be a religious +reformer, and tried to blend the old faith with the new, and to make +an eclectic religion by putting together the systems of Zoroaster, of +the Brahmins, and of Christianity, while retaining some of the +Mohammedan forms. But he could not convert even his own Hindoo wives, +of whom he had one or two, and built a house for each, in Hindoo +architecture, with altars for idol worship. What impression then could +he make outside of the circle of his court? + +But greatness commands our homage, even though it sometimes undertakes +tasks beyond human power. Akbar, though he could not inspire others +with his own spirit of justice and toleration, deserves a place in +history as the greatest sovereign that ever sat in the seat of the +Great Mogul. And therefore, when in the Fort at Agra I stood beside +the large slab of black marble, on which he was wont to sit to +administer justice to his people, it was with the same feeling that +one would seek out the oak of Vincennes, under which St. Louis sat for +the same purpose; and at Secundra, a few miles from Agra, we visited +his tomb, as on another continent we had visited the tomb of Frederick +the Great, and of Napoleon. + +But the jewel of India--the Koh-i-noor of its beauty--is the TAJ, the +tomb built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, the grandson of Akbar, for his +wife, whom he loved with an idolatrous affection, and on her deathbed +promised to rear to her memory such a mausoleum as had never been +erected before. To carry out his purpose he gathered architects from +all countries, who rivalled each other in the extravagance and +costliness of their designs. The result was a structure which cost +fabulous sums of money (the whole empire being placed under +contribution for it, as were the Jews for the Temple of Solomon), and +employed twenty thousand workmen for seventeen years. The building +thus erected is one of the most famous in the world--like the Alhambra +or St. Peter's--and of which enthusiastic travellers are apt to say +that it is worth going around the world to see. This would almost +discourage the attempt to describe it, but I will try and give some +faint idea of its marvellous beauty. + +But how can I convey to others what is but a picture in my memory? +Descriptions of architecture are apt to be vague unless aided by +pictorial illustrations. Mere figures and measurements are dry and +cold. The most I shall aim at will be to give a general (but I hope +not indistinct) _impression_ of it. For this let us approach it +gradually. + +It stands on the banks of the Jumna, a mile below the Fort at Agra. As +you approach it, it is not exposed abruptly to view, but is surrounded +by a garden. You enter under a lofty gateway, and before you is an +avenue of cypresses a third of a mile long, whose dark foliage is a +setting for a form of dazzling whiteness at the end. That is the TAJ. +It stands, not on the level of your eye, but on a double terrace; the +first, of red sandstone, twenty feet high, and a thousand feet broad; +at the extremities of which stand two mosques, of the same dark stone, +facing each other. Midway between rises the second terrace, of +marble, fifteen feet high, and three hundred feet square, on the +corners of which stand four marble minarets. In the centre of all, +thus "reared in air," stands the Taj. It is built of marble--no other +material than this of pure and stainless white were fit for a purpose +so sacred. It is a hundred and fifty feet square (or rather it is +eight-sided, since the corners are truncated), and surmounted by a +dome, which rises nearly two hundred feet above the pavement below. + +These figures rather belittle the Taj, or at least disappoint those +who looked for great size. There are many larger buildings in the +world. But that which distinguishes it from all others, and gives it a +rare and ideal beauty, is the union of majesty and grace. This is the +peculiar effect of Saracenic architecture. The slender columns, the +springing arches, the swelling domes, the tall minarets, all combine +to give an impression of airy lightness, which is not destroyed even +when the foundations are laid with massive solidity. But it is in the +finish of their structures that they excelled all the world. Bishop +Heber said truly: "They built like Titans and finished like +jewellers." This union of two opposite features makes the beauty of +the Taj. While its walls are thick and strong, they are pierced by +high arched windows which relieve their heaviness. Vines and +arabesques running over the stone work give it the lightness of +foliage, of trees blossoming with flowers. In the interior there is an +extreme and almost feminine grace, as if here the strength of man +would pay homage to the delicacy of woman. Enclosing the sacred spot +is a screen of marble, carved into a kind of fretwork, and so pure and +white that light shines through it as through alabaster, falling +softly on that which is within. The Emperor, bereaved of his wife, +lavished riches on her very dust, casting precious stones upon her +tomb, as if he were placing a string of pearls around her neck. It is +overrun with vines and flowers, cut in stone, and set with onyx and +jasper and lapis lazuli, carnelians and turquoises, and chalcedonies +and sapphires. + +But the body rests in the crypt below. We descend a few steps and +stand by the very sarcophagus in which all that loveliness is +enshrined. Another sarcophagus contains the body of her husband. Their +tombs were covered with fresh flowers, a perpetual tribute to that +love which was so strong even on the throne; to those who were thus +united in life, and in death are not divided. + +Here sentiment comes in to affect our sense of the beauty of the +place. If it were not for the touching history connected with it, I +could not agree with those who pronounce the Taj the most beautiful +building in the world. Merely as a building, it does not "overcome" me +so much as another marble structure--the Cathedral of Milan. I could +not say with Bishop Heber that the mosques of Islam are more +beautiful, or more in harmony with the spirit of devotion, than +Christian churches or cathedrals. But the Taj is not a mosque, it is a +tomb--a monument to the dead. And that gives it a tender interest, +which spiritualizes the cold marble, and makes it more than a +building--a poem and a dream. + +This impression grew upon us the more we saw it. On our last night in +Agra we drove there to take our last view by moonlight. All slept +peacefully on the banks of the Jumna. Slowly we walked through the +long avenue of dark cypresses, that stood like ranks of mourners +waiting for the dead to pass, their tops waving gently in the night +wind, as if breathing a soft requiem over the departed. Mounting the +terrace we stood again before the Taj, rising into the calm blue +heavens. A few nights before the Prince of Wales had been here, and +the interior had been illuminated. As we had not seen it then, we had +engaged attendants with blue lights, who gave us an illumination of +our own. It was a weird scene as these swarthy natives, with naked +arms, held aloft their torches, whose blue flames, flaring and +flickering, cast a spectral light upward into the dim vault above. + +To add to the ghostly effect, we heard whispers above us, as if there +were unseen witnesses. It was the echo of our own voices, but one +starts to hear himself in such a place. The dome is a whispering +gallery; and as we stood beside the tomb, and spoke in a low voice +(not to disturb the sleep of the dead), our words seemed to be +repeated. Any sound at the tomb--a sigh of pity, or a plaintive +melody--rising upward, comes back again,--faintly indeed, yet +distinctly and sweetly--as if the very air trembled in sympathy, +repeating the accents of love and of despair, or as if unseen spirits +were floating above, and singing the departing soul to its rest. + +Then we went down once more into the crypt below, where sleeps the +form of the beautiful empress, and of Shah Jehan, who built this +monument for her, at her side. The place was dark, and the lights in +the hands of the attendants cast but a feeble glimmer, but this deep +shadow and silence suited the tenor of our thoughts, and we lingered, +reluctant to depart from the resting-place of one so much beloved. + +As we came out the moon was riding high overhead, flooding the marble +pile with beauty. Round and round we walked, looking up at arch and +dome and minaret. At such an hour the Taj was so pale and ghostlike, +that it did not seem like a building reared by human hands, but to +have grown where it stood--like a night-blooming Cereus, rising slowly +in the moonlight--lifting its domes and pinnacles (like branches +growing heavenward) towards that world which is the home of the love +which it was to preserve in perpetual memory. + +With such thoughts we kept our eyes fixed on that glittering vision, +as if we feared that even as we gazed it might vanish out of our +sight. Below us the Jumna, flowing silently, seemed like an image of +human life as it glided by. And so at last we turned to depart, and +bade farewell to the Taj, feeling that we should never look on it +again; but hoping that it might stand for ages to tell its history of +faithful love to future generations. Flow on, sweet Jumna, by the +marble walls, reflecting the moonbeams in thy placid breast; and in +thy gentle murmurs whispering evermore of Love and Death, and Love +that cannot die! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Mr. Talboys Wheeler. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DELHI--A MOHAMMEDAN FESTIVAL--SCENES IN THE MUTINY. + + +Delhi is the Rome of the old Mogul Empire. Agra was the capital in the +time of Akbar, but Delhi is an older city. It had a history before the +Moguls. It is said to have been destroyed and rebuilt seven times, and +thus is overspread with the ashes of many civilizations. Its very +ruins attest its ancient greatness. The plain around Delhi is like the +Campagna around Rome--covered with the remains of palaces and mosques, +towers and tombs, which give credit to the historical statement that +the city was once thirty miles in circuit, and had two millions of +inhabitants. This greatness tempted the spoiler. In 1398 it was +plundered by Tamerlane; in 1525 it was taken by his descendant, Baber, +the founder of the Mogul dynasty. Akbar made Agra, 112 miles to the +south, his capital; but Shah Jehan, the monarch of magnificent tastes, +who built the Taj, attracted by the mighty memories of this Rome of +Asia, returned to Delhi, and here laid the foundations of a city that +was to exceed all the capitals that had gone before it, if not in +size, at least in splendor. + +That distinction it still retains among the cities of India. Though +not a tenth of old Delhi in size, it has to-day over 160,000 +inhabitants. It is surrounded by walls seven miles in extent. We enter +under lofty arched gateways, and find ourselves in the midst of a +picturesque population, representing all the races of Southern and +Central Asia. The city is much gayer than Agra. Its streets are full +of people of all colors and costumes. Its shops are rich in Indian +jewelry, which is manufactured here, and in Cashmere shawls and other +Oriental fabrics; and in walking through the Chandney Chook, the +Broadway of Delhi, one might imagine himself in the bazaars of Cairo +or Constantinople. + +The Fort is very like that of Agra, being built of the same red +sandstone, but much larger, and encloses a Palace which Bishop Heber +thought superior to the Kremlin. In the Hall of Audience, which still +remains, stood the famous Peacock Throne, which is estimated to have +been worth thirty millions of dollars. Here the Great Mogul lived in a +magnificence till then unknown even in Oriental courts. At the time +that Louis XIV. was on the throne of France, a French traveller, +Tavernier, made his way to the East, and though he had seen all the +glory of Versailles, he was dazzled by this greater Eastern splendor. +But what a comment on the vanity of all earthly power, that the +monarch who built this Palace was not permitted to live in it! He was +dethroned by his son, the wily Aurungzebe, who imprisoned his father +and murdered his brother, to get possession of the throne. Shah Jehan +was taken back to Agra, and confined in the Fort, where he passed the +last years of his life. But as it is only a mile from the Taj, the +dethroned King, as he sat in his high tower, could see from his +windows the costly mausoleum he had reared. Death came at last to his +relief, as it comes alike to kings and captives, and he was laid in +his marble tomb, beside the wife he had so much loved. + +This story of crime is relieved by one of the most touching instances +of fidelity recorded in history. When all others deserted the fallen +monarch, there was one true heart that was faithful still. He had a +daughter, the favorite sister of that murdered brother, who shared her +father's captivity. She was famous throughout the East for her wit and +beauty, but sorrow brought out the nobler traits of her character. She +clung to her father, and thus comforted the living while she mourned +for the dead. She became very religious, and spent her life in deeds +of charity. She is not buried in the Taj Mahal, but at Delhi in a +humble grave. Lowly in spirit and broken in heart, she shrank from +display even in her tomb. She desired to be buried in the common +earth, with only the green turf above her. There she sleeps beneath a +lowly mound (though surrounded by costly marble shrines), and near the +head is a plain tablet, with an inscription in Persian, which reads: +"Let no rich canopy cover my grave. This grass is the best covering +for the tomb of one who was poor in spirit--the humble, the transitory +Jehanara, the disciple of the holy men of Cheest, the daughter of the +Emperor Shah Jehan." Was there ever a more touching inscription? As I +stood by this grave, on which the green grass was growing, and read +these simple words, I was more moved than even when standing by the +marble sarcophagus under the dome of the Taj. That covered an +Emperor's wife, and was the monument of a royal husband's affection; +this recalled a daughter's fidelity--broken in heart, yet loving and +faithful, and devoted to the last. + +But humiliations were to come to the house of Aurungzebe. As Louis +XIV. on his deathbed had to mourn his haughty policy, which had ended +in disaster and defeat, so Aurungzebe was hardly in his grave when +troubles gathered round his house.[3] About thirty years after, a +conqueror from Persia, Nadir Shah, came down from the passes of the +Himalayas, ravaged the North of India to the gates of Delhi, plundered +the city and the palace, and carried off the Peacock Throne--putting +out the eyes of the Great Mogul, telling him in bitter mockery that +he had no more need of his throne, since he had no longer eyes to see +it! + +Other sorrows followed hard after. The kingdom was overrun by the +terrible Mahrattas, whose horses' hoofs had so often trampled the +plains of India. Then came the English, who took Delhi at the +beginning of this century. But still the phantom of the old Empire +lived, and there was an Indian Rajah, who bore the sounding name of +the Great Mogul. The phantom continued till the Mutiny twenty years +ago, when this "King of Delhi" was set up by the Sepoys as their +rallying cry. The overthrow of the Rebellion was the end of his house. +His sons were put to death, and he was sent into exile, and the Great +Mogul ceased to reign. + +But though he no longer reigns in Delhi, yet it is one of the chief +centres of Islam in the world. Queen Victoria has more Mohammedan +subjects than the Sultan. There are forty millions of Moslems in +India. Delhi is their Mecca. It has some forty mosques, whose tall +minarets and gilded domes produce a very brilliant effect. One +especially, the Jumma Musjid, is the most magnificent in India. It +stands on a high terrace, mounted by long flights of steps, which give +it an imposing effect. Huge bronze doors open into a large court, with +a fountain in the centre, and surrounded by arched passages, like +cloisters. Here are preserved with religious care some very ancient +copies of the Koran, and the footprint of Mohammed in black marble (!), +and (holiest relic of all) a coarse red hair, which is said to have +been plucked from the beard of the prophet! + +Nor is Mohammedanism in India a dead faith, whose fire has died out, +its forms only being still preserved. The recurrence of one of their +festivals arouses their religious zeal to the highest pitch of +fanaticism. We were in Delhi at the time of the Mohurrim, the Moslem +"Feast of Martyrs," designed to commemorate the bloody deaths of the +grandsons of Mohammed. Macaulay, in his review of the Life of Lord +Clive, gives an instance in which this day was chosen for a military +assault because of the frenzy with which it kindled all true +Mussulmans. He says: + + "It was the great Mohammedan festival, which is sacred to + the memory of Hosein, the son of Ali. The history of Islam + contains nothing more touching than the event which gave + rise to that solemnity. The mournful legend relates how the + chief of the Fatimites, when all his brave followers had + perished round him, drank his latest draught of water and + uttered his latest prayer; how the assassins carried his + head in triumph; how the tyrant smote the lifeless lips with + his staff; and how a few old men recollected with tears that + they had seen those lips pressed to the lips of the Prophet + of God. After the lapse of twelve centuries, the recurrence + of this solemn season excites the fiercest and saddest + emotions in the bosoms of the devout Moslems of India. They + work themselves up to such agonies of rage and lamentation, + that some, it is said, have given up the ghost from the mere + effect of mental excitement." + +Such was the celebration that we witnessed in Delhi. The martyrdom of +these Moslem saints is commemorated by little shrines in their houses, +made of paper and tinsel, and on the great day of the feast they go in +procession out of the city to a cemetery five miles distant, and there +bury them in hundreds of newly-opened graves. As we drove out of +Delhi, we found the procession on its march; men, women, and children +by tens of thousands on foot, and others in bullock-carts, or mounted +on horses, camels, and elephants. Immense crowds gathered by the +roadside, mounting the steps of old palaces, or climbing to the tops +of houses, to see this mighty procession pass, as it went rolling +forward in a wild frenzy to its Golgotha--its place of a skull. There +they lay down these images of their saints as they would bury their +dead. We went into the cemetery, and saw the open graves, and the +little shrines garlanded with flowers, that were laid in the earth, +not (so far as we saw) with weeping and wailing, but rather with a +feeling of triumph and victory. + +Leaving this scene of wild fanaticism, we rode on a few miles farther +to the Kootub Minar, the loftiest isolated tower in the world, that +has stood there six hundred years, looking down on all the strange +scenes that have passed within its horizon, since watchers from its +summit saw the armies of Tamerlane march by. We rode back through a +succession of ruins, stopping at several royal tombs, but most +interested in one where the sons of the aged king of Delhi took refuge +after the fall of the city, and from which they were taken out by +Captain Hodson, and shot in the presence of their deluded followers, +and their bodies exposed in the Chandney Chook, to the terror of the +wretched people, who had seen the cruelty of these young princes, and +were awed to see the retribution that overtook those who had stained +their hands with blood. + +This tragedy took place less than twenty years ago, and recalls that +recent history from which fresh interest gathers round the walls of +Delhi. This city played a great part in the Mutiny of 1857. Indeed it +broke out at Meerut, thirty miles from here, where the Sepoys rose +upon their officers, and massacred the Europeans of both sexes, and +then rushed along the road to Delhi, to rouse the natives here to +mutiny. Had those in command anticipated such a blow, they might have +rallied their little force, and shut themselves up in the Fort (as was +done at Agra), with provisions and ammunition for a siege, and there +kept the tigers at bay. But they could not believe that the native +troops, that had been obedient till now, could "turn and rend them." +They were undeceived when they saw these Sepoys drunk with blood, +rushing into the town, calling on their fellow-soldiers to rise and +kill. Many perished on the spot. But they fell not ingloriously. A +brave officer shut himself up in the Arsenal, and when the mutineers +had gathered around, ready to burst in, applied the torch, and blew +himself and a thousand natives into the air. The little handful of +troops fled from the town, and were scarcely able to rally enough to +be safe even at a distance. But then rose the unconquerable English +spirit. With this small nucleus of an army, and such reinforcements as +could be brought from the Punjaub, they held out through the long, +dreadful Summer, till in September they had mustered all together +seven thousand men (half of whom were natives), with which they +proposed to assault a walled city held by sixty thousand native +troops! Planting their guns on the Ridge, a mile or two distant, they +threw shells into the town, and as their fire took effect, they +advanced their lines nearer and nearer. But they did not advance +unopposed. Many of the Sepoys were practised artillerists (since the +Mutiny all the artillery regiments in India are English), and answered +back with fatal aim. Still, though the English ranks were thinned, +they kept pushing on; they came nearer and nearer, and the roar of +their guns was louder and louder. Approaching the walls at one point, +they wished to blow up the Cashmere Gate. It was a desperate +undertaking. But when was English courage known to fail? A dozen men +were detailed for the attempt. Four natives carried bags of powder on +their shoulders, but as they drew within rifle range, English soldiers +stepped up to take their places, for they would not expose their +native allies to a danger which they were ready to encounter +themselves. The very daring of the movement for an instant bewildered +the enemy. The Sepoys within saw these men coming up to the gate, but +thinking perhaps that they were deserters, did not fire upon them, and +it was not till they darted back again that they saw the design. Then +came the moment of danger, when the mine was to be fired. A sergeant +advanced quickly, but fell mortally wounded; a second sprang to the +post, but was shot dead; the third succeeded, but fell wounded; the +fourth rushed forward, and seeing the train lighted sprang into the +moat, the bullets whizzed over him, and the next instant a tremendous +explosion threw the heavy wall into the air. + +Such are the tales of courage still told by the camp-fires of the +regiments here. More than once did we walk out to the Cashmere Gate, +and from that point followed the track of the English troops as they +stormed the city, pausing at the spot where the brave General +Nicholson fell. With mingled pride and sadness, we visited his grave, +and those of others who fell in the siege. The English church is +surrounded with them, and many a tablet on its walls tells of the +heroic dead. Such memories are a legacy to the living. We attended +service there, and as we saw the soldiers filing into the church, and +heard the swords of their officers ringing on the pavement, we felt +that the future of India was safe when committed to such brave +defenders! + +This church was standing during the siege, and above it rose a gilded +ball, supporting a cross, which was an object of hatred to both +Mohammedan and Hindoo, who wished to see this symbol of our religion +brought to the ground. Again and again they aimed their guns at it, +and the globe was riddled with balls, but still _the cross stood_, +until the city was completely subdued, when it was reverently taken +down by English hands, and carried to the Historical Museum, to be +kept as a sacred relic. May we not take this as a sign of the way in +which the Christian faith will stand against all the false religions +of India? + +But I turn from battles and sieges to a lighter picture. One may find +great amusement in the street scenes of Delhi, which will relieve +these "dun clouds of war." In the Mohammedan procession we had seen +hundreds of the drollest little carts, drawn by oxen, on which the +natives were stuck like pins, the sight of which, with the loads of +happy life they bore, excited our envy. Before leaving Delhi, we +thought it would be very "nice" to take a turn around the town in one +of these extraordinary vehicles. We had tried almost every kind of +locomotion; we had ridden on horses and donkeys, on camels and +elephants, and had been borne in palanquins; but one more glory +awaited us--to ride in a "bali,"--and so we commanded one to attend +us for our royal pleasure. But when it drew up in the yard of the +hotel, we looked at it in amazement. There stood the oxen, as ready to +draw us as a load of hay; but what a "chariot" was this behind! It was +a kind of baby-house on cart-wheels--a cushion and a canopy--one seat, +with a sort of umbrella over it, under which a native "lady" sits in +state, with her feet curled up between her. How we were to get into it +was the question. There were three of us, for the surgeon of the +Peshawur had joined us. C. of course had the place of honor, while the +Doctor and I sat on the edge of the seat, with our lower limbs +extended at right angles. The "bali" is rigged somewhat like an Irish +jaunting-car, in which one sits sidewise, hanging over the wheels; +only in a jaunting-car there is a board for the feet to rest upon, +whereas here the feet are literally "nowhere." In the East there is no +provision for the lower part of a man. Legs are very much in the way. +A Turk or Hindoo curls them up under him, and has done with them. But +if an impracticable European will dangle them about where they ought +not to be, he must take the consequences. I find that the only way is +to look out for the main chance--to see that the body is safe, and let +the legs take care of themselves. Then if an accident happens, I am +not responsible; I have done my duty. So we now "faced the situation," +and while the central personage reposed like a Sultana on a soft +divan, her attendants faced in either direction, with their +extremities flying all abroad. We felt as if sitting on the edge of a +rickety chair, that might break any moment and pitch us into the +street. But we held fast to the slender bamboo reeds that supported +the canopy, and, thrusting our feet into the air, bade the chariot +proceed. + +The driver sits astride the tongue of the cart, and sets the thing +going by giving the animals a kick in the rear, or seizing the tails +and giving them a twist, which sets the beasts into an awkward, +lumbering gallop. He was proud of his team, and wished to show us +their mettle, and now gave the tails a Herculean twist, which sent +them tearing like mad bulls along the street. Everybody turned to look +at us, while we laughed at the absurdity of our appearance, and wished +that we could have our photograph taken to send home. Thus we rode to +the great Mosque of the city, and through the Chandney Chook, the +street of the bazaars, and back to our hotel, having had glory enough +for one day. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] There are many parallels between Louis XIV. and Aurungzebe. They +were contemporaries--and both had long reigns, the former a little +over, and the latter a little less than, half a century. They were the +most splendid sovereigns of their time--one in Europe, and the other +in Asia, and with both the extravagance and prodigality of the +monarchs prepared the way for revolution after their deaths. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +FROM DELHI TO LAHORE. + + +Times have changed since twenty years ago, when Delhi was the head and +front of the Rebellion. It is now as tranquil and loyal as any city in +India. As we rode out to the Ridge, where the English planted their +guns during the siege, we found it surmounted by a lofty Memorial +Tower, reared to mark the spot where the courage of a few thousand men +saved India. So completely is the English power re-established, that +Delhi was lately chosen over all Indian cities as the one where should +be gathered the most imposing display of troops to do honor to their +future sovereign, the Prince of Wales. Some forty regiments, native +and English, were mustered here to form a grand Camp of Exercise. +Never before had India witnessed such a military display. Here were +native regiments in the picturesque costumes of the East--the superb +Sikh cavalry; a corps of guides mounted on camels; and heavy artillery +drawn by elephants, which, as they came before the Prince, threw up +their trunks and trumpeted a salute to the Majesty of England. Two +weeks passed in military manoeuvres, and the nights in a constant +round of festivities. The Fort was brilliantly illuminated, and the +Palace was thronged with "fair women and brave men," but they were +those of another race, and speaking another language, from any known +to the Great Mogul. Manly English forms took the place of the dusky +Hindoos, and bright English eyes shone where once the beauties of the +Seraglio "looked out from the lattice." As we walked through these +marble halls that had just witnessed these splendid festivities, I +could but think, What would the old fanatical Mohammedan Aurungzebe +have said, if he could have seen, less than two hundred years after +his day, a Christian prince from that distant island of which he had +perhaps scarcely heard, received in his palace, the heir of a power +ten thousand miles away, that from its seat on the banks of the Thames +stretches out its hand across the seas to grasp and hold the vast +empire of the house of Tamerlane? + +The change has been from darkness to light. If England has not done as +much for Delhi as the Great Mogul to give it architectural beauty, it +has done far more for the people. It has given them good government +for their protection, just laws rigidly enforced against the rich as +well as the poor, a police which preserves perfect order; and it even +cares for the material comfort of its subjects, giving them good +roads, clean and well-lighted streets, and public gardens; thus +providing for ornament and pleasure as well as for utility. + +The Camp of Exercise was breaking up as we left Delhi, and the troops +were marching home. We saw them filing out of the gates of the city, +and drew up by the roadside to see the gallant warriors pass. Among +them was the corps of Sikh guides, or couriers, mounted on "swift +dromedaries." As they were scattered along the road, our guide asked +some of them to show us how they could go. In an instant they dashed +their feet against the sides of their "coursers," and set them off at +full speed. I cannot say that they were very beautiful objects. The +camel with his long strides, and with the legs of his rider outspread +like the wings of a bird, looked like an enormous ostrich flying at +once with legs and wings in swift chase over the desert. But certainly +it was a picturesque sight. The infantry marched in column. The +spectacle was very gay, as the morning sun shone on the waving banners +and gleaming bayonets, and the sound of their bugles died away in the +distance. Regiments had been leaving for days, and were scattered at +intervals far to the North. As we travelled at night, we saw their +camp-fires for a hundred miles. Indeed the whole country seemed to be +a camp. Once or twice we came upon a regiment at sunset, just as they +had pitched their tents. They had parked their guns, and picketed +their horses, and the men were cooking their evening meal. It was a +busy scene for an hour or two, till suddenly all became quiet, and the +silence of night was broken only by the sentinel's tramp and the +jackal's cry. + +At Gazeeabad we met Sir Bartle Frere, the chief of the suite of the +Prince of Wales, and Canon Duckworth, his chaplain, who were going +North on the same train, and found them extremely courteous. The +former, I think, must be of French descent from his name (although his +family has been settled in England for generations), and from his +manners, which seemed to me more French than English, or rather to +have the good qualities of both. When French courtesy is united with +English sincerity, it makes the finest gentleman in the world. He is +an "old Indian," having been many years in the Indian service, and at +one time Governor of Bombay. I could but share the wish (which I heard +often expressed) that in the change which was just taking place, he +were to be the new Governor-General of India. + +Canon Duckworth seemed to me also a very "manly man." Though coming to +India in the train of royalty, he is much less interested in the fêtes +which are setting the country ablaze, than in studying missions, +visiting native churches and schools and orphanages. Our American +missionaries like his bearing, and wish that he might be appointed the +new Bishop of Bombay. One fact should be mentioned to his credit--that +he is one of the strongest temperance men in England, carrying his +principles and his practice to the point of rigid total abstinence, +which, for one travelling in such company, and sitting at such +entertainments, shows a firmness in resisting temptation, greatly to +his honor. It is a good sign when such men are chosen to accompany +the future King of England on his visit to this great dependency, over +which he is one day to rule. + +That night we had our first sight of the Himalayas. Just at evening we +saw on the horizon a fire spreading on the side of a mountain. It was +kindled by the natives, as fires are sometimes lighted in our forests +or on our prairies. There were the Himalayas! + +We now entered the most Northwestern Province of India, the Punjaub, +which signifies in Persian "the land of the five streams," which +coming together like the fingers of a hand, make the Indus. About +midnight we crossed the Sutlej, which was the limit of the conquests +of Alexander the Great. + +Morning brought us to Umritzur, the holy city of the Sikhs--a sect of +reformed Hindoos, who began their "reforms" by rejecting idolatry, but +have found the fascination of the old worship too strong for them, and +have gradually fallen back into their old superstitions. Their most +holy place is a temple standing in the centre of a large tank of +water, which they call the Lake of Immortality, and with its pure +white marble, and its roof made of plates of copper, richly gilded, +merits the title of the Golden Temple. This is a very holy place, and +they would not let us even cross the causeway to it without taking off +our shoes; and when we put on slippers, and shuffled about, still they +followed, watching us with sharp eyes, lest by any unguarded step we +should profane their sanctuary. They are as fanatical as Mussulmans, +and glared at us with such fierce looks that the ladies of our party +were almost frightened. In the centre of the temple sat two priests, +on raised mats, to whom the rest were making offerings, while half a +dozen musicians kept up a hideous noise, to which the people responded +in a way that reminded us of the Howling Dervishes of Constantinople. + +A pleasant change from this disgusting scene was a visit to the +bazaars, and to the places where Cashmere shawls are manufactured. Of +the latter I must say that (as a visit to a dirty kitchen does not +quicken one's appetite for the steaming dinner that comes from it), if +our fine ladies could see the dens in which these shawls are woven, +they might not wear them with quite so much pride. They are close, +narrow rooms, in which twenty or thirty men are crowded together, +working almost without light or air. The only poetical thing about it +is that the patterns are written out _in rhyme_, which they read or +sing as they weave, and thus keep the patterns so regular. But the +rooms themselves seem like breeding places for the cholera and the +plague. But out of this filth comes beauty, as a flower shoots up from +the damp, black soil. Some of the shawls were indeed exquisite in +pattern and fabric. One was offered to us for eight hundred rupees +(four hundred dollars), which the dealer said had taken two years and +a half in its manufacture! + +We left Umritzur at five o'clock, and in a couple of hours rolled into +the station at Lahore. As the train stopped a friendly voice called +our name, and we were greeted most heartily by Dr. Newton, the father +of the Mission. Coolies were waiting to carry our baggage, and in a +few minutes we were in an American home, sitting before a blazing +fire, and receiving a welcome most grateful to strangers on the other +side of the world. Dr. Newton is the head of a missionary family, his +four sons being engaged in the same work, while his only daughter is +the wife of Mr. Forman, another missionary. Very beautiful it was to +see how they all gathered round their father, so revered and beloved, +happy to devote their lives to that form of Christian activity to +which he had led them both by instruction and example. Here we spent +four happy days in one of the most pleasant homes in India. + +Lahore, like Delhi, has a historical interest. It was a great city a +thousand years ago. In 1241 it was taken and plundered by Genghis +Khan; a century and a half later came Tamerlane, who did not spoil it +only because it was too poor to reward his rapacity. But as it +recovered a little of its prosperity, Baber, in 1524, plundered it and +partially burnt it. But again it rose from its ashes, and became a +great city. The period of its glory was during the time of the Moguls, +when it covered a space eighteen miles in circumference, and this vast +extent is still strewn with the ruins of its former greatness. Huge +mounds, like those which Layard laid open at Nineveh, cover the mighty +wreck of former cities. + +But though the modern city bears no comparison to the ancient, still +it has a political and commercial importance. It is the capital of the +Punjaub, and a place of commerce with Central Asia. The people are the +finest race we have seen in India. They are not at all like the +effeminate Bengalees. They are the Highlanders of India. Tall and +athletic, they seem born to be warriors. Their last great ruler, old +Runjeet Sing, was himself a soldier, and knew how to lead them to +victory. Uniting policy with valor, he kept peace with the English, +against whom his successors dashed themselves and were destroyed. All +readers of Indian history will remember the Sikh war, and how +desperate was the struggle before the Punjaub was subdued. But English +prowess conquered at last, and the very province that had fought so +bravely became the most loyal part of the Indian empire. It was +fortunate that at the breaking out of the mutiny the Governor of the +Punjaub was Sir John Lawrence, who had a great ascendancy over the +natives, and by his courage and prompt measures he succeeded not only +in keeping them quiet, but in mustering here a considerable force to +restore English authority in the rest of India. The Punjaubees took +part in the siege of Delhi. From that day they have been the most +trusted of natives for their courage and their fidelity. They are +chosen for police duty in the cities of India, and three months later +we were much pleased to recognize our old friends keeping guard and +preserving order in the streets of Hong Kong. + +Old Runjeet Sing is dead--and well dead, as I can testify, having seen +his tomb, where his four wives and seven concubines, that were burnt +on his funeral pile, are buried with him. His son too sleeps in a tomb +near by, but only seven widowed women were sacrificed for him, and for +a grandson only four! Thus there was a falling off in the glory of the +old suttee, and then the light of these fires went out altogether. +These were the last widows burnt on the funeral pile, and to-day the +old Lion of the Punjaub is represented by his son Maharajah Dhuleep +Sing, of whose marriage we heard such a romantic story in Cairo, and +who now lives with his Christian wife in Christian England. + +We had now reached almost the frontier of India. Two hundred and fifty +miles farther we should have come to Peshawur, the last military post, +on the border of Afghanistan, which no man crosses but at the peril of +his life. We find how far North we have come by the race and the +language of the people. Persian begins to be mingled with Hindostanee. +In the streets of Lahore we meet not only the stalwart Punjaubees, but +the hill tribes, that have come out of the fastnesses of the +Himalayas; the men of Cabul--Afghans and Beloochees--who have a +striking resemblance to the Circassians, who crossed the Mediterranean +with us on their pilgrimage to Mecca, the long dresses of coarse, +dirty flannel, looking not unlike the sheepskin robes of the wild +mountaineers of the Caucasus. + +One cannot be so near the border line of British India without having +suggested the possibility of a Russian invasion, the fear of which has +been for the last twenty years (since the Mutiny and since the Crimean +War) the bugbear of certain writers who are justly jealous of the +integrity of the English Empire in the East. Russia has been steadily +pushing Eastward, and establishing her outposts in Central Asia. These +gradual advances, it is supposed, are all to the end of finally +passing through Afghanistan, and attacking the English power in India. +The appearance of Russian soldiers in the passes of the Hindoo Koosh, +it is taken for granted, will be the signal for a general insurrection +in India; the country will be in a state of revolution; and at the end +of a struggle in which Russians and Hindoos will fight together +against the English, the British power will have departed never to +return. Or even should the Russians be held back from actual invasion, +their approach in a threatening attitude would be such a menace to the +Indian Empire, as would compel England to remain passive, while Russia +carried out her designs in Europe by taking possession of +Constantinople. + +This is a terrible prospect, and no one can say that it is impossible +that all this should yet come to pass. India has been invaded again +and again from the time of Alexander the Great. Even the mighty wall +of the Himalayas has not proved an effectual barrier against invasion. +Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, with their Tartar hordes, crossed the +mountains and swept over the plains of Northern India. A King of +Persia captured Delhi, and put out the eyes of the Great Mogul, and +carried off the Peacock Throne of Aurungzebe. What has been, may be; +what Persia has done, Russia may do. + +But while no one can say that it is impossible, all can see that the +difficulties are enormous. The distance to be traversed, the deserts +and the mountains to be crossed, are so many obstacles set up by +nature itself. An army from the Caspian Sea must march thousands of +miles over great deserts, where even a small caravan can hardly +subsist, and then only by carrying both food to eat and water to +drink. Many a caravan is buried by the sands of the desert. What then +must be the difficulty of passing a whole army over such a distance +and such a desert, with food for men and horses, and carrying guns and +all the munitions of war! Five years ago, Russia attempted a campaign +against Khiva, and sent out three separate expeditions, one of which +was forced to turn back, not by hostile armies, but by the natural +obstacles in its path, while the main column, under Gen. Kaufman, came +very near succumbing to heat and thirst before reaching its +destination. But if the deserts are crossed, then the army is at the +foot of the loftiest mountains on the globe, in the passes of which it +may have to fight against savage enemies. It is assumed that Russia +will have the support of Afghanistan, which will give them free access +to the country, and aid them in their march on India; though how a +government and people, which are fanatically Mussulman, should aid +Russia, which in Europe is the bitterest enemy of Turkey, the great +Mohammedan power, is a point which these alarmists seem not to +consider. + +But suppose all difficulties vanquished--the deserts crossed and the +mountains scaled, and the Russians descending the passes of the +Himalayas--what an army must they meet at its foot! Not a feeble race, +like that which fled before Nadir Shah or Tamerlane. With the railways +traversing all India, almost the whole Anglo-Indian army could be +transported to the Punjaub in a few days, and ready to receive the +invaders. + +With these defences in the country itself, add another supreme fact, +that England is absolute master of the sea, and that Russia has no +means of approach except over the deserts and the mountains, and it +will be seen that the difficulties in the way of a Russian invasion +render it practically impossible, at least for a long time to come. +What may come to pass in another century, no man can foresee; but of +this I feel well assured, that there will be no Russian invasion +within the lifetime of this generation. + +We had now reached the limit of our journey to the North, though we +would have gladly gone farther. Dr. Newton had spent the last summer +in Cashmere, and told us much of its beauty. We longed to cross the +mountains, but it was too early in the year. The passes were still +blocked up with snow. It would be months before we could make our way +over into the Vale of Cashmere. And so, though we "lifted up our eyes +unto the hills," we had to turn back from seeing the glory beyond. +Might we not comfort ourselves by saying with Mohammed, as he looked +down upon Damascus, "There is but one Paradise for man, and I will +turn away my eyes from this, lest I lose that which is to come." + +And so we turned away our eyes from beholding Paradise. But we had +seen enough. So we thought as on Saturday evening we rode out to the +Shalamir gardens, where an emperor had made a retreat, and laid out +gardens with fountains, and every possible accompaniment of luxury and +pride. All remains as he left it, but silent and deserted. Emperor and +court are gone, and as we walked through the gardens, our own footfall +on the marble pavement was the only sound that broke the stillness of +the place. But the beauty is as great as ever under the clear, full +moon, which, as we rode back, recalled the lines of Scott on Melrose: + + "And home returning, sooth declare, + Was ever scene so sad and fair?" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A WEEK IN THE HIMALAYAS. + + +Ever since we landed in India my chief desire has been to see the +Himalayas. I had seen Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, and +now wished to look upon the highest mountains in Asia, or the world. +To reach them we had travelled nearly fifteen hundred miles. We had +already had a distant view of them at night, lighted up by fires +blazing along their sides; but to come into their presence one must +leave the railway and cross the country some forty miles. + +We left Lahore Monday morning, and at noon were at Lodiana, a place +with sacred missionary associations; which we left at midnight, and in +the morning reached Saharanpur, where also is one of our Presbyterian +missions. Rev. Mr. Calderwood met us at the station, and made us +welcome to his home, and sped us on our way to the Hills. + +Saharanpur is forty-two miles distant from Dehra Doon, the beautiful +valley which lies at the foot of the Himalayas. A mail wagon runs +daily, but as it suited our convenience better, we chartered a vehicle +not unlike an omnibus, and which the natives, improving on the +English, call an _omnibukus_. It is a long covered _gharri_, that +looks more like a prison van than anything else to which I can compare +it, and reminded me of the Black Maria that halts before the Tombs in +New York to convey prisoners to Blackwell's Island. There are only two +seats running lengthwise, as they are made to lie down upon in case of +necessity. Much of the travelling is at night, and "old Indians," who +are used to the ways of the country, will spread their "resais" and +sleep soundly over all the joltings of the road. But we could sleep +about as well inside of a bass drum. So we gave up the idea of repose, +and preferred to travel by day to see the country, for which this sort +of conveyance is very well contrived. The canvas top keeps off the +sun, while the latticed slides (which are regular green blinds), drawn +back, give a fine view of the country as we go rolling over the road. +Our charioteer, excited by the promise of a liberal backsheesh if he +should get us into Dehra Doon before nightfall, drove at full speed. +Every five or six miles the blast of his horn told those at the next +stage that somebody was coming, and that a relay of fresh horses must +be ready. As we approached the hills he put on an extra horse, and +then two, so that we were driving four-in-hand. Then as the hills grew +steeper, he took two mules, with a horse in front as a leader, mounted +by a postilion, who, with his white dress and turbaned head, made a +very picturesque appearance. How gallantly he rode! He struck his +heels into the spirited little pony and set him into a gallop, which +the mules could but follow, and so we went tearing up hill and down +dale at a furious rate; while the coachman blew his horn louder still +to warn common folks to get out of the way, and the natives drew to +the roadside, wondering what great man it was who thus dashed by. + +But horses and mules were not enough to sustain such a load of +dignity, and at the last stage the driver took a pair of the beautiful +white hump-backed oxen of the country, which drew us to the top of the +pass. The hills which we thus cross are known as the Sewalic range. +The top once attained, two horses were quite enough to take us down, +and we descended rapidly. And now rose before us a vision of beauty +such as we had not seen in all India. The vale of Dehra Doon is +enclosed between two walls of mountains--the Sewalic range on one +side, and the first range of the Himalayas on the other. It is fifteen +miles wide, and about sixty miles long, extending from the Jumna to +the Ganges. Thus it lies between two mountains and two rivers, and +has a temperature and a moisture which keep it in perpetual green. +Nothing can be more graceful than the tall feathery bamboos, which +here grow to a great height. Here are fine specimens of the peepul +tree--the sacred tree of India, massive as an English oak--and groves +of mangoes. Everything seems to grow here--tea, coffee, tobacco, +cinnamon, cloves. The appearance of this rich valley, thus covered +with groves and gardens, to us coming from the burnt plains of India, +was like that of a garden of Paradise. Riding on through this mass of +foliage, we rattled into the town, but were not obliged to "find our +warmest welcome at an inn." Rev. Mr. Herron had kindly invited us to +accept his hospitality, and so we inquired for "Herron-sahib," and +were driven along a smooth road, embowered in bamboos, to the +Missionary Compound, where a large building has been erected for a +Female Seminary, chiefly by the labors of Messrs. Woodside and Herron, +the latter of whom is in charge of the institution, one of the most +complete in India. Here we were most cordially received, and found how +welcome, in the farthest part of the world, is the atmosphere of an +American home. + +But once in presence of the great mountains, we were impatient to +climb the first range, to get a view of the snows. Mr. Herron offered +to keep us company. We rose at four the next morning, while the stars +were still shining, and set out, but could ride only five miles in a +carriage, when we came to the foot of the hills, and were obliged to +take to the saddle. Our "syces" had led three horses alongside, which +we mounted just as the starlight faded, and the gray light of day +began to show over the mountain-tops, while our attendants, light of +foot, kept by our side in case their services were needed. + +And now we begin the ascent, turning hither and thither, as the road +winds along the sides of the mountain. The slope of the Himalayas is +not a smooth and even one, rising gently through an unbroken forest. +The mountain side has been torn by the storms of thousands of years. +In the spring, when the snows melt and the rains come, every torrent +whose rocky bed is now bare, becomes a foaming flood, rushing down the +hills, and tearing its way through the lowlands, till lost in the +Jumna or the Ganges. Thus the mountain is broken into innumerable +spurs and ridges that shoot out into the valley. Where the scanty +herbage can gather like moss on the rocks, there is grazing for sheep +and goats and cattle; and these upland pastures, like those of the +Alps or the Tyrol, are musical with the tinkling of bells. High up on +the mountains they are dark with pines; while on the inner ranges of +the Himalayas the mighty cedars "shake like Lebanon." + +One can imagine how lovely must be the Vale of Dehra Doon, with its +mass of verdure, set in the midst of such rugged mountains. Although +we were climbing upward, we could but stop, as we came to turning +points in the road, to look back into the valley. Sometimes a +projecting ledge of rock offered a fine point of view, on which we +reined up our horses; or an old oak, bending its gnarled limbs over +us, made a frame to the picture, through which we looked down into the +fairest of Indian vales, unless it be the Vale of Cashmere. From such +a point the landscape seemed to combine every element of +beauty--plains, and woods, and streams and mountains. Across the +valley rises the long serrated ridge of the Sewalic range. Within this +space is enclosed a great variety of surface--undulating in hill and +valley, with green meadows, and villages, and gardens, while here and +there, along the banks of the streams, whose beds are now dry, are +belts of virgin forest. + +The industry of the people, which turns every foot of soil to account, +is shown by the way in which the spurs of the mountains are terraced +to admit of cultivation. Wherever there is an acre of level ground, +there is a patch of green, for the wheat fields are just springing +up; and even spaces of but a few rods are planted with potatoes. Thus +the sides of the Himalayas are belted with lines of green, like the +sides of the Alps as one descends into Italy. The view is especially +beautiful at this morning hour as the sun rises, causing the dews to +lift from the valley, while here and there a curl of smoke, rising +through the mist, marks the place of human habitation. + +But we must prick up our horses, for the sun is up, and we are not yet +at the top. It is a good ride of two hours (we took three) to the +ridge on which are built the two "hill stations" of Mussoorie and +Landour--which are great resorts of the English during the summer +months. These "stations" do not deserve the name of towns; they are +merely straggling Alpine villages. Indeed nowhere in the Alps is there +such a cluster of houses at such a height, or in such a spot. There is +no "site" for a regular village, no place for a "main street." One +might as well think of "laying out" a village along the spine of a +sharp-backed whale, as on this narrow mountain ridge. There is hardly +an acre of level ground, only the jagged ends of hills, or points of +rocks, from which the torrents have swept away the earth on either +side, leaving only the bare surface. Yet on these points and +edges--wherever there is a shelf of rock to furnish a foundation, the +English have built their pretty bungalows, which thus perched in air, +7,500 feet high, look like mountain eyries, and might be the home of +the eagles that we see sailing over the valley below. From such a +height do they look over the very top of the Sewalic range to the +great plains of India. + +But we did not stop at this mountain to look back. Dashing through the +little straggling bazaar of Landour, we spurred on to the highest +point, "Lal Tiba"; from which we hoped for the great view of "the +snows." We reached the spot at nine o'clock, but as yet we saw "only +in part." Our final vision was to come three days later. Away to the +North and East the horizon was filled with mountains, whose summits +the foot of man had never trod, but the intervening distance was +covered with clouds, out of which rose the snowy domes, like islands +in a sea. + +My first impression of the Himalayas was one of disappointment, partly +because we "could not come nigh unto" them. We saw their summits, but +at such a distance that they did not look so high as Mont Blanc, where +we could come "even to his feet" in the Vale of Chamouni. But the +Himalayas were seventy miles off,[4] filling the whole horizon. Nor +did they rise up in one mighty chain, like the Cordilleras of Mexico, +standing like a wall of rock and snow against the sky; but seemed +rather a sea of mountains, boundless and billowy, rising range on +range, one overtopping the other, and rolling away to the heart of +Asia; or, to change the figure, the mountains appeared as an ice +continent, like that of the Polar regions, tossed up here and there +into higher and still higher summits, but around which, stretching +away to infinity, was the wild and interminable sea. + +Thus the view, though different from what I expected, was very grand, +and though we had not yet the full, clear vision, yet the sight was +sublime and awful, perhaps even more so from the partial obscurity, as +great clouds came rolling along the snowy heights, as if the heavenly +host uprose at the coming of the day, and were moving rank on rank +along the shining battlements. + +We had hoped by waiting a few hours to get an unobstructed view, but +the clouds seemed to gather rather than disperse, warning us to hasten +our descent. + +In going up the mountain, C---- had kept along with us on horseback, +but the long ride to one not used to the saddle had fatigued her so +that on the return she was glad to accept Mr. Herron's offer of a +_dandi_, a chair borne by two men, which two others accompanied as +relays, while we, mounted as before, followed as outriders. Thus +mustering our little force, we began to descend the mountain. + +A mile or so from the top we turned aside at the house of a gentleman +who was a famous hunter, and who had a large collection of living +birds, pheasants and manauls, while the veranda was covered with tiger +and leopard skins. He was absent, but his wife (who has the spirit and +courage of a huntress, and had often brought down a deer with her own +hand) was there, and bade us welcome. She showed us her birds, both +living and stuffed, the number of which made her house look like an +ornithological museum. To our inquiry she said, "The woods were full +of game. Two deer had been shot the evening before." + +We asked about higher game. She said that tigers were not common up on +the mountain as in the valley. She had two enormous skins, but "the +brutes" her husband had shot over in Nepaul. But leopards seemed to be +her special pets. When I asked, "Have you many leopards about here?" +she laughed as she answered, "I should think so." She often saw them +just across a ravine a few rods in front of her house, chasing goats +or sheep. "It was great fun." Of late they had become rather +troublesome in killing dogs. And so they had been obliged to set traps +for them. They framed a kind of cage, with two compartments, in one of +which they tied a dog, whose yelpings at night attracted the leopard, +who, creeping round and round, to get at his prey, at length dashed in +to seize the poor creature, but found bars between them, while the +trap closed upon him, and Mr. Leopard was a prisoner. In this way they +had caught four the last summer. Then this Highland lady came out from +her cottage, and with a rifle put an end to the leopard's career in +devouring dogs. The number of skins on the veranda told of their skill +and success. + +Pursuing my inquiry into the character of her neighbors, I asked, +"Have you any snakes about here?" "Oh no," she replied carelessly; +"that is to say not many. The cobras do not come up so high on the +mountain. But there is a serpent in the woods, a kind of python, but +he is a large, lazy creature, that doesn't do any mischief. One day +that my husband was out with his gun, he shot one that was eighteen +feet long. It was as big around as a log of wood, so that when I came +up I sat down and took my tiffin upon it." + +While listening to these tales, the clouds had been gathering, and now +they were piled in dark masses all around the horizon. The lightning +flashed, and we could hear the heavy though distant peals of thunder. +Presently the big drops began to fall. There was no time to be lost. +We could see that the rain was pouring in the valley, while heavy +peals came nearer and nearer, reverberating in the hollows of the +mountains. It was a grand spectacle of Nature, that of a storm in the +Himalayas. Thunder in front of us, thunder to the right of us, thunder +to the left of us! I never had a more exciting ride, except one like +it in the Rocky Mountains four years before. At our urgent request, +Mr. Herron spurred ahead, and galloped at full speed down the +mountain. I came more slowly with C---- in the _dandi_. But we did not +lose time, and after an hour's chase, in which we seemed to be running +the gauntlet of the storm, "dodging the rain," we were not a little +relieved, just as the scattered drops began to fall thicker and +faster, to come into the yard of the hotel at Rajpore. + +The brave fellows who had brought the dandi deserved a reward, +although Mr. Herron said they were his servants. I wanted to give them +a rupee each, but he would not hear of it, and when I insisted on +giving at least a couple of rupees for the four, which would be +twenty-five cents a piece, the poor fellows were so overcome with my +generosity that they bowed almost to the ground in acknowledgment, and +went off hugging each other with delight at the small fortune which +had fallen to them. + +At Rajpore the carriage was waiting for us, and under its cover from +the rain, we rode back, talking of the incidents of the day; and when +we got home and stretched ourselves before the blazing fire, the +subject was renewed. I have a boy's fondness for stories of wild +beasts, and listened with eager interest to all my host had to tell. +It was hard to realize that there were such creatures in such a lovely +spot. "Do you really mean to say," I asked, "that there are tigers +here in this valley?" "Yes," he answered, "within five miles of where +you are sitting now." He had seen one himself, and showed us the very +spot that morning as we rode out to the hills, when he pointed to a +ravine by the roadside, and said: "As I was riding along this road one +day with a lady, a magnificent Bengal tiger came up out of that +ravine, a few rods in front of us, and walked slowly across the road. +He turned to look at us, and we were greatly relieved when, after +taking a cool survey, he moved off into the jungle." + +But leopards are still more common and familiar. They have been in +this very dooryard, and on this veranda. One summer evening two years +ago, said Miss P., I was sitting on the gravelled walk to enjoy the +cool air, when an enormous creature brushed past but a step in front +between us and the house. At first we thought in the gloaming it might +be a dog of very unusual size, but as it glided past, and came into +the light of some cottages beyond, we perceived that it was a very +different beast. At another time a leopard crossed the veranda at +night, and brushed over the face of a native woman sleeping with her +child in her arms. It was well the beast was not hungry, or he would +have snatched the child, as they often do when playing in front of +native houses, and carried it off into the jungle. + +But we will rest to-night in sweet security in this missionary home, +without fear of wild beasts or thunder storms. The clouds broke away +at sunset, leaving a rich "after-glow" upon the mountains. It was the +clear shining after the rain. Just then I heard the voices of the +native children in the chapel, singing their hymns, and with these +sweet suggestions of home and heaven, "I will lay me down in peace and +sleep, for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety." + + * * * * * + +We had had a glimpse of the Himalayas, but the glimpse only made us +eager to get the full "beatific vision"; so, after resting a day, we +determined to try again, going up in the afternoon, and spending the +night, so as to have a double chance of seeing the snows--both at +sunset and at sunrise. This time we had also the company of Mr. +Woodside, beside whom I rode on horseback; while Mr. Herron gave his +escort to C----, who was "promoted" from a _dandi_ to a _jahnpan_, +which differs from the former only in that it is more spacious, and is +carried by four bearers instead of two. Thus mounted she was borne +aloft on men's shoulders. She said the motion was not unpleasant, +except that the men had a habit, when they came to some dangerous +point, turning a rock, or on the edge of a precipice, of changing +bearers, or swinging round the bamboo pole from one shoulder to +another, which made her a little giddy, as she was tossed about at +such a height, from which she could look down a gorge hundreds of feet +deep. However, she takes all dangers very lightly, and was enraptured +with the wildness and strangeness of the scene--to find herself, an +American girl, thus being transported over the mountains of Asia. + +So we took up our line of march for the hills, and soon found our +pulses beating faster. Why is it that we feel such exhilaration in +climbing mountains? Is it something in the air, that quickens the +blood, and reacts upon the brain? Or is it the sensation of rising +into a higher atmosphere, of "going up into heaven?" So it seemed that +afternoon, as we "left the earth" behind us, and went up steadily into +the clouds. + +I found that the Himalayas grew upon acquaintance. They looked more +grand the second time than the first. The landscape was changed by the +westering sun, which cast new lights and shadows across the valley, +and into the wooded bosom of the hills. To these natural beauties my +companion added the charm of historical associations. Few places in +India have more interest to the scholar. The Sewalic range was almost +the cradle of the Brahminical religion. Sewalic, or Sivalic, as it +might be written, means literally the hills of Shiva, or the hills of +the gods, where their worshippers built their shrines and worshipped +long before Christ was born in Bethlehem. The same ridge is a mine to +the naturalist. It is full of fossils, the bones of animals that +belonged to some earlier geological epoch. The valley has had a part +in the recent history of India. Here the Goorkas--one of the hill +tribes, which stood out longest against the English--fought their last +battle. It was on yonder wooded height which juts out like a +promontory into the plain, where the ruin of an old fort marks the +destruction of their power. Today the Goorkas, like the Punjaubees, +are among the most loyal defenders of English rule. + +At present the attraction of this valley for "old Indians" is not so +much in its historical or scientific associations, as the field which +it gives to the hunter. This belt of country, running about a hundred +miles along the foot of the Himalayas, is composed of forest and +jungle, and is a favorite habitat of wild beasts--tigers and leopards +and wild elephants. It was in this belt, called the Terai, though +further to the East, in Nepaul, that the Prince of Wales a few weeks +later made his great tiger-hunting expedition. He might perhaps have +found as good sport in the valley right under our eyes. "Do you see +that strip of woods yonder?" said Mr. Woodside, pointing to one four +or five miles distant. "That is full of wild elephants." An Indian +Rajah came here a year or two since for a grand hunt, and in two days +captured twenty-four. This is done by the help of tame elephants who +are trained for the purpose. A large tract of forest is enclosed, and +then by beating the woods, the herd is driven towards a corner, and +when once penned, the tame elephants go in among them, and by tender +caressing engage their attention, till the coolies slip under the huge +beasts and tie their feet with ropes to the trees. This done, they can +be left till subdued by hunger, when they are easily tamed for the +service of man. + +These creatures still have the range of the forests. In riding through +the woods one may often hear the breaking of trees, as wild elephants +crash through the dense thicket. I had supposed that all kinds of wild +beasts were very much reduced in India under English rule. The hunters +say they are so much so as to destroy the sport. But my companion +thinks not, for two reasons: the government has made stringent laws +against the destruction of forests; and since the mutiny the natives +are not allowed to carry fire-arms. + +We might have startled a leopard anywhere on the mountain side. A +young Scotchman whom we met with his rifle on his shoulder, said he +had shot two a fortnight ago, but that there was a very big one about, +which he had seen several times, but could never get a shot at, but he +hoped to bring him down before long. + +With such chat as this we trotted up the mountain road, till we came +to where it divides, where, leaving Mr. Herron and C---- to go on +straight to Landour, we turned to the left to make a flying visit to +the other hill station of Mussoorie. As we rode along, Mr. Woodside +pointed out to me the spot where, a few weeks before, his horse had +backed off a precipice, and been dashed to pieces. Fortunately he was +not on his back (he had alighted to make a call), or the horse and his +rider might have gone over together. As we wound up the road he +recalled another incident, which occurred several years ago: "I had +been to attend an evening reception at the Young Ladies' school (which +we had just left), and about eleven o'clock mounted to ride home. I +had a white horse, and it was a bright moonlight night, and as I rode +up the hill, just as I turned a corner in the road _there_ (pointing +to the spot) I saw a huge leopard crouching in the attitude of +preparing to spring. I rose up in the saddle (my friend is a man of +giant stature) and shouted at the top of my voice, and the beast, not +knowing what strange monster he had encountered, leaped over the bank +and disappeared." + +"The next day," he added, "I was telling the story to a gentleman, who +replied, 'You were very fortunate to escape so,' and then related an +incident of his own, in which a leopard sprang upon his horse, which +the fright caused to give such a bound that the brute fell off, and +the horse starting at full speed, they escaped. But he felt that the +escape was so providential that he had thanks returned in the church +the next Sabbath for his deliverance from a sudden death." + +Thus listening to my companion's adventures, we rode along the ridge +of Mussoorie to its highest point, which commands a grand view of the +Snowy Range. Here stands a convent, which educates hundreds of the +daughters of Protestant Englishmen, as well as those of its own faith. +Thus the Catholic Church plants its outposts on the very crests of the +mountains. + +At Landour is another Catholic institution (for boys) called St. +George's College, perhaps as a delicate flattery to Englishmen in +taking the name of their guardian saint. It has a chime of bells, +which at that height and that hour strikes the ear with singular and +touching effect. It may well stir up our Protestant friends, both to +admire and to imitate, as it furnishes a new proof of the omnipresence +of Rome, when the traveller finds its convents, and hears the chime of +its vesper bells, on the heights and amid the valleys of the +Himalayas. + +But the sun was sinking, and it was four miles from Mussoorie to +Landour, where we were to make our second attempt to see the snows. +Turning our horses, we rode at full speed along the ridge of the +mountain, and reached the top of Lal Tiba before sunset, but only to +be again disappointed. Northward and eastward the clouds hung upon the +great mountains. But if one part of the horizon was hidden, on the +other we looked over the top of the Sewalic range, to where the red +and fiery sun was sinking in a bank of cloud--not "clouds full of +rain," but merely clouds of dust, rolling upward "like the smoke of a +furnace" from the hot plains of India. In the foreground was the soft, +green valley of Dehra Doon, more beautiful from the contrast with the +burning plains beyond. It was a peaceful landscape, as the shadows of +evening were gathering over it. From this we turned to watch the light +as it crept up the sides of the mountains. The panorama was constantly +changing, and every instant took on some new feature of grandeur. As +daylight faded, another light flashed out behind us, for the mountains +were on fire. It is a custom of the people, who are herdsmen, to burn +off the low brush (as the Indians burned over the prairies), that the +grass may spring up fresh and green for their flocks and cattle; and +it was a fearful spectacle, that of these great belts of fire running +along the mountain side, and lighting up the black gorges below. + +Giving our horses to the guides to be led down the declivity, we +walked down a narrow path in the rocks that led to Woodstock, a female +seminary, built on a kind of terrace half a mile below--a most +picturesque spot (none the less romantic because a tiger had once +carried off a man from the foot of the ravine a few rods below the +house), and there, around a cheerful table, and before a roaring fire, +forgot the fatigues of the day, and hoped for sunshine on the morrow. + +It was not yet daylight when we awoke. The stars were shining when we +came out on the terrace, and the waning moon still hung its crescent +overhead. A faint light began to glimmer in the east. We were quickly +muffled up (for it was cold) and climbing up the steep path to Lal +Tiba, hoping yet trembling. I was soon out of breath, and had more +than once to sit down on the rocks to recover myself. But in a moment +I would rise and rush on again, so eager was I with hope, and yet so +fearful of disappointment. One more pull and we were on the top, and +behold the glory of God spread abroad upon the mountains! Our +perseverance was rewarded at last. There were the Himalayas--the great +mountains of India, of Asia, of the globe. The snowy range was in full +view for more than a hundred miles. The sun had not yet risen, but his +golden limb now touched the east, and as the great round orb rose +above the horizon, it seemed as if God himself were coming to illumine +the universe which he had created. One after another the distant peaks +caught the light upon their fields of snow, and sent it back as if +they were the shining gates of the heavenly city. One could almost +look up to them as Divine intelligences, and address them in the lines +of the old hymn: + + These glorious _minds_, how bright they shine, + Whence all their white array? + How came they to the happy seats + Of everlasting day? + +But restraining our enthusiasm for the moment, let us look at the +configuration of this Snowy Range, simply as a study in geography. We +are in presence of the highest mountains on the globe. We are on the +border of that table-land of Asia ("High Asia") which the Arabs in +their poetical language call "The Roof of the World." Yonder pass +leads over into Thibet. The trend of the mountains is from southeast +to northwest, almost belting the continent. Indeed, physical +geographers trace it much farther, following it down on one hand +through the Malayan Peninsula and on the other running it through the +Hindoo Koosh (or Caucasus) northwest to Mt. Ararat in Armenia; and +across into Europe, through Turkey and Greece, to the Alps and the +Pyrenees, forming what the Arabs call "The Stony Girdle of the Earth." +But the centre of that girdle, the clasp of that mighty zone, is here. + +It is difficult to form an idea of the altitude of mountains, when we +have no basis of comparison in those which are familiar. But nature +here is on another scale than we have seen it before. In Europe Mont +Blanc is "the monarch of mountains," but yonder peak, Nunda Davee, +which shows above the horizon at the distance of a hundred and ten +miles, is 25,600 feet high--that is, nearly two miles higher than Mont +Blanc! There are others still higher--Kinchinganga and Dwalaghiri--but +they are not in sight, as they are farther east in Nepaul. But from +Darjeeling, a hill station much frequented in the summer months by +residents of Calcutta, one may get an unobstructed view of Mount +Everest, 29,000 feet high, the loftiest summit on the globe. And here +before us are a number of peaks, twenty-two, twenty-three, and +twenty-four thousand feet high--higher than Chimborazo, or any peak of +the Andes. + +Perhaps the Himalayas are less impressive than the Alps _in +proportion_, because the snow line is so much higher. In Switzerland +we reach the line of perpetual snow at 8,900 feet, so that the +Jungfrau, which is less than 14,000 feet, has a full mile of snow +covering her virgin breast. But here the traveller must ascend 18,000 +feet, nearly two miles higher, before he comes to the line of +perpetual snow. It is considered a great achievement of the most +daring Alpine climbers to reach the top of the Jungfrau or the +Matterhorn, but here many of the _passes_ are higher than the summit +of either. Dr. Bellew, who accompanied the expedition of Sir Douglas +Forsyth three years since to Yarkund and Kashgar, told me they crossed +passes 19,000 feet high, nearly 4,000 feet higher than Mont Blanc. He +said they did not need a guide, for that the path was marked by bones +of men and beasts that had perished by the way; the bodies lying where +they fell, for no beast or bird lives at that far height, neither +vulture nor jackal, while the intense cold preserved the bodies from +decay. + +But the Himalayas are not all heights, but heights and depths. The +mountains are divided by valleys. From where we stand the eye sweeps +over the tops of nine or ten separate ranges, with valleys between, in +which are scattered hundreds of villages. The enterprising traveller +may descend into these deep places of the earth, and make his toilsome +way over one range after another, till he reaches the snows. But he +will find it a _fourteen days' march_. My companion had once spent six +weeks in a missionary tour among these villages. + +Wilson, the author of "The Abode of Snow,"[5] who spent months in +travelling through the Inner Himalayas, from Thibet to Cashmere, makes +a comparison of these mountains with the Alps. There are some +advantages to be claimed for the latter. Not only are they more +accessible, but combine in a smaller space more variety. Their sides +are more generally clothed with forests, which are mirrored in those +beautiful sheets of water that give such a charm both to Swiss and +Scottish scenery. But in the Himalayas there is hardly a lake to be +seen until one enters the Vale of Cashmere. Then the Alps have more of +the human element, in the picturesque Swiss villages. The traveller +looks down from snow-covered mountains into valleys with meadows and +houses and the spires of churches. But in the Himalayas there is not a +sign of civilization, and hardly of habitation. Occasionally a village +or a Buddhist monastery may stand out picturesquely on the top of a +hill, but generally the mountains are given up to utter desolation. + + "But," says Wilson, "when all these admissions in favor of + Switzerland are made, the Himalayas still remain + unsurpassed, and even unapproached, as regards all the + wilder and grander features of mountain scenery. There is + nothing in the Alps which can afford even a faint idea of + the savage desolation and appalling sublimity of many of the + Himalayan scenes. Nowhere have the faces of the rocks been + so scarred and riven by the nightly action of frost and the + midday floods from melting snow. In almost every valley we + see places where whole peaks or sides of great mountains + have very recently come shattering down." + +This constant action of the elements sometimes carves the sides of the +mountains into castellated forms, like the cañons of the Yellowstone +and the Colorado: + + "Gigantic mural precipices, bastions, towers, castles, + citadels, and spires rise up thousands of feet in height, + mocking in their immensity and grandeur the puny efforts of + human art; while yet higher the domes of pure white snow and + glittering spires of ice far surpass in perfection, as well + as in immensity, all the Moslem musjids and minars." + +But more impressive than the most fantastic or imposing forms are the +vast spaces of untrodden snow, and the awful solitudes and silences of +the upper air. No wonder that the Hindoos made this inaccessible +region the dwelling-place of their gods. It is their Kylas, or Heaven. +The peak of Badrinath, 24,000 feet high, is the abode of Vishnu; and +that of Kedarnath, 23,000, is the abode of Shiva--two of the Hindoo +Trinity. Nunda Davee (the goddess Nunda) is the wife of Shiva. Around +these summits gathers the whole Hindoo mythology. Yonder, where we see +a slight hollow in the mountains, is Gungootree, where the Ganges +takes its rise, issuing from a great glacier by a fissure, or icy +cavern, worn underneath, called the Cow's Mouth. Farther to the west +is Jumnootree, the source of the Jumna. Both these places are very +sacred in the eyes of the Hindoos, and as near to them as any +structure can be placed, are shrines, which are visited by hundreds of +thousands of pilgrims from all parts of India. + +Thus these snowy heights are to the Hindoo Mount Sinai and Calvary in +one. Here is not only the summit where God gave the law, but where God +dwells evermore, and out of which issue the sacred rivers, which are +like the rivers of the water of life flowing out of the throne of God; +or like the blood of atonement, to wash away the sins of the world. + +But the associations of this spot are not all of Hindooism and +idolatry. True, we are in a wintry region, but there is an Alpine +flower that grows at the foot of the snows. Close to Lal Tiba I +observed a large tree of rhododendrons, in full bloom, although it was +February, their scarlet blossoms contrasting with the snow which had +fallen on them the night before. But the fairest blossom on that +Alpine height is a Christian church. Lal Tiba itself belongs to the +Presbyterian mission, and adjoining it is the house of the +missionaries. On the ridge is a mission church, built chiefly by the +indefatigable efforts of Mr. Woodside. It is a modest, yet tasteful +building, standing on a point of rock, which is in full view of the +Snowy Range, and overlooks the whole mountain landscape. It was like a +banner in the sky--that white church--standing on such a height, as if +it were in the clouds, looking across at the mighty range beyond, and +smiling at the eternal snows! + +The hardest thing in going round the world, is to break away from +friends. Not the friends we have left in America, for those we may +hope to see again, but the friends made along the way. One meets so +many kind people, and enters so many hospitable homes, that to part +from them is an ever-renewing sorrow and regret. We have found many +such homes in India, but none in which we would linger more than in +this lovely Vale of Dehra Doon. + +One attraction is the Girls' School, which we might almost call the +missionary flower of India. The building, which would be a "Seminary" +at home, stands in the midst of ample grounds, where, in the intervals +of study, the inmates can find healthful exercise. The pupils are +mostly the daughters of native Christians--converted Hindoos or +Mohammedans. Some are orphans, or have been forsaken by their parents, +and have thus fallen to the care of an institution which is more to +them than their natural fathers and mothers. Many of these young girls +had very sweet faces, and all were as modest and well behaved as the +girls I have seen in any similar institution in our own country. Some +are adopted by friends in America, who engage to provide for their +education. Wishing to have a part in this good work, we looked about +the school till we picked out the veriest morsel of a creature, as +small as Dickens's Tiny Tim--but whose eyes were very bright, and her +mind as active as her body was frail, and C---- thereupon adopted her +and paid down a hundred rupees for a year's board and teaching. She is +by birth a Mohammedan, but will be trained up as a Christian. She is +very winning in her ways; and, dear me, when the little creature crept +up into my lap, and looked up into my face with her great black eyes, +it was such an appeal for love and protection as I could not resist; +and when she put her thin arms around my neck, I felt richer than if I +had been encircled with one of those necklaces of pearl, which the +Rajahs were just then throwing around the neck of the Prince of +Wales. + +Our last day was spent in a visit to the tea plantations. The culture +of tea has been introduced into India within a few years, and portions +of the country are found so favorable that the tea is thought by many +equal to that imported from China. Mr. Woodside took us out in a +carriage a few miles, when we left the road and crossed the fields on +the back of an elephant, which is a better "coigne of vantage" than +the back of a horse, as the rider is lifted up higher into the air, +and in passing under trees can stretch out his hand (as we did) and +pick blossoms and birds' nests from the branches; but there is a +rolling motion a little too much like "life on an ocean wave," and if +it were not for the glory of the thing I confess I should rather have +under me some steady old trotter, such as I have had at home, or even +one of the little donkeys with which we used to amble about the +streets of Cairo. But there are times when one would prefer the +elephant, as if he should chance to meet a tiger! The beast we were +riding this morning was an old tiger hunter, that had often been out +in the jungle, and as he marched off, seemed as if he would like +nothing better than to smell his old enemy. In a deadly combat the +tiger has the advantage in quickness of motion, and can spring upon +the elephant's neck, but if the latter can get his trunk around him he +is done for, for he is instantly dashed to the ground, and trampled to +death under the monster's feet. We had no occasion to test his +courage, though, if what we heard was true, he might have found game +not far off, for a native village through which we passed was just +then in terror because of a tiger who had lately come about and +carried off several bullocks only a few days before, and they had sent +to Mr. Bell, a tea planter whom we met later in the day, to come and +shoot him. He told me he would come willingly, but that the natives +were of a low caste, who had not the Hindoos' horror of touching such +food, and devoured the half eaten bullock. If, he said, they would +only let the carcass alone, the tiger always comes back, and he would +plant himself in some post of observation, and with a rifle which +never failed would soon relieve them of their terrible enemy. + +After an hour of this cross-country riding, our elephant drew up +before the door of a large house; a ladder was brought, and we +clambered down his sides. Just then we heard the sharp cracks of a +gun, and the planter came in, saying that he had been picking off +monkeys which were a little troublesome in his garden. This was Mr. +Nelson, one of the largest planters in the valley, with whom we had +engaged to take tiffin. He took us over his plantation, which is laid +out on a grand scale, many acres being set in rows with the tea plant, +which is a small shrub, about as large as a gooseberry bush, from +which the leaves are carefully picked. The green tea is not a +different plant from the black tea, but only differently prepared. +From the plantation we were taken to the roasting-house, where the tea +lay upon the floor in great heaps, like heaps of grain; and where it +is subjected to a variety of processes, to prepare it for use or for +exportation. It is first "wilted" in large copper pans or ovens; then +"rolled" on a table of stretched matting; then slightly dried, and put +back in the ovens; then rolled again; and finally subjected to a good +"roasting," by which time every drop of moisture is got out of it, and +it acquires the peculiar twist, or shrivelled look, so well known to +dainty lovers of the cup which cheers but not inebriates. How perfect +was the growing and the preparation appeared when we sat down at the +generous table, where we found the flavor as delicate as that of any +we had ever sipped that came from the Flowery Land. + +Leaving this kind and hospitable family, we rode on to the plantation +of Mr. Bell, who had the "engagement" to shoot the tiger. He is a +brave Scot, very fond of sport, and had a room full of stuffed birds, +which he was going to send off to Australia. Occasionally he had a +shot at other game. Once he had brought down a leopard, and, as he +said, thought the beast was "deed," and went up to him, when the brute +gave a spring, and tore open his leg, which laid him up for two +months. But such beasts are really less dangerous than the cobras, +which crawl among the rows of plants, and as the field-hands go among +them barefoot, some fall victims every year. But an Englishman is +protected by his boots, and Mr. Bell strolls about with his dog and +his gun, without the slightest sense of danger. + +We had now accomplished our visit to the Himalayas, and were to bid +adieu to the mountains and the valleys. But how were we to get back to +Saharanpur? There was the mail-wagon and the _omnibuckus_. But these +seemed very prosaic after our mountain raptures. Mr. Herron suggested +that we should try _dooleys_--long palanquins in which we could lie +down and sleep (perhaps), and thus be carried over the mountains at +night. As we were eager for new experiences, of course we were ready +for any novelty. But great bodies move slowly, and how great we were +we began to realize when we found what a force it took to move us. Mr. +Herron sent for the _chaudri_--a kind of public carrier whose office +it is to provide for such services--and an engagement was formally +entered into between the high contracting parties that for a certain +sum he was to provide two dooleys and a sufficient number of bearers, +to carry us over the mountains to Saharanpur, a distance of forty-two +miles. This was duly signed and sealed, and the money paid on the +spot, with promise of liberal backsheesh at the end if the agreement +was satisfactorily performed. + +Thus authorized and empowered to enter into negotiations with inferior +parties, the _chaudri_ sent forward a courier, or _sarbarah_, to go +ahead over the whole route a day in advance, and to secure the relays, +and thus prepare for our royal progress. + +This seemed very magnificent, but when our retinue filed into the +yard on the evening of our departure, and drew up before the veranda, +we were almost ashamed to see what a prodigious ado it took to get us +two poor mortals out of the valley. Our escort was as follows: Each +dooley had six bearers, or _kahars_--four to carry it, and two to be +ready as a reserve. Besides these twelve, there were two +_bahangi-wallas_ to carry our one trunk on a bamboo pole, making +fourteen persons in all. As there were five stages (for one set of men +could only go about eight miles), it took seventy men (besides the two +high officials) to carry our sacred persons these forty-two miles! Of +the reserve of four who walked beside us, two performed the function +of torch-bearers--no unimportant matter when traversing a forest so +full of wild beasts that the natives cannot be induced to cross it at +night without lights kept burning. + +The torch was made simply by winding a piece of cloth around the end +of a stick, and pouring oil upon it from a bottle carried for the +purpose (just the mode of the wise virgins in the parable). Our kind +friends had put a mattress in each dooley, with pillows and coverlet, +so that if we could not quite go to bed, we could make ourselves +comfortable for a night's journey. I took off my boots, and wrapping +my feet in the soft fur of the skin of the Himalayan goat, which I had +purchased in the mountains, stretched myself + + Like a warrior taking his rest, + With his martial cloak around him, + +and bade the cavalcade take up its march. They lighted their torches, +and like the wise virgins, "took oil in their vessels with their +lamps," and set out on our night journey. At first we wound our way +through the streets of the town, through bazaars and past temples, +till at last we emerged from all signs of human habitation, and were +alone with the forests and the stars. + +When we were fairly in the woods, all the stories I had heard of wild +beasts came back to me. For a week past I had been listening to +thrilling incidents, many of which occurred in this very mountain +pass. The Sewalic range is entirely uninhabited except along the +roads, and is thus given up to wild beasts, and nowhere is one more +likely to meet an adventure. That very morning, at breakfast, Mrs. +Woodside had given me her experience. She was once crossing this pass +at night, and as it came near the break of day she saw men running, +and heard the cry of "tiger," but thought little of it, as the natives +were apt to give false alarms; but presently the horses began to rear +and plunge, so that the driver loosed them and let them go, and just +then she heard a tremendous roar, which seemed close to the wagon, +where a couple of the brutes had come down to drink of a brook by the +roadside. She was so terrified that she did not dare to look out, but +shut at once the windows of the gharri. Presently some soldiers came +up the pass with elephants, who went in pursuit, but the monsters had +retreated into the forest. + +That was some years ago, but such incidents may still happen. Only a +few weeks since Mr. Woodside was riding through the pass at night in +the mail-wagon, and had dropped asleep, when his companion, a British +officer, awoke him, telling him he had just seen a couple of tigers +distinctly in the moonlight. + +One would suppose we were safe enough with more than a dozen +attendants, but the natives are very timid, and a tiger's roar will +set them flying. A lady at Dehra, the daughter of a missionary, told +us how she was once carried with her mother and one or two other +children in dooleys, when just at break of day a huge tiger walked out +of a wood, and came right towards them, when the brave coolies at once +dropped them and ran, leaving the mother and her children to their +fate. Fortunately she had presence of mind to light a piece of +matting, and throw it out to the brute, who either from that, or +perhaps because he was too noble a beast to attack a woman, after +eyeing them for some moments, deliberately walked away. + +Such associations with the road we were travelling, gave an excitement +to our night journey which was not the most composing to sleep. It is +very well to sit by the fireside and talk about tigers, but I do not +know of anybody who would care to meet one in the woods, unless well +armed and on an elephant's back. + +But what if a wild elephant should come out upon us? In general, I +believe these are quiet and peaceable beasts, but they are subject to +a kind of madness which makes them untamable. A "rogue elephant"--one +who has been tamed, and afterwards goes back to his savage state--is +one of the most dangerous of wild beasts. When the Prince of Wales was +hunting in the Terai with Sir Jung Bahadoor, an alarm was given that a +rogue elephant was coming, and they pushed the Prince up into a tree +as quickly as possible, for the monster has no respect to majesty. +Mrs. Woodside told me that they once had a servant who asked to go +home to visit his friends. On his way he lay down at the foot of a +tree, and fell asleep, when a rogue elephant came along, and took him +up like a kitten, and crushed him in an instant, and threw him on the +roadside. + +The possibility of such an adventure was quite enough to keep our +imagination in lively exercise. Our friends had told us that there was +no danger with flaming torches, although we might perhaps hear a +distant roar on the mountains, or an elephant breaking through the +trees. We listened intently. When the men were moving on in silence, +we strained our ears to catch any sound that might break the stillness +of the forest. If a branch fell from a tree, it might be an elephant +coming through the wood. If we could not see, we imagined forms +gliding in the darkness. Even the shadows cast by the starlight took +the shapes that we dreaded. Hush! there is a stealthy step over the +fallen leaves. No, it is the wind whispering in the trees. Thus was it +all night long. If any wild beasts glared on us out of the covert, our +flaming torches kept them at a respectful distance. We did not hear +the tramp of an elephant, the growl of a tiger, or even the cry of a +jackal. + +But though we had not the excitement of an adventure, the scene itself +was wild and weird enough. We were entirely alone, with more than a +dozen men, with not one of whom we could exchange a single word, +traversing a mountain pass, with miles of forest and jungle separating +us from any habitation. Our attendants were men of powerful physique, +whose swarthy limbs and strange faces looked more strange than ever by +the torchlight. Once in seven or eight miles they set down their +burden. We halted at a camp fire by the roadside, where a fresh relay +was waiting. There our fourteen men were swelled to twenty-eight. Then +the curtain of my couch was gently drawn aside, a black head was +thrust in, and a voice whispered in the softest of tones "Sahib, +backsheesh!" Then the new bearers took up their load, and jogged on +their way. + +I must say they did very well. The motion was not unpleasant. The +dooley rested not on two poles, but on one long bamboo, three or four +inches in diameter, at each end of which two men braced themselves +against each other, and moved forward with a swinging gait, a kind of +dog trot, which they accompanied with a low grunt, which seemed to +relieve them, and be a way of keeping time. Their burdens did not +fatigue them much--at least they did not groan under the load, but +talked and laughed by the way. Nor were luxuries forgotten. One of the +men carried a hooka, which served for the whole party, being passed +from mouth to mouth, with which the men, when off duty, refreshed +themselves with many a puff of the fragrant weed. + +Thus refreshed they kept up a steady gait of about three miles an +hour through the night. At length the day began to break. As we +approached the end of our journey the men picked up speed, and I +thought they would come in on a run. Glad were we to come in sight of +Saharanpur. At ten o'clock we entered the Mission Compound, and drew +up before the door of "Calderwood Padre," who, as he saw me stretched +out at full length, "like a warrior taking his rest," if not "with his +martial cloak around him," yet with his Scotch plaid shawl covering +"his manly breast," declared that I was "an old Indian!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] This is given as an average distance in an air line. The nearest +peak, Boonderpunch (Monkey's Tail), is forty-five miles as the crow +flies, though by the nearest accessible route, it is a hundred and +forty! Nunda Davee is a hundred and ten in an air line, but by the +paths over the mountains, must be over two hundred. + +[5] A very fascinating book, especially to Alpine tourists, or those +fond of climbing mountains. The title, "The Abode of Snow," is a +translation of the word Himalaya. The writer is a son of the late Dr. +Wilson, of Bombay. Taking a new field, he has produced a story of +travel and adventure, which will be apt to tempt others to follow him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE TRAGEDY OF CAWNPORE. + + +The interest of India is not wholly in the far historic past. Within +our own times it has been the theatre of stirring events. In coming +down from Upper India, we passed over the "dark and bloody ground" of +the Mutiny--one of the most terrible struggles of modern times--a +struggle unrelieved by any of the amenities of civilized warfare. On +the banks of the Ganges stands a dull old city, of which Bayard Taylor +once wrote: "Cawnpore is a pleasant spot, though it contains nothing +whatever to interest the traveller." That was true when he saw it, +twenty-four years ago. It was then a "sleepy" place. Everything had a +quiet and peaceful look. The river flowed peacefully along, and the +pretty bungalows of the English residents on its banks seemed like so +many castles of indolence, as they stood enclosed in spacious grounds, +under the shade of trees, whose leaves scarcely stirred in the sultry +air. But four years after that American traveller had passed, that +peaceful river ran with Christian blood, and that old Indian town +witnessed scenes of cruelty worse than that of the Black Hole of +Calcutta, committed by a monster more inhuman than Surajah Dowlah. The +memory of those scenes now gives a melancholy interest to the place, +such as belongs to no other in India. + +It was midnight when we reached Cawnpore (we had left Saharanpur in +the morning), and we were utter strangers; but as we stepped from the +railway carriage, a stalwart American (Rev. Mr. Mansell of the +Methodist Mission) came up, and calling us by name, took us to his +home, and "kindly entreated us," and the next morning rode about the +city with us to show the sadly memorable places. + +The outbreak of the Mutiny in India in 1857, took its English rulers +by surprise. They had held the country for a hundred years, and +thought they could hold it forever. So secure did they feel that they +had reduced their army to a minimum. In the Russian war, regiment +after regiment was called home to serve in the Crimea, till there were +left not more than twenty thousand British troops in all India--an +insignificant force to hold such a vast dependency; and weakened still +more by being scattered in small bodies over the country, with no +means of rapid concentration. There was hardly a railroad in India. +All movements of troops had to be made by long marches. Thus detached +and helpless, the military power was really in the hands of the +Sepoys, who garrisoned the towns, and whom the English had trained to +be good soldiers, with no suspicion that their skill and discipline +would ever be turned against themselves. + +This was the opportunity for smothered discontent to break out into +open rebellion. There had long been among the people an uneasy and +restless feeling, such as is the precursor of revolution--a ground +swell, which sometimes comes before as well as after a storm. It was +just a hundred years since the battle of Plassey (fought June, 1757), +which decided the fate of India, and it was whispered that when the +century was complete, the English yoke should be broken, and India +should be free. The Crimean war had aroused a spirit of fanaticism +among the Mohammedans, which extended across the whole of Asia, and +fierce Moslems believed that if the English were but driven out, there +might be a reconstruction of the splendid old Mogul Empire. This was, +therefore, a critical moment, in which the defenceless state of India +offered a temptation to rebellion. Some there were (like the +Lawrences--Sir John in the Punjaub, and Sir Henry in Lucknow) whose +eyes were opened to the danger, and who warned the government. But it +could not believe a rebellion was possible; so that when the storm +burst, it was like a peal of thunder from a clear sky. + +Thus taken by surprise, and off their guard, the English were at a +great disadvantage. But they quickly recovered themselves, and +prepared for a desperate defence. In towns where the garrisons were +chiefly of native troops, with only a small nucleus of English +officers and soldiers, the latter had no hope of safety, but to rally +all on whom they could rely, and retreat into the forts, and hold out +to the last. Such a quick movement saved Agra, where Sir William Muir +told me, he and hundreds of refugees with him, passed the whole time +of the mutiny, shut up in the fort. The same promptness saved +Allahabad. But in Delhi, where the rising took place a few days +before, the alarm was not taken quickly enough; the Sepoys rushed in, +shooting down their officers, and made themselves masters of the fort +and the city, which was not retaken till months after, at the close of +a long and terrible siege. + +At Cawnpore there was no fort. Sir Hugh Wheeler, who was in command, +had three or four thousand troops, but not one man in ten was an +English soldier. The rest were Sepoys, who caught the fever of +disaffection, and marched off with horses and guns. Mustering the +little remnant of his force, he threw up intrenchments on the +parade-ground, into which he gathered some two hundred and fifty men +of different regiments. Adding to these "civilians" and native +servants, and the sick in the hospital, there were about 300 more, +with 330 women and children. The latter, of course, added nothing to +the strength of the garrison, but were a constant subject of care and +anxiety. But with this little force he defended himself bravely for +several weeks, beating off every attack of the enemy. But he was in no +condition to sustain a siege; his force was becoming rapidly reduced, +while foes were swarming around him. In this extremity, uncertain when +an English army could come to his relief, he received a proposal to +surrender, with the promise that all--men, women, and children--should +be allowed to depart in safety, and be provided with boats to take +them down the Ganges to Allahabad. He did not listen to these smooth +promises without inward misgivings. He was suspicious of treachery; +but the case was desperate, and Nana Sahib, who up to the time of the +Mutiny had protested great friendship for the English, took a solemn +oath that they should be protected. Thus tempted, they yielded to the +fatal surrender. + +The next morning, June 27th, those who were left of the little +garrison marched out of their intrenchments, and were escorted by the +Sepoy army on their way to the boats. The women and children and +wounded were mounted on elephants, and thus conveyed down to the +river. With eagerness they embarked on the boats that were to carry +them to a place of safety, and pushed off into the stream. At that +moment a native officer who stood on the bank raised his sword, and a +masked battery opened on the boats with grape-shot. Instantly ensued a +scene of despair. Some of the boats sunk, others took fire, and men, +women, and children, were struggling in the water. The Mahratta +horsemen pushed into the stream, and cut down the men who tried to +save themselves (only four strong swimmers escaped), while the women +and children were spared to a worse fate. All the men who were brought +back to the shore were massacred on the spot, in the presence of this +human tiger, who feasted his eyes with their blood; and about two +hundred women and children were taken back into the town as prisoners, +in deeper wretchedness than before. They were kept in close +confinement nearly three weeks in dreadful uncertainty of their fate, +till the middle of July, when Havelock was approaching by forced +marches; and fearful that his prey should escape, Nana Sahib gave +orders that they should be put to death. No element of horror was +wanting in that fearful tragedy. Says one who saw the bodies the next +day, and whose wife and children were among those who perished: + + "The poor ladies were ordered to come out, but neither + threats nor persuasions could induce them to do so. They + laid hold of each other by dozens, and clung so close that + it was impossible to separate them, or drag them out of the + building. The troopers therefore brought muskets, and after + firing a great many shots from the doors and windows, rushed + in with swords and bayonets. [One account says that, as + Hindoos shrink from the touch of blood, five Mohammedan + _butchers_ were sent in to complete the work.] Some of the + helpless creatures, in their agony, fell down at the feet of + their murderers, clasped their legs, and begged in the most + pitiful manner to spare their lives, but to no purpose. The + fearful deed was done most deliberately, and in the midst of + the most dreadful shrieks and cries of the victims. From a + little before sunset till candlelight was occupied in + completing the dreadful deed. The doors of the building were + then locked up for the night, and the murderers went to + their homes. Next morning it was found, on opening the + doors, that some ten or fifteen women, with a few of the + children, had managed to escape from death by falling and + hiding under the murdered bodies of their fellow-prisoners. + A fresh order was therefore sent to murder them also; but + the survivors, not being able to bear the idea of being cut + down, rushed out into the compound, and seeing a well, threw + themselves into it without hesitation, thus putting a period + to lives which it was impossible for them to save. The dead + bodies of those murdered on the preceding evening were then + ordered to be thrown into the same well, and 'jullars' were + employed to drag them along like dogs."[6] + +The next day after the massacre, Havelock entered the city, and +officers and men rushed to the prison house, hoping to be in time to +save that unhappy company of English women and children. But what +horrors met their sight! Not one living remained. The place showed +traces of the late butchery. The floors were covered with blood. "Upon +the walls and pillars were the marks of bullets, and of cuts made by +sword-strokes, not high up as if men had fought with men, but low +down, and about the corners, where the poor crouching victims had been +cut to pieces." "Locks of long silky hair, torn shreds of dress, +little children's shoes and playthings, were strewn around." + +The sight of these things drove the soldiers to madness. "When they +entered the charnel house, and read the writing on the walls +[sentences of wretchedness and despair], and saw the still clotted +blood, their grief, their rage, their desire for vengeance, knew no +bounds. Stalwart, bearded men, the stern soldiers of the ranks, came +out of that house perfectly unmanned, utterly unable to repress their +emotions." Following the track of blood from the prison to the well, +they found the mangled remains of all that martyred company. There the +tender English mother had been cast with every indignity, and the +child still living thrown down to die upon its mother's breast. Thus +were they heaped together, the dying and the dead, in one writhing, +palpitating mass. + +Turning away from this ghastly sight, the soldiers asked only to meet +face to face the perpetrators of these horrible atrocities. But the +Sepoys, cowardly as they were cruel, fled at the approach of the +English. Those who were taken had to suffer for the whole. "All the +rebel Sepoys and troopers who were captured, were collectively tried +by a drumhead court-martial, and hanged." But for such a crime as the +cold-blooded murder of helpless women and children, death was not +enough--it should be death accompanied by shame and degradation. The +craven wretches were made to clean away the clotted blood--a task +peculiarly odious to a Hindoo. Says General Neill: + + "Whenever a rebel is caught, he is immediately tried, and + unless he can prove a defence, he is sentenced to be hanged + at once; but the chief rebels, or ringleaders, I make first + clear up a certain portion of the pool of blood, still two + inches deep in the shed where the fearful murder and + mutilation of women and children took place. To touch blood + is most abhorrent to the high-caste natives; they think by + doing so, they doom their souls to perdition. Let them think + so. My object is to inflict a fearful punishment for a + revolting, cowardly, and barbarous deed, and to strike + terror into these rebels. + + "The first I caught was a subahdar, or native officer--a + high-caste Brahmin, who tried to resist my order to clean up + the very blood he had helped to shed; but I made the + provost-marshal do his duty, and a few lashes made the + miscreant accomplish his task. When done, he was taken out + and immediately hanged, and after death, buried in a ditch + at the roadside. No one who has witnessed the scenes of + murder, mutilation, and massacre, can ever listen to the + word mercy, as applied to these fiends. + + "Among other wretches drawn from their skulking places, was + the man who gave Nana Sahib's orders for the massacre. After + this man's identity had been clearly established, and his + complicity in directing the massacre proved beyond all + doubt, he was compelled, upon his knees, to cleanse up a + portion of the blood yet scattered over the fatal yard, and + while yet foul from his sickening task, hung like a dog + before the gratified soldiers, one of whom writes: 'The + collector who gave the order for the murder of the poor + ladies, was taken prisoner day before yesterday, and now + hangs from a branch of a tree about two hundred yards off + the roadside.'" + +What became of Nana Sahib after the Mutiny, is a mystery that probably +will never be solved. If he lived he sought safety in flight. Many of +the Mutineers took refuge in the jungle. The Government kept up a hunt +for him for years. Several times it was thought that he was +discovered. Only a year or two ago a man was arrested, who was said to +be Nana Sahib, but it proved to be a case of mistaken identity. In +going up from Delhi we rode in the same railway carriage with an old +army surgeon, whose testimony saved the life of the suspected man. He +had lived in Cawnpore before the Mutiny, and knew Nana Sahib well, +indeed had been his physician, and gave me much information about the +bloody Mahratta chief. He said he was not so bad a man by nature, as +he became when he was put forward as a leader in a desperate +enterprise, and surrounded by men who urged him on to every crime. So +long as he was under the wholesome restraint of English power, he was +a fair specimen of the "mild Hindoo," "as mild a mannered man as ever +scuttled ship or cut a throat." His movement was as soft as that of a +cat or a tiger. But like the tiger, when once he tasted blood, it +roused the wild beast in him, and he took a delight in killing. And so +he who might have lived quietly, and died in his bed, with a +reputation not worse than that of other Indian rulers, has left a name +in history as the most execrable monster of modern times. It seems a +defeat of justice that he cannot be discovered and brought to the +scaffold. But perhaps the judgment of God is more severe than that of +man. If he still lives, he has suffered a thousand deaths in these +twenty years. + +My informant told me of the punishment that had come on many of these +men of blood. Retribution followed hard after their crimes. When the +rebellion was subdued, it was stamped out without mercy. The leaders +were shot away from guns. Others who were only less guilty had a short +trial and a swift punishment. In this work of meting out retribution, +this mild physician was himself obliged to be an instrument. Though +his profession was that of saving lives, and not of destroying them, +after the Mutiny he was appointed a Commissioner in the district of +Cawnpore, where he had lived, to try insurgents, with the power of +life and death, and with no appeal from his sentence! It was a +terrible responsibility, but he could not shrink from it, and he had +to execute many. Those especially who had been guilty of acts of +cruelty, could not ask for mercy which they had never shown. Among +those whom he captured was the native officer who had given the +signal, by raising his sword, to the masked battery to fire on the +boats. He said, "I took him to that very spot, and hung him there!" +All this sad history was in mind as we went down to the banks of the +Ganges, where that fearful tragedy took place not twenty years before. +The place still bears the name of the Slaughter Ghat, in memory of +that fearful deed. We imagined the scene that summer's morning, when +the stream was covered with the bodies of women and children, and the +air was filled with the shrieks of despair. With such bitter memories, +we recalled the swift retribution, and rejoiced that such a crime had +met with such a punishment. + +From the river we drove to "the well," but here nothing is painful but +its memories. It is holy ground, which pious hands have decked with +flowers, and consecrated as a shrine of martyrdom. Around it many +acres have been laid out as a garden, with all manner of tropical +plants, and well-kept paths winding between, along which the stranger +walks slowly and sadly, thinking of those who suffered so much in +life, and that now sleep peacefully beyond the reach of pain. In the +centre of the garden the place of the well is enclosed, and over the +sacred spot where the bodies of the dead were thrown, stands a figure +in marble, which might be that of the angel of Resignation or of +Peace, with folded wings and face slightly bended, and arms across her +breast, and in her hands palm-branches, the emblems of victory. + +The visit to these spots, consecrated by so much suffering, had an +added tenderness of interest, because some of our own countrymen and +countrywomen perished there. In those fearful scenes the blood of +Americans--men, women, and children--mingled with that of their +English kindred. One of the most terrible incidents of those weeks of +crime, was the massacre of a party from Futteghur that tried to escape +down the Ganges, hoping to reach Allahabad. As they approached +Cawnpore, they concealed themselves in the tall grass on an island, +but were discovered by the Sepoys, and made prisoners. Some of the +party were wealthy English residents, who offered a large ransom for +their lives. But their captors answered roughly: "What they wanted was +not money, but blood!" Brought before Nana Sahib, he ordered them +instantly to be put to death. Among them were four American +missionaries, with their wives, who showed in that hour of trial that +they knew how to suffer and to die. Of one of these I had heard a very +touching story but a few days before from my friend, Mr. Woodside. +When we were standing on the lower range of the Himalayas, looking off +to "the snows," he told me how he had once made an expedition with a +brother missionary among these mountains, which are full of villages, +like the hamlets in the High Alps. He pointed out in the distance the +very route they took, and even places on the sides of the successive +ranges where they pitched their tents. They started near the close of +September, and were out all October, and came in about the middle of +November, being gone six weeks. After long and weary marches for many +days, they came to a little village called Karsali near Jumnootree, +the source of the sacred river Jumna, near which rose a giant peak, +19,000 feet high (though we could but just see it on the horizon), +that till then had never been trodden by human foot, but which they, +like the daring Americans they were, determined to ascend. Their +guides shrank from the attempt, and refused to accompany them; but +they determined to make the ascent if they went alone, and at last, +rather than be left behind, their men followed, although one sank down +in the snow, and could not reach the summit. But the young +missionaries pressed on with fresh ardor, as they climbed higher and +higher. As they reached the upper altitudes, the summit, which to us +at a distance of ninety miles seemed but a peak or cone, broadened out +into a plateau of miles in extent; the snow was firm and hard; they +feared no crevasses, and strode on with fearless steps. But there was +something awful in the silence and the solitude. Not a living thing +could be seen on the face of earth or sky. Not a bird soared to such +heights; not an eagle or a vulture was abroad in search of prey; not a +bone on the waste of snow told where any adventurous explorer had +perished before them. Alone they marched over the fields of untrodden +snow, and started almost to hear their own voices in that upper air. +And yet such was their sense of freedom, that they could not contain +their joy. My companion, said Mr. Woodside, was very fond of a little +hymn in Hindostanee, a translation of the familiar lines: + + I'm a pilgrim, I'm a stranger, + And I tarry but a night, + +and as we went upward, he burst into singing, and sang joyously as he +strode over the fields of snow. Little he thought that the end of his +pilgrimage was so near! But six months later the Mutiny broke out, and +he was one of its first victims. He was of the party from Futteghur, +with a fate made more dreadful, because he had with him not only his +wife, but two children, and the monster spared neither age nor sex. +After the Mutiny, Mr. Woodside visited Cawnpore, and made diligent +inquiry for the particulars of his friend's death. It was difficult to +get the details, as the natives were very reticent, lest they should +be accused; but as near as he could learn, "Brother Campbell," as he +spoke of him, was led out with his wife--he holding one child in his +arms, and she leading another by the hand--and thus all together they +met their fate! Does this seem very hard? Yet was it not sweet that +they could thus die together, and could come up (like the family of +Christian in Pilgrim's Progress) in one group to the wicket gate? No +need had he to sing any more: + + I'm a pilgrim, I'm a stranger, + And I tarry but a night, +for on that summer morning he passed up a shining pathway, whiter than +the fields of snow on the crest of the Himalayas, that led him +straight to the gates of gold. Let no man complain of the sacrifice, +who would claim the reward; for so it is written, "It is through much +tribulation that we must enter into the Kingdom of God." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] "Narrative of Mr. Shepherd." He owed his escape to the fact that +before the surrender of the garrison he had made an attempt to pass +through the rebel lines and carry word to Allahabad to hasten the +march of troops to its relief, and had been taken and thrown into +prison, and was there at the time of the massacre. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE STORY OF LUCKNOW. + + +"You are going to Lucknow?" she said. It was a lady in black, who sat +in the corner of the railway carriage, as we came down from Upper +India. A cloud passed over her face. "I cannot go there; I was in the +Residency during the siege, and my husband and daughter were killed +there. I cannot revisit a place of such sad memories." It was nothing +to her that the long struggle had ended in victory, and that the story +of the siege was one of the most glorious in English history. Nothing +could efface the impression of those months of suffering. She told us +how day and night the storm of fire raged around them; how the women +took refuge in the cellars; how her daughter was killed before her +eyes by the bursting of a shell; and how, when they grew familiar with +this danger, there came another terrible fear--that of death by +famine; how strong men grew weak for want of food; how women wasted +away from very hunger, and children died because they could find no +nourishment on their mother's breasts. + +But amid those horrors there was one figure which she loved to +recall--that of Sir Henry Lawrence, the lion-hearted soldier, who kept +up all hearts by his courage and his iron will--till he too fell, and +left them almost in despair. + +Such memories might keep away one who had been a sufferer in these +fearful scenes, but they stimulated our desire to see a spot +associated with such courage and devotion, and led us from the scene +of the tragedy of Cawnpore to that of the siege of Lucknow. + +But how soon nature washes away the stain of blood! As we crossed the +Ganges, the gentle stream, rippling against the Slaughter Ghat, left +no red spots upon its stony steps. Near the station was a large +enclosure full of elephants, some of which perhaps had carried their +burden of prisoners down to the river's brink on that fatal day, but +were now "taking their ease," as beasts and men like to do. Familiar +as we are with the sight, it always gives us a fresh impression of our +Asiatic surroundings, to come suddenly upon a herd of these creatures +of such enormous bulk, with ears as large as umbrellas, which are kept +moving like punkas to keep off the flies; to see them drawing up water +into their trunks, as "Behemoth drinketh up Jordan," and spurting it +over their backs; or what is more ludicrous still, to see them at +play, which seems entirely out of character. We think of the elephant +as a grave and solemn creature, made to figure on grand occasions, to +march in triumphal processions, carrying the howdahs of great Rajahs, +covered with cloth of gold. But there is as much of "youth" in the +elephant as in any other beast. A baby elephant is like any other +baby. As little tigers play like kittens, so a little elephant is like +a colt, or like "Mary's little lamb." + +Lucknow is only forty miles from Cawnpore, with which it is connected +by railway. A vast plain stretches to the gates of the capital of +Oude. It was evening when we reached our destination, where another +American friend, Rev. Mr. Mudge of the Methodist Mission, was waiting +to receive us. A ride of perhaps a couple of miles through the streets +and bazaars gave us some idea of the extent of a city which ranks +among the first in India. Daylight showed us still more of its extent +and its magnificence. It spreads out many miles over the plain, and +has a population of three hundred thousand, while in splendor it is +the first of the native cities of India--by native I mean one not +taking its character, like Calcutta and Bombay, from the English +element. Lucknow is more purely an Indian city, and has more of the +Oriental style in its architecture--its domes and minarets reminding +us of Cairo and Constantinople. Bayard Taylor says: "The coup d'oeil +from one of the bridges over the Goomtee, resembles that of +Constantinople from the bridge over the Golden Horn, and is more +imposing, more picturesque, and more truly Oriental than any other +city in India." It is a Mohammedan city, as much as Delhi, the mosques +quite overshadowing the Hindoo temples; and the Mohurrim, the great +Moslem festival, is observed here with the same fanaticism. But it is +much larger than Delhi, and though no single palaces equal those of +the old Moguls, yet it has more the appearance of a modern capital, in +its busy and crowded streets. It is a great commercial city, with rich +merchants, with artificers in silver and gold and all the fabrics of +the East. + +But the interest of Lucknow, derived from the fact of its being one of +the most populous cities of India, and one of the most splendid, is +quite eclipsed by the thrilling events of its recent history. All its +palaces and mosques have not the attraction of one sacred spot. This +is the Residency, the scene of the siege, which will make the name of +Lucknow immortal. How the struggle came, we may see by recalling one +or two facts in the history of India. + +A quarter of a century ago, this was not a part of the British +possessions. It was the Kingdom of Oude, with a sovereign who still +lives in a palace near Calcutta, with large revenues wherewith to +indulge his royal pleasure, but without his kingdom, which the English +Government has taken from him. This occurred just before the Mutiny, +and has often been alleged as one of the causes, if not _the_ cause, +of the outbreak; and England has been loudly accused of perfidy and +treachery towards an Indian prince, and of having brought upon +herself the terrible events which followed. + +No doubt the English Government has often carried things with a high +hand in India, and done acts which cannot be defended, just as we must +confess that our own Government, in dealing with our Indian tribes, +has sometimes seemed to ignore both justice and mercy. But as to this +king of Oude, his "right" to his dominion (which is, being +interpreted, a right to torture his unhappy subjects) is about the +same as the right of a Bengal tiger to his jungle--a right which holds +good till some daring hunter can put an end to his career. + +When this king ruled in Oude he was such a father to his people, and +such was the affection felt for his paternal government, that he had +to collect his taxes by the military, and it is said that the poor +people in the country built their villages on the borders of the +jungle, and kept a watch out for the approach of the soldiers. As soon +as they were signalled as being in sight, the wretched peasants +gathered up whatever they could carry, and fled into the jungle, +preferring to face the wild beasts and the serpents rather than these +mercenaries of a tyrant. The troops came, seized what was left and set +fire to the village. After they were gone, the miserable people +returned and rebuilt their mud hovels, and tried by tilling the soil, +to gain a bare subsistence. Such was the patriarchal government of one +of the native princes of India. + +This king of Oude now finds his chief amusement in collecting a great +menagerie. He has a very large number of wild beasts. He has also a +"snakery," in which he has collected all the serpents of India. It +must be confessed that such a man seems more at home among his tigers +and cobras than in oppressing his wretched people. If Americans who +visit his palace near Calcutta are moved to sympathy with this deposed +king, let them remember what his government was, and they may feel a +little pity for his miserable subjects. + +To put such a monster off the throne, and thus put an end to his +tyrannies, was about as much of a "crime" as it would be to restrain +the king of Dahomey or of Ashantee from perpetuating his "Grand +Custom." I am out of patience with this mawkish sympathy. There is too +much real misery in the world that calls for pity and relief, to have +us waste our sensibilities on those who are the scourges of mankind. + +But once done, the deed could not be undone. Having seized the bull by +the horns, it was necessary to hold him, and this was not an easy +matter. It needed a strong hand, which was given it in Sir Henry +Lawrence, who had been thirty years in India. Hardly had he been made +governor before he felt that there was danger in the air. Neither he +nor his brother John, the Governor of the Punjaub, were taken by +surprise when the Mutiny broke out. Both expected it, and it did not +find them unprepared. Oude was indeed a centre of rebellion. The +partisans of the ex-king were of course very active, so that when the +Sepoys mutinied at Meerut, near Delhi, the whole kingdom of Oude was +in open revolt. Every place was taken except Lucknow, and that was +saved only by the wisdom and promptness of its new governor. + +His first work was to fortify the Residency (so called from having +been occupied by the former English residents), which had about as +much of a military character as an old English manor-house. The +grounds covered some acres, on which were scattered a few buildings, +official residences and guardhouses, with open spaces between, laid +out in lawns and gardens. But the quick eye of the governor saw its +capability of defence. It was a small plateau, raised a few feet above +the plain around, and by connecting the different buildings by walls, +which could be mounted with batteries and loopholed for musketry, the +whole could be constructed into a kind of fortress. Into this he +gathered the European residents with their women and children. And +behind such rude defences a few hundred English soldiers, with as many +natives who had proved faithful, kept a large army at bay for six +months. + +There was a fort in Lucknow well supplied with guns and ammunition, +but it was defended by only three hundred men, and was a source of +weakness rather than strength, since the English force was too small +to hold it, and if it should fall into the hands of the Sepoys with +all its stores, it would be the arsenal of the rebellion. At Delhi a +similar danger had been averted only by a brave officer blowing up the +arsenal with his own hand. It was a matter of the utmost moment to +destroy the fort and yet to save the soldiers in it. The only hope of +keeping up any defence was to unite the two feeble garrisons. But they +were more than half a mile apart, and each beleaguered by watchful +enemies. Sir Henry Lawrence signalled to the officer in command: "Blow +up the fort, and come to the Residency at twelve o'clock to-night. +Bring your treasure and guns, and destroy the remainder." This +movement could be executed only by the greatest secrecy. But the order +was promptly obeyed. At midnight the little band filed silently out of +the gates, and stole with muffled steps along a retired path, almost +within reach of the guns of the enemies, who discovered the movement +only when they were safe in the Residency, and the fuse which had been +lighted at the fort reached the magazine, and exploding two hundred +and fifty barrels of gunpowder, blew the massive walls into the air. + +But the siege was only just begun. Inside the Residency were collected +about two thousand two hundred souls, of whom over five hundred were +women and children. Only about six hundred were English soldiers, and +seven or eight hundred natives who had remained faithful, held to +their allegiance by the personal ascendancy of Sir Henry Lawrence.[7] +There were also some three hundred civilians, who, though unused to +arms, willingly took part in the defence. Thus all together the +garrison did not exceed seventeen hundred men, of whom many were +disabled by sickness and wounds. The force of the besiegers was twenty +to one. There is in the Indian nature a strange mixture of languor and +ferocity, and the latter was aroused by the prospect of vengeance on +the English, who were penned up where they could not escape, and where +their capture was certain; and every Sepoy wished to be in at the +death. Under the attraction of such a prospect it is said that the +besieging force rose to fifty thousand men. Many of the natives, who +had been in the English service, were practised artillerists, and +trained their guns on the slender defences with fatal effect. +Advancing over the level ground, they drew their lines nearer and +nearer, till their riflemen picked off the soldiers serving in the +batteries. Three times they made a breach by exploding mines under the +walls, and endeavored to carry the place by storm. But then rose high +the unconquerable English spirit. They expected to die, but they were +determined to sell their lives dearly. When the alarm of these attacks +reached the hospital, the sick and wounded crawled out of their beds +and threw away their crutches to take their place at the guns; or if +they could not stand, lay down flat on their faces and fired through +the holes made for musketry. + +But brave as were the defenders, the long endurance told upon them. +They were worn out with watching, and their ranks grew thinner day by +day. Those who were killed were carried off in the arms of their +companions, who gathered at midnight for their burial in some lonely +and retired spot, and while the chaplain in a low voice read the +service, the survivors stood around the grave, thinking how soon their +turn would come, the gloom of the night in fit harmony with the dark +thoughts that filled their breasts. + +But darker than any night was the day when Sir Henry Lawrence fell. He +was the beloved, the adored commander. "While he lived," said our +informant, "we all felt safe." But exposing himself too much, he was +struck by a shell. Those around him lifted him up tenderly and carried +him away to the house of the surgeon of the garrison, where two days +after he died. When all was over "they did not dare to let the +soldiers know that he was dead," lest they should give up the +struggle. But he lived long enough to inspire them with his +unconquerable spirit. + +He died on the 4th of July, and for nearly three months the siege went +on without change, the situation becoming every day more desperate. It +was the hottest season of the year, and the sun blazed down fiercely +into their little camp, aggravating the sickness and suffering, till +they longed for death, and were glad when they could find the grave. +"When my daughter was struck down by a fragment of a shell that fell +on the floor, she did not ask to live. She might have been saved if +she had been where she could have had careful nursing. But there was +no proper food to nourish the strength of the sick, and so she sunk +away, feeling that it was better to die than to live." + +But still they would not yield to despair. Havelock had taken +Cawnpore, though he came too late to save the English from massacre, +and was straining every nerve to collect a force sufficient to relieve +Lucknow. As soon as he could muster a thousand men he crossed the +Ganges, and began his march. The movement was known to the little +garrison, and kept up their hopes. A faithful native, who acted as a +spy throughout the siege, went to and fro, disguising himself, and +crept through the lines in the night, and got inside the Residency, +and told them relief was coming. "He had seen the general, and said he +was a little man with white hair," who could be no other than +Havelock. Word was sent back that, on approaching the city, rockets +should be sent up to notify the garrison. Night after night officers +and men gazed toward the west for the expected signal, till their +hearts grew sick as the night passed and there was no sign. +Deliverance was to come, but not yet. + +Havelock found that he had attempted the impossible. His force was but +a handful, compared with the hosts of his enemies. Even nature +appeared to be against him. It was the hot and rainy season, when it +seemed impossible to march over the plains of India. Cannon had to be +drawn by bullocks over roads and across fields, where they sank deep +in mud. Men had to march and fight now in the broiling sun, and now in +floods of rain. "In the full midday heat of the worst season of the +year, did our troops start. The sun struck down with frightful force. +At every step a man reeled out of the ranks, and threw himself +fainting by the side of the road; the calls for water were incessant +all along the line." "During the interval between the torrents of +rain, the sun's rays were so overpowering that numbers of the men were +smitten down and died." But the survivors closed up their ranks and +kept their face to the foe. Their spirit was magnificent. Death had +lost its terrors for them, and they made light of hardships and +dangers. When fainting with heat, if they found a little dirty water +by the roadside "it was like nectar." After marching all day in the +rain, they would lie down in the soaking mud, and grasp their guns, +and wrap their coats around them, and sleep soundly. Says an officer: + + "August 5th we marched toward Lucknow nine miles and then + encamped on a large plain for the night. You must bear in + mind that we had no tents with us, they are not allowed, so + every day we were exposed to the burning sun and to the rain + and dew by night. No baggage or beds were allowed; but the + soldier wrapped his cloak around him, grasped his musket and + went to sleep, and soundly we slept too. My Arab horse + served me as a pillow, I used to lie down alongside of him, + with my head on his neck, and he never moved with me except + now and then to lick my hand." But he adds, "We found that + it was impossible to proceed to Lucknow, for our force was + too small--for though we were a brave little band, and could + fight to Lucknow, yet we could not compel them to raise the + siege when we got there." + +Another enemy also had appeared. Cholera had broken out in the camp; +eleven men died in one day. The Rebels too were rising behind them. As +soon as Havelock crossed the Ganges they began to gather in his rear. +Nana Sahib was mustering a force and threatened Cawnpore. Thus beset +behind and before, Havelock turned and marched against the Mahratta +chief, and sent him flying towards Delhi. In reading the account of +these marches and battles, it is delightful to see the spirit between +the commander and his men. After this victory, as he rode along the +lines, they cheered him vehemently. He returned their salute, but +said, "Don't cheer me, my lads, you did it all yourselves." Such men, +fighting together, were invincible. + +In September Havelock had collected 2,700 men, and again set out for +Lucknow. Three days they marched "under a deluge of rain." But their +eyes were "steadfastly set" towards the spot where their countrymen +were in peril, and they cared not for hardships and dangers. The +garrison was apprised of their coming, and waited with feverish +anxiety. In the relieving force was a regiment of Highlanders, and if +no crazy woman could put her ears to the ground (according to the +romantic story so often told) and hear the pibroch, and shout "The +Campbells are coming," they knew that those brave Scots never turned +back. As they drew near the city over the Cawnpore road, they found +that it was mined to blow them up. Instantly they wheeled off, and +marched round the city, and came up on the other side. Capturing the +Alumbagh, one of the royal residences, which, surrounded by a wall, +was easily converted into a temporary fortress, Havelock left here his +heavy baggage and stores of ammunition, with an immense array of +elephants and camels and horses; and all his sick and wounded, and the +whole train of camp-followers; and three hundred men, with four guns +to defend it. Thus "stripped for the fight," he began his attack on +the city. It was two miles to the Residency, and every step the +English had to fight their way through the streets. The battle began +in the morning, and lasted all day. It was a desperate attempt to +force their way through a great city, where every man was an enemy, +and they were fired at from almost every house. "Our advance was +through streets of flat-roofed and loop-holed houses, each forming a +separate fortress." Our informant told us of the frenzy in the +Residency when they heard the sound of the guns. "The Campbells were +coming" indeed! Sometimes the firing lulled, and it seemed as if they +were driven back. Then it rose again, and came nearer and nearer. How +the tide of battle ebbed and flowed, is well told in the narratives of +those who were actors in the scenes: + + "Throughout the night of the 24th great agitation and alarm + had prevailed in the city; and, as morning advanced, + increased and rapid movements of men and horses, gave + evidence of the excited state of the rebel force. At noon, + increasing noise proclaimed that street fighting was growing + more fierce in the distance; but from the Residency nought + but the smoke from the fire of the combatants could be + discerned. As the afternoon advanced, the sounds came nearer + and nearer, and then we heard the sharp crack of rifles + mingled with the flash of musketry; the well-known uniforms + of British soldiers were next discerned." + +A lady who was in the Residency, and has written a Diary of the Siege, +thus describes the coming in of the English troops: + + "Never shall I forget the moment to the latest day I live. + We had no idea they were so near, and were breathing the air + in the portico as usual at that hour, speculating when they + might be in; when suddenly just at dusk, we heard a very + sharp fire of musketry close by, and then a tremendous + cheering. An instant after, the sound of bagpipes--then + soldiers running up the road--our compound and veranda + filled with our deliverers, and all of us shaking hands + frantically, and exchanging fervent 'God bless you's' with + the gallant men and officers of the 78th Highlanders. Sir + James Outram and staff were the next to come in, and the + state of joyful confusion and excitement was beyond all + description. The big, rough-bearded soldiers were seizing + the little children out of our arms, kissing them, with + tears rolling down their cheeks, and thanking God they had + come in time to save them from the fate of those at + Cawnpore. We were all rushing about to give the poor fellows + drinks of water, for they were perfectly exhausted; and tea + was made down in the Tye-khana, of which a large party of + tired, thirsty officers partook, without milk or sugar. We + had nothing to give them to eat. Every one's tongue seemed + going at once with so much to ask and to tell; and the faces + of utter strangers beamed upon each other like those of + dearest friends and brothers." + +It was indeed a great deliverance, but the danger was not over. Of all +that were in the Residency when the siege began, three months before, +more than half were gone. Out of twenty-two hundred but nine hundred +were left, and of these less than one-half were fighting men. Even +with the reinforcement of Havelock the garrison was still far too +small to hold such a position in the midst of a city of such a +population. The siege went on for two months longer. The final relief +did not come till Sir Colin Campbell, arriving with a larger force, +again fought his way through the city. The atrocities of the Sepoys +had produced such a feeling that he could hardly restrain his +soldiers. Remembering the murders and massacres of their countrymen +and countrywomen, they fought with a savage fury. In one walled +enclosure, which they carried by storm, were two thousand Sepoys, and +they killed every man! + +Even then the work was not completed. Scarcely had Sir Colin Campbell +entered the Residency before he decided upon its evacuation. Again the +movement was executed at midnight, in silence and in darkness. While +the watch-fires were kept burning to deceive the enemy, the men filed +out of the gates, with the women and children in the centre of the +column, and moving softly and quickly through a narrow lane, in the +morning they were several miles from the city, in a strong position, +which made them safe from attack. + +The joy of this hour of deliverance was saddened by the death of +Havelock. He had passed through all the dangers of battle and siege, +only to die at last of disease, brought on by the hardships and +exposures of the last few months. But his work was done. He had +nothing to do but to die. To his friend, Sir James Outram, who came to +see him, he stretched out his hand and said: "For more than forty +years I have so ruled my life, that when death came, I might face it +without fear." + +The garrison was saved, but the city was still in the hands of the +Rebels, who were as defiant as ever. It was some months before Sir +Colin Campbell gathered forces sufficient for the final and crushing +blow. Indeed it was not till winter that he had collected a really +formidable army. Then he moved on the city in force and carried it by +storm. Two days of terrible fighting gave him the mastery of Lucknow, +and the British flag was once more raised over the capital of Oude, +where it has floated in triumph unto this day. + +But the chief interest gathers about the earlier defence. The siege of +Lucknow is one of the most thrilling events in modern history, and may +well be remembered with pride by all who took part in it. A few weeks +before we were here the Prince of Wales had made his visit to Lucknow, +and requested that the survivors of the siege might be presented to +him. Mr. Mudge was present at the interview, and told me he had never +witnessed a more affecting scene than when these brave old soldiers, +the wrecks of the war, some of them bearing the marks of their wounds, +came up to the Prince, and received his warmest thanks for their +courage and fidelity. + +These heroic memories were fresh in mind as we took our morning walk +in Lucknow, along the very street by which Havelock had fought his way +through the city. The Residency is now a ruin, its walls shattered by +shot and shell. But the ruins are overrun with vines and creeping +plants, and are beautiful even in their decay. With sad interest we +visited the spot where Sir Henry Lawrence was struck by the fatal +shell, and the cemetery in which he is buried. He was a Christian +soldier and before his death received the communion. He asked that no +eulogy might be written on his tomb, but only these words: "Here lies +Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. May God have mercy on his +soul." This dying utterance is inscribed on the plain slab of marble +that covers his dust. It is enough. No epitaph could say more. As I +stood there and read these simple words and thought of the noble dead, +my eyes were full of tears. With such a consciousness of duty done, +who could fear to die? How well do these words express that which +should be the highest end of human ambition. Happy will it be for any +man of whom, when he has passed from the world, it can with truth be +written above his grave, "Here lies one who tried to do his duty!" + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] As the historian of the mutiny has frequent occasion to speak of +the treachery of the Sepoys, it should not be forgotten that to this +there were splendid exceptions; that some were "found faithful among +the faithless." Even in the regiments that mutinied there were some +who were not carried away by the general madness; and, when the little +remnant of English soldiers retreated into the Residency, these loyal +natives went with them, and shared all the dangers and hardships of +the siege. Even after it was begun, they were exposed to every +temptation to seduce them from their allegiance; for as the lines of +the besiegers drew closer to the Residency and hemmed it in on every +side, the assailants were so near that they could talk with those +within over the palisades of the intrenchments, and the Sepoys +appealed to their late fellow-soldiers by threats, and taunts, and +promises; by pride of race and of caste; by their love of country and +of their religion, to betray the garrison. But not a man deserted his +post. Hundreds were killed in the siege, and their blood mingled with +that of their English companions-in-arms. History does not record a +more noble instance of fidelity. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE ENGLISH RULE IN INDIA. + + +In reviewing the terrible scenes of the Mutiny, one cannot help asking +whether such scenes are likely to occur again; whether there will ever +be another Rebellion; and if so, what may be the chance of its +success? Will the people of India wish to rise? How are they affected +towards the English government? Are they loyal? We can only answer +these questions by asking another: Who are meant by the people of +India? The population is divided into different classes, as into +different castes. The great mass of the people are passive. Accustomed +to being handed over from one native ruler to another, they care not +who holds the power. He is the best ruler who oppresses them the +least. But among the high caste Brahmins, and especially those who +have been educated (among whom alone there is anything like political +life in India), there is a deep-seated disaffection towards the +English rule. This is a natural result of an education which enlarges +their ideas and raises their ambition. Some of the Bengalees, for +example, are highly educated men, and it is but natural that, as they +increase in knowledge, they should think that they are quite competent +to govern themselves. Hence their dislike to the foreign power that is +imposed upon them. Not that they have any personal wrongs to avenge. +It may be that they are attached to English _men_, while they do not +like the English rule. Every man whose mind is elevated by knowledge +and reflection, wishes to be his own master; and if ruled at all, he +likes to be ruled by those of his own blood and race and language. +This class of men, whether Hindoos or Mohammedans, however courteous +they may be to the English in their personal or business relations, +are not thereby converted to loyalty, any more than they are converted +to Christianity. + +But however strong their dislike, it is not very probable that it +should take shape in organized rebellion, and still less likely that +any such movement should succeed. The English are now guarded against +it as never before. In the Mutiny they were taken at every possible +disadvantage. The country was almost stripped of English troops. Only +20,000 men were left, and these scattered far apart, and surrounded by +three times their number of Sepoys in open rebellion. Thus even the +military organization was in the hands of the enemy. If with all these +things against them, English skill and courage and discipline +triumphed at last, can it ever be put to such a test again? + +When the Mutiny was over, and the English had time to reflect on the +danger they had escaped, they set themselves to repair their defences, +so that they should never more be in such peril. The first thing was +to reorganize the army, to weed out the elements of disaffection and +rebellion, and to see that the power was henceforth in safe hands. The +English troops were tripled in force, till now, instead of twenty, +they number sixty thousand men. The native regiments were carefully +chosen from those only who had proved faithful, such as the Goorkas, +who fought so bravely at Delhi, and other hill tribes of the +Himalayas; and the Punjaubees, who are splendid horsemen, and make the +finest cavalry. But not even these, brave and loyal as they had been, +were mustered into any regiment except cavalry and infantry. Not a +single native soldier was left in the artillery. In the Mutiny, if the +Sepoys had not been practised gunners, they would not have been so +formidable at the siege of Lucknow and elsewhere. Now they are +stripped of this powerful arm, and in any future rising they could do +nothing against fortified places, nor against an army in the field, +equipped with modern artillery. In reserving this arm of the service +to themselves, the English have kept the decisive weapon in their own +hands. + +Then it is hardly too much to say that by the present complete system +of railroads, the English force is _quadrupled_, as this gives them +the means of concentrating rapidly at any exposed point. + +To these elements of military strength must be added the greater +organizing power of Englishmen. The natives make good soldiers. They +are brave, and freely expose themselves in battle. In the Sikh war the +Punjaubees fought desperately. So did the Sepoys in the Mutiny. But +the moment the plan of attack was disarranged, they were "all at sea." +Their leaders had no "head" for quick combinations in presence of an +enemy. As it has been, so it will be. In any future contests it will +be not only the English sword, English guns, and English discipline, +but more than all, the English brains, that will get them the victory. + +Such is the position of England in India. She holds a citadel girt +round with defences on every side, with strong walls without, and +brave hearts within. I have been round about her towers, and marked +well her bulwarks, and I see not why, so guarded and defended, she may +not hold her Indian Empire for generations to come. + +But there is a question back of all this. Might does not make right. A +government may be established in power that is not established in +justice. It may be that the English are to remain masters of India, +yet without any right to that splendid dominion. As we read the +thrilling stories of the Mutiny, it is almost with a guilty feeling +(as if it betrayed a want of sympathy with all that heroism), that we +admit any inquiry as to the cause of that fearful tragedy. But how +came all this blood to be shed? Has not England something to answer +for? If she has suffered terribly, did she not pay the penalty of her +own grasping ambition? Nations, like individuals, often bring curses +on themselves, the retribution of their oppressions and their crimes. +The fact that men fight bravely, is no proof that they fight in a just +cause. Nay, the very admiration that we feel for their courage in +danger and in death, but increases our horror at the "political +necessity" which requires them to be sacrificed. If England by her own +wicked policy provoked the Mutiny, is she not guilty of the blood of +her children? Thomas Jefferson, though a slaveholder himself, used to +say that in a war of races every attribute of Almighty God would take +part with the slave against his master; and Englishmen may well ask +whether in the conflict which has come once, and may come again, they +can be quite sure that Infinite Justice will always be on their side. + +In these sentences I have put the questions which occur to an American +travelling in India. Wherever he goes, he sees the English flag flying +on every fortress--the sign that India is a conquered country. The +people who inhabit the country are not those who govern it. With his +Republican ideas of the right of every nation to govern itself, he +cannot help asking: What business have the English in India? What +right have a handful of Englishmen, so far from their native island, +in another hemisphere, to claim dominion over two hundred millions of +men? + +As an American, I have not the bias of national feeling to lead me to +defend and justify the English rule in India; though I confess that +when, far off here in Asia, among these dusky natives, I see a white +face, and hear my own mother tongue, I feel that "blood is thicker +than water," and am ready to take part with my kindred against all +comers. Even Americans cannot but feel a pride in seeing men of their +own race masters of such a kingdom in the East. But this pride of +empire will not extinguish in any fair mind the sense of justice and +humanity. + +"Have the English any right in India?" If it be "a question of +titles," we may find it difficult to prove our own right in America, +from which we have crowded out the original inhabitants. None of us +can claim a title from the father of the human race. All new settlers +in a country are "invaders." But public interest and the common law of +the world demand that power, once established, should be recognized. + +According to the American principle, that "all just government derives +its authority from the consent of the governed," there never was a +just government in India, for the consent of the governed was never +obtained. The people of India were never asked to give their "consent" +to the government established over them. They were ruled by native +princes, who were as absolute, and in general as cruel tyrants, as +ever crushed a wretched population. + +No doubt in planting themselves in India, the English have often used +the rights of conquerors. No one has denounced their usurpations and +oppressions more than their own historians, such as Mill and Macaulay. +The latter, in his eloquent reviews of the lives of Clive and Warren +Hastings, has spoken with just severity of the crimes of those +extraordinary but unscrupulous men. For such acts no justification can +be pleaded whatever. But as between Clive and Surajah Dowlah, the rule +of the former was infinitely better. It would be carrying the doctrine +of self-government to an absurd extent, to imagine that the monster +who shut up English prisoners in the Black Hole had any right which +was to be held sacred. The question of right, therefore, is not +between the English and the people of India, but between the English +and the native princes. Indeed England comes in to protect the people +against the princes, when it gives them one strong master in place of +a hundred petty tyrants. The King of Oude collecting his taxes by +soldiers, is but an instance of that oppression and cruelty which +extended all over India, but which is now brought to an end. + +And how has England used her power? At first, we must confess, with +but little of the feeling of responsibility which should accompany the +possession of power. Nearly a hundred years ago, Burke (who was master +of all facts relating to the history of India, and to its political +condition, more than any other man of his time) bitterly arraigned the +English government for its cruel neglect of that great dependency. He +denounced his countrymen, the agents of the East India Company, as a +horde of plunderers, worse than the soldiers of Tamerlane, and held up +their greedy and rapacious administration to the scorn of mankind, +showing that they had left no beneficent monuments of their power to +compare with those of the splendid reigns of the old Moguls. In a +speech in Parliament in 1783, he said: + + "England has erected no churches, no palaces, no hospitals, + no schools; England has built no bridges, made no high + roads, cut no navigations, dug out no reservoirs. Every + other conqueror of every other description has left some + monument either of State or beneficence behind him. Were we + to be driven out of India this day, nothing would remain to + tell that it had been possessed, during the inglorious + period of our dominion, by anything better than the + orang-outang or the tiger." + +This is a fearful accusation. What answer can be made to it? Has there +been any change for the better since the great impeacher of Warren +Hastings went to his grave? How has England governed India since that +day? She has not undertaken to govern it like a Model Republic. If she +had, her rule would soon have come to an end. She has not given the +Hindoos universal suffrage, or representation in Parliament. But she +has given them something better--Peace and Order and Law, a trinity of +blessings that they never had before. When the native princes ruled in +India, they were constantly at war among themselves, and thus +overrunning and harassing the country. Now the English government +rules everywhere, and Peace reigns from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas. + +Strange to say, this quietness does not suit some of the natives, who +have a restless longing for the wild lawlessness of former times. A +missionary was one day explaining to a crowd the doctrine of original +sin, when he was roughly interrupted by one who said, "I know what is +original sin: it is the English rule in India." "You ought not to say +that," was the reply, "for if it were not for the English the people +of the next village would make a raid on your village, and carry off +five thousand sheep." But the other was not to be put down so, and +answered promptly, "_I should like that_, for then we would make a +raid on them and carry off ten thousand!" This was a blunt way of +putting it, but it expresses the feeling of many who would prefer that +kind of wild justice which prevails among the Tartar hordes of Central +Asia to a state of profound tranquility. They would rather have +Asiatic barbarism than European civilization. + +With peace between States, England has established order in every +community. It has given protection to life and property--a sense of +security which is the first condition of the existence of human +society. It has abolished heathen customs which were inhuman and +cruel. It has extirpated thuggism, and put an end to infanticide and +the burning of widows. This was a work of immense difficulty, because +these customs, horrid as they were, were supported by religious +fanaticism. Mothers cast their children into the Ganges as an offering +to the gods; and widows counted it a happy escape from the sufferings +of life to mount the funeral pile. Even to this day there are some who +think it hard that they cannot thus sacrifice themselves. + +So wedded are the people to their customs, that they are very jealous +of the interference of the government, when it prohibits any of their +practices on the ground of humanity. Dr. Newton, of Lahore, the +venerable missionary, told me that he knew a few years ago a fakir, a +priest of a temple, who had grown to be very friendly with him. One +day the poor man came, with his heart full of trouble, to tell his +griefs. He had a complaint against the government. He said that Sir +John Lawrence, then Governor of the Punjaub, was very arbitrary. And +why? Because he wanted to bury himself alive, and the Governor +wouldn't let him! He had got to be a very old man (almost a hundred), +and of course must soon leave this world. He had had a tomb prepared +in the grounds of the temple (he took Dr. Newton to see what a nice +place it was), and there he wished to lie down and breathe his last. +With the Hindoos it is an act of religious merit to bury one's self +alive, and on this the old man had set his heart. If he could do this, +he would go straight to Paradise, but the hard English Governor, +insensible to such considerations, would not permit it. Was it not too +bad that he could not be allowed to go to heaven in his own way? + +Breaking up these old barbarities--suicide, infanticide, and the +burning of widows--the government has steadily aimed to introduce a +better system for the administration of justice, in which, with due +regard to Hindoo customs and prejudices, shall be incorporated, as far +as possible, the principles of English law. For twenty years the +ablest men that could be found in India or in England, have been +engaged in perfecting an elaborate Indian Code, in which there is one +law for prince and pariah. What must be the effect on the Hindoo mind +of such a system, founded in justice, and enforced by a power which +they cannot resist? Such laws administered by English magistrates, +will educate the Hindoos to the idea of justice, which, outside of +English colonies, can hardly be said to exist in Asia. + +The English are the Romans of the modern world. Wherever the Roman +legions marched, they ruled with a strong hand, but they established +law and order, the first conditions of human society. So with the +English in all their Asiatic dependencies. Wherever they come, they +put an end to anarchy, and give to all men that sense of protection +and security, that feeling of personal safety--safety both to life and +property--without which there is no motive to human effort, and no +possibility of human progress. + +The English are like the Romans in another feature of their +administration, in the building of roads. The Romans were the great +road-builders of antiquity. Highways which began at Rome, and thus +radiated from a common centre, led to the most distant provinces. Not +only in Italy, but in Spain and Gaul and Germany, did the ancient +masters of the world leave these enduring monuments of their power. +Following this example, England, before the days of railroads, built a +broad macadamized road from Calcutta to Peshawur, over 1,500 miles. +This may have been for a military purpose; but no matter, it serves +the ends of peace more than of war. It becomes a great avenue of +commerce; it opens communication between distant parts of India, and +brings together men of different races, speaking different languages; +and thus, by promoting peaceful and friendly intercourse, it becomes a +highway of civilization. + +Nor is this the only great road in this country. Everywhere I have +found the public highways in excellent condition. Indeed I have not +found a bad road in India--not one which gave me such a "shaking up" +as I have sometimes had when riding over the "corduroys" through the +Western forests of America. Around the large towns the roads are +especially fine--broad and well paved, and often planted with trees. +The cities are embellished with parks, like cities in England, with +botanical and zoölogical gardens. The streets are kept clean, and +strict sanitary regulations are enforced--a matter of the utmost +moment in this hot climate, and in a dense population, where a sudden +outbreak of cholera would sweep off thousands in a few days or hours. +The streets are well lighted and well policed, so that one may go +about at any hour of day or night with as much safety as in London or +New York. If these are the effects of foreign rule, even the most +determined grumbler must confess that it has proved a material and +substantial benefit to the people of India. + +Less than twenty years ago the internal improvements of India received +a sudden and enormous development, when to the building of roads +succeeded that of railroads. Lord Dalhousie, when Governor-General, +had projected a great railroad system, but it was not till after the +Mutiny, and perhaps in consequence of the lessons learned by that +terrible experience, that the work was undertaken on a large scale. +The government guaranteed five per cent. interest for a term of years, +and the capital was supplied from England. Labor was abundant and +cheap, and the works were pushed on with unrelaxing energy, till India +was belted from Bombay to Calcutta, and trunk lines were running up +and down the country, with branches to every large city. Thus, to +English foresight and sagacity, to English wealth and engineering +skill, India owes that vast system of railroads which now spreads over +the whole peninsula. + +In no part of the world are railroads more used than in India. Of +course the first-class carriages are occupied chiefly by English +travellers, or natives of high rank; and the second-class by those +less wealthy. But there are trains for the people, run at very low +fares. There are huge cars, built with two stories, and carrying a +hundred passengers each, and these two-deckers are often very closely +packed. The Hindoos have even learned to make pilgrimages by steam, +and find it much cheaper, as well as easier, than to go afoot. When +one considers the long journeys they have been accustomed to undertake +under the burning sun of India, the amount of suffering relieved by a +mode of locomotion so cool and swift is beyond computation. + +Will anybody tell me that the people of India, if left alone, would +have built their own railways? Perhaps in the course of ages, but not +in our day. The Asiatic nature is torpid and slow to move, and cannot +rouse itself to great exertion. In the whole Empire of China there is +not a railroad, except at Shanghai, where a few months ago was opened +a little "one-horse concern," a dozen miles long, built by the +foreigners for the convenience of that English settlement. This may +show how rapid would have been the progress of railroads in India, if +left wholly to native "enterprise." It would have taken hundreds of +years to accomplish what the English have wrought in one generation. + +Nor does English engineering skill expend itself on railroads alone. +It has dug canals that are like rivers in their length. The Ganges +Canal in Upper India is a work equal to our Erie Canal. Other canals +have been opened, both for commerce and for irrigation. The latter is +a matter vital to India. The food of the Hindoos is rice, and rice +cannot be cultivated except in fields well watered. A drought in the +rice fields means a famine in the province. Such a calamity is now +averted in many places by this artificial irrigation. The overflow +from these streams, which are truly "fountains in the desert," has +kept whole districts from being burnt up, by which in former years +millions perished by famine. + +While thus caring for the material comfort and safety of the people of +India, England has also shown regard to their enlightenment in +providing a magnificent system of National Education. Every town in +India has its government school, while many a large city has its +college or its university. Indeed, so far has this matter of education +been carried, that I heard a fear expressed that it was being +overdone--at least the higher education--because the young men so +educated were unfitted for anything else than the employ of the +government. All minor places in India are filled by natives, and well +filled too. But there are not enough for all. And hence many, finding +no profession to enter, and educated above the ordinary occupations of +natives, are left stranded on the shore. + +These great changes in India, these schools and colleges, the better +administration of the laws, and these vast internal improvements, have +been almost wholly the work of the generation now living. In the first +century of its dominion the English rule perhaps deserved the bitter +censure of Burke, but + + "If 'twere so, it were a grievous fault, + And grievously hath Cæsar answered it." + +England has paid for the misgovernment of India in the blood of her +children, and within the last few years she has striven nobly to +repair the errors of former times. Thus one generation makes atonement +for the wrongs of another. She has learned that justice is the highest +wisdom, and the truest political economy. The change is due in part to +the constant pressure of the Christian sentiment of England upon its +government, which has compelled justice to India, and wrought those +vast changes which we see with wonder and admiration. + +Thus stretching out her mighty arm over India, England rules the land +from sea to sea. I say not that she rules it in absolute +righteousness--that her government is one of ideal perfection, but it +is immeasurably better than that of the old native tyrants which it +displaced. It at least respects the forms of law, and while it +establishes peace, it endeavors also to maintain justice. The +railroads that pierce the vast interior quicken the internal commerce +of the country, while the waters that are caused to flow over the +rice-fields of Bengal abate the horrors of pestilence and famine. Thus +England gives to her Asiatic empire the substantial benefits of modern +civilization; while in her schools and colleges she brings the subtle +Hindoo mind into contact with the science and learning of the West. At +so many points does this foreign rule touch the very life of India, +and infuse the best blood of Europe into her languid veins. + +With such results of English rule, who would not wish that it might +continue? It is not that we love the Hindoo less, but the cause of +humanity more. The question of English rule in India is a question of +civilization against barbarism. These are the two forces now in +conflict for the mastery of Asia. India is the place where the two +seas meet. Shall she be left to herself, shut up between her seas and +her mountains? That would be an unspeakable calamity, not only to her +present inhabitants, but to unborn millions. I believe in modern +civilization, as I believe in Christianity. These are the great forces +which are to conquer the world. In conquering Asia, they will redeem +it and raise it to a new life. The only hope of Asia is from Europe: + + "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay;" + +and the only hope of India is from England. So whatever contests may +yet arise for the control of this vast peninsula, with its two hundred +millions of people, our sympathies must always be against Asiatic +barbarism, and on the side of European civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +MISSIONS IN INDIA--DO MISSIONARIES DO ANY GOOD? + + +"Is it not all a farce?" said a Major in the Bengal Staff Corps, as we +came down from Upper India. We were talking of Missions. He did not +speak of them with hatred, but only with contempt. The missionaries +"meant well," but they were engaged in an enterprise which was so +utterly hopeless, that no man in his senses could regard it as other +than supreme and almost incredible folly. In this he spoke the opinion +of half the military men of India. They have no personal dislike to +missionaries--indeed many an officer in an out-of-the-way district, +who has a missionary family for almost his only neighbors, will +acknowledge that they are "a great addition to the English society." +But as for their doing any good, as an officer once said to me: "They +might as well go and stand on the shore of the sea and preach to the +fishes, as to think to convert the Hindoos!" Their success, of which +so much is said in England and America, is "infinitesimally small." +Some even go so far as to say that the missionaries do great mischief; +that they stir up bad blood in the native population, and perpetuate +an animosity of races. Far better would it be to leave the "mild +Hindoo" to his gods; to let him worship his sacred cows, and monkeys +and serpents, and his hideous idols, so long as he is a quiet and +inoffensive subject of the government. + +If one were preaching a sermon to a Christian congregation, he might +disdain a reply to objections which seem to come out of the mouths of +unbelievers; it would be enough to repeat the words of Him who said, +"Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." But I +am not preaching, but conversing with an intelligent gentleman, who +has lived long in India, and might well assume that he knows far more +about the actual situation than I do. Such men are not to be put down. +They represent a large part of the Anglo-Indian population. We may +therefore as well recognize the fact that Modern Missions, like any +other enterprise which is proposed in the interest of civilization, +are now on trial before the world. We may look upon them as too sacred +for criticism; but in this irreverent age nothing is too sacred; +everything that is holy has to be judged by reason, and by practical +results, and by these to be justified or to be condemned. I would not +therefore claim anything on the ground of authority, but speak of +missions as I would of national education, or even of the railroad +system of India. + +The question here raised I think deserves a larger and more candid +treatment than it commonly receives either from the advocates or the +opponents of missions. It is not to be settled merely by pious +feeling, by unreasoning sentiment on the one hand, nor by sneers on +the other. To convert a whole country from one religion to another, is +an undertaking so vast that it is not to be lightly entered upon. The +very attempt assumes a superior wisdom on the part of those who make +it, which is itself almost an offence. If it be not "a grand +impertinence," an intrusion into matters with which no stranger has a +right to intermeddle, it is at least taking a great liberty to thrust +upon a man our opinion in censure of his own. We may think him very +ignorant, and in need of being enlightened. But he may have a poor +opinion of our ability to enlighten him. We think him a fool, and he +returns the compliment. At any rate, right or wrong, he is entitled to +the freedom of his opinion as much as we are to ours. If a stranger +were to come to us day by day, to argue with us, and to force his +opinions upon us, either in politics or religion, we might listen +civilly and patiently at first, but we should end by turning him out +of doors. What right have we to pronounce on his opinions and conduct +any more than he upon ours? + +In the domain of religion, especially, a man's opinions are sacred. +They are between himself and God. There is no greater offence against +courtesy, against that mutual concession of perfect freedom, which is +the first law of all human intercourse, than to interfere wantonly +with the opinions--nay, if you please, with the false opinions, with +the errors and prejudices--of mankind. Nothing but the most imperative +call of humanity--a plea of "necessity or mercy"--can justify a +crusade against the ancestral faith of a whole people. + +I state the case as strongly as I can, that we may look upon it as an +English officer, or even an intelligent Hindoo, looks upon it, and I +admit frankly that we have no more right to force our religion upon +the people of India, than to force upon them a republican form of +government, unless we can give a reason for it, which shall be +recognized at the bar of the intelligent judgment of mankind. + +Is there then any good reason--any _raison d'être_--for the +establishment of missions in India? If there be not some very solid +and substantial ground for their existence, they are not to be +justified merely because their motive is good. Is there then any +reason whatever which can justify any man, or body of men, in invading +this country with a new religion, and attacking the ancient faith of +the people? + +All students of history will acknowledge that there are certain great +revolutions in the opinions of mankind, which are epochs in history, +and turning points in the life of nations. India has had many such +revolutions, dating far back before the Christian era. Centuries +before Christ was born, Buddha preached his new faith on the banks of +the Ganges. For a time it conquered the country, driving out the old +Brahminism, which however came back and conquered in its turn, till +Buddhism, retiring slowly from the plains of India, planted its +pagodas on the shores of Burmah and among the mountains of Ceylon. + +Thus India is a land of missions, and has been from the very +beginnings of history. It was traversed by missionaries of its ancient +faith ages before Tamerlane descended the passes of the Himalayas with +the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other; or Francis Xavier, +the Apostle of the Indies, laid his bones in the Cathedral of Goa. If +then Buddhists and Brahmins, and Moslems and Romanists, have so long +disputed the land, there is certainly no reason why we should condemn +at the very outset the entrance of Protestant Christianity. + +Beside this great fact in the history of India place another: that +there is no country in the world where religion is such a power, such +an element in the life of the people. The Hindoos are not only +religious, they are intensely so. They have not indeed the fierce +fanaticism of the Moslems, for their creed tolerates all religions, +but what they believe they believe strongly. They have a subtle +philosophy which pervades all their thinking, which digs the very +channels in which their thoughts run, and cannot overflow; and this +philosophy, which is imbedded in their religious creed, fixes their +castes and customs, as rigidly as it does their forms of worship. +Religion is therefore the chief element in the national life. It has +more to do in moulding the ideas and habits, the manners and customs, +of the people, than laws or government, or any other human +institution. Thus India furnishes the most imposing illustration on +earth of the power of Religion to shape the destiny of a country or a +race. + +Whether there be anything to justify a friendly invasion of India, and +the attempt to convert its people to a better religion, may appear if +we ask, What is Hindooism? Is it a good or bad faith? Does it make men +better or worse--happy or unhappy? Does it promote the welfare of +human beings, or is it a system which is false in belief and deadly in +its effects, and against which we have a right to wage a holy war? + +Hindooism has a thousand shapes, spreading out its arms like a mighty +banyan tree, but its root is one--Pantheism. When an old fakir at the +Méla at Allahabad said to me, "You are God and I am God!" he did not +utter a wild rhapsody, but expressed the essence of Hindoo philosophy, +according to which all beings that exist are but One Being; all +thoughts are but the pulse-beats of One Infinite Mind; all acts are +but the manifestation of One Universal Life. + +Some may think this theory a mere abstraction, which has no practical +bearing. But carried out to its logical consequences, it overthrows +all morality. If all acts of men are God's acts, then they are all +equally good or bad; or rather, they are neither good nor bad. Thus +moral distinctions are destroyed, and vice and virtue are together +banished from the world. Hence Hindooism as a religion has nothing +whatever to do with morality or virtue, but is only a means of +propitiating angry deities. It is a religion of terror and fear. It is +also unspeakably vile. It is the worship of obscene gods by obscene +rites. Its very gods and goddesses commit adultery and incest. Thus +vice is deified. Such a mythology pollutes the imaginations of the +people, whereby their very mind and conscience are defiled. Not only +the heart, but even the intellect is depraved by the loathsome objects +set up in their temples. The most common object of worship in India is +an obscene image. Indeed, so well understood is this, that when a law +was passed by the Government against the exhibition of obscene images, +an express exception was made in favor of those exposed in temples, +and which were objects of religious worship. Thus Hindooism has the +privilege of indecency, and is allowed to break over all restraints. +It is the licensed harlot, that is permitted, in deference to its +religious pretensions, to disregard the common decencies of mankind. +The effect of this on public morals can be imagined. The stream cannot +rise higher than its source. How can a people be pure, when their very +religion is a fountain of pollution? But this is a subject on which we +cannot enlarge. It is an abyss into which no one would wish to look. +It is sufficient to indicate what we cannot for very loathing +undertake to describe. + +There is another element in the Hindoo religion, which cannot be +ignored, and which gives it a tremendous power for good or evil. It is +Caste. Every Hindoo child is born in a certain caste, out of which he +cannot escape. When I landed at Bombay I observed that every native +had upon his forehead a mark freshly made, as if with a stroke of the +finger, which indicated the god he worshipped or the caste to which he +belonged. Of these there are four principal ones--the Priest, or +Brahmin caste, which issued out of the mouth of Brahm; the Warrior +caste, which sprung from his arms and breast; the Merchant caste, from +his thighs; and the Shoodras, or Servile caste, which crawled out from +between his feet; beside the Pariahs, who are below all caste. These +divisions are absolute and unchangeable. To say that they are +maintained by the force of ancient custom is not enough: they are +fixed as by a law of nature. The strata of society are as immovable as +the strata of the rock-ribbed hills. No man can stir out of his place. +If he is up he stays up by no virtue of his own; and if he is down, he +stays down, beyond any power of man to deliver him. No gift of genius, +or height of virtue, can ever raise up one of a low caste into a +higher, for caste is a matter of birth. Upon these sub-strata this +fixity of caste rests with crushing weight. It holds them down as with +the force of gravitation, as if the Himalayas were rolled upon them to +press them to the earth. + +Against this oppression there is no power of resistance, no lifting up +from beneath to throw it off. One would suppose that the people +themselves would revolt at this servitude, that every manly instinct +would rise up in rebellion against such a degradation. But so +ingrained is it in the very life of the people, that they cannot cast +it out any more than they can cast out a poison in their blood. Indeed +they seem to glory in it. The lower castes crouch and bow down that +others may pass over them. A Brahmin, who had become a Christian, told +me that the people had often asked him to wash his feet in the water +of the street, that they might drink it! + +Caste is a cold and cruel thing, which hardens the heart against +natural compassion. I know it is said that high caste is only an +aristocracy of birth, and that, as such, it fosters a certain nobility +of feeling, and also a mutual friendliness between those who belong to +the same order. A caste is only a larger family, and in it there is +the same feeling, a mixture of pride and affection, which binds the +family together. Perhaps it may nurture to some extent a kind of +clannishness, but it does this at the sacrifice of the broader and +nobler sentiment of humanity. It hardens the heart into coldness and +cruelty against all without one sacred pale. The Brahmin feels nothing +for the sufferings of the Pariah, who is of another order of being as +truly as if he were one of the lower animals. Thus the feeling of +caste extinguishes the sentiment of human brotherhood. + +Taking all these elements together, Hindooism must rank as the most +despotic, the most cruel, and the vilest of all that is called +religion among men. There is no other that so completely upturns moral +distinctions, and makes evil good and good evil. Other religions, even +though false, have some sentiment that ennobles them, but Hindooism, +the product of a land fertile in strange births, is the lowest and +basest, the most truly earth-born, of all the religions that curse +mankind. + +And what burdens does it lay upon a poor, patient, and suffering +people, in prayers, penances, and pilgrimages! The faith of Hindooism +is not a mild and harmless form of human credulity. It exacts a +terrible service, that must be paid with sweat and blood. Millions of +Hindoos go every year on pilgrimages. The traveller sees them +thronging the roads, dragging their weary feet over the hot plains, +many literally _crawling_ over the burning earth, to appease the wrath +of angry gods! A religion which exacts such service is not a mere +creature of the imagination--it is a tremendous reality, which makes +its presence felt at every moment. It is therefore not a matter of +practical indifference. It is not a mere exhibition of human folly, +which, however absurd, does no harm to anybody. It is a despotism +which grinds the people to powder. + +Seeing this, how they suffer under a power from which they cannot +escape, can there be a greater object of philanthropy in all the world +than to emancipate them from the bondage of such ignorance and +superstition? Scientific men, the apostles of "modern thought," +consider it not only a legitimate object, but the high "mission" of +science, by unfolding the laws of nature, to disabuse our minds of +idle and superstitious fears; to break up that vague terror of unseen +forces, which is the chief element of superstition. If they may fight +this battle in England, may we not fight the battle of truth with +error and ignorance in Hindostan? Englishmen think it a noble thing +for brave and adventurous spirits to form expeditions to penetrate the +interior of Africa to break up the slave trade. But here is a slavery +the most terrible which ever crushed the life out of human beings. +Brahminism, which is fastened upon the people of India, embraces them +like an anaconda, clasping and crushing them in its mighty folds. It +is a devouring monster, which takes out of the very body of every +Hindoo, poor and naked and wretched as he may be, its pound of +quivering flesh. Can these things be, and we look on unmoved? Can we +see a whole people bound, like Laocoön and his sons, in the grasp of +the serpent, writhing and struggling in vain, and not come to their +rescue? + +Such is Hindooism, and such is the condition to which it has reduced +the people of India. Do we need any other argument for Christian +missions? Does not this simple statement furnish a perfect defence, +and even an imperative demand for their establishment? Christianity is +the only hope of India. In saying this I do not intend any disrespect +to the people of this country, to whom I feel a strong attraction. We +are not apt to hear from our missionary friends much about the virtues +of the heathen; but virtues they have, which it were wrong to ignore. +The Hindoos, like other Asiatics, are a very domestic people, and have +strong domestic attachments. They love their homes, humble though they +be, and their children. And while they have not the active energy of +Western races, yet in the passive virtues--meekness, patience under +injury, submission to wrong--they furnish an example to Christian +nations. That submissiveness, which travellers notice, and which moves +some to scorn, moves me rather to pity, and I find in this patient, +long-suffering race much to honor and to love. Nor are they +unintelligent. They have very subtle minds. Thus they have many of the +qualities of a great people. But their religion is their destruction. +It makes them no better, it makes them worse. It does not lift them +up, it drags them down. It is the one terrible and overwhelming curse, +that must be removed before there is any hope for the people of India. + +Is there not here a legitimate ground for an attempt on the part of +the civilized and Christian world to introduce a better faith into +that mighty country which holds two hundred millions of the human +race? This is not intrusion, it is simple humanity. In seeking to +introduce Christianity into India, we invade no right of any native of +that country, Mohammedan or Hindoo; we would not wantonly wound their +feelings, nor even shock their prejudices, in attacking their +hereditary faith. But we claim that here is a case where we cannot +keep silent. If we are told that we "interfere with the people," we +answer, that we interfere as the Good Samaritan interfered with the +man who fell among thieves, and was left by the roadside to die; as +the physician in the hospital interferes with those dying of the +cholera; as one who sees a brother at his side struck by a deadly +serpent applies his mouth to the wound, to suck the poison from his +blood! If that be interference, it is interference where it would be +cruelty to stand aloof, for he would be less than man who could be +unmoved in presence of misery so vast, which it was in any degree in +his power to relieve. + +Thus India itself is the sufficient argument for missions in India. +Let any one visit this country, and study its religion, and see how it +enters into the very life of the people; how all social intercourse is +regulated by caste; how one feels at every instant the pressure of an +ancient and unchangeable religion, and ask how its iron rule is ever +to be broken? Who shall deliver them from the body of this death? +There is in Hindooism no power of self-cure. For ages it has remained +the same, and will remain for ages still. Help, if it come at all, +must come from without, and where else can it come from, but from +lands beyond the sea? + +Therefore it is that the Christian people of England and America come +to the people of India, not in a tone of self-righteousness, assuming +that we are better than they, but in the name of humanity, of the +brotherhood of the human race. We believe that "God hath made of one +blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth," and these +Hindoos, though living on the other side of the globe, are our +brothers. They are born into the same world; they belong to the same +human family, and have the same immortal destiny. To such a people, +capable of great things, but crushed and oppressed, we come to do +them good. We would break the terrible bondage of caste, and bring +forth woman out of the prison-house where she passes her lonely +existence. This involves a social as well as a religious revolution. +But what a sigh of relief would it bring to millions who, under their +present conditions, are all their lifetime subject to bondage. + +There is a saying in the East that in India the flowers yield no +perfume, the birds never sing, and the women never smile. Of course +this is an exaggeration, and yet it has a basis of truth. It is true +that the flowers of the tropics, though often of brilliant hues, do +not yield the rich perfume of the roses of our Northern clime; and +many of the birds whose golden plumage flashes sunlight in the deep +gloom of tropical forests, have only a piercing shriek, instead of the +soft, delicious notes of the robin and the dove; and the women have a +downcast look. Well may it be so. They lead a secluded and solitary +life. Shut up in their zenanas, away from society, they have no part +in many of the joys of human existence, though they have more than +their share of life's burdens and its woes. No wonder that their faces +should be sad and sorrowful. Thus the whole creation seems to groan +and travail in pain. + +Now we desire to dispel the darkness and the gloom of ages, and to +bring smiles and music and flowers once more into this stricken world. +Teaching a religion of love and good will to men, we would cure the +hatred of races, and bring all together in a common brotherhood. We +would so lift up the poor of this world, that sorrow and sighing shall +flee away, and that every lowly Indian hut shall be filled with the +light of a new existence. In that day will not nature share in the joy +of man's deliverance? Then will the birds begin to sing, as if they +were let loose from the gates of heaven to go flying through the +earth, and to fill our common air with the voice of melody. Then shall +smiles be seen once more on human faces; not the loud cackling of +empty laughter; but smiles breaking through tears (the reflection of +a peace that passeth understanding), shall spread like sunshine over +the sad faces of the daughters of Asia. + +But some "old Indian" who has listened politely, yet smiling and +incredulous, to this defence of missions, may answer, "All this is +very fine; no doubt it would be a good thing if the people of India +would change their religion; would cast off Hindooism, and adopt +Christianity. But is it not practically impossible? Do all the efforts +of missionaries really amount to anything." This is a fair question, +and I will try to give it a fair answer. + +"Do missionaries do any good?" Perhaps we can best answer the question +by drawing the picture of an Indian village, such as one may see at +thousands of points scattered over the country. It is a cluster of +huts, constructed sometimes with a light frame-work of bamboo, filled +in with matting, but more commonly of mud, with a roof of thatch to +prevent its being washed away in the rainy season. These huts are +separated from each other by narrow lanes that can hardly be dignified +with the name of streets. Yet in such a hamlet of hovels, hardly fit +for human habitation, may be a large population. Every doorway is +swarming with children. On the outskirts of the village is _the +missionary bungalow_, a large one-story house, also built of mud, but +neatly whitewashed and protected from the rains by a heavy thatched +roof, which projects over the walls, and shades the broad veranda. In +the "compound" are two other buildings of the same rude material and +simple architecture, a church and a schoolhouse. In the latter are +gathered every day ten, twenty, fifty--perhaps a hundred--children, +with bare feet and poor garments, though clean, but with bright eyes, +and who seem eager to learn. All day long comes from that low building +a buzz and hum as from a hive of bees. Every Sunday is gathered in the +little chapel a congregation chiefly of poor people, plainly but +neatly dressed, and who, as they sit there, reclaimed from +heathenism, seem to be "clothed and in their right minds." To the poor +the Gospel is preached, and never does it show its sweetness and +power, as when it comes down into such abodes of poverty, and gives to +these humble natives a new hope and a new life--a life of joy and +peace. Perhaps in the same compound is an orphanage, in which are +gathered the little castaways who have been deserted by their parents, +left by the roadside to die--or whose parents may have died by +cholera--and who are thus rescued from death, and given the chance +which belongs to every human creature of life and of happiness. + +Perhaps the missionary is a little of a physician, and has a small +chest of medicines, and the poor people come to him for cures of their +bodily ailments, as well as for their spiritual troubles. After awhile +he gains their confidence, and becomes, not by any appointment, but +simply by the right of goodness and the force of character, a sort of +unofficial magistrate, or head man of the village, a general +peacemaker and benefactor. Can any one estimate the influence of such +a man, with his gentle wife at his side, who is also active both in +teaching and in every form of charity? Who does not see that such a +missionary bungalow, with its school, its orphanage, and its church, +and its daily influences of teaching and of example, is a centre of +civilization, when planted in the heart of an Indian village? + +How extensive is this influence will of course depend on the many or +the few devoted to this work, and the wisdom and energy with which +they pursue it. The number of missionaries in India is very small +compared with the vast population. And yet the picture here drawn of +one village is reproduced in hundreds of villages. Take the +representatives of all the churches and societies of Protestant +Christendom, they would make a very respectable force. But even this +does not represent the full amount of influence they exert. Moral +influences cannot be weighed and measured like material forces. Nor +are missionaries to be counted, like the soldiers of an army. They are +not drawn up on parade, and do not march through the streets, with +gleaming bayonets. Their forces are scattered, and their work is +silent and unseen. + +But in all quiet ways, by churches, schools, and orphanages, their +influence is felt; while by the printing-press they scatter religious +truth all over India, the effect of which, in tens of thousands of +those whom it does not "convert," is to destroy the power of their old +idolatry. + +That more Hindoos do not openly embrace Christianity is not +surprising, when one considers the social influences which restrain +them. When a Hindoo becomes a Christian, he is literally an outcast. +His most intimate friends will not know him. His own family turn him +from their door, feeling that he has brought upon them a disgrace far +greater than if he had committed a crime for which he was to perish on +the scaffold. To them he is _dead_, and they perform his funeral rites +as if he were no more in this world. The pastor of the native church +in Bombay has thus been _buried_ or _burned_ by his own family. +Another told me that his own father turned from him in the street, and +refused to recognize him. These things are very hard to bear. And so +far from wondering that there are not more conversions among the +natives of India, I wonder that there are so many. + +But what sort of Christians are they? Are they like English or +American Christians? When I landed in India, and saw what a strange +people I was among, how unlike our own race, I asked a question which +many have asked before: Whether these people _could_ become +Christians? It is a favorite idea of many travellers--and of many +English residents in India--that not only is the number of conversions +small, but that the "converts" are not worth having when they are +made. It is said that it is only low caste natives, who have nothing +to lose, that will desert their old religion; and that they are +influenced only by the lowest motives, and that while they profess to +be converted, they are in no wise changed from what they were, except +that to their old heathen vices they have added that of hypocrisy. +Hearing these things, I have taken some pains to ascertain what sort +of people these native converts are. I have attended their religious +services, and have met them socially, and, so far as I could judge, I +have never seen more simple-minded Christians. Some of them are as +intelligent as the best instructed members of our New England +churches. As to their low caste, statistics show, among them, a +greater proportion of Brahmins than of any other caste, as might be +expected from their greater intelligence. + +The work, then, has not been in vain. The advance is slow, but it is +something that there _is_ an advance. I am told, as the result of a +careful estimate, that if the progress continues in the future as it +has for the last fifteen years, in two centuries the whole of India +with its two hundred millions of people, will be converted to the +Christian religion. This is a spread of Christianity more rapid than +that in the age of the apostles, for it was three centuries before the +faith which they preached became master of the Roman empire. + +With such a record of what Christian Missions have done in India, with +such evidences of their good influence and growing power, they are +entitled to honor and respect as one of the great elements in the +problem of the future of that country. To speak of them flippantly, +argues but small acquaintance with the historical forces which have +hitherto governed India or indeed Britain itself. It ill becomes +Englishmen to sneer at missions, for to missionaries they owe it that +their island has been reclaimed from barbarism. When Augustine landed +in Britain their ancestors were clothed in skins, and roaming in +forests. It was the new religion that softened their manners, refined +their lives, and in the lapse of generations wrought out the slow +process of civilization. + +In Johnson's "Tour to the Hebrides," he refers to the early +missionaries who civilized Britain in a passage which is one of the +most eloquent in English literature: "We were now treading that +illustrious island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian +regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the +benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion.... Far from me +and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us +indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by +wisdom, bravery or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose +patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose +piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." + +That power which has made England so great; which has made the English +race the foremost race in all this world; is now carried to another +hemisphere to work the same gradual elevation in the East. It is a +mighty undertaking. The lifting up of a race is like the lifting up of +a continent. Such changes cannot come suddenly; but in the slow lapse +of ages the continent may be found to have risen, and to be covered, +as it were, with a new floral vegetation; as that faith, which is the +life of Europe, has entered into the vast populations of Asia. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +BENARES, THE HOLY CITY. + + +We had begun to feel ourselves at home in India. A stranger takes root +quickly, as foreign plants take root in the soil, and spring up under +the sun and rain of the tropics. A traveller makes acquaintances that +ripen into friendship and bind him so fast that it is a real pain when +he has to break away and leave these new friends behind. Thus +Allahabad had become our Indian home. The missionary community was so +delightful, and everybody was so kind and hospitable, that we had come +to feel as if we were only in an outlying corner of America. The +missionary bungalow was like a parsonage in New England; and when we +left all, and the train rolled across the long bridge over the Jumna, +from which we saw Miss Seward and Miss Wilson standing on their +veranda, and waving us farewell, it seemed as if we were leaving home. + +But the holy city was before us. Some seventy miles from Allahabad +stands a city which, to the devout Hindoo, is the most sacred place on +earth--one which overtops all others, as the Himalayas overtop all +other mountains on the globe. There are holy shrines in different +countries, which are held sacred by the devotees of different +religions; but there are four chief holy cities--Rome, Jerusalem, +Mecca, and Benares. As the devout Catholic makes a pilgrimage to Rome, +to receive the blessing of the Holy Father; as the Jew traverses land +and sea, that his feet may stand within the gates of Jerusalem, where +he weeps at the place of wailing under the walls of the ancient +temple; as the caravan of the Arab still crosses the desert to Mecca; +so does the devout Hindoo come to Benares, and count it his supreme +joy if he can but see its domes and towers; and eternal felicity to +die on the banks of the sacred river. + +A couple of hours brought us to the Ganges, from which we had a full +view of the city on the other side of the river. If the first sight +did not awaken in us the same emotions as in the mind of the Hindoo, +the scene was picturesque enough to excite our admiration. The +appearance of Benares is very striking. For two miles it presents a +succession of palaces and temples which are built not only on, but +almost in, the river, as Venice is built in the sea; the huge +structures crowding each other on the bank, and flights of steps going +down into the water, as if they would receive the baptism of the +sacred river as it flowed gently by; as if the people listened fondly +to its murmurs, and when wakened in their dreams, were soothed to hear +its waters lapping the very stones of their palaces. + +We crossed the river on a bridge of boats, and drove out to the +English quarter, which is two or three miles distant, and here rested +an hour or two before we took a courier and plunged into the labyrinth +of the city, in which a stranger would soon be lost who should attempt +to explore it without a guide. Benares would be well worth a visit if +it were only for its Oriental character. It is peculiarly an Indian +city, with every feature of Asiatic and of Indian life strongly +marked. Its bazaars are as curious and as rich as any in Asia, with +shawls of cashmere, and silks wrought by fine needlework into every +article of costly array. It has also cunning workmen in precious +metals and precious stones--in gold and silver and diamonds. One +special industry is workmanship in brass. We brought away a number of +large trays, curiously wrought like shields. One contains a lesson in +Hindoo mythology for those who are able to read it, as on it are +traced all the incarnations of Vishnu. + +While thus rambling about the city, we had an opportunity to see +something of the marriage customs of the Hindoos, as we met in the +streets a number of wedding processions. The heavenly influences were +favorable to such unions. The Hindoos are great astrologers, and give +high importance to the conjunction of the stars, and do not marry +except when Jupiter is in the ascendant. Just now he rides high in the +heavens, and this is the favored time of love. The processions were +very curious. The bridegroom was mounted on horseback, tricked out in +the dress of a harlequin, with a crowd on horses and on foot, going +before and following after, waving flags, beating drums, and making +all manner of noises, to testify their joy; while the bride, who was +commonly a mere child, was borne in a palanquin, covered with ribbons +and trinkets and jewelry, looking, as she sat upright in her doll's +house, much more as if she were a piece of frosted cake being carried +to the wedding, than a living piece of flesh and blood that had any +part therein. Altogether the scene was more like a Punch-and-Judy +show, than any part of the serious business of life. Engagements are +often made when the parties are in childhood, or even in infancy; and +the marriage consummated at twelve. These child-marriages are a great +curse to the country, as they fill the land with their puny offspring, +that wither like weeds in the hot sun of India. It is a pity that they +could not be prohibited; that marriages could not be forbidden until +the parties had reached at least sixteen years of age. + +Another thing which greatly amused us was to see how the people made +way for us wherever we came. The streets are very narrow, and there is +not room for a jostling crowd. But their politeness stopped at no +obstacle. They meant to give us a free passage. They drew to one side, +making themselves very small, and even hugging the wall, to get out of +our way. We accepted this delicate attention as a mark of respect, +which we thought a touching proof of Oriental courtesy; and with the +modesty of our countrymen, regarded it as an homage to our greatness. +We were a little taken aback at being informed that, on the contrary, +it was to avoid pollution; that if they but touched the hem of our +garments, they would have had to run to the Ganges to wash away the +stain! + +But we need not make merry with these strict observances of the +people, for with them Religion is the great business of life, and it +is as the Mecca of their faith that Benares has such interest for the +intelligent traveller. No city in India, perhaps none in all Asia, +dates back its origin to a more remote antiquity. It is the very +cradle of history and of religion. Here Buddha preached his new faith +centuries before Christ was born in Judea--a faith which still sways a +larger part of mankind than any other, though it has lost its dominion +in the place where it began. Here Hindooism, once driven out, still +fought and conquered, and here it still has its seat, from which it +rules its vast and populous empire. + +It is always interesting to study a country or a religion in its +capital. As we go to Rome to see Romanism, we come to Benares to see +Hindooism, expecting to find it in its purest form. Whether that is +anything to boast of, we can tell better after we have seen a little +of this, its most holy city. Benares is full of temples and shrines. +Of course we could only visit a few of the more sacred. The first that +we entered was like a menagerie. It was called the Monkey Temple; and +rightly so, for the place was full of the little creatures. It fairly +swarmed with them. They were overhead and all around us, chattering as +if they were holding a council in the heart of a tropical forest. The +place was for all the world like the monkey-house in the Zoölogical +Gardens in London, or in our Central Park in New York, and would be an +amusing resort for children were it not regarded as a place for +religious worship. Perhaps some innocent traveller thinks this a +touching proof of the charming simplicity of the Hindoos, that they +wish to call on all animated nature to unite in devotion, and that +thus monkeys (speaking the language which monkeys understand) are +permitted to join with devout Hindoos in the worship of their common +Creator. But a glance shows the stranger that the monkeys are here, +not to worship, but to be worshipped. According to the Pantheism of +the Hindoos, all things are a part of God. Not only is he the author +of life, but he lives in his creatures, so that they partake of his +divinity; and therefore whatsoever thing liveth and moveth on the +earth--beast, or bird, or reptile--is a proper object of worship. + +But the monkeys were respectable compared with the hideous idol which +is enthroned in this place. In the court of the Temple is a shrine, a +Holy of Holies, where, as the gilded doors are swung open, one sees a +black divinity, with thick, sensual lips, that are red with blood, and +eyes that glare fiendishly. This is the goddess Doorgha, whose sacred +presence is guarded by Brahmin priests, so that no profane foot may +come near her. While they kept us back with holy horror from +approaching, they had no scruples about reaching out their hands to +receive our money. It is the habit of strangers to drop some small +coin in the outstretched palms. But I was too much disgusted to give +to the beggars. They were importunate, and said the Prince of Wales, +who was there a few days before, had given them a hundred rupees. +Perhaps he felt under a necessity of paying such a mark of respect to +the religion of the great Empire he was to rule. But ordinary +travellers are under no such obligation. The rascals trade in the +curiosity of strangers. It might be well if they did not find it such +a source of revenue. So I would not give them a penny; though I +confess to spending a few pice on nuts and "sweets" for the monkeys, +who are the only ones entitled to "tribute" from visitors; and then, +returning to the gharri, we rode disgusted away. In another part of +the city is the Golden Temple, devoted to the god Shiva, which +divides with that of the monkeys the homage of the Hindoos. Here are +no chattering apes, though the place is profaned with the presence of +beasts and birds. Some dozen cows were standing or lying down in the +court, making it seem more like a stable or a barnyard than a holy +place. Yet here was a fakir rapt in the ecstasies of devotion, with +one arm uplifted, rigid as a pillar of iron. He was looked upon with +awe by the faithful who crowded around him, and who rewarded his +sanctity by giving him money; but to our profane eyes he was a figure +of pride (though disguised under the pretence of spirituality), as +palpable to the sight as the peacock who spread his tail and strutted +about in the filthy enclosure. + +But perhaps the reader will think that we have had enough of this, and +will gladly turn to a less revolting form of superstition. The great +sight of Benares is the bathing in the Ganges. This takes place in the +morning. We rose early the next day, and drove down to the river, and +getting a boat, were rowed slowly for hours up and down the stream. It +is lined with temples and palaces, which descend to the water by +flights of steps, or _ghauts_, which at this hour are thronged with +devout Hindoos. By hundreds and thousands they come down to the +river's brink, men, women, and children, and wade in, not swimming, +but standing in the water, plunging their heads and mumbling their +prayers, and performing their libations, by taking the water in their +hands, and casting it towards the points of the compass, as an act of +worship to the celestial powers, especially to the sun. + +As the boatmen rested on their oars, that we might observe the strange +scene, C---- started with horror to see a corpse in the water. It was +already half decayed, and obscene birds were fluttering over it. But +this is too common a sight in Benares to raise any emotion in the +breast of the Hindoo, whose prayer is that he may die on the banks of +the Ganges. Does his body drift down with the stream, or become food +for the fowls of the air, his soul floats to its final rest in the +Deity, as surely as the Ganges rolls onward to the sea. + +But look! here is another scene. We are approaching the Burning Ghaut, +and I see piles of wood, and human bodies, and smoke and flame. I bade +the boatmen draw to the shore, that we might have a clearer view of +this strange sight. Walking along the bank, we came close to the +funeral piles. Several were waiting to be lighted. When all is ready, +the nearest male relative walks round and round the pile, and then +applies to it a lighted withe of straw. Here was a body just dressed +for the last rites. It was wrapped in coarse garments, perhaps all +that affection could give. Beside it stood a woman, watching it with +eager eyes, lest any rude hand should touch the form which, though +dead, was still beloved. I looked with pity into her sad, sorrowful +face. What a tale of affection was there!--of love for the life that +was ended, and the form that was cherished, that was soon to be but +ashes, and to float away upon the bosom of the sacred river. + +Another pile was already lighted, and burning fiercely. I stood close +to it, till driven away by the heat and smoke. As the flames closed +round the form, portions of the body were exposed. Now the hair was +consumed in a flash, leaving the bare skull; now the feet showed from +the other end of the pile. It was a ghastly sight. Now a horrid smell +filled the air, and still the pile glowed like a furnace, crackling +with the intense heat, and shot out tongues of flame that seemed eager +to lick up every drop of blood. + +In this disposal of the dead there is nothing to soothe the mourner +like a Christian burial, when the body is committed to the earth, +ashes to ashes, dust to dust, when a beloved form is laid down under +the green turf gently, as on a mother's breast. + +The spectacle of this morning, with the similar one at Allahabad, have +set me a-thinking. I ask, What idea do the Hindoos attach to bathing +in the Ganges? Is it purification or expiation, or both? Is it the +putting away of sin by the washing of water; the cleansing of the body +for the sins of the soul? Or is there in it some idea of atonement? +What is the fascination of this religious observance? Perhaps no +stranger can fully understand it, or enter into the feeling with which +the devout Hindoo regards the sacred river. The problem grows the more +we study it. However we approach the great river of India, we find a +wealth of associations gathering around it such as belongs to no other +river on the face of the earth. No other is so intimately connected +with the history and the whole life of a people. Other rivers have +poetical or patriotic associations. The ancient Romans kept watch on +the Tiber, as the modern Germans keep watch on the Rhine. But these +are associations of country and of patriotic pride--not of life, not +of existence, not of religion. In these respects the only river in the +world which approaches the Ganges is the Nile, which, coming down from +the Highlands of Central Africa, floods the long valley, which it has +itself made in the desert, turning the very sands into fertility, and +thus becoming the creator and life-giver of Egypt. + +What the Nile is to Egypt, the Ganges is to a part of India, giving +life and verdure to plains that but for it were a desert. As it bursts +through the gates of the Himalayas, and sweeps along with resistless +current, cooling with its icy breath the hot plains of India, and +giving fertility to the rice fields of Bengal, it may well seem to the +Hindoo the greatest visible emblem of Almighty power and Infinite +beneficence. + +But it is more than an emblem. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the +Nile as a god, and in this they had the same feeling which now exists +among the Hindoos in regard to the Ganges. It is not only a sacred +river because of its associations; it is itself Divine, flowing, like +the River of Life in the Book of Revelation, out of the throne of God. +It descends out of heaven, rising in mountains whose tops touch the +clouds--the sacred mountains which form the Hindoo Kylas, or Heaven, +the abode of the Hindoo Trinity--of Brahma and Shiva and Vishnu. +Rushing from under a glacier in the region of everlasting snow, it +seems as if it gushed from the very heart of the Dweller on that holy +mount; as if that flowing stream were the life-blood of the Creator. +When the Hindoo has seized this idea, it takes strong hold of his +imagination. As he stands on the banks of the Ganges at night, and +sees its broad current quivering under the rays of the full moon, it +seems indeed as if it were the clear stream flowing through the calm +breast of God himself, bearing life from Him to give life to the +world. Hence in his creed it has all the virtue and the "divine power +that belongs in the Christian system to the blood of Christ. It makes +atonement for sins that are past." "He that but looks on the Ganges," +says the Hindoo proverb, "or that drinks of it, washes away the stains +of a hundred births; but he that bathes in it washes away the stains +of a thousand births." This is a virtue beyond that of the Nile, or +the rivers of Damascus, or of the Jordan, or even of + + Siloa's brook + That flowed fast by the oracle of God. + +It is a virtue which can be found alone in that blood which "cleanseth +from all sin." + +The spectacle of such superstition produced a strong revulsion of +feeling, and made me turn away from these waters that cannot cleanse +the guilty soul, nor save the dying, to the Mighty Sufferer, whose +blood was shed for the sins of the world, and I seemed to hear voices +in far-off Christian lands singing: + + E'er since by faith I saw the stream + Thy flowing wounds supply, + Redeeming love has been my theme, + And shall be till I die. + +But I do not sit in judgment on the Hindoos, nor include a whole +people in one general condemnation. Some of them are as noble +specimens of humanity, with as much "natural goodness" as can be found +anywhere; and are even religious in their way, and in zeal and +devotion an example to their Christian neighbors. Of this, a very +striking instance can be given here. + +On the other side of the Ganges lives a grand old Hindoo, the +Maharajah of Benares, and as he is famed for his hospitality to +strangers, we sent him a letter by a messenger (being assured that +that was the proper thing to do), saying that we should be happy to +pay our respects to my lord in his castle; and in a few hours received +a reply that his carriage should be sent to our hotel for us the next +morning, and that his boat would convey us across the river. We did +not wait for the carriage, as we were in haste to depart for Calcutta +the same forenoon, but rode down in our own gharri to the river side, +where we found the boat awaiting us. On the other bank stood a couple +of elephants of extraordinary size, that knelt down and took us on +their broad backs, and rolled off at a swinging pace to a pleasant +retreat of the Maharajah a mile or two from the river, where he had a +temple of his own, situated in the midst of beautiful gardens. + +On our return we were marched into the courtyard of the castle, where +the attendants received us, and escorted us within. The Maharajah did +not make his appearance, as it was still early, but his secretary +presented himself to do the honors, giving his master's respects with +his photograph, and showing us every possible courtesy. We were shown +through the rooms of state, where the Prince of Wales had been +received a few weeks before. The view from the terrace on the river +side is enchanting. It is directly on the water, and commands a view +up and down the Ganges for miles, while across the smooth expanse rise +the temples and palaces of the Holy City. What a place for a Brahmin +to live or to die! + +This Maharajah of Benares is well known all over India. He is a member +of the Viceroy's Council at Calcutta, and held in universal respect by +the English community. Sir William Muir, who is one of the most +pronounced Christian men in India, whom some would even call a Puritan +for his strictness, told me that the Maharajah was one of the best of +men. And yet he is of the straitest sect of the Hindoos, who bathes in +the Ganges every morning, and "does his pooja." In all religious +observances he is most exemplary, often spending hours in prayer. The +secretary, in excusing his master's absence, said that he had been up +nearly all night engaged in his devotions. How this earnest faith in a +religion so vile can consist with a life so pure and so good, is one +of the mysteries of this Asiatic world which I leave to those wiser +than I am to explain. + +We had lingered so long that it was near the hour of our departure for +Calcutta, and we were three miles up the river. The secretary +accompanied us to the boat of the Maharajah, which was waiting for us, +and bade us farewell, with many kind wishes that we might have a +prosperous journey. Lying against the bank was the gilded barge in +which the Maharajah had received and escorted the Prince of Wales. +Waving our adieu, we gave the signal, and the boatmen pushed off into +the stream. It was now a race against time. We had a long stretch to +make in a very few minutes. I offered the men a reward if they should +reach the place in time. The stalwart rowers bent to their oars, their +swarthy limbs making swift strokes, and the boat shot like an arrow +down the stream. I stood up in the eagerness and excitement of the +chase, taking a last look at the sacred temples as we shot swiftly by. +It wanted but two or three minutes of the hour as our little pinnace +struck against the goal by the bridge of boats, and throwing the +rupees to the boatmen, we hurried up the bank, and had just time to +get fairly bestowed in the roomy first-class carriage, which we had +all to ourselves, when the train started for Calcutta, and the towers +and domes and minarets of the holy city of India faded from our sight. + +Thinking! Still thinking! What does it all mean? Who can understand +Hindooism--where it begins and where it ends? It is like the fabled +tree that had its roots down in the Kingdom of Death, and spread its +branches over the world. Behind it, or beneath it, is a deep +philosophy, which goes down to the very beginnings of existence, and +touches the most vital problems of life and death, of endless dying +and living. Out of millions of ages, after a million births, following +each other in long succession, at last man is cast upon the earth, but +only as a bird of passage, darting swiftly through life, and then, in +an endless transmigration of souls, passing through other stages of +being, till he is absorbed in the Eternal All. Thus does man find his +way at last back to God, as the drop of water, caught up by the sun, +lifted into the cloud, descends in the rain, trickles in streams down +the mountain side, and finds its way back to the ocean. So does the +human soul complete the endless cycle of existence, coming from God +and returning to God, to be swallowed up and lost in that Boundless +Sea. + +Much might be said, by way of argument, in support of this pantheistic +philosophy. But whatever may be urged in favor of Hindooism in the +abstract, its practical results are terrible. By a logic as close and +irresistible as it is fatal, it takes away the foundation of all +morality, and strikes down all goodness and virtue--all that is the +glory of man, and all that is the beauty of woman. It is nothing to +the purpose to quote the example of such a man as the Maharajah of +Benares, for there is a strange alchemy in virtue, by which a pure +nature, a high intelligence, and right moral instincts, will convert +even the most pernicious doctrines to the purpose of a spiritual life. +But with the mass of Hindoos it is only a system of abject +superstition and terror. As we rolled along the banks of the Ganges, +I thought what tales that stream could tell. Could we but listen in +the dead of night, what sounds we might hear! Hush! hark! There is a +footstep on the shore. The rushes on the bank are parted, and a Hindoo +mother comes to the water's edge. Look! she holds a child in her arms. +She starts back, and with a shriek casts it to the river monsters. +Such scenes are not frequent now, because the government has repressed +them by law, though infanticide is fearfully common in other ways. But +even yet in secret--"darkly at dead of night"--does fanaticism +sometimes pay its offering to the river which is worshipped as a god. +This is what Hindooism does for the mother and for her child. Thus it +wrongs at once childhood and motherhood and womanhood. Who that thinks +of such scenes can but pray that a better faith may be given to the +women of India, that the mother may no longer look with anguish into +the face of her own child, as one doomed to destruction, but like any +Christian mother, clasp her baby to her breast, thanking God who has +given it to her, and bidden her keep it, and train it up for life, for +virtue and for happiness. + +But is there any hope of seeing Hindooism destroyed? I fear not very +soon. When I think how many ages it has stood, and what mighty forces +it has resisted, the task seems almost hopeless. For centuries it +fought with Buddhism for the conquest of India, and remained master of +the field. Then came Mohammedanism in the days of the Mogul Empire. It +gained a foothold, and reared its mosques even in the Holy City of the +Hindoos. To this day the most splendid structure in Benares is the +great Mosque of Aurungzebe. As I climbed its tall minaret, and looked +over the city, I saw here and there the gilded domes and slender +spires that mark the temples of Islam. But these fierce iconoclasts, +who set out from Arabia to break the idols in pieces, could not +destroy them here. The fanatical Aurungzebe could build his mosque, +with its minaret so lofty as to overtop all the temples of Paganism; +but he could not convert the idolaters. With such tenacity did they +cling to their faith, that even the religion of the Prophet could make +little impression, though armed with all the power of the sword. + +And now come modern civilization and Christianity. The work of +"tearing down" is not left to Missions alone. There is in India a +vast system of National Education. In Benares there is an University +whose stately halls would not look out of place among the piles of +Oxford. In the teaching there is a rigid--I had almost said a +religious--abstinence from religion. But science is taught, and +science confutes the Hindoo cosmogony. When it is written in the +Purânas that the world rests on the back of an elephant, and that the +elephant stands on the back of a tortoise, and the tortoise on the +back of the great serpent Nâga, it needs but a very little learning to +convince the young Hindoo that his sacred books are a mass of fables. +But this does not make him a Christian. It lands him in infidelity, +and leaves him there. And this is the state of the educated mind of +India, of what is sometimes designated as Young India, or Young +Bengal. Here they stand--deep in the mire of unbelief, as if they had +tried to plant their feet on the low-lying Delta of the Ganges, and +found it sink beneath them, with danger of being buried in Gangetic +ooze and slime. But even this is better than calling to gods that +cannot help them; for at least it may give them a sense of their +weakness and danger. It may be that the educated mind of India has to +go through this stage of infidelity before it can come into the light +of a clearer faith. At present they believe nothing, yet conform to +Hindoo customs for social reasons, for fear of losing caste. This is +all-powerful. It is hard for men to break away from it in detail. But +once that a breach is made in their ranks, the same social tyranny may +carry them over _en masse_, so that a nation shall be born in a day. +At present the work that is going on is that of sapping and mining, +of boring holes into the foundation of Hindooism; and this is done as +industriously, and perhaps as effectively, by Government schools and +colleges as by Missions. + +At Benares we observed, in sailing up and down the Ganges, that the +river had undermined a number of temples built upon its banks, and +that they had fallen with their huge columns and massive architecture, +and were lying in broken and shapeless masses, half covered by the +water. What a spectacle of ruin and decay in the Holy City of the +Hindoos! This is a fit illustration of the process which has been +going on for the last half century in regard to Hindooism. The waters +are washing it away, and by and by the whole colossal fabric, built up +in ages of ignorance and superstition, will come crashing to the +earth. Hindooism will fall, and great will be the fall of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CALCUTTA-FAREWELL TO INDIA. + + +It is a good rule in travelling, as in rhetoric, to keep the best to +the last, and wind up with a climax. But it would be hard to find a +climax in India after seeing the old Mogul capitals, whose palaces and +tombs outshine the Alhambra; after climbing the Himalayas, and making +a pilgrimage to the holy city. And yet one feels a _crescendo_ of +interest in approaching the capital. India has three capitals--Delhi, +where once reigned the Great Mogul, and which is still the centre of +the Mohammedan faith; Benares, the Mecca of the Hindoos; and Calcutta, +the capital of the modern British Empire. The two former we have seen; +it is the last which is now before us. + +Our route was southeast, along the valley of the Ganges, and through +the province of Bengal. What is the magic of a name? From childhood +the most vivid association I had with this part of India, was that of +Bengal tigers, which were the wonder of every menagerie; and it was +not strange if we almost expected to see them crouching in the forest, +or gliding away in the long grass of the jungle. But Bengal has other +attractions to one who rides over it. This single province of India is +five times as large as the State of New York. It is a vast alluvial +plain, through which the Ganges pours by a hundred mouths to the sea, +its overflow giving to the soil a richness and fertility like that of +the valley of the Nile, so that it supports a population equal to that +of the whole of the United States. The cultivated fields that we pass +show the natural wealth of the country, as the frequent towns show the +density of the population. Of these the largest is Patna, the centre +of the opium culture. But we did not stop anywhere, for the way was +long. From Benares to Calcutta is over four hundred miles, or about as +far as from New York city to Niagara Falls. We started at eleven +o'clock, and kept steadily travelling all day. Night fell, and the +moon rose over the plains and the palm groves, and still we fled on +and on, as if pursued by the storm spirits of the Hindoo Kylas, till +the morning broke, and found us on the banks of a great river filled +with shipping, and opposite to a great city. This was the Hoogly, one +of the mouths of the Ganges, and there was Calcutta! A carriage +whirled us swiftly across the bridge, and up to the Great Eastern +Hotel, where we were glad to rest, after travelling three thousand +miles in India, and to exchange even the most luxurious railway +carriage for beds and baths, and the comforts of civilization. The +hotel stands opposite the Government House, the residence of the +Viceroy of India, and supplies everything necessary to the dignity of +a "burra Sahib." Soft-footed Hindoos glided silently about, watching +our every motion, and profoundly anxious for the honor of being our +servants. A stalwart native slept on the mat before my door, and +attended on my going out and my coming in, as if I had been a grand +dignitary of the Empire. + +Calcutta bears a proud name in the East--that of the City of +Palaces--from which a traveller is apt to experience a feeling of +disappointment. And yet the English portion of the city is +sufficiently grand to make it worthy to rank with the second class of +European capitals. The Government House, from its very size, has a +massive and stately appearance, and the other public buildings are of +corresponding proportions. The principal street, called the +Chowringhee road, is lined for two miles with the handsome houses of +government officials or wealthy English residents. But the beauty of +Calcutta is the grand esplanade, called the Maidan--an open space as +large as our Central Park in New York; beginning at the Government +House, and reaching to Fort William, and beyond it; stretching for two +or three miles along the river, and a mile back from it to the +mansions of the Chowringhee Road. This is an immense parade-ground for +military and other displays. Here and there are statues of men who +have distinguished themselves in the history of British India. +Tropical plants and trees give to the landscape their rich masses of +color and of shade, while under them and around them is spread that +carpet of green so dear to the eyes of an Englishman in any part of +the world--a wide sweep of soft and smooth English turf. Here at +sunset one may witness a scene nowhere equalled except in the great +capitals of Europe. In the middle of the day the place is deserted, +except by natives, whom, being "children of the sun," he does not +"smite by day," though the moon may smite them by night. The English +residents are shut closely within doors, where they seek, by the +waving of punkas, and by admitting the air only through mats dripping +with water, to mitigate the terrible heat. But as the sun declines, +and the palms begin to cast their shadows across the plain, and a cool +breeze comes in from the sea, the whole English world pours forth. The +carriage of the Viceroy rolls out from under the arches of the +Government House, and the other officials are abroad. A stranger is +surprised at the number of dashing equipages, with postilions and +servants in liveries, furnished by this foreign city. These are not +all English. Native princes and wealthy baboos vie with Englishmen in +the bravery of their equipages, and give to the scene a touch of +Oriental splendor. Officers on horseback dash by, accompanied often by +fair English faces; while the band from Fort William plays the martial +airs of England. It is indeed a brilliant spectacle, which, but for +the turbans and the swarthy faces under them, would make the traveller +imagine himself in Hyde Park. + +From this single picture it is easy to see why Calcutta is to an +Englishman the most attractive place of residence in India, or in all +the East. It is more like London. It is a great capital--the capital +of the Indian Empire; the seat of government; the residence of the +Viceroy, around whom is assembled a kind of viceregal court, composed +of all the high officials, both civil and military. There is an Army +and Navy Club, where one may meet many old soldiers who have seen +service in the Indian wars, or who hold high appointments in the +present force. The assemblage of such a number of notable men makes a +large and brilliant English society. + +Nor is it confined to army officers or government officials. Connected +with the different colleges are men who are distinguished Oriental +scholars. Then there is a Bishop of Calcutta, who is the Primate of +India, with his clergy, and English and American missionaries, who +make altogether a very miscellaneous society.[8] Here Macaulay lived +for three years as a member of the Governor's Council, and was the +centre of a society which, if it lacked other attractions, must have +found a constant stimulus in his marvellous conversation. + +And yet with all these attractions of Calcutta, English residents +still pine for England. One can hardly converse with an English +officer, without finding that it is his dream to get through with his +term of service as soon as he may, and return to spend the rest of his +days in his dear native island. Even Macaulay--with all the resources +that he had in himself, with all that he found Anglo-Indian society, +and all that he made it--regarded life in India as only a splendid +exile. + +The climate is a terrible drawback. Think of a country, where in the +hot season the mercury rises to 117-120° in the shade; while if the +thermometer be exposed to the sun, it quickly mounts to 150, 160, or +even 170°!--a heat to which no European can be exposed for half an +hour without danger of sunstroke. Such is the heat that it drives the +government out of Calcutta for half the year. For six months the +Viceroy and his staff emigrate, bag and baggage, going up the country +twelve hundred miles to Simla, on the first range of the Himalayas, +which is about as if the President of the United States and his +Cabinet should leave Washington on the first of May, and transfer the +seat of government to some high point in the Rocky Mountains. + +But the climate is not the only, nor the chief, drawback to life in +India. It is the absence from home, from one's country and people, +which makes it seem indeed like exile. Make the best of it, Calcutta +is not London. What a man like Macaulay misses, is not the English +climate, with its rains and fogs, but the intellectual life, which +centres in the British capital. It was this which made him write to +his sister that "A lodgings up three pairs of stairs in London was +better than a palace in a compound at Chowringhee." I confess I cannot +understand how any man, who has a respectable position in his own +country, should choose Calcutta, or any other part of India, as a +place of residence, except for a time; as a merchant goes abroad for a +few years, in the hope of such gain as shall enable him to return and +live in independence in England or America; or as a soldier goes to a +post of duty ("Not his to ask the reason why"); or as a missionary, +with the purely benevolent desire of doing good, for which he accepts +this voluntary exile. + +But if a man has grown, by any mental or moral process, to the idea +that life is not given him merely for enjoyment; that its chief end is +not to make himself comfortable--to sit at home in England, and hear +the storm roar around the British Islands, and thank God that he is +safe, though all the rest of the world should perish; if he but once +recognize the fact that he has duties, not only to himself, but to +mankind; then for such a man there is not on the round globe a broader +or nobler field of labor than India. For an English statesman, however +great his talents or boundless his ambition, one cannot conceive of a +higher place on the earth than that of the Viceroy of India. He is a +ruler over more than two hundred millions of human beings, to whose +welfare he may contribute by a wise and just administration. What +immeasurable good may be wrought by a Governor-General like Lord +William Bentinck, of whom it was said that "he was William Penn on the +throne of the Great Mogul." A share in this beneficent rule belongs to +every Englishman who holds a place in the government of India. He is +in a position of power, and therefore of responsibility. To such men +is entrusted the protection, the safety, the comfort, and the +happiness of multitudes of their fellow-men, to whom they are bound, +if not by national ties, yet by the ties of a common humanity. + +And for those who have no official position, who have neither place +nor power, but who have intelligence and a desire to do good on a wide +scale, India offers a field as broad as their ambition, where, either +as moral or intellectual instructors, as professors of science or +teachers of religion, they may contribute to the welfare of a great +people. India is a country where, more than in almost any other in the +world, European civilization comes in contact with Asiatic barbarism. +Its geographical position illustrates its moral and intellectual +position. It is a peninsula stretched out from the lower part of Asia +into the Indian Ocean, and great seas dash against it on one side and +on the other. So, intellectually and morally, is it placed "where two +seas meet," where modern science attacks Hindooism on one side, and +Christianity attacks it on the other. + +In this conflict English intelligence has already done much for the +intellectual emancipation of the people from childish ignorance and +folly. In Calcutta there are a number of English schools and colleges, +which are thronged with young Bengalees, the flower of the city and +the province, who are instructed in the principles of modern science +and philosophy. The effect on the mind of Young Bengal has been very +great. An English education has accomplished all that was expected +from it, _except_ the overthrow of idolatry, and here it has +conspicuously failed. + +When Macaulay was in India, he devoted much of his time to perfecting +the system of National Education, from which he expected the greatest +results; which he believed would not only fill the ignorant and vacant +minds of the Hindoos with the knowledge of modern science, but would +uproot the old idolatry. In the recently published volumes of his +letters is one to his father, dated Calcutta, Oct. 12, 1836, in which +he says: + + "Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully. We find it + difficult--in some places impossible--to provide instruction + for all who want it. At the single town of Hoogly 1400 boys + are learning English. The effect of this education on the + Hindoos is prodigious. No Hindoo who has received an English + education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. + Some continue to profess it as a matter of policy; but many + profess themselves pure Deists, and some embrace + Christianity. It is my firm belief that, if our plans of + education are followed up, there will not be a single + idolater among the reputable classes in Bengal thirty years + hence. And this will be effected without any efforts to + proselytize; without the smallest interference with + religious liberty; merely by the natural operation of + knowledge and reflection." + +These sanguine expectations have been utterly disappointed. Since that +letter was written, forty years have passed, and every year has turned +out great numbers of educated young men, instructed in all the +principles of modern science; and yet the hold of Hindooism seems as +strong as ever. I find it here in the capital, as well as in the +provinces, and I do not find that it is any better by coming in +contact with modern civilization. Nothing at Benares was more +repulsive and disgusting than what one sees here. The deity most +worshipped in Calcutta is the goddess Kali, who indeed gives name to +the city, which is Anglicized from Kali-ghat. She delights in blood, +and is propitiated only by constant sacrifices. As one takes his +morning drive along the streets leading to her shrine, he sees them +filled with young goats, who are driven to the sacred enclosure, which +is like a butcher's shambles, so constantly are the heads dropping on +the pavement, which is kept wet with blood. She is the patron of +thieves and robbers, the one to whom the Thugs always made offerings, +in setting out on their expeditions for murder. No doubt the young men +educated in the English colleges despise this horrid worship. Yet in +their indifference to all religion, they think it better to keep up an +outward show of conformity, to retain the respect, or at least the +good will, of their Hindoo countrymen, among whom it is the very first +condition of any social recognition whatever, that they shall not +break away from the religion of their ancestors. + +How then are they to be reached? The Christian schools educate the +very young; and the orphanages take neglected children and train them +from the beginning. But for young men who are already educated in the +government colleges, is there any way of reaching _them_? None, except +that of open, direct, manly argument. Several years since President +Seelye of Amherst College visited India, and here addressed the +educated Hindoos, both in Calcutta and Bombay, on the claims of the +Christian religion. He was received with perfect courtesy. Large +audiences assembled to hear him, and listened with the utmost respect. +What impression he produced, I cannot say; but it seems to me that +this is "the way to do it," or at least one way, and a way which gives +good hope of success. + +In fighting this battle against idolatry, I think we should welcome +aid from any quarter, whether it be evangelical or not. While in +Calcutta, I paid a visit to Keshoob Chunder Sen, whose name is well +known in England from a visit which he made some years ago, as the +leader of the Brahmo Somaj. I found him surrounded by his pupils, to +whom he was giving instruction. He at once interrupted his teaching +for the pleasure of a conversation, to which all listened apparently +with great interest. He is in his creed an Unitarian, so far as he +adopts the Christian faith. He recognizes the unity of God, and gives +supreme importance to _prayer_. The interview impressed me both with +his ability and his sincerity. I cannot agree with some of my +missionary friends who look upon him with suspicion, because he does +not go far enough. On the contrary, I think it a matter of +congratulation that he has come as far as he has, and I should be glad +if he could get Young Bengal to follow him. But I do not think the +Brahmo Somaj has made great progress. It has scattered adherents in +different parts of India, but the whole number of followers is small +compared with the masses that cling to their idols. He frankly +confessed that the struggle was very unequal, that the power of the +old idolatry was tremendous, and especially that the despotism of +caste was terrific. To break away from it, required a degree of moral +courage that was very rare. The great obstacle to its overthrow was a +social one, and grew out of the extreme anxiety of Hindoo parents for +the marriage of their children. If they once broke away from caste, it +was all over with them. They were literally outcasts. Nobody would +speak to them, and they and their children were delivered over to one +common curse. This social ostracism impending over them, is a terror +which even educated Hindoos dare not face. And so they conform +outwardly, while they despise inwardly. Hence, Keshoob Chunder Sen +deserves all honor for the stand he has taken, and ought to receive +the cordial support of the English and Christian community. + +What I have seen in Calcutta and elsewhere satisfies me that in all +wise plans for the regeneration of India, Christian missions must be a +necessary part. One cannot remember but with a feeling of shame, how +slow was England to receive missionaries into her Indian Empire. The +first attempt of the English Church to send a few men to India was met +with an outcry of disapprobation. Sydney Smith hoped the Government +would send the missionaries home. When Carey first landed on these +shores, he could not stay in British territory, but had to take refuge +at Serampore, a Danish settlement a few miles from Calcutta, where he +wrought a work which makes that a place of pilgrimage to every +Christian traveller in India. We spent a day there, going over the +field of his labor. He is dead, but his work survives. There he opened +schools and founded a college, the first of its kind in India (unless +it were the government college of Fort William in Calcutta, in which +he was also a professor), and which led the way for the establishment +of that magnificent system of National Education which is now the +glory of India. + +What Carey was in his day, Dr. Duff in Calcutta and Dr. Wilson in +Bombay were a generation later, vigorous advocates of education as an +indispensable means to quicken the torpid mind of India. They were the +trusted advisers and counsellors of the government in organizing the +present system of National Education. This is but one of many benefits +for which this country has to thank missionaries. And if ever India is +to be so renovated as to enter into the family of civilized and +Christian nations, it will be largely by their labors. One thing is +certain, that mere education will not convert the Hindoo. The +experiment has been tried and failed. Some other and more powerful +means must be taken to quicken the conscience of a nation deadened by +ages of false religion--a religion utterly fatal to spiritual life. +That such a change may come speedily, is devoutly to be wished. No +intelligent traveller can visit India, and spend here two months, +without feeling the deepest interest in the country and its people. +Our interest grew with every week of our stay, and was strongest as we +were about to leave. + +The last night that we were in Calcutta, it was my privilege to +address the students at one of the Scotch colleges. The hall was +crowded, and I have seldom, if ever, spoken to a finer body of young +men. These young Bengalees had many of them heads of an almost +classical beauty; and with their grace of person heightened by their +flowing white robes, they presented a beautiful array of young +scholars, such as might delight the eyes of any instructor who should +have to teach them "Divine philosophy." My heart "went out" to them +very warmly, and as that was my last impression of India, I left it +with a very different feeling from that with which I entered it--with +a degree of respect for its people, and of interest in them, which I +humbly conceive is the very first condition of doing them any good. + +It was Sunday evening: the ship on which we were to embark for Burmah +was to sail at daybreak, and it was necessary to go on board at once. +So hardly had we returned from our evening service, before we drove +down to the river. The steamer lay off in the stream, the tide was +out, and even the native boats could not come up to where we could +step on board. But the inevitable coolies were there, their long naked +legs sinking in the mud, who took us on their brawny backs, and +carried us to the boats, and in this dignified manner we took our +departure from India. + +The next morning, as we went on deck, the steamer was dropping down +the river. The guns of Fort William were firing a salute; at Garden +Reach we passed the palace of the King of Oude, where this deposed +Indian sovereign still keeps his royal state among his serpents and +his tigers. We were all day long steaming down the Hoogly. The country +is very flat; there is nothing to break the monotony of its swamps and +jungles, its villages of mud standing amid rice fields and palm +groves. As we approach the sea the river divides into many channels, +like the lagoons of Venice. All around are low lying islands, which +now and then are swept by terrible cyclones that come up from the Bay +of Bengal. At present their shores are overgrown with jungles, the +home of wild beasts, of serpents, and crocodiles, of all slimy and +deadly things, the monsters of the land and sea. Through a net-work of +such lagoons, we glide out into the deep; slowly the receding shores +sink till they are submerged, as if they were drowned; we have left +India behind, and all around is only a watery horizon. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] There are not many Americans in Calcutta, and as they are few, we +are the more concerned that they should be respectable, and not +dishonor our national character. Sometimes I am told we have had +representatives of whom we had no reason to be proud. We are now most +fortunate in our Consul, General Litchfield, a gentleman of excellent +character, who is very obliging to his countrymen, and commands in a +high degree the respect of the English community. There is here also +an American pastor, Dr. Thorburn, who is very popular, and whose +people are building him a new church while he is absent on a visit to +his own country; and what attracts a stranger still more, an excellent +family of American ladies, engaged in the Zenana Mission, which is +designed to reach Hindoo women, who, as they live in strict seclusion, +can never hear of Christianity except through those of their own sex. +This hospitable "Home" was made ours for a part of the time that we +were in Calcutta, for which, and for all the kindness of these +excellent ladies, we hold it in grateful remembrance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +BURMAH, OR FARTHER INDIA. + + +In America we speak of the Far West, which is an undefined region, +constantly receding in the distance. So in Asia there is a Far and +Farther East, ever coming a little nearer to the rising sun. When we +have done with India, there is still a Farther India to be "seen and +conquered." On the other side of the Bay of Bengal is a country, +which, though called India, and under the East Indian Government, is +not India. The very face of nature is different. It is a country not +of vast plains, but of mountains and valleys, and springs that run +among the hills; a country with another people than India, another +language, and another religion. Looking upon the map of Asia, one sees +at its southeastern extremity a long peninsula, reaching almost to the +equator, with a central range of mountains, an Alpine chain, which +runs through its whole length, as the Apennines run through Italy. +This is the Malayan peninsula, on one side of which is Burmah, and on +the other, Siam, the land of the White Elephant. + +Such was the "undiscovered country" before us, as we went on deck of +the good ship Malda, four days out from Calcutta, and found her +entering the mouth of a river which once bore the proud name of the +River of Gold, and was said to flow through a land of gold. These +fabled riches have disappeared, but the majestic river still flows on, +broad-bosomed like the Nile, and which of itself might make the riches +of a country, as the Nile makes the riches of Egypt. This is the +mighty Irrawaddy, one of the great rivers of Eastern Asia; which takes +its rise in the western part of Thibet, not far from the head waters +of the Indus, and runs along the northern slopes of the Himalayas, +till it turns south, and winding its way through the passes of the +lofty mountains, debouches into Lower Burmah, where it divides into +two large branches like the Nile, making a Delta of ten thousand +square miles--larger than the Delta of Egypt--whose inexhaustible +fertility, yielding enormous rice harvests, has more than once +relieved a famine in Bengal. + +On the Irrawaddy, twenty-five miles from the sea, stands Rangoon, the +capital of British Burmah, a city of nearly a hundred thousand +inhabitants. As we approach it, the most conspicuous object is the +Great Pagoda, the largest in the world, which is a signal that we are +not only in a new country, but one that has a new religion--not +Brahmin, but Buddhist--whose towering pagodas, with their gilded +roofs, take the place of Hindoo temples and Mohammedan mosques. +Rangoon boasts a great antiquity; it is said to have been founded in +the sixth century before Christ, but its new masters, the English, +with their spirit of improvement, have given it quite a modern +appearance. Large steamers in the river and warehouses along its bank, +show that the spirit of modern enterprise has invaded even this +distant part of Asia. + +Burmah is a country with a history, dating back far into the past. It +was once the seat of a great empire, with a population many fold +larger than now. In the interior are to be found ruins like those in +the interior of Cambodia, which mark the sites of ancient cities, and +attest the greatness of an empire that has long since passed away. +This is a subject for the antiquarian; but I am more interested in its +present condition and its future prospects than its past history. +Burmah is now a part of the great English Empire in the East, and it +has been the scene of events which make a very thrilling chapter in +the history of American Missions. Remembering this, as soon as we got +on shore we took a gharri, and rode off to find the American +missionaries, of whom and of their work I shall have more to say. We +brought a letter also to the Chief Commissioner, Mr. Rivers Thompson, +who invited us to be his guests while in Rangoon. This gentleman is a +representative of the best class of English officials in the East, of +those conscientious and laborious men, trained in the civil service in +India, whose intelligence and experience make the English rule such a +blessing to that country. The presence of a man of such character and +such intelligence in a position of such power--for he is virtually the +ruler of Burmah--is the greatest benefit to the country. We shall long +remember him and his excellent wife--a true Englishwoman--for their +courtesy and hospitality, which made our visit to Rangoon so pleasant. +The Government House is out of the city, surrounded partly by the +natural forest, which was alive with monkeys, that were perched in the +trees, and leaping from branch to branch. One species of them had a +very wild and plaintive cry, almost like that of a human creature in +distress. It is said to be the only animal whose notes range through +the whole scale. It begins low, and rises rapidly, till it reaches a +pitch at which it sounds like a far-off wail of sorrow. Every morning +we were awakened by the singing of birds, the first sound in the +forest, with which there came through the open windows a cool, +delicious air, laden with a dewy freshness as of Spring, the exquisite +sensation of a morning in the tropics. Then came the tramp of soldiers +along the walk, changing guard. In the midst of these strange +surroundings stood the beautiful English home, with all its culture +and refinement, and the morning and evening prayers, that were a +sweeter incense to the Author of so much beauty than "the spicy +breezes that blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle." The evening drive to the +public gardens, where a band of music was playing, gave one a sight +of the English residents of Rangoon, and made even an American feel, +in hearing his familiar tongue, that he was not altogether a stranger +in a strange land. The Commissioner gave me his Report on British +Burmah, made to the Government of India. It fills a large octavo +volume, and in reading it, one is surprised to learn the extent of the +country, which is twice as large as the State of New York, and its +great natural wealth in its soil and its forests--the resources for +supporting a dense population. + +I found the best book on Burmah was by an American missionary, Dr. +Mason, who, while devoted to his religious work, had the tastes of a +naturalist, and wrote of the country with the enthusiasm of a poet and +a man of science.[9] He describes the interior as of marvellous +beauty, with rugged mountains, separated by soft green valleys, in +which sometimes little lakes, like the Scottish lochs, sleep under the +shadow of the hills; and rivers whose banks are like the banks of the +Rhine. He says: "British Burmah embraces all variety of aspect, from +the flats of Holland, at the mouths of the Irrawaddy, to the more than +Scottish beauty of the mountainous valley of the Salwen, and the +Rhenish river banks of the Irrawaddy near Prome." With the zest of an +Alpine tourist, he climbs the wild passes of the hills, and follows +the streams coursing down their sides, to where they leap in +waterfalls over precipices fifty or one hundred feet high. Amid this +picturesque scenery he finds a fauna and flora, more varied and rich +than those of any part of Europe. + +The country produces a great variety of tropical fruits; it yields +spices and gums; while the natives make use for many purposes of the +bamboo and the palm. The wild beasts are hunted for their skins, and +the elephants furnish ivory. But the staples of commerce are two--rice +and the teak wood. Rice is the universal food of Burmah, as it is of +India and of China. And for timber, the teak is invaluable, as it is +the only wood that can resist the attacks of the white ants. It is a +red wood, like our cedar, and when wrought with any degree of taste +and skill, produces a pretty effect. The better class of houses are +built of this, and being raised on upright posts, with an open story +beneath, and a broad veranda above, they look more like Swiss chalets +than like the common Eastern bungalows. The dwellings of the poorer +people are mere huts, like Irish shanties or Indian wigwams. They are +constructed only with a frame of bamboo, with mats hung between. You +could put up one as easily as you would pitch a tent. Drive four +bamboo poles in the ground, put cross pieces and hang mats of bark, +and you have a Burmese house. To be sure it is a slender +habitation--"reeds shaken with the wind;" but it serves to cover the +poor occupants, and if an earthquake shakes it down, little harm is +done. It costs nothing for house-rent; rice is cheap, and the natives +are expert boatmen, and get a part of their living from the rivers and +the sea. Their wants are few and easily supplied. "There is perhaps no +country in the world," says Mason, "where there are so few beggars, so +little suffering, and so much actual independence in the lower strata +of society." Thus provided for by nature, they live an easy life. +Existence is not a constant struggle. The earth brings forth +plentifully for their humble wants. They do not borrow trouble, and +are not weighed down with anxiety. Hence the Burmese are very +light-hearted and gay. In this they present a marked contrast to some +of the Asiatics. They have more of the Mongolian cast of countenance +than of the Hindoo, and yet they are not so grave as the Hindoos on +the one hand, or as the Chinese on the other. The women have much more +freedom than in India. They do not veil their faces, nor are they shut +up in their houses. They go about as freely as men, dressed in +brilliant colored silks, wound simply and gracefully around them, and +carrying the large Chinese umbrellas. They enjoy also the glorious +liberty of men in smoking tobacco. We meet them with long cheroots, +done up in plantain leaves, in their mouths, grinning from ear to ear. +The people are fond of pleasure and amusement, of games and festivals, +and laugh and make merry to-day, and think not of to-morrow. This +natural and irrepressible gayety of spirit has given them the name of +the Irish of the East. Like the Irish too, they are wretchedly +improvident. Since they can live so easily, they are content to live +poorly. It should be said, however, that up to a recent period they +had no motive for saving. The least sign of wealth was a temptation to +robbery on the part of officials. Now that they have security under +the English government, they can save, and some of the natives have +grown rich. + +This is one of the benefits of English rule, which make me rejoice +whenever I see the English flag in any part of Asia. Wherever that +flag flies, there is protection to property and life; there is law and +order--the first condition of civilized society. Such a government has +been a great blessing to Burmah, as to India. It is not necessary to +raise the question how England came into possession here. It is the +old story, that when a civilized and a barbarous power come in +contact, they are apt to come into conflict. They cannot be quiet and +peaceable neighbors. Mutual irritations end in war, and war ends in +annexation. In this way, after two wars, England acquired her +possessions in the Malayan Peninsula, and Lower Burmah became a part +of the great Indian Empire. We cannot find fault with England for +doing exactly what we should do in the same circumstances, what we +have done repeatedly with the American Indians. Such collisions are +almost inevitable. So far from regretting that England thus "absorbed" +Burmah, I only regret that instead of taking half, she did not take +the whole. For British Burmah is not the whole of Burmah; there is +still a native kingdom on the Upper Irrawaddy, between British Burmah +and China, with a capital, Mandelay, and a sovereign of most +extraordinary character, who preserves in full force the notions of +royalty peculiar to Asiatic countries. Recently a British envoy, Sir +Douglas Forsyth, was sent to have some negotiations with him, but +there was a difficulty about having an audience of his Majesty, owing +to the peculiar etiquette of that court, according to which he was +required to take off his boots, and get down on his knees, and +approach the royal presence on all fours! I forget how the great +question was compromised, but there is no doubt that the King of +Burmah considers himself the greatest potentate on earth. His capital +is a wretched place. A Russian gentleman whom we met in Rangoon, had +just come down from Mandelay, and he described it as the most +miserable mass of habitations that ever assumed to be called a city. +There were no roads, no carriages, no horses, only a few bullock +carts. Yet the lord of this capital thinks it a great metropolis, and +himself a great sovereign, and no one about him dares tell him to the +contrary. He is an absolute despot, and has the power of life and +death, which he exercises on any who excite his displeasure. He has +but to speak a word or raise a hand, and the object of his wrath is +led to execution. Suspicion makes him cruel, and death is sometimes +inflicted by torture or crucifixion. Formerly bodies were often seen +suspended to crosses along the river. Of course no one dares to +provoke such a master by telling him the truth. Not long ago he sent a +mission to Europe, and when his ambassadors returned, they reported to +the King that "London and Paris were very respectable cities, but not +to be compared to Mandelay!" This was repeated to me by the captain of +the steamer which brought them back, who said one of them told him +they did not dare to say anything else; that they would lose their +heads if they should intimate to his majesty that there was on the +earth a greater sovereign than himself. + +But in spite of his absolute authority, this old King lives in +constant terror, and keeps himself shut up in his palace, or within +the walls of his garden, not daring to stir abroad for fear of +assassination. + +It requires a few hard knocks to get a little sense into such a thick +head; and if in the course of human events the English were called to +administer these, we should be sweetly submissive to the ordering of +Providence. + +But though so ignorant of the world, this old king is accounted a +learned man among his people, and is quite religious after his +fashion. Indeed he is reported to have said to an English gentleman +that "the English were a great people, but what a pity that they had +no religion!" In his own faith he is very "orthodox." He will not have +any "Dissenters" about him--not he. If any man has doubts, let him +keep them to himself, lest the waters of the Irrawaddy roll over his +unbelieving breast. + +But in the course of nature this holy man will be gathered to his +rest, and then his happy family may perhaps not live in such perfect +harmony. He is now sixty-five years old, and has _thirty sons_, so +that the question of succession is somewhat difficult, as there is no +order of primogeniture. He has the right to choose an heir; and has +been urged to do so by his English neighbors, to obviate all dispute +to the succession. But he did this once and it raised a storm about +his ears. The twenty-nine sons that were not chosen, with their +respective mothers, raised such a din about his head that the poor man +was nearly distracted, and was glad to revoke his decision, to keep +peace in the family. He keeps his sons under strict surveillance lest +they should assassinate him. But if he thus gets peace in his time, he +leaves things in a state of glorious uncertainty after his death. Then +there may be a household divided against itself. Perhaps they will +fall out like the Kilkenny cats. If there should be a disputed +succession, and a long and bloody civil war, it might be a duty for +their strong neighbors, "in the interest of humanity," to step in and +settle the dispute by taking the country for themselves. Who could +regret an issue that should put an end to the horrible oppression and +tyranny of the native government, with its cruel punishments, its +tortures and crucifixions? + +It would give the English the mastery of a magnificent country. The +valley of the Irrawaddy is rich as the valley of the Nile, and only +needs "law and order" for the wilderness to bud and blossom as the +rose. Should the English take Upper Burmah, the great East Indian +Empire would be extended over the whole South of Asia, and up to the +borders of China. + +But the excellent Chief Commissioner has no dream of annexation, his +only ambition being to govern justly the people entrusted to his care; +to protect them in their rights; to put down violence and robbery, for +the country has been in such a fearful state of disorganization, that +the interior has been overrun with bands of robbers. Dacoity, as it is +called, has been the terror of the country, as much as brigandage has +been of Sicily. But the English are now putting it down with a strong +hand. To develop the resources of the country, the Government seeks to +promote internal communication and foreign commerce. At Rangoon the +track is already laid for a railroad up the country to Prome. The +seaports are improved and made safe for ships. With such facilities +Burmah may have a large commerce, for which she has ample material. +Her vast forests of teak would supply the demand of all Southern Asia; +while the rice from the delta of the Irrawaddy may in the future, as +in the past, feed the millions of India who might otherwise die from +famine. + +With the establishment of this civilized rule there opens a prospect +for the future of Burmah, which shall be better than the old age of +splendid tyranny. Says Mason: "The golden age when Pegu was the land +of gold, and the Irrawaddy the river of gold, has passed away, and +the country degenerated into the land of paddy (rice), and the stream +into the river of teak. Yet its last days are its best days. If the +gold has vanished, so has oppression; if the gems have fled, so have +the taskmasters; if the palace of the Brama of Toungoo, who had +twenty-six crowned heads at his command, is in ruins, the slave is +free." The poor native has now some encouragement to cultivate his +rice field, for its fruit will not be taken from him. The great +want of the country is the same as that of the Western States of +America--population. British Burmah has but three millions of +inhabitants, while, if the country were as thickly settled as Belgium +and Holland, or as some parts of Asia, it might support thirty +millions. Such a population cannot come at once, or in a century, but +the country may look for a slow but steady growth from the overflow of +India and China, that shall in time rebuild its waste places, and +plant towns and cities along its rivers. + +While thus interested in the political state of Burmah we cannot +forget its religion. In coming from India to Farther India we have +found not only a new race, but a new faith and worship. While +Brahminism rules the great Southern Peninsula of Asia, Buddhism is the +religion of Eastern Asia, numbering more adherents than any other +religion on the globe. Of this new faith one may obtain some idea by a +visit to the Great Pagoda. The Buddhists, like the priests of some +other religions, choose lofty sites for their places of worship, +which, as they overtop the earth, seem to raise them nearer to heaven. +The Great Pagoda stands on a hill, or rocky ledge, which overlooks the +city of Rangoon and the valley of the Irrawaddy. It is approached by a +long flight of steps, which is occupied, like the approaches to the +ancient temple in Jerusalem, by them that buy and sell, so that it is +a kind of bazaar, and also by lepers and blind men, who stretch out +their hands to ask for alms of those who mount the sacred hill to +pray. Ascending to the summit, we find a plateau, on which there is an +enclosure of perhaps an acre or two of ground. The Pagoda is a +colossal structure, with a broad base like a pyramid, though round in +shape, sloping upwards to a slender cone, which tapers at last to a +sort of spire over three hundred feet high, and as the whole, from +base to pinnacle, is covered with gold leaf, it presents a very +dazzling appearance, when it reflects the rays of the sun. As a pagoda +is always a solid mass of masonry, with no inner place of worship--not +even a shrine, or a chamber like that in the heart of the Great +Pyramid--there was more of fervor than of fitness in the language of +an English friend of missions, who prayed "that the pagodas might +resound with the praises of God!" They might resound, but it must +needs be on the outside. The tall spire has for its extreme point, +what architects call a finial--a kind of umbrella, which the Burmese +call a "htee," made of a series of iron rings gilded, from which hang +many little silver and brass bells, which, swinging to and fro with +every passing breeze, give forth a dripping musical sound. The +Buddhist idea of prayer is not limited to human speech; it may be +expressed by an offering of flowers, or the tinkling of a bell. It is +at least a pretty fancy, which leads them to suspend on every point +and pinnacle of their pagodas these tiny bells, whose soft, aërial +chimes sound sweetly in the air, and floating upward, fill the ear of +heaven with a constant melody. Besides the Great Pagoda, there are +other smaller pagodas, one of which has lately been decorated with a +magnificent "htee," presented by a rich timber merchant of Maulmain. +It is said to have cost fifty thousand dollars, as we can well +believe, since it is gemmed with diamonds and other precious stones. +There was a great festival when it was set up in its place, which was +kept up for several days, and is just over. At the same time he +presented an elephant for the service of the temple, who, being thus +consecrated, is of course a sacred beast. We met him taking his +morning rounds, and very grand he was, with his crimson and gold +trappings and howdah, and as he swung along with becoming gravity, he +was a more dignified object than the worshippers around him. But the +people were very good-natured, and we walked about in their holy +places, and made our observations with the utmost freedom. In the +enclosure are many pavilions, some of which are places for worship, +and others rest-houses for the people. The idols are hideous objects, +as all idols are, though perhaps better looking than those of the +Hindoos. They represent Buddha in all positions, before whose image +candles are kept burning. + +In the grounds is an enormous bell, which is constantly struck by the +worshippers, till its deep vibrations make the very air around holy +with prayer. With my American curiosity to see the inside of +everything, I crawled under it (it was hung but a few inches above the +ground), and rose up within the hollow bronze, which had so long +trembled with pious devotion. But at that moment it hung in silence, +and I crawled back again, lest by some accident the enormous weight +should fall and put an extinguisher on my further comparative study of +religions. This bell serves another purpose in the worship of +Buddhists. They strike upon it before saying their prayers, to attract +the attention of the recording angel, so that they may get due credit +for their act of piety. Those philosophical spirits who admire all +religions but the Christian, will observe in this a beautiful economy +in their devotions. They do not wish their prayers to be wasted. By +getting due allowance for them, they not only keep their credit good, +but have a balance in their favor. It is the same economy which leads +them to attach prayers to water-wheels and windmills, by which the +greatest amount of praying may be done with the least possible amount +of labor or time. The one object of the Buddhist religion seems to be +to attain merit, according to the amount of which they will spend more +or less time in the realm of spirits before returning to this cold +world, and on which depends also the form they will assume on their +reincarnation. Among those who sit at the gate of the temple as we +approach, are holy men, who, by a long course of devotion, have +accumulated such a stock of merit that they have enough and to spare, +and are willing to part with it for a consideration to others less +fortunate than themselves. It is the old idea of works of +supererogation over again, in which, as in many other things, they +show the closest resemblance to Romanism. + +But however puerile it may be in its forms of worship, yet as a +religion Buddhism is an immeasurable advance on Brahminism. In +leaving India we have left behind Hindooism, and are grateful for the +change, for Buddhism is altogether a more respectable religion. It has +no bloody rites like those of the goddess Kali. It does not outrage +decency nor morality. It has no obscene images nor obscene worship. It +has no caste, with its bondage and its degradation. Indeed, the +scholar who makes a study of different religions, will rank Buddhism +among the best of those which are uninspired; if he does not find in +its origin and in the life of its founder much that looks even like +inspiration. There is no doubt that Buddha, or Gaudama, if such a man +ever lived (of which there is perhaps no more reason to doubt than of +any of the great characters of antiquity), began his career of a +religious teacher, as a reformer of Brahminism, with the honest and +noble purpose of elevating the faith, and purifying the lives of +mankind. Mason, as a Christian missionary, certainly did not desire to +exaggerate the virtues of another religion, and yet he writes of the +origin of Buddhism: + + "Three hundred years before Alexandria was founded; about + the time that Thales, the most ancient philosopher of + Europe, was teaching in Greece that water is the origin of + all things, the soul of the world; and Zoroaster, in Media + or Persia, was systematizing the fire-worship of the Magi; + and Confucius in China was calling on the teeming multitudes + around him to offer to guardian spirits and the names of + their ancestors; and Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden image + in the plains of Dura, and Daniel was laboring in Babylon to + establish the worship of the true God; a reverend sage, with + his staff and scrip, who had left a throne for philosophy, + was travelling from Gaya to Benares, and from Benares to + Kanouj, exhorting the people against theft, falsehood, + adultery, killing and intemperance. No temperance lecturer + advocates teetotalism now more strongly than did this sage + Gaudama twenty-three centuries ago. Nor did he confine his + instructions to external vices. Pride, anger, lust, envy and + covetousness were condemned by him in as strong terms as are + ever heard from the Christian pulpit. Love, mercy, patience, + self-denial, alms-giving, truth, and the cultivation of + wisdom, he required of all. Good actions, good words, and + good thoughts were the frequent subjects of his sermons, + and he was unceasing in his cautions to keep the mind free + from the turmoils of passion, and the cares of life. + Immediately after the death of this venerable peripatetic, + his disciples scattered themselves abroad to propagate the + doctrines of their master, and tradition says, one party + entered the principal mouth of the Irrawaddy, where they + traced its banks to where the first rocks lift themselves + abruptly above the flats around. Here, on the summit of this + laterite ledge, one hundred and sixty feet above the river, + they erected the standard of Buddhism, which now lifts its + spire to the heavens higher than the dome of St. Paul's." + +In its practical effects Buddhism is favorable to virtue; and its +adherents, so far as they follow it, are a quiet and inoffensive +people. They are a kind of Quakers, who follow an inward light, and +whose whole philosophy of life is one of repression of natural +desires. Their creed is a mixture of mysticism and stoicism, which by +gentle meditation subdues the mind to "a calm and heavenly frame," a +placid indifference to good or ill, to joy or sorrow, to pleasure and +pain. It teaches that by subduing the desires--pride, envy, and +ambition--one brings himself into a state of tranquillity, in which +there is neither hope nor fear. It is easy to see where such a creed +is defective; that it does not bring out the heroic virtues, as shown +in active devotion to others' good. This active philanthropy is born +of Christianity. There is a spiritual selfishness in dreaming life +away in this idle meditation. But so far as others are concerned, it +bids no man wrong his neighbor. + +Buddha's table of the law may be compared with that of Moses. Instead +of Ten Commandments, it has only Five, which correspond very nearly to +the latter half of the Decalogue. Indeed three of them are precisely +the same, viz.: Do not kill; Do not steal; and Do not commit adultery; +and the fourth, Do not lie, includes, as a broader statement, the +Mosaic command not to bear false witness against one's neighbor; but +the last one of all, instead of being "not to covet," is, Do not +become intoxicated. These commands are all prohibitions, and enforce +only the negative side of virtue. They forbid injury to property and +life and reputation, and thus every injury to one's neighbor, and the +last of all forbids injury to one's self, while they do not urge +active benevolence to man nor piety towards God. + +These Five Commandments are the rule of life for all men. But to those +who aspire to a more purely religious life, there are other and +stricter rules. They are required to renounce the world, to live +apart, and practice rigid austerities, in order to bring the body into +subjection. Every day is to be one of abstinence and self-denial. To +them are given five other commands, in addition to those prescribed to +mankind generally. They must take no solid food after noon (a fast not +only Friday, but every day of the week); they must not visit dances, +singing or theatrical representations; must use no ornaments or +perfumery in dress; must not sleep in luxurious beds, and while living +by alms, accept neither gold nor silver. By this rigid self-discipline, +they are expected to be able to subdue their appetites and passions +and overcome the world. + +This monastic system is one point of resemblance between Buddhism and +Romanism. Both have orders of monks and nuns, who take vows of +celibacy and poverty, and live in convents and monasteries. There is +also a close resemblance in their forms of worship. Both have their +holy shrines, and use images and altars, before which flowers are +placed, and lamps are always burning. Both chant and pray in an +unknown tongue.[10] + +This resemblance of the Buddhist creed and worship to their own, the +Jesuit missionaries have been quick to see, and with their usual +artfulness have tried to use it as an argument to smooth the way for +the conversion of the Asiatics by representing the change as a slight +one. But the Buddhist, not to be outdone in quickness, answers that +the difference is so slight that it is not worth making the change. +The only difference, they say, is "we worship a man and you worship a +woman!" + +But Christianity has had other representatives in Burmah than the +Jesuits. At an early day American missionaries, as if they could not +go far enough away from home, in their zeal to carry the Gospel where +it had not been preached before, sought a field of labor in +Southeastern Asia. More than sixty years ago they landed on these +shores. They planted no colonies, waged no wars, raised no flag, and +made no annexation. The only flag they carried over them was that of +the Gospel of peace. And yet in the work they wrought they have left a +memorial which will long preserve their sainted and heroic names. +While in Rangoon I took up again "The Life of Judson" by Dr. Wayland, +and read it with new interest on the very spot which had been the +scene of his labors. Nothing in the whole history of missions is more +thrilling than the story of his imprisonment. It was during the second +Burmese war. He was at that time at Ava, the capital of Burmah, where +he had been in favor till now, when the king, enraged at the English, +seized all that he could lay hands upon, and threw them into prison. +He could not distinguish an American, who had the same features and +spoke the same language, and so Judson shared the fate of the rest. +One day his house was entered by an officer and eight or ten men, one +of whom he recognized by his hideous tattooed face as the executioner, +who seized him in the midst of his family, threw him on the floor, +drew out the instrument of torture, the small cord, with which he +bound him, and hurried him to the death prison, where he was chained, +as were the other foreigners, each with three pairs of fetters to a +pole. He expected nothing but death, but the imprisonment dragged on +for months, varied with every device of horror and of cruelty. Often +he was chained to the vilest malefactors. Sometimes he was cast into +an inner prison, which was like the Black Hole of Calcutta, where his +limbs were confined with five pairs of fetters. So loathsome was his +prison, that he counted it the greatest favor and indulgence, when, +after a fever, he was allowed to sleep in the cage of a dead lion! +This lasted nearly two years. Several times his keepers had orders (as +they confessed afterward) to assassinate him, but, restrained perhaps +by pity for his wife, they withheld their hand, thinking that disease +would soon do the work for them. + +During all that long and dreadful time his wife watched over him with +never-failing devotion. She could not sleep in the prison, but every +day she dragged herself two miles through the crowded city, carrying +food for her husband and the other English prisoners. During that +period a child was born, whose first sight of its father was within +prison walls. Some time after even his heathen jailors took pity on +him, and allowed him to take a little air in the street outside of the +prison gate. And history does not present a more touching scene than +that of this man, when his wife was ill, carrying his babe through the +streets from door to door, asking Burman mothers, in the sacred name +of maternity, of that instinct of motherhood which is universal +throughout the world, to give nourishment to this poor, emaciated, and +dying child. + +But at length a day of deliverance came. The English army had taken +Rangoon and was advancing up the Irrawaddy. Then all was terror at +Ava, and the tyrant that had thrown Judson into a dungeon, sent to +bring him out and to beg him to go to the English camp to be his +interpreter, and to sue for terms of peace. He went and was received +with the honor due to his character and his sufferings. But the +heroine of the camp was that noble American woman, whose devotion had +saved, not only the life of her husband, but the lives of all the +English prisoners. The commander-in-chief received her as if she had +been an empress, and at a great dinner given to the Burmese +ambassadors placed her at his right hand, in the presence of the very +men to whom she had often been to beg for mercy, and had been often +driven brutally from their doors. The tables were turned, and they +were the ones to ask for mercy now. They sat uneasy, giving restless +glances at the missionary's wife, as if fearing lest a sudden burst of +womanly indignation should impel her to demand the punishment of those +who had treated her with such cruelty. But they were quite safe. She +would not touch a hair of their heads. Too happy in the release of the +one she loved, her heart was overflowing with gratitude, and she felt +no desire but to live among this people, and to do good to those from +whom she had suffered so much. They removed to Amherst, at the mouth +of the Maulmain River, and had built a pretty home, and were beginning +to realize their dream of missionary life, when she was taken ill, +and, broken by her former hardships, soon sank in death. + +Probably "The Life of Judson" has interested American Christians in +Burmah more than all the histories and geographical descriptions put +together. General histories have never the interest of a personal +narrative, and the picture of Judson in a dungeon, wearing manacles on +his limbs, exposed to death in its most terrible forms, to be tortured +or to be crucified, and finally saved by the devotion of his wife, has +touched the hearts of the American people more than all the learned +histories of Eastern Asia that ever were written. + +And when I stood at a humble grave on Amherst Point, looking out upon +the sea, and read upon the stone the name of ANN HASSELTINE JUDSON, +and thought of that gentle American wife, coming out from the peace +and protection of her New England home to face such dangers, I felt +that I had never bent over the dust of one more worthy of all the +honors of womanhood and sainthood; tender and shrinking, but whom love +made strong and brave; who walked among coarse and brutal men, armed +only with her own native modesty and dignity: who by the sick-bed or +in a prison cast light in a dark place by her sweet presence; and who +united all that is noble in woman's love and courage and devotion. + +Judson survived this first wife about a quarter of a century--a period +full of labor, and in its later years, full of precious fruit. That +was the golden autumn of his life. He that had gone forth weeping, +bearing precious seed, came again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with +him. I wish the Church in America could see what has been achieved by +that well-spent life. Most of his fellow-laborers have gone to their +rest, though Mr. and Mrs. Bennett at Rangoon, and Dr. and Mrs. Haswell +at Maulmain, still live to tell of the trials and struggles of those +early days.[11] And now appears the fruit of all those toilsome years. +The mission that was weak has grown strong. In Rangoon there are a +number of missionaries, who have not only established churches and +Christian schools, but founded a College and a Theological Seminary. +They have a Printing Press, under the charge of the veteran Mr. +Bennett, who has been here forty-six years. In the interior are +churches in great numbers. The early missionaries found a poor +people--a sort of lower caste among the Burmese--the Karens. It may +almost be said that they caught them in the woods and tamed them. They +first reduced their language to writing; they gave them books and +schools, and to-day there are twenty thousand of this people who are +members of their churches. In the interior there are many Christian +villages, with native churches and native pastors, supported by the +people themselves, whose deep poverty abounds to their liberality in a +way that recalls Apostolic times. + +The field which has been the scene of such toils and sacrifices +properly belongs to the denomination which has given such examples of +Christian devotion. The Baptists were the first to enter the country, +led by an apostle. The Mission in Burmah is the glory of the Baptist +Church, as that of the Sandwich Islands is of the American Board. They +have a sort of right to the land by reason of first occupancy--a right +made sacred by these early and heroic memories; and I trust will be +respected by other Christian bodies in the exercise of that comity +which ought to exist between Churches as between States, in the +possession of a field which they have cultivated with so much zeal, +wisdom, and success. + + * * * * * + +It is not till one leaves Rangoon that he sees the beauty of Burmah. +The banks of the Irrawaddy, like those of the Hoogly, are low and +jungly; but as we glide from the river into the sea, and turn +southward, the shores begin to rise, till after a few hours' sail we +might be on the coast of Wales or of Scotland. The next morning found +us at anchor off the mouth of the Salwen River. The steamers of the +British India Company stop at all the principal ports, and we were now +to pass up the river to Maulmain. But the Malda was too large to cross +the bar except at very high tide, for which we should have to wait +over a day. The prospect of resting here under a tropical sun, and in +full sight of the shore, was not inviting, and we looked about for +some way of escape. Fortunately we had on board Miss Haswell, of the +well-known missionary family, who had gone up from Maulmain to Rangoon +to see some friends off for America, and was now returning. With such +an interpreter and guide, we determined to go on shore, and hailing a +pilot-boat, went down the ship's ladder, and jumped on board. The +captain thought us very rash, as the sea was rough, and the boat rose +and plunged in waves; but the Malays are like seagulls on the water, +and raising their sail, made of bamboo poles, and rush matting, we +flew before the wind, and were soon landed at Amherst Point. This was +holy ground, for here Judson had lived, and here his wife died and was +buried. Her grave is on the sea-shore, but a few rods from the water, +and we went straight to it. It is a low mound, with a plain headstone, +around which an American sea captain had placed a wooden paling to +guard the sacred spot. There she sleeps, with only the murmur of the +waves, as they come rippling up the beach, to sing her requiem. But +her name will not die, and in all the world, where love and heroism +are remembered, what this woman hath done shall be told for a memorial +of her. Her husband is not here, for (as the readers of his life will +remember) his last years were spent at Maulmain, from which he was +taken, when very ill, on board a vessel, bound for the Mauritius, in +hope that a voyage might save him when all other means had failed, and +died at sea when but four days out, and was committed to the deep in +the Bay of Bengal. One cannot but regret that he did not die on land, +that he might have been buried beside his wife in the soil of Burmah; +but it is something that he is not far away, and the waters that roll +over him kiss its beloved shores. + +Miss Haswell led the way up the beach to the little house which Judson +had built. It was unoccupied, but there was an old bedstead on which +the apostle had slept, and I stretched myself upon it, feeling that I +caught as much inspiration lying there as when I lay down in the +sarcophagus of Cheops in the heart of the Great Pyramid. We found a +rude table too, which we drew out upon the veranda, and a family of +native Christians brought us rice and milk and eggs, with which we +made a breakfast in native style. The family of Miss Haswell once +occupied this mission house, and it was quite enlivening to hear, as +we sat there quietly taking our rice and milk, how the tigers used to +come around and make themselves at home, snuffing about the doors, and +carrying off dogs from the veranda, and killing a buffalo in the +front yard. They are not quite so familiar now along the coast, but in +the interior one can hardly go through a forest without coming on +their tracks. Only last year Miss Haswell, on her way to attend the +meeting of an association, camped in the woods. She found the men were +getting sleepy, and neglected the fire, and so she kept awake, and sat +up to throw on the wood. It was well, for in the night suddenly all +the cattle sprang up with every sign of terror, and there came on the +air that strong smell which none who have perceived it can mistake, +which shows that a tiger is near. Doubtless he was peering at them +through the covert, and nothing but the blazing fire kept him away. + +After our repast, we took a ride in native style. A pair of oxen was +brought to the door, with a cart turned up at both ends, in such a +manner that those riding in it were dumped into a heap; and thus well +shaken together, we rode down to the shore, where we had engaged a +boat to take us up the river. It was a long slender skiff, which, with +its covering of bamboo bent over it, was in shape not unlike a gondola +of Venice. The arch of its roof was of course not very lofty; we could +not stand up, but we could sit or lie down, and here we stretched +ourselves in glorious ease, and as a pleasant breeze came in from the +sea, our little bark moved swiftly before it. The captain of our boat +was a venerable-looking native, like some of the Arabs we saw on the +Nile, with two boatmen for his "crew," stout fellows, whose brawny +limbs were not confined by excess of clothing. In fact, they had on +only a single garment, a kind of French blouse, which, by way of +variety, they took off and washed in the river as we sailed along. +However, they had another clout for a change, which they drew over +them with great dexterity before they took off the first, so as not to +offend us. Altogether the scene was not unlike what some of my readers +may have witnessed on one of our Southern rivers; and if we could +only have had the rich voices of the negro boatmen, singing + + "Down on the Alabama," + +the illusion would have been complete. Thus in a dreamy mood, and with +a gentle motion, we glided up the beautiful Salwen, between low banks +covered with forests, a distance of thirty miles, till at five o'clock +we reached the lower end of Maulmain, and went ashore, and rode two or +three miles up the river to Dr. Haswell's, where Miss H. claimed C---- +for her guest, while I was entertained at her brother's in the old +missionary compound, where Dr. Judson lived for so many years, and +which he left only to die. These American friends, with their kind +hospitalities, made us feel quite at home in Burmah; and as if to +bring still nearer Christian England and America, we were taken the +same evening to a prayer-meeting at the house of an English officer +who is in command here, where they sang Sankey's hymns! + +Maulmain is a place of great natural beauty. Though on the river, it +rises from the water's edge in steep and wooded banks, and has a +background of hills. One can hardly find a lovelier view in all the +East than that from the hill behind it, on which stands an old +Buddhist monastery and pagoda. Here the eye ranges over a distance of +many miles. Several rivers which flow together give the country the +appearance of being covered with water, out of which rise many +elevated points, like islands in a sea. In clear weather, after the +rains, one may see on the horizon the distant peaks of the mountains +in Siam. This was a favorite resort of Dr. Judson, who, being a man of +great physical as well as intellectual vigor, was fond of walking, and +loved to climb the hills. Miss Haswell, who as a child remembered him, +told us how she once saw him here "playing tag" with his wife, chasing +her as she ran down the hill. This picture of the old man delighted +me--to think that not all his labors and sufferings could subdue that +unconquerable spirit, but that he retained even to old age the +freshness of a boy, and was as hearty in play as in preaching. This is +the sort of muscular Christians that are needed to face the hardships +of a missionary life--men who will not faint in the heat of the +tropics, nor falter at the prospect of imprisonment or death. + +While we stood here the Buddhist monks were climbing slowly up the +hill, and I could but think of the difference between our intrepid +missionary and these languid, not to say lazy, devotees. We had a good +chance to observe them, and to remark their resemblance to similar +orders in the Church of Rome. The Buddhist monk, like his Romish +brother, shaves his head, eats no animal food (the command of Buddha +not to kill, is interpreted not to take life of any kind), and lives +only by the alms of the faithful. Seeing them here, with their shaven +heads and long robes, going about the streets, stopping before the +doors to receive their daily tributes of rice, one is constantly +reminded of the mendicant friars of Italy. They live in monasteries, +which are generally situated, like this, on the tops of hills, retired +from the world, where they keep together for mutual instruction, and +to join in devotion. They do no work except to cultivate the grounds +of the temple, but give up their lives to meditation and to prayer. + +It would be wrong to speak of such men but with proper respect. They +are quiet and inoffensive; some of them are learned; still more are +serious and devout. Says Dr. Williams: "Their largest monasteries +contain extensive libraries, and a portion of the fraternity are well +acquainted with letters, though numbers of them are ignorant even of +their own books." "Their moral character, as a class, is on a par with +their countrymen, and many of them are respectable, intelligent, and +sober-minded persons, who seem to be sincerely desirous of making +themselves better, if possible, by their religious observances." + +But this life of a recluse, while favorable to study and meditation, +does not inspire active exertion. Indeed the whole Buddhist philosophy +of life seems to be comprised in this, that man should dream away +existence here on earth, and then lapse into a dreamy eternity. + + "To be or not to be, that's the question;" + +and for them it seems better "not to be." Their heaven--their +Nirvana--is annihilation, yet not absolute non-existence, but only +absorption of their personality, so that their separate being is +swallowed up and lost in God. They will still be conscious, but have +no hope and no fear, no dread and no desire, but only survey existence +with the ineffable calm of the Infinite One. This passive, emotionless +state is expressed in all the statues and images of Buddha. + +If that be heaven, it is not earth; and they who pass life in a dream +are not the men to revolutionize the world. This whole monastery, full +of monks, praying and chanting for generations, cannot so stir the +mind of Asia, or make its power felt even in Burmah, as one heroic man +like Judson. + +Miss Haswell belongs to a family of missionaries. Her father and +mother were companions of Judson, and the children are in one way and +another devoted to the same work. She has a school for girls, which is +said to be the best in Burmah. The Chief Commissioner at Rangoon spoke +of it in the highest terms, and makes special mention of it in his +Report. She told us with great modesty, and almost with a feeling of +shame, of the struggle and mortification with which she had literally +"begged" the money for it in America. But never did good seed +scattered on the waters bear richer fruit. If a deputation from all +the Baptist churches which contributed to that school could but pay it +a visit, and see what it is doing, it would never want for funds +hereafter. + +Burmah is a country which needs all good influences--moral and +religious. It needs also a strong government, just laws rigidly +enforced, to keep peace and order in the land. For though the people +are so gay and merry, there is a fearful degree of crime. In Maulmain +there is a prison, which holds over a thousand prisoners, many of whom +have been guilty of the worst crimes. A few days since there was an +outbreak, and an attempt to escape. A number got out of the gate, and +were running till they were brought up by shots from the military. +Seven were killed and seven wounded. I went through this prison one +morning with the physician as he made his rounds. As we entered a man +was brought up who had been guilty of some insubordination. He had +once attempted to kill the jailer. The Doctor inquired briefly into +the offence, and said, without further words: "Give him fifteen cuts." +Instantly the man was seized and tied, arms extended, and legs +fastened, so that he could not move, and his back uncovered, and an +attendant standing off, so that he could give his arm full swing, gave +him fifteen cuts that made the flesh start up like whip-cord, and the +blood run. The man writhed with agony, but did not scream. I suppose +such severity is necessary, but it was a very painful sight. In the +hospital we found some of the prisoners who had been concerned in the +mutiny. The ringleader had been shot in the leg, which had been +amputated. They had found that the ways of transgressors were hard. + +Continuing our walk, we went through the different workshops, and saw +the kinds of labor to which the men were put, such as making chairs of +bamboo, weaving cloth, beating cocoanut husks to make stuff for +mattresses, carving, making furniture, blacksmithing, &c. The worst +offenders were put to grinding corn, as that was a species of labor in +which they had no tools which could be used as deadly weapons. The men +in this ward--perhaps a hundred in number--were desperate characters. +They were almost all highway robbers, Dacoits, bands of whom have long +been the terror of the country. They all had irons on their ankles, +and stood up to their tasks, working with their hands. I was not sorry +to see "their feet made fast in the stocks," for in looking into their +savage faces, one could but feel that he would rather see them in +chains and behind iron bars, than meet them alone in a forest. + +But I turn to a more agreeable spectacle. It is sometimes more +pleasant to look at animals than at men, certainly when men make +beasts of themselves, and when, on the other hand, animals show an +intelligence almost human. One of the great industries of Burmah is +the timber trade. The teak wood, which is the chief timber cut and +shipped, is very heavy, and requires prodigious force to handle it; +and as the Burmese are not far enough advanced to use machinery for +the purpose, they employ elephants, and bravely do the noble beasts +perform their task. In the timber yards both at Rangoon and at +Maulmain, all the heavy work of drawing and piling the logs is done by +them. I have never seen any animals showing such intelligence, and +trained to such docility and obedience. In the yard that we visited +there were seven elephants, five of which were at that moment at work. +Their wonderful strength came into play in moving huge pieces of +timber. I did not measure the logs, but should think that many were at +least twenty feet long and a foot square. Yet a male elephant would +stoop down, and run his tusks under a log, and throw his trunk over +it, and walk off with it as lightly as a gentleman would balance his +bamboo cane on the tip of his finger. Placing it on the pile, he would +measure it with his eye, and if it projected too far at either end, +would walk up to it, and with a gentle push or pull, make the pile +even. If a still heavier log needed to be moved on the ground to some +part of the yard, the mahout, sitting on the elephant's head, would +tell him what to do, and the great creature seemed to have a perfect +understanding of his master's will. He would put out his enormous +foot, and push it along; or he would bend his head, and crouching +half way to the ground, and doubling up his trunk in front, throw his +whole weight against it, and thus, like a ram, would "butt" the log +into its place; or if it needed to be taken a greater distance, he +would put a chain around it, and drag it off behind him. The female +elephant especially was employed in drawing, as having no tusks, she +could not lift like her big brothers, but could only move by her power +of traction or attraction. Then using her trunk as deftly as a lady +would use her fingers, she would untie the knot or unhitch the chain, +and return to her master, perhaps putting out her trunk to receive a +banana as a reward for her good conduct. It was a very pretty sight, +and gave us a new idea of the value of these noble creatures, and of +the way in which they can be trained for the service of man, since +they can be not only made subject to his will, but taught to +understand it, thus showing equal intelligence and docility. + +After a day or two thus pleasantly passed, we went on board the Malda +(which had finally got over the bar and come up to Maulmain), and +dropped down the river, and were soon sailing along the coast, which +grows more beautiful as we steam southward. We pass a great number of +islands, which form the Mergui Archipelago, and just now might be off +the shores of Greece. Within these sheltered waters is Tavoy, from +which it is proposed to build a road over the mountains to Bangkok in +Siam. There has long been a path through the dense forest, but one +that could only be traversed by elephants. Now it is proposed to have +a good road, the expense to be borne by the two kingdoms. Is not this +a sign of progress, of an era of peace and good will? Formerly Burmah +and Siam were always at war. Being neighbors and rivals, they were +"natural enemies," as much as were France and England. But now the +strong English hand imposes peace, and the two countries seek a closer +connection. The road thus inaugurated will bind them together, and +prove not only an avenue of commerce but a highway of civilization. + +At Penang we enter the Straits of Malacca, on one side of which is the +Malayan Peninsula, and on the other the island of Sumatra, which is +larger than all Great Britain, and where just now, at this upper end, +the Dutch have a war on their hands. Penang is opposite Acheen, and +the Malays, who are engaged in such a desperate resistance to the +Dutch, often cross the Straits, and may be seen at any time in the +streets of the English settlement. Perhaps it is but natural that the +English should have a sympathy with these natives, who are defending +their country against invaders, though I do not perceive that this +makes them more ready to yield the ground on their own side of the +Straits, where just now, at Perak, they have a little war of their +own. To this war in Acheen I may refer again, when I come to write of +the Dutch power in Java. + +Bayard Taylor celebrates Penang as "the most beautiful island in the +world," which is a great deal for one to say who has travelled so far +and seen so much. I could not be quite so enthusiastic, and yet I do +not wonder at any degree of rapture in one who climbs the Peak of +Penang, which commands a view not only of the town and harbor below, +but of other islands and waters, as well as of mountains and valleys +in the interior, which are a part of Siam. Turning seaward, and +looking down, this little island of Penang appears as the gem of the +scene--a mass of the richest tropical vegetation, set in the midst of +tropical seas. + +We were now in the tropics indeed. We had been for weeks, but we had a +more "realizing sense" of it as we got into the lower latitudes. The +heat grew intense as we approached the Equator. One after another we +laid aside the garments of the colder North, and put on the lightest +and thinnest costume, till we did not know but our only relief would +be that suggested by Sydney Smith, "to take off our flesh and sit in +our bones." With double awnings spread over the deck, and the motion +of the ship stirring the air, still the vertical sun was quite +overpowering. We were obliged to keep on deck day and night, although +there was ample room below. As there were but eight passengers in the +cabin, each had a state-room; but with all this space, and portholes +wide open, still it was impossible to keep cool. An iron ship becomes +so heated that the state-rooms are like ovens. So we had to take +refuge on deck. Every evening the servants appeared, bringing our +mattresses, which were spread on the skylight above the cabin. This +was very well for the gentlemen of our company, but offered no relief +of coolness for our only lady passenger. But a couple of gallant young +Englishmen, who with us were making the tour of the world, were +determined that she should not be imprisoned below, and they set up on +deck a screen, in which she was enclosed as in a tent; and not +Cleopatra, when floating in her gilded barge, reclined more royally +than she, thus lifted up into the cool night air. Then we all had our +reward. The glory of the night made up for the fervors of the day. +From our pillows we looked out upon the sea, and as the hot day +brought thunderstorms, the lightning playing on the distant horizon +lighted up the watery leagues around, till it seemed as if we were + + "Alone, alone, all, all alone, + Alone on the wide, wide sea," + +floating on in darkness over an unfathomable abyss. At other times the +sea was luminous with the light which she carries in her own bosom. +These Southern seas are full of those marine insects which shine like +glow-worms in the dark; and when the waters were calm and still, when +there was not a ripple on the bosom of the deep, we leaned over the +stern of the ship to watch the long track of light which she left in +the phosphorescent sea. But brighter than this watery illumination +was the sky above, which was all aglow with celestial fires. We had +long become familiar with the Southern Cross, which we first saw in +Egypt on the Nile, near the First Cataract. But then it was just above +the horizon. Now it shone in mid-heaven, while around it were gathered +the constellations of the Southern hemisphere. I have seen the stars +on the desert and on the sea, but never anything before that quite +equalled these nights on the Equator. + +But our voyage was coming to an end. We had already been twice as long +on the Bay of Bengal as in crossing the Atlantic. It was the last day +of March when the captain of the ship came to me, as I was standing on +deck, and said: "Do you see that low point of land, with the trees +upon it, coming down to the water? That is the most Southern point of +Asia." That great continent, which we saw first at Constantinople, and +had followed so far around the globe, ended here. An hour afterward, +as we rounded into Singapore, a hand pointed Eastward, and a voice at +my side said: "Uncle, there's the Pacific!" She who spoke might +perhaps have said rather, "There are the China Seas," but they are a +part of the great Ocean which rolls its waters from Asia to America. + +Singapore is on an island, at the very end of the peninsula, so that +it may be called truly "the jumping-off place." On this point of land, +but a degree and a half from the Equator, England has planted one of +those colonies by which she keeps guard along the coasts, and over the +waters, of Southern Asia. The town, which has a population of nearly a +hundred thousand, is almost wholly Chinese, but it is the English +power which is seen in the harbor filled with ships, and the fort +mounted with guns; and English taste which has laid out the streets +and squares, and erected the public buildings. This might be called +the Island of Palms, which grow here in great profusion--the tall +cocoanut palm with its slender stem, the fan palm with its broad +leaves, and many other varieties which mantle the hillsides, forming a +rich background for the European bungalows that peer out from under a +mass of tropical foliage. + +Whoever goes around the world must needs pass by Singapore. It is the +one inevitable point in Asia, as San Francisco is in America. One is +sure to meet here travellers, mostly English and American, passing to +and fro, from India to China, or from China to India, making the Grand +Tour. So common are they that they cease to inspire as much awe as +Marco Polo or Capt. Cook, and have even received the nickname of +"globe-trotters," and are looked upon as quite ordinary individuals. +Singapore is a good resting-point for Americans--a convenient half-way +house--as it is almost exactly on the other side of the globe from New +York. Having "trotted" thus far, we may be allowed to rest, at least +over Sunday, before we take a new start, and sail away into the +Southern hemisphere. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] This book furnishes a good illustration of the incidental service +which missionaries--aside from the religious work they do--render to +the cause of geography, of science, and of literature. They are the +most indefatigable explorers, and the most faithful and authentic +narrators of what they see. Its full title is: "BURMAH: its People and +Natural Productions; or Notes on the Natives, Fauna, Flora, and +Minerals, of Tenasserim, Pegu, and Burmah; With systematic catalogues +of the known Mammals, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, Mollusks, +Crustaceans, Anellides, Radiates, Plants, and Minerals, with +vernacular names." In his preface the writer says: + +"No pretensions are made in this work to completeness. It is not a +book composed in the luxury of literary leisure, but a collection of +Notes [What is here so modestly called Notes, is an octavo of over 900 +pages] which I have been making during the twenty years of my +residence in this country, in the corners of my time that would +otherwise have been wasted. Often to forget my weariness when +travelling, when it has been necessary to bivouac in the jungles; +while the Karens have been seeking fuel for their night-fires, or +angling for their suppers in the stream; I have occupied myself with +analyzing the flowers that were blooming around my couch; or examining +the fish that were caught; or an occasional reptile, insect, or bird, +that attracted my attention. With such occupations I have brightened +many a solitary hour; and often has the most unpromising situation +proved fruitful in interest; for 'the barren heath, with its mosses, +lichens, and insects, its stunted shrubs and pale flowers, becomes a +paradise under the eye of observation; and to the genuine thinker the +sandy beach and the arid wild are full of wonders.'" + +[10] Dr. S. Wells Williams, who was familiar with Buddhism during his +forty years residence in China, says ("Middle Kingdom," Vol. II., p. +257): + +"The numerous points of similarity between the rites of the Buddhists +and those of the Romish Church, early attracted attention, ... such as +the vow of celibacy in both sexes, the object of their seclusion, the +loss of hair, taking a new name and looking after the care of the +convent. There are many grounds for supposing that their favorite +goddess Kwanyin, i. e., the Hearer of Cries, called also Holy Mother, +Queen of Heaven, is only another form of Our Lady. The monastic habit, +holy water, counting rosaries to assist in prayer, the ordinances of +celibacy and fasting, and reciting masses for the dead, worship of +relics, and canonization of saints, are alike features of both sects. +Both burn candles and incense, and bells are much used in their +temples: both teach a purgatory, from which the soul can be delivered +by prayers, and use a dead language for their liturgy, and their +priests pretend to miracles. These striking resemblances led the +Romish missionaries to suppose that some of them had been derived from +the Romanists or Syrians who entered China before the twelfth century; +others referred them to St. Thomas, but Prémare ascribes them to the +devil, who had thus imitated holy mother church in order to scandalize +and oppose its rights. But as Davis observes: 'To those who admit that +most of the Romish ceremonies are borrowed directly from Paganism, +there is less difficulty in accounting for the resemblance.'" + +The following scene in a Buddhist temple described by an eye-witness, +answers to what is often seen in Romish churches: + +"There stood fourteen priests, seven on each side of the altar, erect, +motionless, with clasped hands and downcast eyes, their shaven heads +and flowing gray robes adding to their solemn appearance. The low and +measured tones of the slowly moving chant they were singing might have +awakened solemn emotions, and called away the thoughts from worldly +objects. Three priests kept time with the music, one beating an +immense drum, another a large iron vessel, and a third a wooden bell. +After chanting, they kneeled upon low stools, and bowed before the +colossal image of Buddha, at the same time striking their heads upon +the ground. Then rising and facing each other, they began slowly +chanting some sentences, and rapidly increasing the music and their +utterance until both were at the climax of rapidity, they diminished +in the same way until they had returned to the original measure.... +The whole service forcibly reminded me of scenes in Romish chapels." + +[11] Dr. Haswell died a few months after we left Burmah. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE ISLAND OF JAVA. + + +Most travellers who touch at Singapore sweep round that point like a +race-horse, eager to be on the "home stretch." But in turning north, +they turn away from a beauty of which they do not dream. They know not +what islands, embowered in foliage, lie in those Southern seas--what +visions would reward them if they would but "those realms explore." +The Malayan Peninsula is a connecting link between two great divisions +of the globe; it is a bridge hundreds of miles long--a real Giants' +Causeway, reaching out from the mainland of Asia towards the Island +World beyond--a world with an interest all its own, which, now that we +were so near, attracted us to its shores. Leaving our fellow-travellers +to go on to Siam or to China, we took the steamer of the Netherlands +India Company for Java. It was a little boat of but 250 tons, but it +shot away like an arrow, and was soon flying like a sea-bird among +islands covered with palm groves. On our right was the long coast of +Sumatra. Towards evening we entered the Straits of Rhio, and in the +night crossed the Equator. When as a child I turned over the globe, I +found this line indicated by a brass ring, and rather expected that +the ship would get a thump as she passed over it; but she crossed +without a shock, or even a jar; ocean melted into ocean; the waters of +the China and the Java seas flowed together, and we were in the +Southern hemisphere. + +The first thing on board which struck us strangely was that we had +lost our language. The steamer was Dutch, and the officers spoke only +Dutch. But on all these waters will be found passing to and fro +gentlemen of intelligence, holding official positions here, but who +have lived long in Europe, and who speak English or French. At Rhio we +were joined by the Resident, the highest official of that island, and +by the Inspector of Schools from Batavia; and the next day, as we +entered the Straits of Banca, by the Resident of Palembang in +Sumatra--all of whom were very polite to us as strangers. We saw them +again in Java, and when we parted, felt almost that they were not only +acquaintances, but friends. They were of course thoroughly informed +about the new world around us, and were ready to enlighten our +ignorance. We sat on deck at evening, and as they puffed their cigars +with the tranquillity of true Dutchmen, we listened to their discourse +about the islands and people of the Malayan Archipelago. + +This part of the world would delight Mr. Darwin by the strange races +it contains, some of which approach the animal tribes. In the island +of Rhio the Resident assured me there were wild men who lived in +trees, and had no language but cries; and in Sumatra the Resident of +Palembang said there were men who lived in the forests, with whom not +only the Europeans, but even the Malays, could have no intercourse. He +himself had never seen one. Yet, strange to say, they have a petty +traffic with the outer world, yet not through the medium of speech. +They live in the woods, and live by the chase. They hunt tigers, not +with the gun, but with a weapon called a sumpitan, which is a long +tube, out of which they blow arrows with such force, and that are so +keen of point, and touched with such deadly poison, that a wound is +almost immediately fatal. These tiger skins or elephant tusks they +bring for barter--not for sale--they never sell anything, for money is +about the most useless thing they could have; they cannot eat it, or +drink it, or wear it. But as they have wants, they exchange; yet they +themselves are never seen. They bring what they have to the edge of +the forest, and leave it there, and the Malays come and place what +_they_ have to dispose of, and retire. If the offer is satisfactory, +when the Malays return they find what they brought gone, and take what +is left and depart. If not, they add a few trifles more to tempt the +eyes of these wild men of the woods, and so at last the exchange is +effected, yet all the while the sellers keep themselves invisible. +This mode of barter argues great honesty on both sides. + +This island of Sumatra is a world in itself. The Resident of Palembang +has under him a country as large as the whole of Java. The people of +Palembang are Malays and Chinese, thousands of whom live on rafts. In +the interior of the island there are different races, speaking a dozen +different languages or dialects. But with all its population, the +greater part of the country is still given up to forest and jungle, +the home of wild beasts--of the tiger and the rhinoceros. Wild +elephants range the forests in great numbers. He had often seen them +in herds of two or three hundred. It seemed strange that they were not +tamed, as in India and Burmah. But such is not the habit of the +people, who hunt them for ivory, but never attempt to subdue them, or +use them as beasts of burden. Hence they become a great nuisance, as +they come about the villages and break into the plantations; and it is +only when a grand hunt is organized for their destruction, that a +neighborhood can be for a time rid of the pest. + +But if these are uncomfortable neighbors, there are others that are +more so--the reptiles, which abound here as in India. But familiarity +breeds contempt or indifference. The people are not afraid of them, +and hardly notice them, but speak of them in an easy sort of way, as +if they were the most harmless things in nature--poor innocent +creatures, which might almost be pets in the family, and allowed to +run about the house at their will. Soberly, there are certain +domestic snakes which are indulged with these liberties. Said Mr. K.: +"I was once visiting in Sumatra, and spending a night at the house of +a friend. I heard a noise overhead, and asked, 'What is that?' 'Oh, +nothing,' they said; 'it's only the serpent.' 'What! do you keep a +family snake?' 'Yes,' they said; it was a large black snake which +frequented the house, and as it did no mischief, and hunted the rats, +they let it roam about wherever it liked." Thinking this rather a big +story, with which our friend might practise on the credulity of a +stranger, I turned to the Resident of Palembang, who confirmed it. He +said this domestication of serpents was not uncommon. There was a kind +of boa that was very useful as an exterminator of rats, and for this +purpose the good Dutch housekeepers allowed it to crawl about or to +lie coiled up in the pantry. Sometimes this interesting member of the +family was stretched out on the veranda to bask in the sun--a pleasant +object to any stranger who might be invited to accept hospitality. I +think I should have an engagement elsewhere, however pressing the +invitation. I never could "abide" snakes. From the Old Serpent down, +they have been my aversion, and I beg to decline their company, though +they should be as insinuating as the one that tempted Eve. But an +English merchant in Java afterwards assured me that "snakes were the +best gardeners; that they devoured the worms and insects and small +animals; and that for his part, he was rather pleased than otherwise +when he saw a big boa crawling among the vines or in the rice-fields." +I thought that the first instance of a serpent's gardening was in +Paradise, the effect of which was not encouraging, but there is no +disputing about tastes. He said they frequently came around the +houses, but did not often enter them, except that they were very fond +of music (the dear creatures!); and sometimes in the evening, as doors +and windows were left open for coolness, if the music was very fine, a +head might be thrust in of a guest that had not been invited. + +But our conversation was not limited to this harrowing topic, but +ranged over many features of Sumatra--its scenery and climate, soil +and vegetation. It is indeed a magnificent island. Over a thousand +miles long, and with more square miles than Great Britain and Ireland +together, it is large enough for a kingdom. In some parts the scenery +is as grand as that of Switzerland. Along the western coast is a range +of mountains like the Alps (some peaks are 15,000 feet high), among +which is set many an Alpine valley, with its glistening lake. That +coast is indented with bays, on one of which is the Dutch capital, +Padang. East of the mountains the island spreads out into vast plains, +watered by noble rivers. The soil is very rich, yielding all the +fruits of the tropics in great abundance. The tobacco especially is of +a much finer quality than that of Java, and brings twice as much in +the market. This fertility will attract population both from Asia and +from Europe, and under a good government this island may yet be the +seat of an empire worthy of its greatness. + +But just now the Dutch have a task to bring it into subjection. They +have an enemy in the North harder to subdue than tigers and wild +elephants. These are the terrible Malays, against whom has been kept +up for years the war in Acheen--a war waged with such deadly and +unrelenting hate and fury, that it has taken on a character of +ferocity. Of the right or wrong of this savage contest, I cannot +judge, for I hear only one side of the story. I am told that the +Malays are a race of pirates, with whom it is impossible to live in +good neighborhood, and that there can be no peace till they are +subdued. At the same time, one cannot refuse a degree of sympathy even +to savages who defend their own country, and who fight with such +conspicuous bravery. To this all the Dutch officers bore testimony, +saying that they fought "like devils." The Malays are very much like +our American Indians, both in features and in character--a proud, +high-spirited race, capable of any act of courage or devotion, but +full of that hot blood that resents an insult. "If you have a Malay +servant," I heard often in the East, "you may scold him or send him +away, but _never strike_ him, for that is an indignity which he feels +more than a wound; which he never forgets or forgives; but which, if +he has an opportunity, he will avenge with blood." Such a people, when +they come into battle, sacrifice their lives without a moment's +hesitation. They have a great advantage, as they are in their own +territory, and can choose their own time and place of attack, or keep +out of the way, leaving the enemy to be worn out by the hot climate +and by disease. Of course if the Dutch could once bring them within +range of their guns, or entice them into a pitched battle, European +skill and discipline would be victorious. But the Malays are too wary +and active; they hide in the fastnesses of the hills, and start up +here and there in unexpected quarters, and after a sudden dash, fly to +the mountains. They have a powerful ally in the pestilential climate, +which brings on those deadly fevers that kill more than perish in +battle. Such a war may drag on for years, during which the Dutch +territory will not extend much beyond the places occupied by troops, +or the ports defended by the guns of the fleet. If the Dutch hold on +with their proverbial tenacity, they may conquer in the end, though at +an immense cost in treasure and in life. If the Malays are once +subdued, and by a wise and lenient policy converted to some degree of +loyalty, they may prove, like the Sikhs in India, the brave defenders +of the power against which they fought so well. + +With such conversation to lighten the hours, they did not seem long, +as we were running through the Java Sea. On the third day from +Singapore, we came among the Thousand Islands, and in the afternoon +descried on the horizon the mountains of Java, and just at sunset were +in the roads of Batavia. There is no harbor, but an open roadstead; +and here a whole fleet of ships were riding at anchor--ships of war +and merchant ships from all parts of the world. It was two or three +miles from the quay, but as the evening drew on, we could see lights +along the shore; and at eight o'clock, just as the gun was fired from +the flagship of the Dutch Admiral, we put off in a native boat, manned +by a Malay crew. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and we seemed to +be floating in a dream, as our swarthy boatmen bent to their oars, and +we glided silently over a tropical sea to this unknown shore. + +At the Custom House a dark-skinned official, whose buttons gave him a +military air, received us with dignity, and demanded if we had +"pistolets," and being satisfied that we were not attempting an armed +invasion of the island, gave but a glance at our trunks, and politely +bowed us to a carriage that was standing outside the gates, and away +we rattled through the streets of Batavia to the Hotel Nederland. + +The next morning at an early hour we were riding about to "take our +bearings" and adjust ourselves to the situation. If we had not known +where we were, but only that we were in some distant part of the +world, we could soon guess that we were in a Dutch rather than in an +English colony. Here were the inevitable canals which the Dutch carry +with them to all parts of the earth. The city is intersected by these +watery streets, and the boats in them might be lying at the quays of +Rotterdam or Amsterdam. The city reminds us a good deal of the Hague, +in its broad streets lined with trees, and its houses, which have a +substantial Dutch look, as if they were built for comfort and not for +show. They are low and large, spreading out over a great deal of +surface, but not towering ambitiously upwards. A pretty sight it was +to see these fine old mansions, standing back from the street, with +ample space around them, embowered in trees and shrubbery, with lawns +and gardens kept in perfect order; and with all the doors and windows +wide open, through which we could see the breakfast tables spread, as +if to invite even strangers, such as we were, to enter and share their +hospitality. Before we left Java, we were guests in one of these +mansions, and found that Dutch hospitality was not merely in name. + +Among the ornaments of the city are two large and handsome public +squares--the King's Plain and Waterloo Plain. The latter name reminds +us that the Dutch had a part in the battle of Waterloo. With +pardonable pride they are persuaded that the contingent which they +contributed to the army of Wellington had no small part in deciding +the issue of that terrible day, and they thus commemorate _their_ +victory. This plain is used as a parade-ground, and the Dutch cavalry +charge over it with ardor, inspired by such heroic memories. + +It may surprise some of my readers accustomed to our new American +cities, to learn how old is Batavia. About the time that the Pilgrim +Fathers sailed from Holland, another expedition from the same country +carried the Dutch flag to the other side of the world, and Batavia was +settled the year before the landing on Plymouth Rock. Of course it was +a very small beginning of their power in the East, but slowly the +petty trading settlement grew into a colony, and its territory was +extended by degrees till, more than a hundred years after, it took in +the whole island. In the old palace on Waterloo Plain, now used as a +museum, are the portraits of Dutch governors who have ruled here for +two hundred and fifty years. + +But the capital of Java--at least the residence of the +Governor-General--is not at Batavia, but at Buitenzorg, nearly forty +miles in the interior, to which one can go by railroad in two hours. +As we took our seats in the carriage we had the good fortune to meet +Mr. Fraser, an English merchant, who has lived many years in Java, and +is well known and highly respected throughout the island, who gave us +information of the country over which we were passing. The plains +near the sea had at this time an appearance of great beauty. They were +laid out in rice fields which have a more vivid color than fields of +grain, and now shone with an emerald green. It was the time of the +gathering of the harvest, and the fields were filled with reapers, men +and women, young men and maidens. But one hears not the click of the +reaper. I am told that the attempt to introduce a mowing machine or a +patent reaper would make a revolution in the island. All the rice of +Java is cut by hand, and not even with the sickle, which is an +instrument much too coarse for this dainty work, but with a knife +three or four inches long, so that the spears are clipped as with a +pair of scissors. Taking a few blades gently, they cut them off, and +when they have a handful bind it in a tiny sheaf about as large as a +bunch of asparagus. When they have cut and bound up five, one is laid +aside for the landlord and four go to the cultivators. + +This slow progress might make a young American farmer very impatient. +Perhaps not, if he knew all the charms of the rice field, which might +make a country swain quite willing to linger. Mr. Fraser explained +that this season was the time, and the rice field the scene, of the +matrimonial engagements made during the year! Ah, now it is all +explained. Who can wonder that the gentle reapers linger over the rice +blades while they are proposing or answering questions on which their +whole life may depend? No doubt in merry England it has often happened +that hay-making and love-making have gone on in the fields together. +And we cannot wonder that such rural arts should be known in a land +warmed by a tropical sun. + +But the food of the natives is not found in the rice fields alone; it +is brought down from the top of the cocoanut palm, and drawn up from +the bottom of caves of the earth. "Do you see yonder small mountain?" +said Mr. F. "That is a famous hunting-ground for the edible birds' +nests, which are esteemed such a delicacy by the Chinese. The birds +are swallows and build their nests in caves, into which the hunters +are let down by long bamboo ropes, and drawn up laden with spoil. So +great has been the yield, and so highly prized, that the product of +that hill exported to China in one year returned a profit of £4,000. +Of late this has been much reduced, owing to the diminished +production, or that the Chinese are not ready to pay so much for such +dainty luxuries." + +At Buitenzorg the low land of the coast is exchanged for the hills. We +are at the foot of the range of mountains which forms the backbone of +the island. To give an idea of the character of the scenery, let me +sketch a picture from my own door in the Bellevue Hotel. The rooms, as +in all tropical climates, open on a broad veranda. Here, stretched in +one of the easy chairs made of bamboo, we look out upon a scene which +might be in Switzerland, so many features has it which are Alpine in +their character. The hotel stands on a projecting shelf of rock or +spur of a hill, overlooking a deep gorge, through which flows, or +rather rushes, a foaming mountain torrent, whose ceaseless murmurs +come up from below; while in front, only three or four miles distant, +rises the broad breast of a mountain, very much like the lower summits +or foothills of the Alps, which hang over many a sequestered vale in +Switzerland or in the Tyrol. + +But here the resemblance ends. For as we descend from the broad +outlines of the landscape to closer details, it changes from the +rugged features of an Alpine pass, and takes its true tropical +character. There are no snow-clad peaks, for we are almost under the +Equator. The scene might be in the Andes rather than in the Alps. The +mountain before us, the Salak, is a volcano, though not now in action. +As we look down from our perch, the eye rests upon a forest such as is +never seen in the Alps. Here are no dark pines, such as clothe the +sides of the vale of Chamouni. In the foreground, on the river bank, +at the foot of the hill, is a cluster of native huts, half hidden by +long feathery bamboos and broad-leaved palms. The forest seems to be +made up of palms of every variety--the cocoanut palm, the sago palm, +and the sugar palm, with which are mingled the bread-fruit tree, and +the nutmeg, and the banana; and not least of all, the _cinchona_, +lately imported from South American forests, which yields the famous +Peruvian bark. The attempt to acclimatize this shrub, so precious in +medicine, has been completely successful, so that the quinine of Java +is said to be even better than that of South America. In the middle +distance are the rice fields, with their intense green, and farther, +on the side of the mountain, are the coffee plantations, for which +Java is so famous. + +Buitenzorg has a Botanical Garden, the finest by far to be found out +of Europe, and the richest in the world in the special department of +tropical plants and trees. All that the tropics pour from their +bounteous stores; all those forms of vegetable life created by the +mighty rains and mightier sun of the Equator--gigantic ferns, like +trees, and innumerable orchids (plants that live on air)--are here in +countless profusion. One of the glories of the Garden is an +india-rubber tree of great size, which spreads out its arms like an +English oak, but dropping shoots here and there (for it is a species +of banyan) which take root and spring up again, so that the tree +broadens its shade, and as the leaves are thick and tough as leather, +offers a shield against even the vertical sun. There are hundreds of +varieties of palms--African and South American--some of enormous +height and breadth, which, as we walked under their shade, seemed +almost worthy to stand on the banks of the River of Life. + +Such a vast collection offers an attraction like the Garden of Plants +in Paris. I met here the Italian naturalist Beccari, who was spending +some weeks at Buitenzorg to make a study of a garden in which he had +the whole tropics in a space of perhaps a hundred acres. He has spent +the last eight years of his life in the Malayan Archipelago, dividing +his time, except a few months in the Moluccas, between Borneo and New +Guinea. The latter island he considered richer in its fauna and flora +than any other equal spot on the surface of the globe, with many +species of plants and animals unknown elsewhere. He had his own boat, +and sailed along the coast and up the rivers at his will. He +penetrated into the forest and the jungle, living among savages, and +for the time adopting their habits of life, not perhaps dressing in +skins, but sleeping in their huts or on the ground, and living on +their food and such game as he could get with his gun. He laughed at +the dangers. He was not afraid of savages or wild beasts or reptiles. +Indeed he lived in such close companionship with the animal kingdom +that he got to be in very intimate, not to say amicable, relations; +and to hear him talk of his friends of the forest, one would think he +would almost beg pardon of a beast that he was obliged to shoot and +stuff in the interest of science. He complained only that he could not +find enough of them. Snakes he "doted on," and if he espied a monster +coiling round a tree, or hanging from the branches, his heart leaped +up as one who had found great spoil, for he thought how its glistening +scales would shine in his collection. I was much entertained by his +adventures. He left us one morning in company with our host Carlo, who +is a famous hunter, on an expedition after the rhinoceros--a royal +game, which abounds in the woods of Java. + +The beauty of this island is not confined to one part of it. As yet we +have seen only Western Java, and but little of that. But there is +Middle Java and Eastern Java. The island is very much like Cuba in +shape--long and narrow, being near seven hundred miles one way, and +less than a hundred the other. Thus it is a great breakwater dividing +the Java Sea from the Indian Ocean. To see its general configuration, +one needs to sail along the coast to get a distant view; and then, to +appreciate the peculiar character of its scenery, he should make +excursions into the interior. The Residents of Rhio and Palembang +called to see us and made out an itinéraire; and Mr. Levyssohn Norman, +the Secretary General, to whom I brought a letter from a Dutch officer +whom we met at Naples, gave me letters to the Residents in Middle +Java. Thus furnished we returned to Batavia, and took the steamer for +Samarang--two days' sail to the eastward along the northern shore. As +we put out to sea a few miles, we get the general figure of the +island. The great feature in the view is the mountains, a few miles +from the coast, some of which are ten and twelve thousand feet high, +which make the background of the picture, whose peculiar outline is +derived from their volcanic character. Java lies in what may be called +a volcano belt, which is just under the Equator, and reaches not only +through Java, but through the islands of Bali and Lombok to the +Moluccas. Instead of one long chain of equal elevation in every part, +or a succession of smooth, rounded domes, there is a number of sharp +peaks thrown up by internal fires. Thus the sky line is changing every +league. European travellers are familiar with the cone-like shape of +Vesuvius, overlooking the Bay of Naples. Here is the same form, +repeated nearly forty times, as there are thirty-eight volcanoes in +the island. Around the Bay of Samarang are nine in one view! Some of +them are still active, and from time to time burst out in fearful +eruptions; but just now they are not in an angry mood, but smoking +peacefully, only a faint vapor, like a fleecy cloud, curling up +against the sky. All who have made the ascent of Vesuvius, remember +that its cone is a blackened mass of ashes and scoriæ. But a volcano +here is not left to be such a picture of desolation. Nature, as if +weary of ruin, and wishing to hide the rents she has made, has mantled +its sides with the richest tropical vegetation. As we stand on the +deck of our ship, and look landward, the mountains are seen to be +covered near their base with forests of palms; while along their +breasts float belts of light cloud, above which the peaks soar into +the blue heavens. + +At the eastern end of the island, near Souraboya, there is a volcano +with the largest crater in the world, except that of Kilaccea in the +Sandwich Islands. It is three miles across, and is filled with a sea +of sand. Descending into this broad space, and wading through the +sand, as if on the desert, one comes to a new crater in the centre, a +thousand feet wide, which is always smoking. This the natives regard +with superstitious dread, as a sign that the powers below are in a +state of anger; and once a year they go in crowds to the mountain, +dragging a bullock, which is thrown alive into the crater, with other +offerings, to appease the wrath of the demon, who is raging and +thundering below. + +Wednesday morning brought us to Samarang, the chief port of Middle, as +Batavia is of Western, and Sourabaya of Eastern Java. As we drew up to +the shore, the quay was lined with soldiers, who were going off to the +war in Acheen. The regiments intended for that service are brought +first to Java, to get acclimated before they are exposed to what would +be fatal to fresh European troops. These were now in fine condition, +and made a brave sight, drawn up in rank, with the band playing, and +the people shouting and cheering. This is the glittering side of war. +But, poor fellows! they have hard times before them, of which they do +not dream. It is not the enemy they need to fear, but the hot climate +and the jungle fever, which will be more deadly than the kris of the +Malay. These soldiers are not all Dutch; some are French. On our +return to Batavia, the steamer carried down another detachment, in +which I found a couple of French zouaves (there may have been others), +one of whom told me he had been in the surrender at Sedan, and the +other had taken part in the siege of Paris. After their terms had +expired in the French army, they enlisted in the Dutch service, and +embarked for the other side of the world, to fight in a cause which is +not their own. I fear they will never see France again, but will leave +their bones in the jungles of Sumatra. + +But our thoughts are not of war, but of peace, as we ride through the +long Dutch town, so picturesquely situated between the mountains and +the sea, and take the railway for the interior. We soon leave the +lowlands of the coast, and penetrate the forests, and wind among the +hills. Our first stop is at Solo, which is an Imperial residence. It +is a curious relic of the old native governments of Java, that though +the Dutch are complete masters, there are still left in the island an +Emperor and a Sultan, who are allowed to retain their lofty titles, +surrounded with an Imperial etiquette. The Emperor of Solo lives in +his "Kraton," which is what the Seraglio is among the Turks, a large +enclosure in which is the palace. He has a guard of a few hundred men, +who gratify his vanity, and enable him to spend his money in keeping a +number of idle retainers; but there is a Dutch Resident close at hand, +without whose permission he cannot leave the district, and hardly his +own grounds; while in the very centre of the town is a fort, with guns +mounted, pointing towards his palace, which it could soon blow about +his ears. Thus "protected," he is little better than a State prisoner. +But he keeps his title "during good behavior," and once a year turns +out in grand state, to make an official visit to the Resident, who +receives him with great distinction; and having thus "marched up the +hill," he "marches down again." We had a letter to the Resident, and +hoped to pay our respects to his Majesty, but learned that it would +require several days to arrange an audience. It is a part of the Court +dignity which surrounds such a potentate, that he should not be easily +accessible, and we should be sorry to disturb the harmless illusion. + +But if we did not see the "lion" of Solo, we saw the tigers, which +were perhaps quite as well worth seeing. The Emperor, amid the +diversions with which he occupies his royal mind, likes to entertain +his military and official visitors with something better than a +Spanish bull-fight, namely, a tiger-fight with a bull or a buffalo, or +with men, for which he has a number of trained native spearmen. For +these combats his hunters trap tigers in the mountains; and in a +building made of heavy timbers fitted close together, with only space +between for light and air, were half a dozen of them in reserve. They +were magnificent beasts; not whelped in a cage and half subdued by +long captivity, like the sleek creatures of our menageries and +zoölogical gardens; but the real kings of the forest, caught when full +grown (some but a few weeks before), and who roared as in their native +wilds. It was terrific to see the glare of their eyes, and to hear the +mutterings of their rage. One could not look at them, even through +their strong bars, without a shudder. A gentleman of Java told me that +he had once caught in the mountains a couple of tigers in a pit, but +that as he approached it, their roaring was so terrific, as they +bounded against the sides of the pit, that it required all his courage +to master a feeling of indescribable terror. + +Adjoining the dominion of Solo is that of Jookja, where, instead of an +Emperor, is a Sultan, not quite so great a potentate as the former, +but who has his chateau and his military guard, and goes through the +same performance of playing the king. The Dutch Resident has a very +handsome palace, with lofty halls, where on state occasions he +receives the Sultan with becoming dignity--a mark of deference made +all the more touching by the guns of the fort, which, from the centre +of the town, keep a friendly watch for the least sign of rebellion. + +This part of Middle Java is very rich in sugar plantations. One +manufactory which we visited was said to yield a profit of $400,000 a +year. Nor is this the product of slave labor, like the sugar of Cuba. +Yet it is not altogether free labor. There is a peculiar system in +Java by which the government, which is the owner of the land, in +renting an estate to a planter, rents those who live on it with the +estate. It guarantees him sufficient labor to work his plantation. The +people are obliged to labor. This is exacted partly as a due to the +government, amounting to one or two days in the week. For the rest of +the time they are paid small wages. But they cannot leave their +employer at will. There is no such absolute freedom as that which is +said to have ruined Jamaica, where the negro may throw down his tools +and quit work at the very moment when the planter is saving his crop. +The government compels him to labor, but it also compels his master to +pay him. The system works well in Java. Laborers are kept busy, the +lands are cultivated, and the production is enormous--not only making +the planters rich, but yielding a large revenue to Holland. + +At Jookja the railroad ends. Further excursions into the country must +be by a private carriage. Some thirty miles distant is an ancient +ruin, which is in Java what the Great Pyramid is in Egypt, with which +it is often compared. To reach this, we ordered a carriage for the +next morning. Probably the landlord thought he had a Milord Anglais +for his guest, who must make his progress through the island with +royal magnificence; for, when we rose very early for our ride, we +found in front of the door a huge carriage with _six horses_! The +horses of Java are small, but full of spirit, like the Canadian +ponies. On the box was a fat coachman, who outweighed both of us +inside. Behind us stood two fellows of a lighter build, whose high +office it was to urge our gallant steeds by voice and lash to their +utmost speed. They were dressed in striped jackets, like +circus-riders, and were as agile as cats. Whenever the mighty chariot +lagged a little, they leaped to the ground, and running forward with +extraordinary swiftness, shouted and lashed the horses till, with +their goadings and their cries, the beasts, driven to madness, reared +and plunged and raced forward so wildly, that we almost expected to be +dashed in pieces. Such is the price of glory! What grandeur was this! +When we were in Egypt, riding about the streets of Cairo with two +"syces" (servants dressed in white, who run before a carriage to clear +the way), I felt like Joseph riding in Pharaoh's chariot. But now I +felt as if I were Pharaoh himself. + +Our route was through long avenues of trees, of palms and bamboos. The +roads, as everywhere in Java, are excellent, smooth as a floor, +solidly built, and well kept. To construct such roads, and keep them +in repair, must be a work of great difficulty, as in the rainy season +the floods come in such force as would sweep away any but those which +are firmly bedded. These roads are said to be owing to a famous Dutch +governor, Marshal Dændels, who ruled here in the early part of this +century. According to tradition he was a man of tremendous will, which +he enforced with arbitrary and despotic authority. He laid out a +system of highways, and assigned to certain native officers each his +portion to build. Knowing that things moved slowly in these Eastern +countries, and that the officers in charge might try to make excuses +for delay, he added a gentle admonition that he should hold each man +responsible; and by way of quickening their sense of duty, he erected +gibbets at convenient intervals along the road, and if an official +failed to "come to time," he simply had him executed. The spectacle of +a few of these native gentry hanging by the roadside had such an +enlivening effect on the Javanese imagination, that the roads were +built as if by magic. Perhaps the system might be applied with +excellent effect to "contractors" in other parts of the world! + +But on the best roads this speed could not be kept up for a long time. +The stages were short, the relays being but five miles apart. Every +three-quarters of an hour we changed horses. The stations were built +over the roads, something in the style of an old-fashioned turnpike +gate; so that we drove under the shelter, and the horses, dripping +with foam, were slipped out of the carriage, and left to cool under +the shade of the trees, or rolled over in the dust, delighted to be +free. + +As we advanced, our route wound among the hills. On our right was +Merapé, one of the great mountains of Java--his top smoking gently, +while rice-fields came up to his foot. This middle part of the island +is called the Garden of Java, and it might be called one of the +gardens of the world. Nowhere in Europe, not even in Lombardy nor in +England, have I seen a richer country. Every foot of ground is in a +high state of cultivation. Not only are the plains and valleys covered +with rice-fields, but the hills are terraced to admit of carrying the +culture far up their sides. Here, as in Western Java, it was the time +of the harvest, and the fields were filled with joyous reapers. To +this perfect tilling of the earth it is due that this island is one of +the most populous portions of the globe. The country literally swarms +with inhabitants, as a hive swarms with bees; but so few are their +wants, that everybody seems to "live and be merry." We passed through +a number of villages which, though the dwellings were of the rudest, +yet had a pretty look, as they were embowered in foliage of palms and +bamboos. As the country grew more hilly, our progress was not so +swift. Sometimes we went down a steep bank to cross a river on a boat, +and then it was not an easy task to draw up the carriage on the +opposite bank, and we had to call on Cæsar for help. Almost a whole +village would turn out. At one time I counted eighteen men pushing and +tugging at our wheels, of course with no eye to the small coin that +was scattered among them when the top of the bank was reached. So +great was the load of dignity we bore! + +At noon we reached the object of our journey in the famous ruins of +Borobodo. Sir Stamford Raffles says that all the labor expended on the +Pyramids of Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared with that +bestowed on the grand architectural remains of Java; but after seeing +this, the greatest on the island, his estimate seems to me very +extravagant. This is much smaller than the Great Pyramid, in the space +of ground which it covers, and lower in height, and altogether less +imposing. But without making comparisons, it is certainly a wonderful +pile. It is a pyramid in shape, some four hundred feet square, and +nine stories high, being ascended by a series of gigantic steps or +terraces. That it was built for Buddhist worship is evident from the +figures of Buddha which cover its sides. It is the monument not only +of an ancient religion, but of an extinct civilization, of a mighty +empire once throned on this island, which has left remains like those +of ancient Egypt. What a population and what power must have been here +ages ago, to rear such a structure! One can imagine the people +gathered at great festivals in numbers such as now assemble at +pilgrimages in India. Doubtless this hill of stone was often black +with human beings (for as many could stand on its sides as could be +gathered in the Coliseum at Rome), while on the open plain in front, +stretching to a mountain in the background, a nation might have +encamped, like the Israelites before Sinai, to receive the law. But +the temple is in ruins, and there is no gathering of the people for +worship any more. The religion of the island is changed. Buddhism has +passed away, and Islam has taken its place, to pass away in its turn. +It was Good Friday, in 1876, that I stood on the top of this pyramid, +and thought of Him who on this day suffered for mankind, and whose +religion is yet to possess the world. When it has conquered Asia, it +will cross the sea, and take this beautiful island, from which it may +pass on to the mainland of the continent of Australia. + +In such musings we lingered for hours, wandering about the ruins and +enjoying the landscape, which is one of the most beautiful we have +seen in all our travels--the wide sweep in the foreground reminding us +of the view from Stirling Castle in Scotland. + +But the carriage is waiting, and once more the driver cracks his whip, +his horses prance, and away we fly along the roads, through the +valleys, and over the hills. At evening we reached Magellang, the +centre of one of the districts into which Java is divided, and a town +of some importance. It is a curious geographical fact that it stands +exactly in the centre of the island. One spot is called the Navel of +Java. The Javanese think a certain hill is the head of a great nail, +which is driven into the earth and holds the island firm in its place. +If this be so, it is strange that it does not keep it more quiet. For +if we may use the language of the brokers, we might say with truth +that in Java "real estate is active," since it is well shaken up once +or twice a year with earthquakes, and is all the time smouldering with +volcanoes. + +But however agitated underground, the country is very beautiful above +it. Here as in all the places where the Dutch "most do congregate," +there is a mixture of European civilization with the easy and +luxurious ways of the East. Some of the villages are as pretty as any +in our own New England, and reminded us of those in the Connecticut +valley, being laid out with a broad open square or common in the +centre, which is shaded by magnificent trees, and surrounded by +beautiful residences, whose broad verandas and open doors give a most +inviting picture of domestic comfort and generous hospitality. There +is a club-house for the officers, and music by the military band. The +Residents always live very handsomely. They are the great men in every +district. Each one has a spacious residence, with a military guard, +and a salary of six or eight thousand dollars a year, with extras for +the expense of entertaining or of travelling, and a liberal pension +at the close of twenty years of service. + +Magellang is marked with a white stone in our memories of Java, as it +was the scene of a novel experience. When we drove into the town, we +found the hotel full, which obliged us to fall back upon our letter to +the Resident. He was absent, but his secretary at once took us in +hand, and requested the "Regent" (a native prince who holds office +under the Dutch government, and has special oversight of the native +population) to entertain us. He responded in the most courteous +manner, so that, instead of being lodged at a hotel, we were received +as guests in a princely residence. His "palace" was in the Eastern +style, of but one story (as are most of the buildings in Java, on +account of earthquakes), but spread out over a large surface, with +rows of columns supporting its ample roof, presenting in front in its +open colonnade what might be regarded as a spacious hall of audience; +and furnishing in its deep recesses a cool retreat from the heat of +the tropical sun. A native guard pacing before the door indicated the +official character of the occupant. The Regent received us with +dignity, but with great cordiality. He was attired in the rich costume +of the East. His feet were without stockings, but encased in richly +embroidered sandals. He could speak no English, and but a few words of +French--only Malay, Dutch, and Javanese. But he sent for a gentleman +to dine, who was of Spanish descent, and who, though a native of Java, +and had never been out of it, yet spoke both French and English, and +thus we were able to converse. + +The Regent had a wife, and after a time she entered the hall, and +welcomed my niece with a cordiality almost like that of two +school-girls meeting. She was simply dressed, in the lightest costume, +with bare feet, but in gold-embroidered slippers. Everything in her +attire was very plain, except that her ears were hung with diamonds +that fairly dazzled us with their brilliancy. She began talking with +great volubility, and seemed not quite to comprehend why it was that +we did not understand Malay or Javanese. However, with the help of our +interpreter, we got along, and were soon in the most confidential +relations. She had very vague ideas of the part of the world we came +from. We tried to make her understand that the world was round, and +that we lived on the other side of the globe. We asked why the Regent +did not go abroad to see the world? But she signified with a peculiar +gesture, as if counting with her fingers, that it took a great deal of +money. She asked "if we were rich," to which we replied modestly that +we had enough for our wants. As she talked of family matters, she +informed us that her lord had another wife. Of this she spoke without +the least reserve. It was quite natural that he should desire this. +She (his first wife) had been married to him over twenty years, and +was getting a little _passée_, and he needed a young face to make the +house bright and gay. Presently the second wife entered, and we were +presented to her. She was very young--I should think not twenty years +of age. Evidently the elder occupied the first place in the household, +and the younger took the second. They seemed to stand in a kind of +sisterly relation to each other, without the slightest feeling of +jealousy between them. Both were very pretty, after the Malayan +type--that is, with mild, soft eyes, and skins, not black, like +Africans, but of a rich brown color. They would have been even +beautiful if they had had also, what the Africans so often have, +dazzling white teeth; but this is prevented by the constant chewing of +the betel-nut and tobacco. + +At half-past eight o'clock we went to dinner. C---- had the honor of +sitting between the two wives, and enjoyed the courtesy of both, who +prepared fruit for her, and by many little attentions, such as are +understood in all parts of the world, showed that they belonged to the +true sisterhood of woman. The position of woman in Java is somewhat +peculiar. The people are Mohammedans, and yet the women are not +secluded, nor do they veil their faces; they receive strangers in +their houses and at their tables; thus they have much greater freedom +than their sisters in Turkey or Egypt. The Regent, being a Mussulman, +did not take wine, though he provided it for his guests. After the +dinner, coffee was served, of a rich, delicious flavor--for Java is +the land of coffee--followed by the inevitable cigar. I do not smoke, +but could not allow my refusal to interfere with the habits of those +whose guest I was, and could but admire the ineffable satisfaction +with which the Regent and his friend puffed the fragrant weed. While +they were thus wreathed in clouds, and floating in a perfect Nirvana +of material enjoyment, the gentler sex were not forgotten. The two +wives took their pleasure in their own fashion. A small box, like a +tea-caddy, was brought on the table, full of little silver cups and +cases, containing leaves of the betel-nut, and spices, cassia and +gambier, a little lime, and a cup of the finest tobacco. Out of these +they prepared a delicate morsel for their lips. With her own dainty +fingers, each rolled up a leaf of the betel-nut, enclosing in it +several kinds of spices, and filling it with a good pinch of tobacco, +which, our Spanish friend explained, was not so much for the taste, as +to make the morsel plump and round, large enough to fill the mouth +(or, as a wine-taster would say of his favorite madeira or port, to +give it sufficient _body_); and also, he added, it was to clean the +teeth, and to give an aromatic fragrance to the breath! I repeat, as +exactly as I can recall them, his very words. + +Whether the precious compound had all these virtues, certainly these +courtly dames took it with infinite relish, and rolled it as a sweet +morsel under their tongues, and looked on their lord with no jealousy +of his enjoyment of his cigar. + +Here was a picture of conjugal felicity. The family was evidently an +affectionate and happy one. The Regent loved both his wives, and they +sat side by side without envy or uncharitableness, happy in the +sunshine of his face, and chewed their betel-nut with a composure, an +aspect of tranquil enjoyment, which many in more civilized countries +may admire, but cannot equal. + +In the morning, when the family came together, I remarked that the +first wife, who then apparently saw her husband for the first time, +came forward, and bending low, kissed his jewelled hand; and soon +after the second wife entered, and kissed the first wife's hand, thus +observing that natural order of precedence which is so beautiful in +every well-regulated family. + +I observed also with curious interest the relations of master and +servant in this Oriental household. The divisions are very marked. The +Regent, for example, is regarded by his retainers with an awe as if he +were a sacred person. No one approaches him standing. The theory is, +that no inferior must ever be in a position or attitude where his head +is higher than his master's. If the Regent but looks at a man, he +drops as if shot with a bullet. If a servant wishes to communicate +with his master, he falls, not on his knees, but on his haunches, and +in this posture shuffles forward till he comes behind his chair, and +meekly whispers a word into his ear. He receives his orders, and then +shuffles back again. In one way, the division of ranks in Java is more +marked even than that of castes in India. The Javanese language, which +is a branch of the Malay, has three separate forms of speech--one, +that used by a superior addressing an inferior; second, that of an +inferior addressing a superior; and a third, that used between equals. +Such divisions would seem to cut off all relations between those of +different rank. And yet, with all this stooping and bowing, abject as +it seems to us, the relation of the master to his dependants is rather +patriarchal; and to these same servants the Regent will speak, not +only kindly, but familiarly, all the more so as the lines are so +drawn that there is no danger that they should ever presume on undue +familiarity. + +In the morning the Regent took me out for a ramble. We strolled along +under the trees, admiring the beauty of the country. After half an +hour's walk, suddenly, like an apparition, an open phaeton stood +beside us, with two beautiful ponies, into which the Regent invited me +to step, and taking his seat by my side, drove me about the town. We +returned for breakfast, and then he sent for his musicians to give us +a performance, who, beating on drums and other native instruments, +executed a plaintive kind of music. With such attentions did this +Javanese prince and his wives (none of whom we had ever seen till a +few hours before, and on whom we had no claim whatever) win our hearts +by their kindness, so that, when the carriage came round to the door, +we were sorry to depart. The Regent pressed us to stay a month, or as +long as we would. We could not accept a longer hospitality; but we +shall remember that which we had. We keep his photograph, with others +which we like to look upon; and if these words can reach the other +side of the world, they will tell him that his American friends have +not forgotten, and will not forget, the kind manner in which they were +entertained in the island of Java by the Regent of Magellang. + +The drive of to-day was hardly less interesting than that of +yesterday, although our pride had a fall. It was a great come-down, +after riding with six horses to be reduced to four! But the +mortification was relieved by adding now and then, at the steep +places, a pair of buffaloes. As we were still in the hill country, we +were all day among the coffee plantations, which thrive best at a +considerable elevation above the sea. Other products of the island +flourished around us in rich abundance: the spices--aloes and cassia, +and nutmeg and pepper. And there was our old friend, the peanut. They +were gathering perhaps the very nuts that were yet to ornament the +stands of the apple-women of New York, and to be a temptation to +bootblacks and newsboys. Amid such fields and forests, over mountain +roads, and listening to the roar of mountain streams, we came down to +Ambarrawa, a place of note in Java, as containing the strongest +fortress in the island. It is planted here right in the heart of +Middle Java, where, half a century ago, was a formidable insurrection, +which was quelled only after an obstinate contest, lasting five +years--from 1825 to 1830. Ambarrawa is connected by railroad with +Samarang. It is easy to see that both the railroads which start from +that point, and which have thus a base on the sea (the one leading to +Solo and Jookja, the residences of the Emperor and the Sultan, who +might make trouble, and the other to the great fortress of Ambarrawa), +have been constructed with a military as well as a commercial purpose. + +So the Dutch have had their wars in Java, as the English have had in +India; but having conquered, it must be said that on the whole they +have ruled wisely and well. The best proof of this is the perfect +tranquillity that reigns everywhere, and that with no great display of +armed force. What a contrast in this respect between the two most +important islands in the East and West Indies--Java and Cuba! They are +about equal in the number of square miles. Both have been settled by +Europeans for nearly three centuries, and yet to-day Cuba has less +than two millions of inhabitants, and is in a chronic state of +insurrection; while Java has over fifteen millions (or eight times as +many), and is as quiet as Holland itself. The whole story is told in +one word--the one is Dutch rule, and the other is Spanish rule. + +We spent our Easter in Samarang--a day which is not forgotten in this +part of the world, although Sunday is not observed after the manner of +Scotland or New England, but rather of Continental Europe, with bands +playing on the public square, and all the European world abroad +keeping holiday. From Samarang, another two days' sail along the same +northern coast, with the grand outline of mountains on the horizon, +brought us back to Batavia. + +Batavia was not the same to us on the second visit as on the first; or +rather it was a great deal more, for now we knew the place, the +streets were familiar, and we felt at home--the more so as a Scotch +gentleman, to whom we brought a letter from Singapore, Mr. James Greig +(of the old house of Syme, Pitcairn & Co., so well known in the East), +took us in charge, and carried us off to one of those large mansions +which we had so much admired on our former visit, set far back from +the street, and surrounded with trees; and constructed especially for +this climate, with spacious rooms, wide hall, high ceilings, and broad +veranda, and all the devices for mitigating the heat of the tropics. +More than all, this hospitable mansion was lighted up by the sweetest +feminine presence in one who, though of an old Dutch family well known +in Java, had been educated in Paris, and spoke English and French, as +well as Dutch and Malay, and who gave us such a welcome as made us +feel that we were not strangers. Not only did these friends open their +house to us, but devoted themselves till our departure in going about +with us, and making our visit pleasant. I do not know whether to call +this Scotch or Dutch hospitality, but it was certainly of the most +delightful kind. + +As we had three or four days before the sailing of the French steamer +for Singapore, our friends planned an excursion into the mountains of +Western Java, for which we returned to Buitenzorg, and engaged a +couple of _cahars_, carriages as light as if made of wicker-work, with +the small Javanese ponies, and thus mounted, began to climb the hills. +Our route was over the great post-road, which runs through the island +to Souraboya--a road which must have been constructed with immense +labor, as it passes over high mountains, but which is as solidly built +and as well kept as Napoleon's great road over the Simplon Pass of the +Alps. Indeed it is very much the same, having a rocky bed for its +foundation, with a macadamized surface, over which the carriage rolls +smoothly. But it does not climb so steadily upward as the Simplon or +the Mont Cenis. The ascent is not one long pull, like the ascent of +the Alps, but by a succession of hills, one beyond another, with many +a deep valley between, so that we go alternately up hill and down +dale. The hills are very steep, so that the post-carriage, which is as +heavy and lumbering as a French diligence, has to be drawn up by +buffaloes. Thus it climbs slowly height after height, and when it has +reached the summit, goes thundering down the mountain, and rolls +majestically along the road. But our light carriages suited us much +better than these ponderous vehicles; and as our little ponies trotted +swiftly along, we were in a very gay mood, making the woods ring with +our merry talk and glee. Sometimes we got out to stretch our limbs +with a good walk up the hills, turning as we reached the top to take +in the landscape behind us, which spread out broader and broader, as +we rose higher and higher. At every stage the view increased in extent +and in majesty, till the whole island, + + "From the centre all round to the sea," + +was piled with mountains, which here, as in Middle Java, showed their +volcanic origin by their forms, now rising in solitary cones, and now +lying on the horizon in successive ridges, like mighty billows tossed +up on a sea of fire, that in cooling had cracked in all fantastic +shapes, which, after being worn down by the storms of thousands of +years, were mantled thick with the verdure of forests. As in England +the ivy creeps over old walls, covering ruined castles and towers with +its perpetual green, so here the luxuriance of the tropics has +overspread the ruin wrought by destroying elements. The effect is a +mingled wildness and beauty in these mountain landscapes, which often +reminded us of Switzerland and the Tyrol. + +The enjoyment of this ride was increased by the character of the day, +which was not all sunshine, but one of perpetual change. Clouds swept +over the sky, casting shadows on the sides of the mountains and into +the deep valleys. Sometimes the higher summits were wrapped so as to +be hidden from sight, and the rain fell heavily; then as the storm +drifted away, and the sun burst through the parted clouds, the +glorious heights shone in the sudden light like the Delectable +Mountains. + +The object of our journey was a mountain retreat four thousand feet +above the level of the sea--as high as the Righi Kulm, but in no other +respect like that mountain-top, which from its height overlooks so +many Swiss lakes and cantons. It is rather like an Alpine valley, +surrounded by mountains. This is a favorite resort of the Dutch from +Batavia. Here the Governor-General has a little box, to which he +retires, from his grander residence at Buitenzorg, and here many sick +and wounded officers find a cool retreat and recover strength for +fresh campaigns. The place bears the musical name of Sindanglaya, +which one would think might have been given with some reference to the +music of murmuring winds and waters which fill the air. The valley is +full of streams, of brooks and springs, that run among the hills. +Water, water everywhere! The rain pattering on the roof all night long +carried me back to the days of my childhood, when I slept in a little +cot under the eaves, and that sound was music to my ear. The Scotch +mist that envelopes the mountains might make the traveller fancy +himself in the Highlands; and so he might, as he seeks out the little +"tarns" that have settled in the craters of extinct volcanoes, where +not only wild deer break through the tangled wood of the leafy +solitudes, but the tiger and the rhinoceros come to drink. Streams run +down the mountain-sides, and springs ooze from mossy banks by the +roadside, and temper the air with their dripping coolness. What a +place to rest! How this perfect quiet must bring repose to the brave +fellows from Acheen, and how sweet must sound this music of mountain +streams to ears accustomed to the rude alarms of war! + +That we were in a new quarter of the world--far away, not only from +America and Europe, but even from Asia--we were reminded by the line +of telegraph which kept us company over the mountains, and which here +crosses the island on its way to Australia! It goes down the coast to +Bangaewangi, where it dives into the sea only to come up on the +mainland of the great Southern Continent. Indeed we were strongly +advised to extend our journey around the world to Australia, which we +could have reached in much less time than it had taken to come from +Calcutta to Singapore. But we were more interested to visit old +countries and old nations than to set foot on a virgin continent, and +to see colonies and cities, which, with all their growth, could only +be a smaller edition of what we have so abundantly in the new States +of America. + +We were now within a few miles of the Southern Ocean, the greatest of +all the oceans that wrap their watery mantle around the globe. From +the top of the Gédé, a mountain which rose above us, one may look off +upon an ocean broader than the Pacific--a sea without a shore--whose +waters roll in an unbroken sweep to the Antarctic Pole. + +From all these seas and shores, and woods and waters, we now turned +away, and with renewed delight in the varied landscapes, rode back +over the mountains to Buitenzorg, and came down by rail to Batavia. + +Before I depart from this pleasant land of Java, I must say a word +about the Dutch and their position in South-eastern Asia. The Dutch +have had possession of Java over 250 years--since 1623--without +interruption, except from 1811 to 1816, when Napoleon had taken +Holland; and as England was using all her forces on land and sea to +cripple the French empire in different parts of the world, she sent a +fleet against Java. It yielded almost without opposition; indeed many +of the Dutch regarded the surrender as simply placing the island under +British protection, which saved it from the French. For five years it +had an English Governor, Sir Stamford Raffles, who has written a large +work on Java. After the fall of Napoleon, England restored Java to the +Dutch, but kept Ceylon, Malacca, and the Cape of Good Hope. Thus the +Dutch have lost some of their possessions in the East, and yet Holland +is to-day the second colonial power in the world, being inferior only +to England. The Dutch flag in the East waves not only over Java, but +over almost the whole of the Malayan Archipelago, which, with the +intervening waters, covers a portion of the earth's surface larger +than all Europe. + +There are some peculiar physical features in this part of the world. +The Malayan Archipelago lies midway between Asia and Australia, +belonging to neither, and yet belonging to both. It is a very curious +fact, brought out by Wallace, whose great work on "The Malayan +Archipelago" is altogether the best on the subject, that this group of +islands is in itself divided by a very narrow space between the two +continents, which it at once separates and unites. Each has its own +distinct fauna and flora. The narrow Strait of Bali, only fifteen +miles wide, which separates the two small islands of Bali and Lombok, +separates two distinct animal and vegetable kingdoms, which are as +unlike as are those of the United States and Brazil. One group belongs +to Asia, the other to Australia. Sumatra is full of tigers; in Borneo +there is not one. Australia has no carnivora--no beasts that prey on +flesh--but chiefly marsupials, such as kangaroos. + +There are a good many residents in the East who think Holland, in the +management of her dependencies, has shown a better political economy +than England has shown in India. An English writer (a Mr. Money), in a +volume entitled "How to Govern a Colony," has brought some features +of the Dutch policy to the notice of his countrymen. I will mention +but one as an illustration. Half a century ago Java was very much run +down. A native rebellion which lasted five years had paralyzed the +industry of the country. To reanimate it, a couple of years after the +rebellion had been subdued, in 1832, the home government began a very +liberal system of stimulating production by making advances to +planters, and guaranteeing them labor to cultivate their estates. The +effect was marvellous. By that wise system of helping those who had +not means to help themselves, a new life was at once infused into all +parts of the island. Out of that has grown the enormous production of +coffee, sugar, and tobacco. Now Java not only pays all the expenses of +her own government, (which India does not do, at least without +contracting very heavy loans,) but builds her own railroads, and other +roads and bridges, and supplies the drain of the Acheen war, and +remits every year millions to the Hague to build railroads in Holland. + +Is it too much to believe that there is a great future in store for +South Eastern Asia? We talk about the future of America. But ours is +not the only continent that offers vast unoccupied wastes to the +habitation of man. Besides Australia, there are these great islands +nearer to Asia, which, from the overflow of India and China, may yet +have a population that shall cultivate their waste places. I found in +Burmah a great number of Bengalees and Madrasees, who had crossed the +Bay of Bengal to seek a home in Farther India; while the Chinese, who +form the population of Singapore, had crept up the coast. They are +here in Java, in every seaport and in every large town in the +interior, and there is every reason to suppose that there will be a +yet greater overflow of population in this direction. Sumatra and +Borneo are not yet inhabited and cultivated like Java, but in their +great extent they offer a magnificent seat for future kingdoms or +empires, which, Asiatic in population, may be governed by European +laws, and moulded by European civilization. + +One thing more before we cross the Equator--a word about nature and +life in the tropics. I came to Java partly to see the tropical +vegetation, of which we saw but little in India, as we were there in +winter, which is at once the cold and the dry season, when vegetation +withers, and the vast plains are desolate and dreary. Nature then +holds herself in reserve, waiting till the rains come, when the earth +will bloom again. But as I could not wait for the change of seasons, I +must needs pass on to a land where the change had already come. We +marked the transition as we came down the Bay of Bengal. There were +signs of changing seasons and a changing nature. We were getting into +the rainy belt. In the Straits of Malacca the air was hot and +thunderous, and we had frequent storms; the heavens were full of rain, +and the earth was fresh with the joy of a newly-opened spring. But +still we kept on till we crossed the Equator. Here in Java the rainy +season was just over. It ends with the last of March, and we arrived +at the beginning of April. For months the windows of heaven had been +opened, the rains descended, and the floods came; and lo! the land was +like the garden of the Lord. Here we had at last the tropical +vegetation in its fullest glory. Nothing can exceed the prodigality +and luxuriance of nature when a vertical sun beats down on fields and +forests and jungles that have been drenched for months in rain. +Vegetation of every kind springs up, as in the temperate zone it +appears only when forced in heated conservatories (as in the Duke of +Devonshire's gardens at Chatsworth), and the land waves with these +luxuriant growths. In the forest creeping plants wind round the tall +trunks, and vines hang in festoons from tree to tree. + +But while the tropical forest presents such a wild luxuriance of +growth, I find no single trees of such stature as I have seen in +other parts of the world. Except an occasional broad-spreading banyan, +I have seen nothing which, standing alone, equals in its solitary +majesty the English oak or the American elm. Perhaps there is a +difference in this respect between countries in the same latitude in +the Eastern and Western hemispheres. An English gentleman whom we +found here in charge of a great sugar plantation, who had spent some +years in Rio Janeiro, told me that the trees of Java did not compare +in majesty with those of Brazil. Nor is this superiority confined to +South America. Probably no trees now standing on the earth equal the +Big Trees of California. And besides these there are millions of lofty +pines on the sides of the Sierra Nevada, which I have seen nowhere +equalled unless it be in the mighty cedars which line the great +Tokaido of Japan. On the whole, I am a little inclined to boast that +trees attain their greatest height and majesty in our Western +hemisphere. + +But the glory of the tropics is in the universal life of nature, +spreading through all her realms, stirring even under ground, and +causing to spring forth new forms of vegetation, which coming up, as +it were, out of the darkness of the grave, seek the sun and air, +whereby all things live. + +Of course one cannot but consider what effect this marvellous +production must have upon man. Too often it overpowers him, and makes +him its slave, since he cannot be its master. This is the terror of +the Tropics, as of the Polar regions, that nature is too strong for +man to subdue her. What can he do--poor, puny creature--against its +terrible forces; against the heat of a vertical sun, that while it +quickens the earth, often blasts the strength of man, subduing his +energy, if not destroying his life? What can man do in the Arctic +circle against the cold that locks up whole continents in ice? Much as +he boasts of his strength and of his all-conquering will, he is but a +child in the lap of nature, tossed about by material forces as a leaf +is blown by the wind. The best region for human development and +energy is the temperate zone, where nature stimulates, but does not +overpower, the energies of man, where the winter's cold does not +benumb him and make him sink into torpor, but only pricks him to +exertion and makes him quicken his steps. + +The effect of this fervid climate shows itself not only upon natives, +but upon Europeans. It induces a languor and indisposition to effort. +It has two of the hardest and toughest races in the world to work +upon, in the English in India and the Dutch in Java, and yet it has +its effect even upon them, and would have a still greater were it not +that this foreign element is constantly changing, coming and going, +whereby there is all the time a fresh infusion of European life. Here +in Java the Dutch have been longer settled than the English in India; +they more often remain in the island, and the effect of course is more +marked from generation to generation. The Dutchman is a placid, +easy-going creature, even in his native Holland, except when roused by +some great crisis, like a Spanish invasion, and then he fights with a +courage which has given him a proud name in history. But ordinarily he +is of a calm and even temper, and likes to sit quietly and survey his +broad acres, and smoke his pipe in blissful content with himself and +all the world beside. When he removes from Holland to the other side +of the world, he has not changed his nature; he is a Dutchman still, +only with his natural love of ease increased by life in the tropics. +It is amusing to see how readily his Dutch nature falls in with the +easy ways of this Eastern world. + +If I were to analyze existence, or material enjoyment in this part of +the world, I should say that the two great elements in one's life, or +at least in his comfort, are sleep and smoke. They smoke in Holland, +and they have a better right to smoke in Java; for here they but +follow the course of nature. Why should not man smoke, when even the +earth itself respires through smoke and flame? The mountains smoke, +and why not the Dutch? Only there is this difference: the volcanoes +sometimes have a period of rest, but the Dutch never. Morning, noon, +and night, before breakfast and after dinner, smoke, smoke, smoke! It +seems to be a Dutchman's ideal of happiness. I have been told of some +who dropped to sleep with the cigar in their lips, and of one who +required his servants to put his pipe between his teeth while he was +yet sleeping, that he might wake up with the right taste in his mouth. +It seemed to me that this must work injury to their health, but they +think not. Perhaps there is something in the phlegmatic Dutch +temperament that can stand this better than the more mercurial and +excitable English or American. + +And then how they do sleep! Sleep is an institution in Java, and +indeed everywhere in the tropics. The deep stillness of the tropical +noon seems to prescribe rest, for then nature itself sinks into +repose. Scarcely a leaf moves in the forest--the birds cease their +musical notes, and seek for rest under the shade of motionless palms. +The sleep of the Dutch is like this stillness of nature. It is +profound and absolute repose. For certain hours of the day no man is +visible. I had a letter to the Resident of Solo, and went to call on +him at two o'clock. He lived in a grand Government House, or palace; +but an air of somnolence pervaded the place, as if it were the Castle +of Indolence. The very servant was asleep on the marble pavement, +where it was his duty to keep watch; and when I sent in my letter, he +came back making a very significant gesture, leaning over his head to +signify that his master was asleep. At five o'clock I was more +fortunate, but even then he was dressed with a lightness of costume +more suitable for one who was about to enter his bath than to give +audience. + +There is a still graver question for the moralist to consider--the +effect of these same physical influences upon human character. No +observer of men in different parts of the world can fail to see that +different races have been modified by climate, not only in color and +features, but in temperament, in disposition, and in character. A hot +climate makes hot blood. Burning passions do but reflect the torrid +sun. What the Spaniard is in Europe, the Malay is in Asia. There is a +deep philosophy in the question of Byron: + + "Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle + Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime, + Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, + Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?" + +But I must not wander into deep philosophy. I only say that great as +is the charm of life in the tropics, it is not without alloy. In +landing in Java it seemed as if we had touched the shores of some +enchanted island, as if we had found the Garden of Paradise lying far +off in these Southern seas. We had come to the land of perpetual +spring and perpetual summer, where nature is always in bloom, and +frost and snow and hail have fled away to the bleak and wintry North. +But as we are obliged to go back to that North, we wish to be +reconciled to it. We find that one may have too much even of Paradise. +There is a monotony in perpetual summer. The only change of seasons +here is from the dry season to the rainy season; and the only +difference between these, so far as we can see, is that in the dry +season it rains, and in the rainy season it pours. We have been here +in the dry season, and yet we have had frequent showers, with +occasional thunderstorms. If we should stay here a year, we should +weary of this unrelieved monotony of sun and rain. We should long for +some more marked change of seasons, for the autumn leaves and the +winter winds, and the gradual coming on of spring, and all those +insensible gradations of nature which make the glory of the full round +year. + +And what a loss should we find in the absence of twilight. Java, being +almost under the Equator, the days and nights are almost equal +throughout the year; there are no short days and no long days. Day and +night come on suddenly--not instantly, but in a few minutes the night +breaks into the full glare of day, and the day as quickly darkens into +night. How we should miss the long summer twilight, which in our +Northern latitudes lingers so softly and tenderly over the quiet +earth. + +Remembering these things, we are reconciled to our lot in living in +the temperate zone, and turn away even from the soft and easy life of +the tropics, to find a keener delight in our rugged clime, and to +welcome even the snow-drifts and the short winter days, since they +bring the long winter evenings, and the roaring winter fires! + +We leave Java, therefore, not so much with regret that we can no +longer sit under the palm groves, and indulge in the soft and easy +life of the tropics, as that we part from friends. Our last night in +Batavia they took us to a representation given by amateurs at the +English Club, where it was very pleasant to see so many English faces +in this distant part of the world, and to hear our own mother tongue. +The next morning they rode down with us to the quay, and came off to +the steamer, and did not leave us till it was ready to move; and it +was with a real sadness that we saw them over the ship's side, and +watched their fluttering signals as they sailed back to the shore. +These partings are the sore pain of travel. But the friendships +remain, and are delightful in memory. A pleasure past is a pleasure +still. Even now it gives us a warm feeling at the heart to think of +those kind friends on the other side of the globe. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +UP THE CHINA SEAS--HONG KONG AND CANTON. + + +In Singapore, as in Batavia, the lines fell to us in pleasant places. +An English merchant, Mr. James Graham, carried us off to his +hospitable bungalow outside the town, where we passed four days. It +stood on a hill, from which we looked off on one side to the harbor, +where were riding the ships of all nations, and on the other to an +undulating country, with here and there an English residence embowered +in trees. In this delightful retreat our hosts made us feel perfectly +at home. We talked of England and America; we romped with the +children; we played croquet on the lawn; we received calls from the +neighbors, and went out to "take tea" in the good old-fashioned way. +We attended service, the Sunday before going to Java, in the +Cathedral, and on our return, in the Scotch church; so that around us, +even at this extremity of Asia, were the faces and voices, the happy +domestic life, and the religious worship, of dear old England. + +But just as we began to settle into this quiet life, the steamer was +signalled from Ceylon which was to take us to China, and we had to +part from our new friends. + +It had been in my plan to go from here to Siam. It is but three days' +sail from Singapore up the Gulf to Bangkok; but it is not so easy to +get on from there. Could we have been sure of a speedy passage to +Saigon, to connect with the French steamer, we should not have +hesitated; but without this, we might be detained for a week or two, +or be obliged to come back to Singapore. Thus uncertain, we felt that +it was safer to take the steamer direct for Hong Kong, though it was +a sore disappointment to pass across the head of the Gulf of Siam, +knowing that we were so near the Land of the White Elephant, and leave +it unvisited. + +The China seas have a very bad name among sailors and travellers, as +they are often swept by terrible cyclones; but we crossed at a +favorable season, and escaped. The heat was great, and passengers sat +about on deck in their easy cane chairs, as on the Red Sea; but beyond +that, we experienced not so much discomfort as on the Mediterranean. +On the sixth morning we saw in the distance an island, which, as we +drew nearer, rose up so steeply and so high that it appeared almost +like a mountain. This was the Peak of Hong Kong--a signal-station from +which men, with their glasses, can look far out to sea, and as soon as +one of the great steamers is descried on the horizon, a flag is run up +and a gun fired to convey the news to the city below. Coming up behind +the island, we swept around its point, and saw before us a large town, +very picturesquely situated on the side of a hill, rising street above +street, and overlooking a wide bay shut in by hills, so that it is +sheltered from the storms that vex the China seas. The harbor was full +of foreign ships, among which were many ships of war (as this is the +rendezvous of the British fleet in these waters), which were firing +salutes; among those flying the flags of all nations was one modest +representative of our country, of which we did not need to be +ashamed--the Kearsarge. We afterwards went on board of her, and saw +and stroked with affection, mingled with pride, the big gun that sunk +the Alabama. + +Hong Kong, like Singapore, is an English colony, but with a Chinese +population. You can hardly set foot on shore before you are snapped up +by a couple of lusty fellows, with straw hats as large as umbrellas on +their heads, and who, though in bare feet, stand up as straight as +grenadiers, and as soon as you take your seat in a chair, lift the +bamboo poles to their shoulders, and walk off with you on the +double-quick. + +No country which we see for the first time is exactly as we supposed +it to be. Somehow I had thought of China as a vast plain like India; +and behold! the first view reveals a wild, mountainous coast. As we +climb Victoria Peak above Hong Kong, and look across to the mainland, +we see only barren hills--a prospect almost as desolate as that of the +Arabian shores on the Red Sea. + +But what wonders lie beyond that Great Wall of mountains which guards +this part of the coast of China! One cannot be in sight of such a +country without an eager impulse to be in it, and after two or three +days of rest we set out for Canton, which is only eight hours distant. +Our boat was an American one, with an American captain, who took us +into the wheel-house, and pointed out every spot of interest as we +passed through the islands and entered the Canton river. Forty miles +south is the old Portuguese port of Macao. At the mouth of the river +are the Bogue Forts, which played such a part in the English war of +1841, but which were sadly battered, and now lie dismantled and +ungarrisoned. Going by the stately Second Bar Pagoda, we next pass +Whampoa, the limit to which foreign vessels could come before the +Treaty Ports were opened. As we ascend the river, it is crowded with +junks--strange craft, high at both ends, armed with old rusty cannon, +with which to beat off the pirates that infest these seas, and +ornamented at the bow with huge round eyes, that stand out as if from +the head of some sea-monster, some terrible dragon, which keeps watch +over the deep. Amid such fantastic barks, with their strange crews, we +steamed up to Canton. + +At the landing, a son of Dr. Happer, the American missionary, came on +board with a letter from his father inviting us to be his guests, and +we accordingly took a native boat, and were rowed up the river. Our +oarsman was a woman, who, besides the trifle of rowing our boat up +the stream, had a baby strapped on her back! Perhaps the weight helped +her to keep her balance as she bent to the oar. But it was certainly +bringing things to a pretty fine point when human muscles were thus +economized. This boat, well called in Chinese a _tan-ka_ or egg-house, +was the home of the family. It sheltered under its little bamboo cover +eight souls (as many as Noah had in the Ark), who had no other +habitation. Here they ate and drank and slept; here perhaps children +were born and old men died. In Canton it is estimated that a hundred +and fifty thousand people thus live in boats, leading a kind of +amphibious existence. + +Above the landing is the island of Shameen, a mile long, which is the +foreign quarter, where are the Hongs, or Factories, of the great +tea-merchants, and where live the wealthy foreign residents. Rounding +this island, we drew up to the quay, in front of Dr. Happer's door, +where we found that welcome which is never wanting under the roof of +an American missionary. Dr. Happer has lived here thirty-two years, +and was of course familiar with every part of Canton, and was an +invaluable guide in the explorations of the next three or four days. + +When we were in Paris, we met Dr. Wells Williams, the well-known +missionary, who had spent over forty years in China, twelve of them in +Peking, of which he said, that apart from its being the capital, it +had little to interest a stranger--at least not enough to repay the +long journey to reach it. He said it would take a month to go from +Shanghai to Tientsin, and then cross the country cramped up in carts +to Peking, and visit the Great Wall, and return to Shanghai. Canton +was not only much nearer, but far more interesting, and the best +representative of a Chinese city in the Empire. + +The next morning we began our excursions, not with horses and +chariots, but with coolies and chairs. An English gentleman and his +wife, who had come with us from Singapore, joined us, making, with a +son of Dr. Happer and the guide, a party of six, for whom eighteen +bearers drew up before the door, forming quite a procession as we +filed through the streets. The motion was not unpleasant, though they +swung us along at a good round pace, shouting to the people to get out +of the way, who forthwith parted right and left, as if some high +mandarin were coming. The streets were narrow and densely crowded. +Through such a mass it required no small effort to force our way, +which was effected only by our bearers keeping up a constant cry, like +that of the gondoliers in Venice, when turning a corner in the +canals--a signal of warning to any approaching in the opposite +direction. I could but admire the good-nature of the people, who +yielded so readily. If we were thus to push through a crowd in New +York, and the policemen were to shout to the "Bowery boys" to "get out +of the way," we might receive a "blessing" in reply that would not be +at all agreeable. But the Chinamen took it as a matter of course, and +turned aside respectfully to give us a passage, only staring mildly +with their almond eyes, to see what great personages were these that +came along looking so grand. + +Our way led through the longest street of the city, which bears the +sounding name of the Street of Benevolence and Love. This is the +Broadway of Canton, only it is not half as wide as Broadway. It is +very narrow, like some of the old streets of Genoa, and paved, like +them, with huge slabs of stone. On either side it is lined with shops, +into which we had a good opportunity to look as we brushed past them, +for they stood wide open. They were of the smallest dimensions, most +of them consisting of a single room, even when hung with beautiful +embroideries. There may be little recesses behind, hidden interiors +where they live, though apparently we saw the whole family. In many +shops they were taking their meals in full sight of the passers-by. +There was no variety of courses; a bowl of rice in the centre of the +table was the universal dish (for rice is the staff of life in Asia, +as bread is in America), garnished perchance with some "little +pickle," in the shape of a bit of fish and soy, to serve _as a sauce +piquante_ to stimulate the flagging appetite. But apparently they +needed no appetizer, for they plied their chop-sticks with unfailing +assiduity. + +Our first day's ride was probably ten or twelve miles, and took us +through such "heavenly streets" as we never knew before, and did not +expect to walk in till we entered the gates of the New Jerusalem. +Besides the Street of Benevolence and Love, which might be considered +the great highway of the Celestial City, there were streets which bore +the enrapturing names of "Peace," "Bright Cloud," and "Longevity;" of +"Early-bestowed Blessings" and of "Everlasting Love;" of "One Hundred +Grandsons" and (more ambitious still) of "One Thousand Grandsons;" of +"Five Happinesses" and of "Refreshing Breezes;" of "Accumulated +Blessings" and of "Ninefold Brightness." There was a "Dragon street," +and others devoted to "The Ascending Dragon," "The Saluting Dragon," +and "The Reposing Dragon;" while other titles came probably a little +nearer the plain fact, such as "The Market of Golden Profits." All the +shops have little shrines near the door dedicated to _Tsai Shin_, or +the God of Wealth, to whom the shopkeepers offer their prayers every +day. I think I have heard of prayers offered to that divinity in other +countries, and no one could doubt that these prayers at least were +fervent and sincere. + +But names do not always designate realities, and though we passed +through the street of a "Thousand Beatitudes" and that of a +"Thousandfold Peace," we saw sorrow and misery enough before the day +was done. + +One gets an idea of the extent of a city not only by traversing its +streets, but by ascending some high point in the vicinity that +overlooks it. The best point for such a bird's-eye view is the +Five-storied Pagoda, from which the eye ranges over a distance of many +miles, including the city and the country around to the mountains in +the distance, with the broad river in front, and the suburb on the +other side. The appearance of Canton is very different from that of a +European city. It has no architectural magnificence. There are some +fine houses of the rich merchants, built of brick, with spacious rooms +and courts; but there are no great palaces towering over the city--no +domes like St. Paul's in London, or St. Peter's in Rome, nor even like +the domes and minarets of Constantinople. The most imposing structure +in view is the new Roman Catholic Cathedral. Here and there a solitary +pagoda rises above the vast sea of human dwellings, which are +generally of but one, seldom two stories in height, and built very +much alike; for there is the same monotony in the Chinese houses as in +the figures and costumes of the Chinese themselves. Nor is this level +surface relieved by any variety of color. The tiled roofs, with their +dead color, but increase the sombre impression of the vast dull plain; +yet beneath such a pall is a great city, intersected by hundreds of +streets, and occupied by a million of human beings. + +The first impression of a Chinese city is of its myriad, multitudinous +life. There are populous cities in Europe, and crowded streets; but +here human beings _swarm_, like birds in the air or fishes in the sea. +The wonder is how they all live; but that is a mystery which I could +not solve in London any more than here. There is one street a mile +long, which has in it nothing but shoemakers. The people amused us +very much by their strange appearance and dress, in both which China +differs wholly from the Orient. A Chinaman is not at all like a Turk. +He does not wear a turban, nor even a long, flowing beard. His head is +shaved above and below--face, chin, and skull--and instead of the +patriarchal beard before him, he carries only a pigtail behind. The +women whom we met in the streets (at least those of any position, for +only the common work-women let their feet grow) hobbled about on their +little feet, which were like dolls' feet--a sight that was half +ludicrous and half painful. + +But if we were amused at the Chinese, I dare say they were as much +amused at us. The people of Canton ought by this time to be familiar +with white faces. But, strange to say, wherever we went we attracted a +degree of attention which had never been accorded us before in any +foreign city. Boys ran after us, shouting as they ran. If the chairs +were set down in the street, as we stopped to see a sight, a crowd +gathered in a moment. There was no rudeness, but mere curiosity. If we +went into a temple, a throng collected about the doors, and looked in +at the windows, and opened a passage for us as we came out, and +followed us till we got into our chairs and disappeared down the +street. The ladies of our party especially seemed to be objects of +wonder. They did not hobble on the points of their toes, but stood +erect, and walked with a firm step. Their free and independent air +apparently inspired respect. The children seemed to hesitate between +awe and terror. One little fellow I remember, who dared to approach +too near, and whom my niece cast her eye upon, thought that he was +done for, and fled howling. I have no doubt all reported, when they +went home, that they had seen some strange specimens of "foreign +devils." + +But the Chinese are a highly civilized people. In some things, indeed, +they are mere children, compared with Europeans; but in others they +are in advance of us, especially those arts which require great +delicacy, such as the manufacture of some kinds of jewelry, exquisite +trinkets in gold and silver, in which Canton rivals Delhi and Lucknow, +and in the finest work in ivory and in precious woods; also in those +which require a degree of patience to be found nowhere except among +Asiatics. For example, I saw a man carving an elephant's tusk, which +would take him a whole year! The Chinese are also exquisite workers in +bronze, as well as in porcelain, in which they have such a conceded +mastery that specimens of "old China" ornament every collection in +Europe. Their silks are as rich and fine as any that are produced from +the looms of Lyons or Antwerp. This need not surprise us, for we must +remember the great antiquity of China; that the Chinese were a highly +civilized people when our ancestors, the Britons, were barbarians. +They had the art of printing and the art of gunpowder long before they +were known in Europe. Chinese books are in some respects a model for +ours now, not only in cheapness, but in their extreme lightness, being +made of thin bamboo paper, so that a book weighs in the hand hardly +more than a newspaper. + +Of course every stranger must make the round of temples and pagodas, +of which there are enough to satisfy any number of worshippers. There +is a Temple of the Five Genii, and one of the Five Hundred Arhans, or +scholars of Buddha. There is a Temple of Confucius, and a Temple of +the Emperor, where the mandarins go and pay to his Majesty and to the +Sage an homage of divine adoration. I climbed up into his royal seat, +and thought I was quite as fit an object of worship as he! There is a +Temple of Horrors, which outdoes the "Chamber of Horrors" in Madame +Tussaud's famous exhibition of wax-works in London. It is a +representation of all the torments which are supposed to be endured by +the damned, and reminds one of those frightful pictures painted in the +Middle Ages in some Roman Catholic countries, in which heretics are +seen in the midst of flames, tossed about by devils on pitchforks. But +the Chinese soften the impression. To restore the balance of mind, +terrified by these frightful representations, there is a Temple of +Longevity, in which there is a figure of Buddha, such as the ancient +Romans might have made of Bacchus or Silenus--a mountain of flesh, +with fat eyes, laughing mouth, and enormous paunch. Even the four +Kings of Heaven, that rule over the four points of the compass--North, +South, East, and West--have much more of an earthly than a heavenly +look. All these figures are grotesque and hideous enough; but to their +credit be it said, they are not obscene, like the figures in the +temples of India. Here we made the same observation as in Burmah, that +Buddhism is a much cleaner and more decent religion than Hindooism. +This is to its honor. "Buddhism," says Williams, "is the least +revolting and impure of all false religions." Its general character we +have seen elsewhere. Its precepts enjoin self-denial and practical +benevolence. It has no cruel or bloody rites, and nothing gross in its +worship. Of its priests, some are learned men, but the mass are +ignorant, yet sober and inoffensive. At least they are not a scandal +to their faith, as are the priests of some forms of Christianity. That +the Chinese are imbued with religious ideas is indicated in the very +names of the streets already mentioned, whereby, though in a singular +fashion, they commemorate and glorify certain attributes of character. +The idea which seems most deep-rooted in their minds is that of +retribution according to conduct. The maxim most frequent in their +mouths is that good actions bring their own reward, and bad actions +their own punishment. This idea was very pithily expressed by the +famous hong-merchant, Howqua, in reply to an American sea-captain, who +asked him his idea of future rewards and punishments, to which he +replied in pigeon-English: "A man do good, he go to Joss; he no do +good, very much bamboo catchee he!" + +But we will leave the temples with their grinning idols; as we leave +the restaurants, where lovers of dainty dishes are regaled with dogs +and cats; and the opium-shops, where the Chinese loll and smoke till +they are stupefied by the horrid drug; for Canton has something more +attractive. We found a very curious study in the Examination Hall, +illustrating, as it does, the Chinese manner of elevating men to +office. We hear much in our country of "civil service reform," which +some innocently suppose to be a new discovery in political economy--an +American invention. But the Chinese have had it for a thousand years. +Here appointments to office are made as the result of a competitive +examination; and although there may be secret favoritism and bribery, +yet the theory is one of perfect equality. In this respect China is +the most absolute democracy in the world. There is no hereditary rank +or order of nobility; the lowest menial, if he has native talent, may +raise himself by study and perseverance to be Prime Minister of the +Empire. + +In the eastern quarter of Canton is an enclosure of many acres, laid +off in a manner which betokens some unusual purpose. The ground is +divided by a succession of long, low buildings, not much better than +horse-sheds around a New England meeting-house of the olden time. They +run in parallel lines, like barracks for a camp, and are divided into +narrow compartments. Once in three years this vast camping-ground +presents an extraordinary spectacle, for then are gathered in these +courts, from all parts of the province, some ten thousand candidates, +all of whom have previously passed a first examination, and received a +degree, and now appear to compete for the second. Some are young, and +some are old, for there is no limit put upon age. As the candidates +present themselves, each man is searched, to see that he has no books, +or helps of any kind, concealed upon his person, and then put into a +stall about three feet wide, just large enough to turn around in, and +as bare as a prisoner's cell. There is a niche in the wall, in which a +board can be placed for him to sit upon, and another niche to support +a board that has to serve as breakfast-table and writing-table. This +is the furniture of his room. Here he is shut in from all +communication with the world, his food being passed to him through the +door, as to a prisoner. Certain themes are then submitted to him in +writing, on which he is to furnish written essays, intended generally, +and perhaps always, to determine his knowledge of the Chinese +classics. It is sometimes said that these are frivolous questions, the +answers to which afford no proof whatever of one's capacity for +office; but it should be remembered that these classics are the +writings of Confucius, which are the political ethics of the country, +the very foundation of the government, without knowing which one is +not qualified to take part in its administration. + +The candidate goes into his cell in the afternoon, and spends the +night there, which gives him time for reflection, and all the next day +and the next night, when he comes out, and after a few days is put in +again for another trial of the same character; and this is repeated a +third time; at the end of which he is released from solitary +confinement, and his essays are submitted for examination. Of the ten +thousand, only seventy-five can obtain a degree--not one in a hundred! +The nine thousand and nine hundred must go back disappointed, their +only consolation being that after three years they can try again. Even +the successful ones do not thereby get an office, but only the right +to enter for a third competition, which takes place at Peking, by +which of course their ranks are thinned still more. The few who get +through this threefold ordeal take a high place in the literary or +learned class, from which all appointments to the public service are +made. Here is the system of examination complete. No trial can be +imagined more severe, and it ought to give the Chinese the best civil +service in the world. + +May we not get a hint from this for our instruction in America, where +some of our best men are making earnest efforts for civil service +reform? If the candidates, who flock to Washington at the beginning of +each administration, were to be put into cells, and fed on bread and +water, it might check the rage for office, and the number of +applicants might be diminished; and if they were required to pass an +examination, and to furnish written essays, showing at least some +degree of knowledge of political affairs, we might have a more +intelligent class of officials to fill consular posts in different +parts of the world. + +But, unfortunately, it might be answered that examinations, be they +ever so strict, do not change human nature, nor make men just or +humane; and that even the rigid system of China does not restrain +rulers from corruption, nor protect the people from acts of oppression +and cruelty. + +Three spots in Canton had for me the fascination of horror--the court, +the prison, and the execution ground. I had heard terrible tales of +the trial by torture--of men racked to extort the secrets of crime, +and of the punishments which followed. These stories haunted me, and I +hoped to find some features which would relieve the impression of so +much horror. I wished to see for myself the administration of +justice--to witness a trial in a Chinese court. A few years ago this +would have been impossible; foreigners were excluded from the courts. +But now they are open, and all can see who have the nerve to look on. +Therefore, after we had made a long circuit through the streets of +Canton, I directed the bearers to take us to the Yamun, the Hall of +Justice. Leaving our chairs in the street, we passed through a large +open court into a hall in the rear, where at that very moment several +trials were going on. + +The court-room was very plain. A couple of judges sat behind tables, +before whom a number of prisoners were brought in. The mode of +proceeding was very foreign to American or European ideas. There was +neither jury nor witnesses. This simplified matters exceedingly. There +is no trial by jury in China. While we haggle about impanelling juries +and getting testimony, and thus trials drag on for weeks, in China no +such obstacle is allowed to impede the rapid course of justice; and +what is more, there are no lawyers to perplex the case with their +arguments, but the judge has it all his own way. He is simply +confronted with the accused, and they have it all between them. + +While we stood here, a number of prisoners were brought in; some were +carried in baskets (as they are borne to execution), and dumped on the +stone pavement like so many bushels of potatoes; others were led in +with chains around their necks. As each one's name was called, he came +forward and fell on his knees before the judge, and lifted up his +hands to beg for mercy. He was then told of the crime of which he was +accused, and given opportunity if he had anything to say in his own +defence. There was no apparent harshness or cruelty towards him, +except that he was presumed to be guilty, unless he could prove his +innocence; contrary to the English maxim of law, that a man is to be +presumed innocent until he is proved guilty. In this, however, the +Chinese practice is not very different from that which exists at this +day in so enlightened a country as France. + +For example, two men were accused of being concerned together in a +burglary. As they were from another prefecture, where there is another +dialect, they had to be examined through an interpreter. The judge +wished to find out who were leagued with them, and therefore +questioned them separately. Each was brought in in a basket, chained +and doubled up, so that he sat helplessly. No witness was examined, +but the man himself was simply interrogated by the judge. + +In another case, two men were accused of robbery with violence--a +capital offence, but by the Chinese law no man can be punished with +death unless he confesses his crime; hence every means is employed to +lead a criminal to acknowledge his guilt. Of course in a case of life +and death he will deny it as long as he can. But if he will not +confess, the court proceeds to take stringent measures to _make_ him +confess, for which purpose these two men were now put to the torture. +The mode of torture was this: There were two round pillars in the +hall. Each man was on his knees, with his feet chained behind him, so +that he could not stir. He was then placed with his back to one of +these columns, and small cords were fastened around his thumbs and +great toes, and drawn back tightly to the pillar behind. This soon +produced intense suffering. Their breasts heaved, the veins on their +foreheads stood out like whipcords, and every feature betrayed the +most excruciating agony. Every few minutes an officer of the court +asked if they were ready to confess, and as often they answered, "No; +never would they confess that they had committed such a crime." They +were told if they did not confess, they would be subjected to still +greater torture. But they still held out, though every moment seemed +an hour of pain. + +While these poor wretches were thus writhing in agony, I turned to the +judge to see how he bore the spectacle of such suffering. He sat at +his table quite unmoved; yet he did not seem like a brutal man, but +like a man of education, such as one might see on the bench in England +or America. He seemed to look upon it as in the ordinary course of +proceedings, and a necessary step in the conviction of a criminal. He +used no bravado, and offered no taunt or insult. But the cries of the +sufferers did not move him, nor prevent his taking his accustomed +ease. He sat fanning himself and smoking his pipe, as if he said he +could stand it as long as they could. Of course he knew that, as their +heads were at stake, they would deny their guilt till compelled to +yield; but he seemed to look upon it as simply a question of +endurance, in which, if he kept on long enough, there could be but one +issue. + +But still the men did not give in, and I looked at them with amazement +mingled with horror, to see what human nature could endure. The sight +was too painful to witness more than a few moments, and I rushed away, +leaving the men still hanging to the pillars of torture. I confess I +felt a relief when I went back the next day, to hear that they had +not yielded, but held out unflinchingly to the last. + +Horrible as this seems, I have heard good men--men of humanity--argue +in favor of torture, at least "when applied in a mild way." They +affirm that in China there can be no administration of justice without +it. In a country where testimony is absolutely worthless--where as +many men can be hired to swear falsely for ten cents apiece as you +have money to buy--there is no possible way of arriving at the truth +but by _extorting_ it. No doubt it is a rough process, but it secures +the result. As it happened, the English gentleman who accompanied us +was a magistrate in India, and he confirmed the statement as to the +difficulty, and in many cases the impossibility, of getting at the +truth, because of the unfathomable deceit of the natives. Many cases +came before him in which he was sure a witness was lying, but he was +helpless to prove it, when a little gentle application of the +thumbscrew, or even a good whipping, would have brought out the truth, +which, for want of it, could not be discovered. + +To the objection that such methods may coerce the innocent as well as +the guilty--that the pain may be so great that innocent men will +confess crimes that they never committed, rather than suffer tortures +worse than death--the answer is, that as guilt makes men cowards, the +guilty will give up, while the innocent hold out. But this is simply +trusting to the trial by lot. It is the old ordeal by fire. A better +answer is, that the court has beforehand strong presumptive evidence +of the crime, and that a prisoner is not put to the torture until it +has been well ascertained by testimony obtained elsewhere that he is a +great offender. When it is thus determined that he is a robber or a +murderer, who ought not to live, then this last step is taken to +compel him to acknowledge his guilt, and the justice of his +condemnation. + +But there are cases in which a man may be wrongfully accused; an enemy +may bribe a witness to make a complaint against him, upon which he is +arrested and cast into prison. Then, unless he can bring some powerful +influence to rescue him, his case is hopeless. He denies his guilt, +and is put to the rack for an offence of which he is wholly innocent. +Such cases, no doubt, occur; and yet men who have lived here many +years, such as Dr. Happer and Archdeacon Gray, tell me that they do +not believe there is a country in the world where, on the whole, +justice is more impartially administered than in China. + +I was so painfully interested in this matter, that I went back to the +Yamun the next day in company with Dr. Happer, to watch the +proceedings further. As before, a number of prisoners were brought in, +with chains around their necks, each of whom, when called, fell down +on his knees before the judge and begged for mercy. They were not +answered harshly or roughly, but listened to with patience and +attention. Several whose cases were not capital, at once confessed +their offence, and took the punishment. One young fellow, a mere +overgrown boy of perhaps eighteen, was brought up, charged with +disobedience to parents. He confessed his fault, and blubbered +piteously for mercy, and was let off for this time with rather a mild +punishment, which was to wear a chain with a heavy stone attached, +which he was to drag about after him in the street before the prison, +where he was exposed to the scorn of the people. The judge, however, +warned him that if he repeated the disobedience, and was arrested +again, he would be liable to be punished with death! Such is the rigor +with which the laws of China enforce obedience to parents. + +A man accused of theft confessed it, and was sentenced to wear the +_cangue_--a board about three feet square--around his neck for a +certain time, perhaps several weeks, on which his name was painted in +large characters, with the crime of which he was guilty, that all who +saw him might know that he was a thief! + +These were petty cases, such as might be disposed of in any police +court. But now appeared a greater offender. A man was led in with a +chain around his neck, who had the reputation of being a noted +malefactor. He was charged with both robbery and murder. The case had +been pending a long time. The crime, or crimes, had been committed +four years ago. The man had been brought up repeatedly, but as no +amount of pressure could make him confess, he could not be executed. +He was now to have another hearing. He knelt down on the hard stone +floor, and heard the accusation, which he denied as he had done +before, and loudly protested his innocence. The judge, who was a man +of middle age, with a fine intellectual countenance, was in no haste +to condemn, but listened patiently. He was in a mild, persuasive mood, +perhaps the more so because he was refreshing himself as a Chinaman +likes to do. As he sat listening, he took several small cups of tea. A +boy in attendance brought him also his pipe, filled with tobacco, +which he put in his mouth, and took two or three puffs, when he handed +it back; and the boy cleaned it, filled it, and lighted it again. With +such support to his physical weakness, who could not listen patiently +to a man who was on his knees before him pleading for his life? But +the case was a very bad one. It had been referred back to the village +in which the man was born, and the "elders," who form the local +government in every petty commune in China, had inquired into the +facts, and reported that he was a notorious offender, accused of no +less than seven crimes--five robberies, one murder, and one maiming. +This was a pretty strong indictment. But the man protested that he had +been made the victim of a conspiracy to destroy him. The judge replied +that it might be that he should be wrongfully accused by one enemy, +but it was hardly possible that a hundred people of his native +village should combine to accuse him falsely. Their written report +was read by the clerk, who then held it up before the man, that he +might see it in white and black. Still he denied as before, and the +judge, instead of putting him to the torture, simply remanded him to +prison for further examination. In all these cases there was no +eagerness to convict or to sentence the accused. They were listened to +with patience, and apparently all proper force was allowed to what +they had to say in their own defence. + +This relieves a good deal the apparent severity of the Chinese code. +It does not condemn without hearing. But, on the other hand, it does +not cover up with fine phrases or foolish sentiment the terrible +reality of crime. It believes in crime as an awful fact in human +society, and in punishment as a repressive force that must be applied +to keep society from destruction. + +Next to the Yamun is the prison, in which are confined those charged +with capital offences. We were admitted by paying a small fee to the +keepers, and were at once surrounded by forty or fifty wretched +objects, some of whom had been subjected to torture, and who held up +their limbs which had been racked, and showed their bodies all covered +with wounds, as an appeal to pity. We gave them some money to buy +tobacco, as that is the solace which they crave next to opium, and +hurried away. + +But there is a place more terrible than the prison; it is the +execution-ground. Outside the walls of Canton, between the city gate +and the river, is a spot which may well be called Golgotha, the place +of a skull. It is simply a dirty vacant lot, partly covered with +earthenware pots and pans, a few rods long, on one side of which is a +dead wall; but within this narrow space has been shed more blood than +on any other spot of the earth's surface. Here those sentenced to +death are beheaded. Every few days a gloomy procession files into the +lane, and the condemned are ranged against the wall on their knees, +when an assistant pulls up their pinioned arms from behind, which +forces their heads forward, and the executioner coming to one after +another, cleaves the neck with a blow. A number of skulls were +scattered about--of those whose bodies had been removed, but whose +heads were left unburied. In the lane is the house of the +executioner--a thick, short-set man, in a greasy frock, looking like a +butcher fresh from the shambles. Though a coarse, ugly fellow, he did +not look, as one might suppose, like a monster of cruelty, but was +simply a dull, stolid creature, who undertook this as he would any +other kind of business, and cut off human heads with as little feeling +as he would those of so many sheep. He picks up a little money by +exhibiting himself and his weapon of death. He brought out his sword +to show it to us. It was short and heavy, like a butcher's cleaver. I +took it in my hand, and felt of the blade. It was dull, and rusted +with stains of blood. He apologized for its appearance, but explained +that it had not been used recently, and added that whenever it was +needed for service, he sharpened it. I asked him how many heads he had +cut off. He did not know--had not kept count--but supposed some +hundreds. Sometimes there were "two or three tens"--that is, twenty or +thirty--at once. Rev. Mr. Preston told me he had seen forty cut off in +one morning. Dr. Williams had such a horror of blood that he could +never be present at an execution, but he one day saw nearly two +hundred headless trunks lying here, with their heads, which had just +been severed from the bodies, scattered over the ground. Mr. Preston +had seen heads piled up six feet high. It ought to be said, however, +that in ordinary times no criminal convicted of a capital offence can +be executed anywhere in the province (which is a district of nearly +eighty thousand square miles, with twenty millions of inhabitants) +except in Canton, and with the cognizance of the governor. + +The carnival of blood was during the Taiping rebellion in 1855. That +rebellion invaded this province; it had possession of Whampoa, and +even endangered Canton. When it was suppressed, it was stamped out in +blood. There were executions by wholesale. All who had taken part in +it were sentenced to death, and as the insurgents were numbered by +tens of thousands, the work went on for days and weeks and months. The +stream of blood never ceased to flow. The rebels were brought up the +river in boat-loads. The magistrates in the villages of the province +were supposed to have made an examination. It was enough that they +were found with arms in their hands. There were no prisons which could +hold such an army, and the only way to deal with them was to execute +them. Accordingly every day a detachment was marched out to the +execution ground, where forty or fifty men would be standing with +coffins, to receive and carry off the bodies. They were taken out of +the city by a certain gate, and here Dr. Williams engaged a man to +count them as they passed, and thus he kept the fearful roll of the +dead; and comparing it with the published lists he found the number +executed in fourteen months to be eighty-one thousand! An Aceldama +indeed! It is not, then, too much to say that taking the years +together, within this narrow ground blood enough has been shed to +float the Great Eastern. + +But decapitation is a simple business compared with that which the +executioner has sometimes to perform. I observed standing against the +wall some half a dozen rude crosses, made of bamboo, which reminded me +that death is sometimes inflicted by crucifixion. This mode of +punishment is reserved for the worst malefactors. They are not nailed +to the cross to die a lingering death, but lashed to it by ropes, and +then slowly strangled or cut to pieces. The executioner explained +coolly how he first cut out an eye, or sliced off a piece of the cheek +or the breast, and so proceeded deliberately, till with one tremendous +stroke the body was cleft in twain. + +Thus Chinese law illustrates its idea of punishment, which is to +inflict it with tremendous rigor. It not only holds to capital +punishment, but sometimes makes a man in dying suffer a thousand +deaths. A gentleman at Fuhchau told me that he had seen a criminal +starved to death. A man who had robbed a woman, using violence, was +put into a cage in a public place, with his head out of a hole, +exposed to the sun, and his body extended, and there left to die by +inches. The foreign community were horror-struck; the consuls +protested against it, but in vain. He lingered four days before death +came to put an end to his agony. There were about twenty so punished +at Canton in 1843, for incendiarism. + +We shudder at these harrowing tales of "man's inhumanity to man." But +we must not take the pictures of these terrible scenes, as if they +were things which stare in the eyes of all beholders, or which give +the fairest impression of Chinese law; as if this were a country in +which there is nothing but suffering and crime. On the contrary, it is +pre-eminently a land of peace and order. The Chinese are a law-abiding +people. Because a few hundred bad men are found in a city of a million +inhabitants, and punished with severity, we must not suppose that this +is a lawless community. Those who would charge this, may at least be +called on to point out a better-governed city in Europe. + +This fearful Draconian code can at least claim that it is successful +in suppressing crime. The law is a terror to evil-doers. The proof of +this is that order is so well preserved. This great city of Canton is +as quiet, and life and property are as safe, as in London or New York. +Yet it is done with no display of force. There is no obtrusion of the +police or the military, as in Paris or Vienna. The gates of the city +are shut at night, and the Tartar soldiers make their rounds; but the +armed hand is not always held up before the public eye. The Chinese +Government has learned to make its authority respected without the +constant display of military power. + +The Chinese are the most industrious people on the face of the earth, +for only by constant and universal industry can a population of four +hundred millions live. When such masses of human beings are crowded +together, the struggle for existence is so great, that it is only by +keeping the millions of hands busy that food can be obtained for the +millions of mouths. The same necessity enforces peace with each other, +and therefore from necessity, as well as from moral considerations, +this has been the policy of China from the beginning. Its whole +political economy, taught long since by Confucius, is contained in two +words--Industry and Peace. By an adherence to these simple principles, +the Empire has held together for thousands of years, while every other +nation has gone to pieces. China has never been an aggressive nation, +given to wars of conquest. It has indeed attempted to subdue the +tribes of Central Asia, and holds a weak sway over Turkistan and +Thibet; while Corea and Loochoo and Annam still acknowledge a kind of +fealty, now long since repudiated by Burmah and Siam. But in almost +all cases it has "stooped to conquer," and been satisfied with a sort +of tribute, instead of attempting roughly to enforce its authority, +which would lead to perpetual wars. Thus has China followed the lesson +of Confucius, furnishing the most stupendous example on the face of +the earth of the advantage to nations of industry and peace. + +The reason for this general respect and obedience to law may be found +in another fact, which is to the immortal honor of the Chinese. It is +the respect and obedience to parents. In China the family is the +foundation of the state; and the very first law of society, as well as +of religion, is: "Honor thy father and mother." In no country in the +world is this law so universally obeyed. The preservation of China +amid the wreck of other kingdoms is largely due to its respect to the +Fifth Commandment, which has proved literally "a commandment with +promise;"--the promise, "that thy days may be long in the land which +the Lord thy God giveth thee," having been fulfilled in the +preservation of this country from age to age. + +As a consequence of this respect to parents, which imposes an +authority over children, and binds them together, the family feeling +in China is very strong. This, however noble in itself, has some evil +effects, as it often separates the people of a town or village by +feuds and divisions, which are as distinct, and as jealous and +hostile, as the old Highland clans in Scotland. This interferes with +the administration of justice. If a crime is committed, all of one's +clan are in league to screen and protect the offender, while the rival +clan is as eager to pursue and destroy him. Woe to the man who is +accused, and who has no friend! But the disposition to stand by each +other manifests itself in many acts of mutual helpfulness, of devotion +and personal sacrifice. + +Carrying out the same idea, the nation is only a larger family, and +the government a patriarchal despotism. There is no representative +government, no Congress or Parliament; and yet there is a kind of +local government, like that of our New England towns. Every village is +governed by "elders," who are responsible for its police, who look +after rascals, and who also aid in assessing the taxes for the local +and general governments. By this union of a great central power with +local administration of local affairs, the government has managed to +hold together hundreds of millions of human beings, and make its +authority respected over a large part of Asia. + +This family feeling moulds even the religion of China, which takes the +form of a worship of ancestors. Those who have given them existence +are not lost when they have ceased to breathe. They are still the +links of being by which, and through which, the present living world +came from the hand of the Creator, and are to be reverenced with a +devotion next to that felt for the Author of being himself. Their +memory is still cherished. Every household has its objects of +devotion; every dwelling has its shrine sacred to the memory of the +dead; and no temple or pagoda is more truly holy ground than the +cemeteries, often laid out on hill-sides, where reposes the dust of +former generations. To these they make frequent pilgrimages. Every +year the Emperor of China goes in state to visit the tombs of his +ancestors. The poor emigrant who leaves for America or Australia, +gives a part of his earnings, so that, in case of death, his body +shall be brought back to China to sleep in the soil that contains the +dust of his ancestors. Thus the living are joined to the dead; and +those who have vanished from the earth, from the silent hills where +they sleep, still rule the most populous kingdom of the world. + +One cannot leave China without a word in regard to its relations with +other countries. In this respect a great change has taken place within +this generation. The old exclusiveness is broken down. This has come +by war, and war which had not always a justifiable origin, however +good may have been its effects. The opium war in 1841 is not a thing +to be remembered by England with pride. The cause of that war was an +attempt by the Chinese government in 1839 to prevent the English +importation of opium. Never did a government make a more determined +effort to remove a terrible curse that was destroying its population. +Seeing the evil in all its enormity, it roused itself like a strong +man to shake it off. It imposed heavy penalties on the use of opium, +even going so far as to put some to death. But what could it do so +long as foreigners were selling opium in Canton, right before its +eyes? It resolved to break up the trade, to stop the importation. As a +last resort, it drew a cordon around the factories of the foreign +merchants, and brought them to terms by a truly Eastern strategy. It +did not attack them, nor touch a hair of their heads; but it assumed +that it had at least the right to exercise its authority over its own +people, by forbidding them to have any intercourse with foreigners. +Immediately every Chinese servant left them. No man could be had, for +love or money, to render them any service, or even to sell them food. +Thus they were virtually prisoners. This state of siege lasted about +six weeks. At the end of that time the British merchants surrendered +all the opium, at the order of their consular chief, Charles Elliot, +for him to hand it over to the Chinese; it amounted to 20,283 chests +(nearly three million pounds in weight), mostly on board ship at the +time. The Chinese received it at the mouth of the river, near the +Bogue Forts, and there destroyed it, by throwing it overboard, as our +fathers destroyed the tea in Boston harbor. To make sure work of it, +lest it should be recovered and used, they broke open the chests and +mixed it thoroughly with salt water. As it dissolved in the sea, it +killed great quantities of fish, but that opium at least never killed +any Chinamen. + +This brought on war. Much has been said of other causes, but no one +familiar with affairs in the East doubts that the controlling motive +was a desire to force upon China the trade in opium which is one chief +source of the revenue of India. + +The war lasted two years, and ended in a complete victory for the +foreigners. The Bogue Forts were bombarded, and foreign ships forced +their way up the river. Canton was ransomed just as it was to have +been attacked, but Amoy, Ningpo, Shanghai, and Chinkiang were +assaulted and captured. The war was finally terminated in 1842 by a +treaty, by the terms of which China paid to England six millions of +dollars for the opium which had been destroyed, and opened five ports +to foreign trade. This, though a gain to European and Indian commerce, +was a heavy blow to Canton, which, instead of being the only open +port, was but one of five. The trade, which before had been +concentrated here, now spread along the coast to Amoy, Fuhchau, +Ningpo, and Shanghai. + +But the Ruler of Nations brings good out of evil. Wrong as was the +motive of the opium war, it cannot be doubted that sooner or later war +must have come from the attitude of China toward European nations. For +ages it had maintained a policy of exclusiveness. The rest of the +world were "outside barbarians." It repelled their advances, not only +with firmness, but almost with insult. While keeping this attitude of +resistance, as foreign commerce was continually knocking at its doors, +a collision was inevitable. Recognizing this, we cannot but regret +that it should have occurred for a cause in which China was in the +right, and England in the wrong. + +In the wars of England and France with China, Europe has fought with +Asia, and has gotten the victory. Will it be content with what it has +gained, or will it press still further, and force China to the wall? +This is the question which I heard asked everywhere in Eastern Asia. +The English merchants find their interests thwarted by the obstinate +conservatism of the Chinese, and would be glad of an opportunity for a +naval or military demonstration--an occasion which the Chinese are +very careful not to give. There is an English fleet at Hong Kong, a +few hours' sail from Canton. The admiral who was to take command came +out with us on the steamer from Singapore. He was a gallant seaman, +and seemed like a man who would not willingly do injustice; and yet I +think his English blood would rise at the prospect of glory, if he +were to receive an order from London to transfer his fleet to the +Canton River, and lay it abreast of the city, or to force his way up +the Pei-ho. The English merchants would hail such an appearance in +these waters. Not content with the fifteen ports which they have now, +they want the whole of China opened to trade. But the Chinese think +they have got enough of it, and to any further invasion oppose a +quiet but steady resistance. The English are impatient. They want to +force an entrance, and to introduce not only the goods of Manchester, +but all the modern improvements--to have railroads all over China, as +in India, and steamers on all the rivers; and they think it very +unreasonable that the Chinese object. But there is another side to +this question. Such changes would disturb the whole internal commerce +of China. They would throw out of employment, not thousands nor tens +of thousands, but millions, who would perish in such an economical and +industrial revolution as surely as by the waters of a deluge. An +English missionary at Canton told me that it would not be possible to +make any sudden changes, such as would be involved in the general +introduction of railroads, or of labor-saving machines in place of the +labor of human hands, without inflicting immense suffering. There are +millions of people who now keep their heads just above water, and that +by standing on their toes and stretching their necks, who would be +drowned if it should rise an inch higher. The least agitation of the +waters, and they would be submerged. Can we wonder that they hesitate +to be sacrificed, and beg their government to move slowly? + +America has had no part in the wars with China, although it is said +that in the attack on the forts at the mouth of the Pei-ho, when the +English ships were hard pressed, American sailors went on board of one +of them, and volunteered to serve at the guns, whether from pure love +of the excitement of battle, or because they felt, as Commodore +Tatnall expressed it, that "blood was thicker than water," is not +recorded.[12] American sailors and soldiers will never be wanting in +any cause which concerns their country's interest and honor. But +hitherto it has been our good fortune to come into no armed collision +with the Chinese, and hence the American name is in favor along the +coast. Our country is represented, not so much by ships of war as by +merchants and missionaries. The latter, though few in number, by their +wisdom as well as zeal, have done much to conciliate favor and command +respect. They are not meddlers nor mischief-makers. They do not belong +to the nation that has forced opium upon China, though often obliged +to hear the taunt that is hurled against the whole of the +English-speaking race. In their own quiet spheres, they have labored +to diffuse knowledge and to exhibit practical Christianity. They have +opened schools and hospitals, as well as churches. In Canton, a +generation ago, Dr. Peter Parker opened a hospital, which is still +continued, and which receives about nine hundred every year into its +wards, besides some fifteen thousand who are treated at the doors. For +twenty years it was in charge of Dr. Kerr, who nearly wore himself out +in his duties; and is now succeeded by Dr. Carrow, a young physician +who left a good practice in Jersey City to devote himself to this +work. Hundreds undergo operation for the stone--a disease quite common +in the South, but which Chinese surgery is incompetent to treat--and +who are here rescued from a lingering death. That is the way American +Christianity should be represented in China. In Calcutta I saw the +great opium ships bound for Hong Kong. Let England have a monopoly of +that trade, but let America come to China with healing in one hand and +the Gospel in the other. + +Nor is this all which American missionaries have done. They have +rendered a service--not yet noticed as it should be--to literature, +and in preparing the way for the intercourse of China with other +nations. An American missionary, Dr. Martin, is President of the +University at Peking, established by the government. Dr. S. Wells +Williams, in the more than forty years of his residence in China, has +prepared a Chinese-English Dictionary, which I heard spoken of +everywhere in the East as the best in existence. In other ways his +knowledge of the language and the people has been of service both to +China and to America, during his twenty-one years' connection with the +Legation. And if American diplomacy has succeeded in gaining many +substantial advantages for our country, while it has skilfully avoided +wounding the susceptibilities of the Chinese, the success is due in no +small degree to this modest American missionary. + +De Quincey said if he were to live in China, he should go mad. No +wonder. The free English spirit could not be so confined. There is +something in this enormous population, weighed down with the +conservatism of ages, that oppresses the intellect. It is a forced +stagnation. China is a boundless and a motionless ocean. Its own +people may not feel it, but one accustomed to the free life of Europe +looks upon it as a vast Dead Sea, in whose leaden waters nothing can +live. + +But even this Dead Sea is beginning to stir with life. There is a +heaving, as when the Polar Ocean breaks up, and the liberated waves +sweep far and wide-- + + "Swinging low with sullen roar." + +Such is the sound which is beginning to be heard on all the shores of +Asia. Since foreigners have begun to come into China, the Chinese go +abroad more than ever before. There is developed a new spirit of +emigration. Not only do they come to California, but go to Australia, +and to all the islands of Southern Asia. They are the most +enterprising as well as the most industrious of emigrants. They have +an extraordinary aptitude for commerce. They are in the East what the +Jews are in other parts of the world--the money-changers, the +mercantile class, the petty traders; and wherever they come, they are +sure to "pick up" and to "go ahead." Who can put bounds to such a +race, that not content with a quarter of Asia, overflows so much of +the remaining parts of the Eastern hemisphere? + +On our Pacific Coast the Chinese have appeared as yet only as laborers +and servants, or as attempting the humblest industries. Their +reception has not been such as we can regard with satisfaction and +pride. Poor John Chinaman! Patient toiler on the railroad or in the +mine, yet doomed to be kicked about in the land whose prosperity he +has done so much to promote. There is something very touching in his +love for his native country--a love so strong that he desires even in +death to be carried back to be buried in the land which gave him +birth. Some return living, only to tell of a treatment in strange +contrast with that which our countrymen have received in China, as +well as in violation of the solemn obligations of treaties. We cannot +think of this cruel persecution but with indignation at our country's +shame. + +No one can visit China without becoming interested in the country and +its people. There is much that is good in the Chinese, in their +patient industry, and in their strong domestic feeling. Who can but +respect a people that honor their fathers and mothers in a way to +furnish an example to the whole Christian world? who indeed exaggerate +their reverence to such a degree that they even worship their +ancestors? The mass of the people are miserably poor, but they do not +murmur at their lot. They take it patiently, and even cheerfully; for +they see in it a mixture of dark and bright. In their own beautiful +and poetical saying: "The moon shines bright amid the firs." May it +not only shine through the gloom of deep forests, but rise higher and +higher, till it casts a flood of light over the whole Eastern sky! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[12] As this incident has excited a great deal of interest, I am happy +to give it as it occurred from an eye-witness. One who was on board of +Commodore Tatnall's ship writes: + +"I was present at the battle in the Pei-ho in 1859, and know all the +particulars. Admiral Hope having been wounded, was urged to bring up +the marines before sunset, and sent his aid down to take them off the +three junks, where they were waiting at the mouth of the river. The +aid came on board the "Toeywan" to see Commodore Tatnall, tell him the +progress of the battle, and what he had been sent down for, adding +that, as the tide was running out, it would be hard work getting up +again. As he went on, Tatnall began to get restless, and turning to me +(I sat next), said: 'Blood is thicker than water; I don't care if they +do take away my commission.' Then turning to his own flag-lieutenant +at the other end of the table, he said aloud: 'Get up steam;' and +everything was ready for a start in double-quick time. When all was +prepared, the launches, full of marines, were towed into action by the +"Toeywan"; and casting them off, the Commodore left in his barge to go +on board the British flag-ship, to see the wounded Admiral. On the way +his barge was hit, his coxswain killed, and the rest just managed to +get on board the "Lee" before their boat sunk, owing their lives +probably to his presence of mind. It was only the men in this boat's +crew who helped to work the British guns. I suppose Tatnall never +meant his words to be repeated, but Hope's aid overheard them, and +thus immortalized them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THREE WEEKS IN JAPAN. + + +We left Hong Kong on the 15th of May, just one year from the day that +we sailed from New York on our journey around the world. As we +completed these twelve months, we embarked on our twelfth voyage. +After being so long on foreign ships--English and French and Dutch: +Austrian Lloyds and Messageries Maritimes--it was pleasant to be at +last on one that bore the flag of our country, and bore it so proudly +as "The City of Peking." As we stepped on her deck, and looked up at +the stars above us, we felt that we were almost on the soil of our +country. As we were now approaching America, though still over six +thousand miles away, and nearly ten thousand from New York, we thought +it was time to telegraph that we were coming, but found that "the +longest way round was the nearest way home." The direct cable across +the Bay of Bengal, from Penang to Madras, was broken, and the message +had to go by Siberia. It seemed indeed a long, long way, but the +lightning regards neither space nor time. Swift as thought the message +flew up the coast of China to Siberia, and then across the whole +breadth of two continents, Asia and Europe, and dived under the +Atlantic, to come up on the shores of America. + +The harbor of Hong Kong was gay with ships decorated with flags, and +the British fleet was still firing salutes, which seemed to be its +daily pastime, as the City of Peking began to move. With a grand sweep +she circled round the bay, and then running swiftly into a winding +passage among islands, through which is the entrance to the harbor, +steamed out on the broad Pacific. + +We had intended to go to Shanghai, and through the Inland Sea of +Japan, but we sacrificed even such a pleasure (or rather left it till +the next time) to take advantage of this noble ship, that was bound +direct for Yokohama. Our course took us through the Channel of +Formosa, in full sight of the island, which has had an unenviable +notoriety from the treatment of the crews of ships wrecked on its +inhospitable coast. Leaving it far behind, in six days we were running +along the shores of Japan, and might have seen the snowy head of +Fusiyama, had it not been wrapped in clouds. The next morning we left +behind the long roll of the Pacific, and entered the Bay of Yedo--a +gulf fifty miles deep, whose clear, sparkling waters shone in the +sunlight. Fishing-boats were skimming the tranquil surface. The +Japanese are born to the sea. All around the coast they live upon it, +and are said to derive from it one-third of their subsistence. The +shores, sloping from the water's edge, are sprinkled with Japanese +villages. Some thirty miles from the sea we pass Mississippi Bay, so +called from the flag-ship of Commodore Perry, which lay here with his +fleet while he was conducting the negotiations for the opening of +Japan; the headland above it bears the name of Treaty Point. Rounding +this point, we see before us in the distance a forest of shipping, and +soon cast anchor in the harbor of Yokohama. + +Yokohama has a pleasant look from the sea, an impression increased as +we are taken off in a boat, and landed on the quay--a sea wall, which +keeps out the waves, and furnishes a broad terrace for the front of +the town. Here is a wide street called "The Bund," on which stand the +principal hotels. From our rooms we look out directly on the harbor. +Among the steamers from foreign ports, are a number of ships of war, +among which is the Tennessee, the flagship of our Asiatic squadron, +bearing the broad pennant of Admiral Reynolds, whom we had known in +America, and indeed had bidden good-by at our own door, as we stepped +into the carriage to drive to the steamer. We parted, hoping to meet +in Asia, a wish which was now fulfilled. He was very courteous to us +during our stay, sending his boat to bring us on board, and coming +often with his excellent wife to see us on shore. It gave us a +pleasant feeling of nearness to home, to have a great ship full of our +countrymen close at hand. + +In the rear of the town the hill which overlooks the harbor, bears the +foreign name of "The Bluff." Here is quite an American colony, +including several missionary families, in which we became very much at +home before we left Japan. + +Yokohama has an American newness and freshness. It is only a few years +since it has come into existence as a place of any importance. It was +only a small fishing village until the opening of Japan, since which +it has become the chief port of foreign commerce. It is laid out in +convenient streets, which are well paved, and kept clean, and +altogether the place has a brisk and lively air, as of some new and +thriving town in our own country. + +But just at this moment we are not so much interested to see American +improvements as to see the natives on their own soil. Here they are in +all their glory--pure-blooded Asiatics--and yet of a type that is not +Mongolian or Malayan or Indian. The Jap is neither a "mild Hindoo" nor +a "heathen Chinee." His hair is shaved from his head in a fashion +quite his own, making a sort of triangle on the crown; and no long +pigtail decorates his person behind. We recognize him at once, for +never was a human creature so exactly like his portrait. We see every +day the very same figures that we have seen all our lives on tea-cups +and saucers, and fans and boxes. Our first acquaintance with them was +as charioteers, in which they take the place, not of drivers, but of +horses; for the _jin-riki-sha_ (literally, a carriage drawn by man +power) has no other "team" harnessed to it. The vehicle is exactly +like a baby carriage, only made for "children of a larger growth." It +is simply an enlarged perambulator, on two wheels, drawn by a coolie; +and when one takes his seat in it, he cannot help feeling at first as +if he were a big baby, whom his nurse had tucked up and was taking out +for an airing. But one need not be afraid of it, lest he break down +the carriage, or tire out the steed that draws it. No matter how great +your excellency may be, the stout fellow will take up the thills, +standing where the pony or the donkey ought to be, and trot off with +you at a good pace, making about four miles an hour. At first the +impression was irresistibly ludicrous, and we laughed at ourselves to +see what a ridiculous figure we cut. Indeed we did not quite recover +our sobriety during the three weeks that we were in Japan. But after +all it is a very convenient way of getting about, and one at least is +satisfied that his horses will not run away, though he must not be too +sure of that, for I sometimes felt, especially when going down hill, +that they had got loose, and would land me with a broken head at the +bottom. + +But Yokohama is only the gate of Yedo (or Tokio, as it is the fashion +to call it now, but I keep to the old style as more familiar), of +which we had read even in our school geographies as one of the most +populous cities of Asia. The access is very easy, for it is only +eighteen miles distant, and there is a railroad, so that it is but an +hour's ride. While on our way that morning, we had our first sight of +Fusiyama. Though seventy miles distant, its dome of snow rose on the +horizon sharp and clear, like the Jungfrau at Interlachen. + +Arrived at Yedo, the station was surrounded by _jinrikishas_, whose +masters were kept in better order than the cabmen of New York. Wishing +to appear in the capital with proper dignity, we took two men instead +of one, so that each had a full team; and fine young bloods they were, +full of spirit, that fairly danced with us along the street, in such +gay fashion that my clerical garb was hardly sufficient to preserve +my clerical character. We first trotted off to the American +Minister's, Mr. Bingham's, who received us with all courtesy, and sent +for the interpreter of the Legation, Rev. Mr. Thompson, an American +missionary, who kindly offered to be our guide about the city, and +gave up the day to us. With such a cicerone, we started on our rounds. +He took us first to what is called the Summer Palace, though it is not +a palace at all, but only a park, to which the Mikado comes once in a +while to take his royal pleasure. There are a few rest-houses +scattered about, where one, whether king or commoner, might find +repose; or strolling under the shade of trees, and looking off upon +the tranquil sea. Next we rode to the Tombs of the Tycoons, where, +under gilded shrines, beneath temples and pagodas, sleep the royal +dead. The grounds are large and the temples exquisitely finished, with +the fine lacquer work for which the Japanese are famous; so that we +had to take off our shoes, and step very softly over the polished +floors. Riding on through endless streets, our friend took us to a +hill, ascended by a long flight of steps, on the top of which, in an +open space, stood a temple, an arbor, and a tea-house. This point +commands an extensive view of Yedo. It is a city of magnificent +distances, spreading out for miles on every side; and yet, except for +its extent, it is not at all imposing, for it is, like Canton, a mere +wilderness of houses, relieved by no architectural magnificence--not a +single lofty tower or dome rising above the dead level. But, unlike +Canton, the city has very broad streets, sometimes crossed by a river +or a canal, spanned by high, arched bridges. The principal business +street is much wider than Broadway, but it has not a shop along its +whole extent that would make any show even in "The Bowery." The houses +are built only one story high, because of earthquakes which are +frequent in Japan, caused, as the people believe, by a huge fish which +lies under the island, and that shakes it whenever he tosses his head +or lashes his tail. The houses are of such slight construction that +they burn like tinder; and it is not surprising that the city is often +swept by destructive fires. But if the whole place were thus swept +away, or if it were shaken to pieces by an earthquake in the night, +the people would pick themselves up in the morning and restore their +dwellings, with not much more difficulty than soldiers, whose tents +had been blown down by the wind, would find in pitching them again and +making another camp. Some of the government buildings are of more +stately proportions, and there are open grounds in certain quarters of +the city, adorned with magnificent trees, like the ancient oaks which +cast their shadows on the smooth-shaven lawns of England, and give to +English parks such an air of dignity and repose. + +The Castle of the late Tycoon, which may be said to be the heart of +the city, around which it clusters, is more of a fortress than a +palace. There is an immense enclosure surrounded by a deep moat (whose +sides are very pretty, banked with rich green turf), and with +picturesque old towers standing at intervals along the walls. In the +rear of the grounds of the old Castle is the much less ambitious +residence of the Mikado, where he is duly guarded, though he does not +now, as formerly, keep himself invisible, as if he were a divinity +descended from the skies, who in mysterious seclusion ruled the +affairs of men. + +By this time we were a little weary of sight-seeing, and drew up at a +Japanese tea-house, to take our tiffin. The place was as neat as a +pin, and the little maids came out to receive us, and bowed themselves +to the ground, touching the earth with their foreheads, in token of +the great honor that had come to their house--homage that we received +with becoming dignity, and went on our way rejoicing. + +The pleasantest sights that we saw to-day were two which showed the +awakened intelligence and spirit of progress among the people. These +were the Government College, with two hundred students, manned in part +by American professors (where we found our countryman Dr. Veeder in +his lecture-room, performing experiments); and an old Temple of +Confucius which has been turned into a library and reading-room. Here +was a large collection of books and periodicals, many from foreign +countries, over which a number of persons were quietly but studiously +engaged. The enclosure was filled with grand old trees, and had the +air of an academic grove, whose silent shades were devoted to study +and learning. + +After this first visit to the capital, we took a week for an excursion +into the interior, which gave us a sight of the country and of +Japanese life. This we could not have made with any satisfaction but +for our friends the missionaries. They kindly sketched the outlines of +a trip to the base of Fusiyama, seventy miles from Yedo. It was very +tempting, but what could we do without guides or interpreters? We +should be lost like babes in the wood. It occurred to us that such a +journey might do _them_ good. Dr. Brown and Dr. Hepburn, the oldest +missionaries in Japan, had been closely confined for months in +translating the Scriptures, and needed some relief. A little country +air would give them new life; so we invited them to be our guests, and +we would make a week of it. We finally prevailed upon them to "come +apart and rest awhile," not in a "desert," but in woodland shades, +among the mountains and by the sea. Their wives came with them, +without whom their presence would have given us but half the pleasure +it did. Thus encompassed and fortified with the best of companions, +with a couple of English friends, we made a party of eight, which, +with the usual impedimenta of provisions and a cook, and extra shawls +and blankets, required eleven _jinrikishas_, with two men harnessed to +each, making altogether quite a grand cavalcade, as we sallied forth +from Yokohama on a Monday noon in "high feather." To our staid +missionary friends it was an old story; but to us, strangers in the +land, it was highly exciting to be thus starting off into the interior +of Japan. The country around Yokohama is hilly and broken. Our way +wound through a succession of valleys rich with fields of rice and +barley, while along the roads shrubberies, which at home are +cultivated with great care, grew in wild profusion--the wisteria, the +honeysuckle, and the eglantine. The succession of hill and valley gave +to the country a variety and beauty which, with the high state of +cultivation, reminded us of Java. As we mounted the hills we had +glimpses of the sea, for we were skirting along the Bay of Yedo. After +a few miles we came to an enchanting spot, which bears the ambitious +title of the Plains of Heaven, yet which is not heaven, and is not +even a plain--but a rolling country, in which hill and valley are +mingled together, with the purple mountains as a background on one +side and the blue waters on the other. + +As we rode along, I thought how significant was the simple fact of +such an excursion as this in a country, where a few years ago no +foreigner's life was safe. On this very road, less than ten years +since, an Englishman was cut down for no other crime than that of +being a foreigner, and getting in the way of the high daimio who was +passing. And now we jogged along as quietly, and with as little +apprehension, as if we were riding through the villages of New +England. + +On our way lies a town which once bore a great name, Kamakura, where +nine centuries ago lived the great Yoritomo, the Napoleon of his day, +the founder of the military rule in the person of the Shogun (or +Tycoon, a title but lately assumed), as distinguished from that of the +Mikado. Here he made his capital, which was afterwards removed, and +about three hundred years since fixed in Yedo; and Kamakura is left, +like other decayed capitals, to live on the recollections of its +former greatness. But no change can take away its natural beauty, in +its sheltered valley near the sea. + +A mile beyond, we came to the colossal image of Dai-Buts, or Great +Buddha. It is of bronze, and though in a sitting posture, is +forty-four feet high. The hands are crossed upon the knees. We crawled +up into his lap, and five of us sat side by side on his thumbs. We +even went inside, and climbed up into his head, and proved by +inspection that these idols, however colossal and imposing without, +are empty within. There are no brains within their brazen skulls. The +expression of the face is the same as in all statues of Buddha: that +of repose--passive, motionless--as of one who had passed through the +struggles of life, and attained to Nirvana, the state of perfect calm, +which is the perfection of heavenly beatitude. + +It was now getting towards sunset, and we had still five or six miles +to go before we reached our resting-place for the night. As this was +the last stage in the journey, our fleet coursers seemed resolved to +show us what they could do. They had cast off all their garments, +except a cloth around their loins, and straw sandals on their feet, so +that they were stripped like Roman gladiators, and they put forth a +speed as if racing in the arena. A connoisseur would admire their +splendid physique. Their bodies were tattooed, like South Sea +Islanders, which set out in bolder relief, as in savage warriors, +their muscular development--their broad chests and brawny limbs. With +no stricture of garments to bind them, their limbs were left free for +motion. It was a study to see how they held themselves erect. With +heads and chests thrown back, they balanced themselves perfectly. The +weight of the carriage seemed nothing to them; they had only to keep +in motion, and it followed. Thus we came rushing into the streets of +Fujisawa, and drew up before the tea-house, where lodgings had been +ordered for the night. The whole family turned out to meet us, the +women falling on their knees, and bowing their heads till they touched +the floor, in homage to the greatness of their guests. + +And now came our first experience of a Japanese tea-house. If the +_jin-riki-sha_ is like a baby carriage, the tea-house is like a baby +house. It is small, built entirely of wood with sliding partitions, +which can be drawn, like screens, to enclose any open space, and make +it into a room. These partitions are of paper, so that of course the +"chambers" are not very private. The same material is used for +windows, and answers very well, as it softens the light, like ground +glass. The house has always a veranda, so that the rooms are protected +from the sun by the overhanging roof. The bedrooms are very small, but +scrupulously clean, and covered with wadded matting, on which we lie +down to sleep. + +At Fujisawa is a temple, which is visited by the Mikado once or twice +in the year. We were shown through his private rooms, and one or two +of us even stretched ourselves upon his bed, which, however, was not a +very daring feat, as it was merely a strip of matting raised like a +low divan or ottoman, a few inches above the floor. The temples are +not imposing structures, and have no beauty except that of position. +They generally stand on a hill, and are approached by an avenue or a +long flight of steps, and the grounds are set out with trees, which +are left to grow till they sometimes attain a majestic height and +breadth. In front of this temple stands a tree, which we recognized by +its foliage as the _Salisburia adiantifolia_--a specimen of which we +had in America on our own lawn, but there it was a shrub brought from +the nursery, while here it was like a cedar of Lebanon. It was said to +be a thousand years old. Standing here, it was regarded as a sacred +tree, and we looked up to it with more reverence than to the sombre +temple behind, or the sleepy old bonzes who were sauntering idly about +the grounds. + +The next morning, as we started on our journey, we came upon the +Tokaido, the royal road of Japan, built hundreds of years ago from +Yedo to Kioto, to connect the political with the spiritual +capital--the residence of the Tycoon with that of the Mikado. It is +the highway along which the daimios came in state to pay their homage +to the Tycoon at Yedo, as of old subject-princes came to Rome. It is +constructed with a good deal of skill in engineering, which is shown +in carrying it over mountains, and in the building of bridges. +Portions of the road are paved with blocks of stone like the Appian +Way. But that which gives it a glory and majesty all its own, is its +bordering of gigantic cedars--the _Cryptomeria Japonica_--which attain +an enormous height, with gnarled and knotted limbs that have wrestled +with the storms of centuries. + +As we advance, the road comes out upon the sea, for we have crossed +the peninsula which divides the Bay of Yedo from the Pacific, and are +now on the shores of the ocean itself. How beautiful it seemed that +day! It was the last of May, and the atmosphere was full of the warmth +of early summer. The coast is broken by headlands shooting out into +the deep, which enclose bays, where the soft, warm sunshine lingers as +on the shores of the Mediterranean, and the waters of the mighty +Pacific come gently rippling up the beach. So twixt sea and land, +sunshine and shade, we sped gaily along to Odawara--another place +which was once the residence of a powerful chief, whose castle is +still there, though in ruins; its stones, if questioned of the past, +might tell a tale like that of one of the castles on the Rhine. These +old castles are the monuments of the same form of government, for the +Feudal System existed in Japan as in Germany. The kingdom was divided +into provinces, ruled by great daimios, who were like the barons of +the Middle Ages, each with his armed retainers, who might be called +upon to support the central government, yet who sometimes made war +upon it. This Feudal System is now completely destroyed. As we were +riding over the Tokaido, I pictured to myself the great pageants that +had swept along so proudly in the days gone by. What would those old +barons have thought if they could have seen in the future an +irruption of invaders from beyond the sea, and that even this king's +highway should one day be trodden by the feet of outside barbarians? + +At Odawara we dismissed our men, (who, as soon as they received their +money, started off for Yokohama,) as we had to try another mode of +transportation; for though we still kept the Tokaido, it ascends the +mountains so steeply that it is impassable for anything on wheels, and +we had to exchange the _jinrikisha_ for the _kago_--a kind of basket +made of bamboo, in which a man is doubled up and packed like a bundle, +and so carried on men's shoulders. It would not answer badly if he had +neither head nor legs. But his head is always knocking against the +ridge-pole, and his legs have to be twisted under him, or "tied up in +a bow-knot." This is the way in which criminals are carried to +execution in China; but for one who has any further use for his limbs, +it is not altogether agreeable. I lay passive for awhile, feeling as +if I had been packed and salted down in a pork-barrel. Then I began to +wriggle, and thrust out my head on one side and the other, and at last +had to confess, like the Irishman who was offered the privilege of +working his passage on a canal-boat and was set to leading a horse, +that "if it were not for the honor of the thing, I had as lief walk." +So I crawled out and unrolled myself, to see if my limbs were still +there, for they were so benumbed that I was hardly conscious of their +existence, and then straightening myself out, and taking a long bamboo +reed, which is light and strong, lithe and springy, for an alpenstock, +I started off with my companions. We all soon recovered our spirits, +and + + "Walked in glory and in joy + Along the mountain side," + +till at nightfall we halted in the village of Hakoné, a mountain +retreat much resorted to by foreigners from Yedo and Yokohama. + +Here we might have been in the Highlands of Scotland, for we were in +the heart of mountains, and on the border of a lake. To make the +resemblance more perfect, a Scotch mist hung over the hills, and rain +pattered on the roof all night long, and half the next day. But at +noon the clouds broke, and we started on our journey. Dr. and Mrs. +Brown and Mrs. Hepburn kept to their baskets, and were borne a long +way round, while the rest of us were rowed across the lake, a +beautiful sheet of water, nestled among the hills, like Loch Katrine. +One of these hills is tunnelled for two miles, to carry the water +under it to irrigate the rice fields of some twenty villages. Landing +on the other side of the lake, we had before us a distance of eight or +ten miles. Our coolies stood ready to carry us, but all preferred the +freedom of their unfettered limbs. The mountain is volcanic, and on +the summit is a large space made desolate by frequent eruptions, out +of which issues smoke laden with the fumes of sulphur, and hot springs +throw off jets of steam, and boil and bubble, and hiss with a loud +noise, as if all the furies were pent up below, and spitting out their +rage through the fissures of the rocks. The side of the mountain is +scarred and torn, and yellow with sulphur, like the sides of Vesuvius. +The natives call the place Hell. It was rather an abrupt transition, +after crossing the Plains of Heaven a day or two before, to come down +so soon to the sides of the pit. + +Towards evening we came down into the village of Miya-no-shita (what +musical names these Japanese have!), where our friends were waiting +for us, and over a warm cup of tea talked over the events of the day. +This is a favorite resort, for its situation among the mountains, with +lovely walks on every side, and for its hot springs. Water is brought +into the hotel in pipes of bamboo, so hot that one is able to bear it +only after slowly dipping his feet into it, and thus sliding in by +degrees, when the sensation is as of being scalded alive. But it takes +the soreness out of one's limbs weary with a long day's tramp; and +after being steamed and boiled, we stretched ourselves on the clean +mats of the tea-house, and slept the sleep of innocence and peace. + +One cannot go anywhere in Japan without receiving a visit from the +people, who, being of a thrifty turn, seize the occasion of a +stranger's presence to drive a little trade. The skill of the Japanese +is quite marvellous in certain directions: They make everything _in +petto_, in miniature--the smallest earthenware; the tiniest cups and +saucers. In these mountain villages they work, like the Swiss, in +wooden-ware, and make exquisite and dainty little boxes and bureaus, +as if for dolls, yet with complete sets of drawers, which could not +but take the fancy of one who had little people at home waiting for +presents. Besides the temptation of such trinkets, who could resist +the insinuating manner of the women who brought them? The Japanese +women are not pretty. They might be, were it not for their odious +fashions. We have seen faces that would be quite handsome if left in +their native, unadorned beauty. But fashion rules the world in Japan +as in Paris. As soon as a woman is married her eyebrows are shaved +off, and her teeth blackened, so that she cannot open her mouth +without showing a row of ebony instead of ivory, which disfigures +faces that would be otherwise quite winning. It says a good deal for +their address, that with such a feature to repel, they can still be +attractive. This is owing wholly to their manners. The Japanese men +and women are a light-hearted race, and captivate by their gayety and +friendliness. The women were always in a merry mood. As soon as they +entered the room, before even a word was spoken, they began to giggle, +as if our appearance were very funny, or as if this were the quickest +way to be on good terms with us. The effect was irresistible. I defy +the soberest man to resist it, for as soon as your visitor laughs, you +begin to laugh from sympathy; and when you have got into a hearty +laugh together, you are already acquainted, and in friendly +relations, and the work of buying and selling goes on easily. They +took us captive in a few minutes. We purchased sparingly, thinking of +our long journey; but our English friends bought right and left, till +the next day they had to load two pack-horses with boxes to be carried +over the mountains to Yokohama. + +The next day was to bring the consummation of our journey, for then we +were to go up into a mountain and see the glory of the Lord. A few +miles distant is the summit of Otometoge, from which one obtains a +view of Fusiyama, looking full in his awful face. We started with +misgivings, for it had been raining, and the clouds still hung low +upon the mountains. Our way led through hamlets clustered together in +a narrow pass, like Alpine villages. As we wound up the ascent, we +often stopped to look back at the valley below, from which rose the +murmur of rushing waters, while the sides of the mountains were +clothed with forests. These rich landscapes gave such enchantment to +the scene as repaid us for all our weariness. At two o'clock we +reached the top, and rushed to the brow to catch the vision of +Fusiyama, but only to be disappointed. The mountain was there, but +clouds covered his hoary head. In vain we watched and waited; still +the monarch hid his face. Clouds were round about the throne. The +lower ranges stood in full outline, but the heaven-piercing dome, or +pyramid of snow, was wrapped in its misty shroud. That for which we +had travelled seventy miles, we could not see at last. + +Is it not often so in life? The moments that we have looked forward to +with highest expectations, are disappointing when they come. We cross +the seas, and journey far, to reach some mount of vision, when lo! the +sight that was to reward us is hidden from our eyes; while our highest +raptures come to us unsought, perhaps in visions of the night. + +But our toilsome climb was not unrewarded. Below us lay a broad, deep +valley, to which the rice fields gave a vivid green, dotted with +houses and villages, which were scattered over the middle distance, +and even around the base of Fusiyama himself. Drinking in the full +loveliness of the scene, we turned to descend, and after a three +hours' march, footsore and weary, entered our Alpine village of +Miya-no-shita. + +The next morning we set out to return. Had the day shone bright and +clear, we should have been tempted to renew our ascent of the day +before. But as the clouds were still over the sky, we reluctantly +turned away. Taking another route from that by which we came, we +descended a deep valley, and winding around the heights which we had +crossed before, at eleven o'clock reëntered Odawara. + +And now we had done with our marching and our kagos, and once more +took to our chariots, which drew up to the door--the men not exactly +saddled and bridled, but stripped for the race, with no burden added +to the burden of the flesh which they had to carry. A crowd collected +to see us depart, and looked on admiringly as we went dashing through +the long street of Odawara, and out upon the Tokaido. Our way, as +before, led by the sea, which was in no tempestuous mood, but calm and +tranquil, as if conscious that the summer was born. The day was not +too warm, for the clouds that were flying over the sky shielded us +from the direct rays of the sun; yet as we looked out now and then, +the giant trees cast their shadows across our path. An American poet +sings: + + "What is so rare as a day in June?" + +Surely nothing could be _more_ rare or fair; but even the sky and the +soft Summer air seemed more full of exquisite sensations to the +strangers who were that day rolling along the shores of the Pacific, +under the mighty cedars of the Tokaido. + +Once more I was surprised and delighted at the agility and swiftness +of the men who drew our _jin-riki-shas_. As we had but twenty-three +miles to go in the afternoon, we took it easily, and gave them first +only a gentle trot of five miles to get their limbs a little supple, +and then stopped for tiffin. Some of the men had on a loose jacket +when we started, besides the girdle about the loins. This they took +off and wrung out, for they were dripping with sweat, and wiped their +brawny chests and limbs, and then took their chopsticks and applied +themselves to their rice, while we went upstairs in the tea-house, and +had our soup and other dishes served to us, sitting on the floor like +Turks, and then stretched ourselves on the mats, weary with our +morning's walk, and even with the motion of riding. While we were +trying to get a little rest our men talked and laughed in the court +below as if it were child's play to take us over the road. As we +resumed our places and turned out of the yard, I had the curiosity to +"time" their speed. I had a couple of athletic fellows, who thought me +a mere feather in weight, and made me spin like a top as they bowled +along. They started off at an easy trot, which they kept up, without +breaking, mile after mile. I did not need to crack the whip, but at +the word, away they flew through villages and over the open country, +never stopping, but when they came to slightly rising ground, rushing +up like mettlesome horses, and down at full speed. Thus they kept on, +and never drew rein till they came to the bank of a river, which had +to be crossed in a boat. I took out my watch. It was an hour and a +quarter, and they had come seven miles and a half! This was doing +pretty well. Of course they could not keep this up all day; yet they +will go thirty miles from sunrise to sunset, and even forty, if +spurred to it by a little extra pay. Sometimes, indeed, they go even +at a still greater speed for a short distance. The first evening, as +we came into Fujisawa, I do not doubt that the last fifteen minutes +they were going at a speed of ten miles an hour, for they came in on a +run. This is magnificent, but I cannot think it very healthful +exercise. As gymnasts and prize-fighters grow old and die before their +time, so with these human racehorses. Dr. Hepburn says it exhausts +them very early; that they break down with disease of the heart or +lungs. They are very liable to rheumatism. This is partly owing to +their carelessness. They get heated, and then expose their naked +bodies to drafts of cold air, which of course stiffens their limbs, so +that an old runner becomes like a foundered horse. But even with all +care, the fatigue is very exhausting, and often brings on diseases +which take them off in their prime. Yet you cannot restrain their +speed, any more than that of colts that have never been broken. I +often tried to check them, but they "champed at the bit," and after a +few vain remonstrances I had to give it up, and "let them slide." + +We did not stop at Fujisawa, where we had slept before, for it is a +large and noisy town, but pushed on three miles farther, across a +sandy beach to Enoshima, a little fishing village, which stands on a +point of land jutting out into the sea, so that at high tide it is an +island, and at low tide a peninsula. Indeed, it is not much more than +a projecting rock of a few hundred acres, rising high out of the +waters, and covered thickly with groves of trees, among which are +several Buddhist temples. As we strolled along the top of the cliffs +at sunset, there were a dozen points of view where we could sit under +the shade of trees a hundred feet above the waves, as on the cliffs of +the Isle of Wight, saying with Tennyson: + + "Break, break, break, + At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!" + +The next morning we rambled over the hills again, for it was a spot +where one could but linger. The bay was alive with boats, as + + "The fishers went sailing out into the West." + +On the shore were divers, who plunged from the rocks into deep water, +to bring up shells and coral for us, and a sort of sponge peculiar to +this country, with spicules like threads of spun glass. Under the +cliff is a long cave, hollowed out by the waves, with an arch overhead +like a vaulted roof. Thus under ground or above ground we wandered +hour after hour. + +But all things pleasant must have an end. The week was gone; it was +Saturday noon: and so reluctantly leaving both the mountains and the +sea, and taking to our chariots once more, we struck into the Tokaido, +and in four hours were rolling along the Bund at Yokohama. + +Three days after we made a second visit to Yedo, to visit an American +gentleman who held a position in the Foreign Office, and spent a night +at his pretty Japanese house in the Government grounds. Here being, as +it were, in the interior of the State Department, we got some European +news; among which was the startling intelligence of a revolution in +Turkey, and that Abdul Aziz had been deposed! + +In our second excursion about the city, as we had long distances to +traverse, we took two prancing bucks to each jinrikisha, who ran us +such a rig through the streets of Yedo as made us think of John Gilpin +when he rode to London town. The fellows were like wild colts, so full +of life that they had to kick it off at the heels. Sometimes one +pulled in front while the other pushed behind, but more often they +went tandem, the one in advance drawing by a cord over his shoulder. +The leader was so full of spring that he fairly bounded over the +ground, and if we came to a little elevation, or arched bridge, he +sprang into the air like a catamount, while his fellow behind, though +a little more stiff, as a "wheel horse" ought to be, bore himself +proudly, tossing up his head, and throwing out his chest, and never +lagged for an instant. C---- was delighted, nothing could go too fast +for her; but whether it was fear for my character or for my head, I +had serious apprehension that I should be "smashed" like Chinese +crockery, and poked my steeds in the rear with my umbrella to signify +that I was entirely satisfied with their performances, and that they +need not go any faster! + +While in Yedo we attended a meeting of missionaries, English, Scotch, +and American, in a distant part of the city, and in the evening paid a +visit to Prof. Verbeck, who has been here so long that he is an +authority on all Japanese matters. It was eight o'clock when we set +out to return to our friends in the Foreign Office, and we bade our +men take us through the main streets, that we might have a view of +Yedo by night. The distance was some three miles, the greater part +through the principal street. It was near the time of the full moon, +but fortunately she was hidden to-night by clouds, for even her soft +radiance could not give such animation and picturesqueness to the +scene as the lights of the city itself. The broad street for two miles +was in a flare of gas-light, like one of the great streets of Paris. +The shops were open and lighted; added to which were hundreds (perhaps +thousands) of _jin-riki-shas_, each with its Chinese lantern, glancing +two and fro, like so many fireflies on a summer night, making a scene +such as one reads of in the Arabian Nights, but as I had never +witnessed before. + +But that which is of most interest to a stranger in Japan, is not Yedo +or Fusiyama, but the sudden revolution which has taken place in its +relations with other countries, and in its internal condition. This is +one of the most remarkable events in history, which, in a few years, +has changed a whole nation, so that from being the most isolated, the +most exclusive, and the most rigidly conservative, even in Asia, it +has become the most active and enterprising; the most open to foreign +influences; the most hospitable to foreign ideas, and the most ready +to introduce foreign improvements. This change has taken Japan out of +the ranks of the non-progressive nations, to place it, if not in the +van of modern improvement, at least not very far in the rear. It has +taken it out of the stagnant life of Asia, to infuse into its veins +the life of Europe and America. In a word, it has, as it were, +unmoored Japan from the coast of Asia, and towed it across the +Pacific, to place it alongside of the New World, to have the same +course of life and progress. + +It is a singular fact, which, as it has united our two nations in the +past, ought to unite us in the future, that the opening of Japan came +from America. It would have come in time from the natural growth of +the commerce of the world, but the immediate occasion was the +settlement of California. The first emigration, consequent on the +discovery of gold, was in 1849; the treaty with Japan in 1854. As soon +as there sprang up an American Empire on our Western coast, there +sprang up also an American commerce on the Pacific. Up to that time, +except the whalers from New Bedford that went round Cape Horn, to cast +their harpoons in the North Pacific, or an occasional vessel to the +Sandwich Islands, or that brought a cargo of tea from China, there +were few American ships in the Pacific. But now it was ploughed by +fleets of ships, and by great lines of steamers. The Western coast of +America faced the Eastern coast of Asia, and there must be commerce +between them. Japan lay in the path to China, and it was inevitable +that there must be peaceful intercourse, or there would be armed +collision. The time had come when the policy of rigid exclusion could +not be permitted any longer. Of course Japan had the right which +belongs to any independent power, to regulate its commerce with +foreign nations. But there were certain rights which belonged to all +nations, and which might be claimed in the interest of humanity. If an +American ship, in crossing the Pacific on its way to China, were +shipwrecked on the shores of Japan, the sailors who escaped the perils +of the sea had the right to food and shelter--not to be regarded as +trespassers or held as prisoners. Yet there had been instances in +which such crews had been treated as captives, and shut up in prison. +In one instance they were exhibited in cages. If they had fallen +among Barbary pirates, they could not have been treated with greater +severity. This state of things must come to an end; and in gently +forcing the issue, our government led the way. As English ships had +broken down the wall of China, so did an American fleet open the door +of Japan, simply by an attitude of firmness and justice; by demanding +nothing but what was right, and supporting it by an imposing display +of force. Thus Japan was opened to the commerce of America, and +through it of the world, without shedding a drop of blood. + +The result has been almost beyond belief. A quarter of a century ago +no foreign ship could anchor in these waters. And now here, in sight +of the spot where lay the fleet of Commodore Perry, I see a harbor +full of foreign ships. It struck me strangely, as I sat at our windows +in the Grand Hotel, and looked out upon the tranquil bay. There lay +the Tennessee, not with guns run out and matches lighted, but in her +peaceful dress, with flags flying, not only from her mast-head, but +from all her yards and rigging. There were also several English ships +of war, with Admiral Ryder in command, from whose flag-ship, as from +the Tennessee, we heard the morning and evening gun, and the bands +playing. The scene was most beautiful by moonlight, when the ships lay +motionless, and the tall masts cast their shadows on the water, and +all was silent, as in so many sleeping camps, save the bells which +struck the hours, and marked the successive watches all night long. It +seemed as if the angel of peace rested on the moonlit waters, and that +nations would not learn war any more. + +The barrier once broken down, foreign commerce began to enter the +waters of Japan. American ships appeared at the open ports. As if to +give them welcome, lighthouses were built at exposed points on the +coast, so that they might approach without danger. A foreign +settlement sprung up at Yokohama. By and by young men went abroad to +see the world, or to be educated in Europe or America, and came back +with reports of the wealth and power of foreign nations. Soon a spirit +of imitation took possession of Young Japan. These students affected +even the fashions of foreign countries, and appeared in the streets of +Yedo in coat and pantaloons, instead of the old Japanese dress; and +ate no longer with chopsticks, but with knives and forks. Thus manners +and customs changed, to be followed by a change in laws and in the +government itself. Till now Japan had had a double-headed government, +with two sovereigns and two capitals. But now there was a revolution +in the country, the Tycoon was overthrown, and the Mikado, laying +aside his seclusion and his invisibility, came from Kioto to Yedo, and +assumed the temporal power, and showed himself to his people. The +feudal system was abolished, and the proud daimios--who, with their +clans of armed retainers, the _samourai_, or two-sworded men, were +independent princes--were stripped of their estates, which sometimes +were as large as German principalities, and forced to disband their +retainers, and reduced to the place of pensioners of the government. +The army and navy were reconstructed on European models. Instead of +the old Japanese war-junks, well-armed frigates were seen in the Bay +of Yedo--a force which has enabled Japan to take a very decided tone +in dealing with China, in the matter of the island of Formosa; and +made its power respected along the coast of Eastern Asia. We saw an +embassy from Corea passing through the streets of Yokohama, on its way +to Yedo, to pay homage to the Mikado, and enter into peaceful +relations with Japan. A new postal system has been introduced, +modelled on our own. In Yokohama one sees over a large building the +sign "The Japanese Imperial Post-Office," and the postman goes his +rounds, delivering his letters and papers as in England and America. +There is no opposition to the construction of railroads, as in China. +Steamers ply around the coast and through the Inland Sea; and +telegraphs extend from one end of the Empire to the other; and +crossing the sea, connect Japan with the coast of Asia, and with all +parts of the world. Better than all, the government has adopted a +general system of national education, at the head of which is our own +Prof. Murray; it has established schools and colleges, and introduced +teachers from Europe and America. In Yedo I was taken by Prof. +McCartee to see a large and noble institution for the education of +girls, established under the patronage of the Empress. These are signs +of progress that cannot be paralleled in any other nation in the +world. + +With such an advance in less than one generation, what may we not hope +in the generation to come? In her efforts at progress, Japan deserves +the sympathy and support of the whole civilized world. Having +responded to the demand for commercial intercourse, she has a just +claim to be placed on the footing of the most favored nations. +Especially is she entitled to expect friendship from our country. As +it fell to America to be the instrument of opening Japan, it ought to +be our pride to show her that the new path into which we led her, is a +path of peace and prosperity. Japan is our nearest neighbor on the +west, as Ireland is on the east; and among nations, as among +individuals, neighbors ought to be friends. It seemed a good token +that the American Union Church in Yokohama should stand on the very +spot where Commodore Perry made his treaty with Japan--the beginning, +let us hope, of immeasurable good to both nations. As India is a part +of the British Empire, and may look to England to secure for her the +benefits of modern civilization, so the duty of stretching out a hand +across the seas to Japan, may fairly be laid on the American church +and the American people. + +Our visit was coming to an end. A day or two we spent in the shops, +buying photographs and bronzes, and in paying farewell visits to the +missionaries, who had shown us so much kindness. The "parting cup" of +tea we took at Dr. Hepburn's, and from his windows had a full view of +Fusiyama, that looked out upon us once more in all his glory. We were +to embark that evening, to sail at daylight. Mr. John Ballagh and +several ladies of "The Home," who had made us welcome in their +pleasant circle, "accompanied us to the ship." We had a long row +across the bay just as the moon was rising, covering the waters with +silver, and making the great ships look like mighty shadows as they +stood up against the sky. "On such a night" we took our farewell of +Asia. + +The next morning very early we were sailing down the bay of Yedo, and +were soon out on the Pacific. But the coast remained long in sight, +and we sat on deck watching the receding shores of a country which in +three weeks had become so familiar and so dear; and when at last it +sunk beneath the waters, we left our "benediction" on that beautiful +island set in the Northern Seas. + +We did not steer straight for San Francisco, although it is in nearly +the same latitude as Yokohama, but turned north, following what +navigators call a Great Circle, on the principle that as they get high +up on the globe, the degrees of longitude are shorter, and thus they +can "cut across" at the high latitudes. "It is nearer to go around the +hill than to go over it." We took a prodigious sweep, following the +_Kuroshiwo_, or Black Current, the Gulf Stream of the Pacific, which +flows up the coast of Asia, and down the coast of America. We bore +away to the north till we were off the coast of Kamschatka, and within +a day's sail of Petropaulovski, before we turned East. Our ship was +"The Oceanic," of the famous White Star line, which, if not so +magnificent as "The City of Peking," was quite as swift a sailer, +cleaving the waters like a sea-bird. In truth, the albatrosses that +came about the ship for days from the Aleutian Islands, now soaring in +air, and now skimming the waters, did not float along more easily or +more gracefully. + +As we crossed the 180th degree of longitude, just half the way around +the world from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, we "gained a day," +or rather, recovered one that we had lost. As we had started eastward, +we lost a few minutes each day, and had to set our watches every noon. +We were constantly changing our meridian, so that no day ended where +it began, and we never had a day of full twenty-four hours, but always +a few minutes, like sands, had crumbled away. By the time we reached +England, five hours had thus dropped into the sea; and when we had +compassed the globe, we had parted, inch by inch, moment by moment, +with a whole day. It seemed as if this were so much blotted out from +the sum of our being--gone in the vast and wandering air--lost in the +eternities, from which nothing is ever recovered. But these lost +moments and hours were all gathered up in the chambers of the East, +and now in mid-ocean, one morning brought us a day not in the +calendar, to be added to the full year. Two days bore the same date, +the 18th of June, and as this fell on a Sunday, two holy days came +together--one the Sabbath of Asia, the other of America. It seemed fit +that this added day should be a sacred one, for it was something +taken, as it were, from another portion of time to be added to our +lives--a day which came to us fresh from its ocean baptism, with not a +tear of sorrow or a thought of sin to stain its purity; and we kept a +double Sabbath in the midst of the sea. + +Seventeen days on the Pacific, with nothing to break the boundless +monotony! In all that breadth of ocean which separates Asia and +America, we saw not a single sail on the horizon; and no land, not +even an island, till we came in sight of those shores which are dearer +to us than any other in all the round world. + +Here, in sight of land, this story ends. There is no need to tell of +crossing the continent, which completed our circuit of the globe, but +only to add in a word the lesson and the moral of this long journey. +Going around the world is an education. It is not a mere pastime; it +is often a great fatigue; but it is a means of gaining knowledge which +can only be obtained by observation. Charles V. used to say that "the +more languages a man knew, he was so many more times a man." Each new +form of human speech introduced him into a new world of thought and +life. So in some degree is it in traversing other continents, and +mingling with other races. However great America may be, it is +"something" to add to it a knowledge of Europe and Asia. Unless one be +encased in pride, or given over to "invincible ignorance," it will +teach him modesty. He will boast less of his own country, though +perhaps he will love it more. He will see the greatness of other +nations, and the virtues of other people. Even the turbaned Orientals +may teach us a lesson in dignity and courtesy--a lesson of repose, the +want of which is a defect in our national character. In every race +there is something good--some touch of gentleness that makes the whole +world kin. Those that are most strange and far from us, as we approach +them, show qualities that win our love and command our respect. + +In all these wanderings, I have met no rudeness in word or act from +Turks or Arabs, Hindoos or Malays, Chinese or Japanese; but have often +received kindness from strangers. The one law that obtains in all +nations is the law of kindness. Have I not a right to say that to know +men is to love them, not to hate them nor despise them? + +He who hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the +earth, hath not forgotten any of His children. There is a beauty in +every country and in every clime. Each zone of the earth is belted +with its peculiar vegetation; and there is a beauty alike in the pines +on Norwegian hills, and the palms on African deserts. So with the +diversities of the human race. Man inhabits all climes, and though he +changes color with the sun, and has many varieties of form and +feature, yet the race is the same; all have the same attributes of +humanity, and under a white or black skin beats the same human heart. +In writing of peoples far remote, my wish has been to bring them +nearer, and to bind them to us by closer bonds of sympathy. If these +pictures of Asia make it a little more real, and inspire the feeling +of a common nature with the dusky races that live on the other side of +the globe, and so infuse a larger knowledge and a gentler charity, +then a traveller's tale may serve as a kind of lay sermon, teaching +peace and good will to men. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of From Egypt to Japan, by Henry M. 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Field + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: From Egypt to Japan + +Author: Henry M. Field + +Release Date: April 18, 2012 [EBook #39474] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tnbox"> +<p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></p> +<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. +Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the original +document have been preserved.</p> +</div> + +<div class="widead"> +<p class="center"><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</i></p> +<hr class="l5" /> + +<p class="center">FROM THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY<br /> +TO THE GOLDEN HORN.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="s05">THE FIRST VOLUME OF</span><br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap">Dr. Field's Travels Around the World</span>.</p> + +<p class="center s08">1 vol. 12mo, cloth, uniform with this volume, $2.00.</p> + +<p class="center s08">*<sub>*</sub>* <i>Sent postpaid, on receipt of price, by the Publishers</i>,</p> + +<p class="left35">SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO.,</p> + +<p class="left55 s05"><span class="smcap">743 and 745 Broadway, New York</span>.<br /></p> + +</div> + +<h1 class="p6">FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN.</h1> + +<h2 class="p4"><span class="smcap">By HENRY M. FIELD, D.D.</span></h2> + +<p class="p4 center">NEW YORK:<br /> +SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO.<br /> +1877.</p> + +<p class="p6 center"> +<span class="smcap">Copyright by</span><br /> + +SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO.<br /> + +1877.</p> + +<p class="p4 center"><span class="smcap">Trow's<br /> +Printing and Bookbinding Co.</span>,<br /> +<i>205-213 East 12th St.</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">NEW YORK</span>.</p> + +<p class="p6 center">To My Brothers,<br /><br /> + +DAVID DUDLEY, STEPHEN J., AND CYRUS W. FIELD,<br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap s08">ALL THAT ARE LEFT OF A LARGE FAMILY</span>,<br /><br /> + +This Volume is Dedicated,<br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap s08">IN TOKEN OF THE LOVE OF A LIFETIME, WHICH +WILL GROW STRONGER TO THE END</span>.</p> + +<h2 class="p6">CONTENTS.</h2> +<hr class="l15" /> +<table summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I.</td> +<td><span class="smcap">Crossing the Mediterranean—Alexandria—Cairo—The +Pyramids</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">On the Nile</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Temples of Egypt—Did Moses get his law from +the Egyptians?</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Egyptian doctrine of a future life</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Religion of the Prophet</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Modern Egypt and the Khedive</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Midnight in the Heart of the Great Pyramid</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Leaving Egypt—The Desert</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">On the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Bombay—First Impressions of India</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Travelling in India—Allahabad—The Mela</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Agra—Visit of The Prince of Wales—Palace of the +Great Mogul—The Taj</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Delhi—A Mohammedan Festival—Scenes in the +Mutiny</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">From Delhi to Lahore</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Week in the Himalayas</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Tragedy of Cawnpore</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Story of Lucknow</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The English Rule in India</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIX.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Missions in India—Do Missionaries do any good?</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XX.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Benares, the Holy City of the Hindoos</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XXI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Calcutta—Farewell to India</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XXII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Burmah—The Malayan Peninsula—Singapore</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XXIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Island of Java</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_326">326</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XXIV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Up the China Seas—Hong Kong and Canton</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_365">365</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XXV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Three Weeks in Japan</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_397">397</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="p6"><i>This volume is complete in itself, though it is the +Second Part of a Journey Round the World, of which +the First Part was published a year ago, with the title +"From the Lakes of Killarney to the Golden Horn." +The volumes are uniform in style and naturally go together, +though either is complete without the other.</i> +</p> + +<h2 class="p6">FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN.</h2> + +<hr class="l15" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<p class="ch_summ">CROSSING THE MEDITERRANEAN—ALEXANDRIA—CAIRO—THE +PYRAMIDS.</p> + +<p>On the Bosphorus there are birds which the Turks call +"lost souls," as they are never at rest. They are always on +the wing, like stormy petrels, flying swift and low, just +skimming the waters, yet darting like arrows, as if seeking +for something which they could not find on land or sea. +This spirit of unrest sometimes enters into other wanderers +than those of the air. One feels it strongly as he comes to +the end of one continent, and "casts off" for another; as +he leaves the firm, familiar ground, and sails away to the +distant and the unknown.</p> + +<p>So felt a couple of travellers who had left America to go +around the world, and after six months in Europe, were now +to push on to the farthest East. It was an autumn afternoon +near the close of the year 1875, that they left Constantinople, +and sailed down the Marmora, and through the Dardanelles, +between the Castles of Europe and Asia, whose very +names suggested the continents that they were leaving behind, +and set their faces towards Africa.</p> + +<p>They could not go to Palestine. An alarm of cholera in +Damascus had caused a <i>cordon sanitaire</i> to be drawn along +the Syrian coast; and though they might get in, they could +not so easily get away; or would be detained ten days in a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> +Lazaretto before they could pass into Egypt; and so they +were obliged at the last moment to turn from the Holy Land, +and sail direct for Alexandria; touching, however, at Mitylene +and Scio; and passing a day at Smyrna and at Syra. +With these detentions the voyage took nearly a week, almost +as long as to cross the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>But it was not without its compensations. There was a +motley company in the cabin, made up of all nations and +all religions: English and Americans, French and Germans +and Russians, Greeks and Turks, Christians and Mohammedans. +There was a grand old Turk, who was going out to be +a judge in Mecca, and was travelling with his harem, eight +women, who were carefully screened from the observation of +profane eyes. And there were other Mussulmans of rank, +gentlemen in manners and education, who would be addressed +as Effendis or Beys, or perhaps as Pashas, who did not hesitate +to spread their small Persian carpets in the cabin or on +the deck at any hour, and kneel and prostrate themselves, +and say their prayers.</p> + +<p>Besides these, the whole forward part of the ship was +packed with pilgrims (there were four hundred of them) +going to Mecca: Turks in white turbans and baggy trousers; +and Circassians in long overcoats, made of undressed +sheepskins, with tall, shaggy hats, like the bear-skin shakos +of Scotch grenadiers. Some of them had their belts stuck +thick with knives and pistols, as if they expected to have to +fight their way to the tomb of the Prophet. Altogether they +were not an attractive set, and yet one could not view, without +a certain respect, a body of men animated by a strong +religious feeling which impelled them to undertake this long +pilgrimage; it requires three months to go and return. Nor +could one listen quite unmoved as at different hours of the +day, at sunrise, or midday, or sunset, the muezzin climbed to +the upper deck, and in a wailing voice called the hour of +prayer, and the true believers, standing up, rank on rank, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> +turned their faces towards Mecca, and reverently bowed +themselves and worshipped.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the sixth day we came in sight of a +low-lying coast, with not a hill or elevation of any kind +rising above the dreary waste, the sea of waters breaking on +a sea of sand. The sun sinking in the west showed the +lighthouse at Alexandria, but as the channel is narrow and +intricate, ships are not allowed to enter after sunset; and so +we lay outside all night, but as soon as the morning broke, +steamed up and entered the harbor. Here was the same +scene as at Constantinople—a crowd of boats around the +ship, and boatmen shouting and yelling, jumping over one +another in their eagerness to be first, climbing on board, and +rushing on every unfortunate traveller as if they would tear +him to pieces. But they are not so terrible as they appear, +and so it always comes to pass, that whether "on boards or +broken pieces of the ship," all come safe to land.</p> + +<p>In spite of this wild uproar, it was not without a strange +feeling of interest that we first set foot in Africa. A few +days before we had touched the soil of Asia, on the other +side of the Bosphorus—the oldest of the continents, the cradle +of the human race. And now we were in Africa—in +Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs, out of which Moses led the +Israelites; the land of the Pyramids, the greatest monuments +of ancient civilization.</p> + +<p>As soon as one comes on shore, he perceives that he is in +a different country. The climate is different, the aspects of +nature are different, the people are different, the very animals +are different. Caravans of camels are moving slowly through +the streets, and outside of the city, coming up to its very walls, +as if threatening to overwhelm it, is the "great and terrible" +desert, a vast and billowy plain, whose ever-drifting sands +would speedily bury all the works of man, if they were not +kept back from destruction by the waters of the Nile, which +is at once the creator and preserver of Egypt. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span></p> + +<p>Alexandria, although founded by Alexander the Great, +whose name it bears, and therefore more than two thousand +years old—and although in its monuments, Cleopatra's +Needle and Pompey's Pillar, it carries back the mind to the +last of the Ptolemies, the proud daughter of kings, and to +her Roman lovers and conquerors—has yet in many parts +quite a modern aspect, and is almost a new city. It has felt, +more than most places in the East, the influence of European +civilization. Commerce is returning to its ancient seats +along the Mediterranean, and the harbor of Alexandria is +filled with a forest of ships, that reminds one of New York +or Liverpool.</p> + +<p>But as it becomes more European, it is less Oriental; and +though more prosperous, is less picturesque than other parts +of Egypt; and so, after a couple of days, we left for Cairo, +and now for the first time struck the Nile, which reminds an +American traveller of the Missouri, or the lower Mississippi. +It is the same broad stream of turbid, yellow waters, flowing +between low banks. This is the Great River which takes its +rise in the heart of Africa, beyond the equator, at a point +so remote that, though the Valley of the Nile was four +thousand years ago the seat of the greatest empire of antiquity, +yet to this day the source of the river is the problem +of geographers. Formerly it was a three days' journey from +Alexandria to Cairo, but the railroad shortens it to a ride of +four hours, in which we crossed both branches of the Nile. +Just at noon we came in sight of the Pyramids, and in half +an hour were driving through the streets of the capital of +Egypt.</p> + +<p>We like Cairo, after two or three weeks, much better than +Constantinople. It has another climate and atmosphere; +and is altogether a gayer and brighter city. The new +quarter occupied by foreigners is as handsomely built as +any European city. The streets are wide and well paved, +like the new streets and boulevards of Paris. We are at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> +the "Grand New Hotel," fronting on the Ezbekieh gardens, +a large square, filled with trees, with kiosks for music, +and other entertainments. Our windows open on a broad +balcony, from which we can hear the band playing every +afternoon, while around us is the city, with its domes and +minarets and palm trees.</p> + +<p>The great charm of Egypt is the climate. It is truly the +Land of the Sun. We landed on the first day of December, +but we cannot realize that this is winter. The papers tell +us that it is very cold in New York, and that the Hudson +river is frozen over; but here every thing is in bloom, as in +mid-summer, and I wear a straw hat to protect me from the +heat of the sun. But it is not merely the warmth, but the +exquisite purity of the atmosphere, that makes it so delicious. +The great deserts on both sides drink up every drop +of moisture, and every particle of miasm that is exhaled +from the decaying vegetation of the Valley of the Nile, and +send back into these streets the very air of Paradise.</p> + +<p>Having thus the skies of Italy, and a much more balmy +air, it is not strange that Egypt attracts travellers from +France, and England, and America. It is becoming more +and more a resort not only for invalids, but for that wealthy +class who float about the world to find the place where they +can pass existence with the most of languid ease. Many +come here to escape the European winters, and to enjoy the +delicious climate, and they are from so many countries, that +Cairo has become a cosmopolitan city. As it is on the road +to India, it is continually visited by English officers and +civilians, going or returning. Of late years it has become a +resort also for Americans. A number of our army officers +have taken service under the Khedive, who rendezvous +chiefly at this New Hotel, so that with the travellers of the +same country, we can talk across the table of American +affairs, as if we were at Newport or Saratoga. Owing to +the influx of so many foreigners, this Hotel and "Shepheard's" +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> +seem like small colonies of Europeans. Hearing +only English, or French, or German, one might believe himself +at one of the great hotels in Switzerland, or on the +Rhine. A stranger who wishes to pass a winter in Cairo, +need not die of ennui for want of the society of his countrymen.</p> + +<p>Besides these officers in the army, the only Americans +here in official positions, are the Consul General Beardsley, +and Judge Batcheller, who was appointed by our Government +to represent the United States in the Mixed Court +lately established in Egypt. Both these gentlemen are very +courteous to their countrymen, while giving full attention +to their duties. As we have sometimes had abroad consuls +and ministers of whom we could not be proud, it is +something to be able to say, that those here now in official +position are men of whom we need not be ashamed as representatives +of our country.</p> + +<p>Another household which should not be overlooked, since +it gives an American a home feeling in Cairo, is that of the +American Mission. This has been here some years, and so +won the favor of the government, that the former Viceroy +gave it a site for its schools, which proved so valuable that +the present Khedive has recently bought it back, by giving +a new site and £7000 into the bargain. The new location is +one of the best in Cairo, near the Ezbekieh square, and here +with the proceeds of the sale, and other funds contributed +for the object, the Mission is erecting one of the finest buildings +for such purposes in the East, where their chapel and +schools, in which there are now some five hundred children, +will be under one roof.</p> + +<p>This Mission School some years ago was the scene of a +romantic incident. An Indian prince, then living in England, +was on his way to India, with the body of his mother, +who had died far from her country, but with the prejudices +of a Hindoo strong in death, wished her body to be taken +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> +back to the land of her birth. While passing through +Cairo, he paid a visit to the American Mission, and was +struck with the face of a young pupil in the girls' school, +and after due inquiry proposed to the missionaries to take +her as his wife. They gave their consent, and on his return +they were married, and he took her with him to England. +This was the Maharajah Dhuleep Sing, a son of old Runjeet +Sing, the Lion of Lahore, who raised up a race of warriors, +that after his death fought England, and whose country, the +Punjaub, the English annexed to their Indian dominions; +and here, as in other cases, removed a pretender out of the +way by settling a large pension on the heir to the throne. +Thus the Maharajah came into the possession of a large +revenue from the British government, amounting, I am told, +to some £30,000 a year. Having been from his childhood +under English pupilage, he has been brought up as a Christian, +and finds it to his taste to reside in England, where he is +able to live in splendor, and is a great favorite at court. +His choice of a wife proved a most happy one, as the modest +young pupil of Cairo introduced into his English home, +with the natural grace of her race, for she is partly of Arab +descent, the culture and refinement learned in a Mission +school. Nor does he forget what he owes to the care of those +who watched over her in her childhood, but sends a thousand +pounds every year to the school in grateful acknowledgment +of the best possible gift it could make to him, that of a noble +Christian wife.</p> + +<p>Besides this foreign society, there is also a resident society +which, to those who can be introduced to it, is very attractive. +The government of the Khedive has brought into his +service some men who would be distinguished in any European +court or capital. The most remarkable of these is +Nubar Pasha, long the Minister of Foreign Affairs.</p> + +<p>Judge Batcheller kindly took me to the house of the old +statesman, who received us cordially. On hearing that I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> +was on my way around the world, he exclaimed, "Ah, you +Americans! You are true Bedouins!" I asked him what +was the best guide-book to Egypt? He answered instantly, +"The Bible." It was delightful to see his enthusiasm for +Egypt, although he is not an Egyptian. He is not an Arab, +nor a Turk, nor even a Mussulman; but an Armenian by +birth and by religion. His uncle, Nubar Pasha, came over +with Mehemet Ali, whose prime minister he was for forty +years; and his nephew, who inherits his name, inherits also +the traditions of that great reign. Though born on the other +side of the Mediterranean, he is in heart an Egyptian. He +loves the country of his adoption, and all his thoughts and +his political ambition are for its greatness and prosperity. +He has lived here so long that he sometimes speaks of himself +playfully as "one of the antiquities of Egypt." "Of +the first dynasty?" we ask. "Yes, of the time of Menes." +I do not believe he could exist anywhere else. He loves +not only the climate, but even the scenery of Egypt, which +is more charming to his eyes than the hills and vales of Scotland +or the mountains of Switzerland. "But you must +admit," I said, "that it has a great monotony." "No," he +replied, "in Lombardy there is monotony; but Egypt is immensity, +infinity, eternity. The features of the landscape +may be the same, but the eye never wearies." Surely <i>his</i> +eye never does, for it is touched with a poetic vision; he +sees more than meets the common eye; every passing cloud +changes the lights and shadows; and to him there is more of +beauty in the sunset flashing through the palm groves, as the +leaves are gently stirred by the evening wind, than in all the +luxuriance of tropical forests. Even if we did not quite +share his enthusiasm, we could not but be charmed by the +pictures which were floating before his mind's eye, and by +the eloquence of his description. As he loves the country, +so he loves the people of Egypt. Poor and helpless as they +are, they have won upon his affection; he says "they are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> +but children;" but if they have the weakness of children, +they have also their simplicity and trustfulness; and I could +see that his great ambition was to break up that system of +forced labor which crushes them to the earth, and to secure +to them at least some degree of liberty and of justice.</p> + +<p>With all its newness and freshness this city retains its +Oriental character. Indeed Grand Cairo is said to be the +most Oriental of cities except Damascus. It has four hundred +thousand inhabitants, and in its ancient portions has +all the peculiar features of the East. Not only is the +city different from Constantinople, but the people are +different; they are another race, and speak another language. +Turks and Arabs are as different as Englishmen +and Frenchmen.</p> + +<p>We are entertained every time that we go out of doors, +with the animated and picturesque life of the streets. There +are all races and all costumes, and all modes of locomotion. +There are fine horses and carriages. I feel like Joseph riding +in Pharaoh's chariot, when we take a carriage to ride out to +Shoobra, one of the palaces of the Khedive, with syces +dressed in white running before to herald our royal progress, +and shout to the people to get out of our way. But one +who prefers a more Oriental mode of riding, can mount a +camel, or stoop to a donkey, for the latter are the smallest +creatures that ever walked under the legs of a man, and if +the rider be very tall, he will need to hold up his feet to +keep them from dangling on the ground. Yet they are hardy +little creatures, and have a peculiar amble which they keep +up all day. They are very useful for riding, especially in +some parts of the city where the streets are too narrow to +allow a carriage to pass.</p> + +<p>The donkey-men are very sharp, like their tribe in all parts +of the world. The Arabs have a great deal of natural wit, +which might almost entitle them to be called the Irish of the +East. They have picked up a few words of English, and it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> +is amusing to hear them say, with a most peculiar accent, +"All right," "Very good," "Go ahead." They seem to +know everybody, and soon find out who are their best customers. +I cannot go down the steps without a dozen rushing +toward me, calling out "Doctor, want a donkey?" One of +them took me on my weak side the first day by saying that +the name of his animal was "Yankee Doodle," and so I have +patronized that donkey ever since, and a tough little beast +he is, scudding away with me on his back at a great rate. +His owner, a fine looking Arab, dressed in a loose blue gown +and snowy turban, runs barefooted behind him, to prick +him up, if he lags in his speed, or if perchance he goes too +fast, to seize him by the tail, and check his impetuosity. +We present a ludicrous spectacle when thus mounted, setting +out for the bazaars, where our experience of Constantinople +is repeated.</p> + +<p>Of course the greatest sight around Cairo is the Pyramids. +It is an event in one's life to see these grandest +monuments of antiquity. The excursion is now very +easy. They are eight miles from Cairo, and it was formerly +a hard day's journey to go there and back, as one could only +ride on a donkey or a camel, and had to cross the river in +boats; and the country was often inundated, so that one had +to go miles around. But the Khedive, who does everything +here, has changed all that. He has built an iron bridge over +the Nile, and a broad road, raised above the height of the +annual inundations, so as never to be overflowed, and lined +with trees, the rapid-growing acacia, so that one may drive +through a shaded avenue the whole way. A shower which +had fallen the night before we went (a very rare thing in +Egypt at this season) had laid the dust and cooled the air, +so that the day was perfect, and we drove in a carriage in +an hour and a half from our hotel to the foot of the Pyramids. +The two largest of these are in sight as soon as one +crosses the Nile, but though six miles distant they seem quite +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> +near. Yet at first, and even when close to them, they hardly +impress the beholder with their real greatness. This is owing +to their pyramidal form, which, rising before the eye like +the slope of a hill, does not strike the senses or the imagination +as much as smaller masses which rise perpendicularly. +One can hardly realize that the Pyramid of Cheops is the +largest structure in the world—the largest probably ever +reared by human hands. But as it slopes to the top, it does +not present its full proportions to the eye, nor impress one +so much as some of the Greek temples with their perpendicular +columns, or the Gothic churches with their lofty +arches, and still loftier towers, soaring to heaven. Yet the +Great Pyramid is higher than them all, higher even than the +spire of the Cathedral at Strasburg; while in the surface of +ground covered, the most spacious of them, even St. Peter's +at Rome, seems small in comparison. It covers eleven acres, +a space nearly as large as the Washington Parade Ground in +New York; and is said by Herodotus to have taken a hundred +thousand men twenty years to build it. Pliny agrees in the +length of time, but says the number of workmen employed +was over three hundred thousand!</p> + +<p>But mere figures do not give the best impression of +height; the only way to judge of the Great Pyramid is to +see it and to ascend it. One can go to the top by steps, but +as these steps are blocks of stone, many of which are four +feet high, it is not quite like walking up stairs. One could +hardly get up at all but with the help of the Arabs, who +swarm on the ground, and make a living by selling their services. +Four of them set upon me, seizing me by the hands, +and dragging me forward, and with pulling and pushing and +"boosting," urged on by my own impatience—for I would not +let them rest a moment—in ten minutes we were at the top, +which they thought a great achievement, and rubbed down +my legs, as a groom rubs down a horse after a race, and +clapped me on the back, and shouted "All right," "Very +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> +good." I felt a little pride in being the first of our party on +the top, and the last to leave it.</p> + +<p>These Arab guides are at once very troublesome and very +necessary. One cannot get along without them, and yet +they are so importunate in their demands for backsheesh that +they become a nuisance. They are nominally under the +orders of a Sheik, who charges two English shillings for +every traveller who is assisted to the top, but that does not +relieve one from constant appeals going up and down. I +found it the easiest way to get rid of them to give somewhat +freely, and thus paid three or four times the prescribed charge +before I got to the bottom. No doubt I gave far too much, +for they immediately quoted me to the rest of the party, and +held me up as a shining example. I am afraid I demoralized +the whole tribe, for some friends who went the next day were +told of an American who had been there the day before, who +had given "beautiful backsheesh." The cunning fellows, +finding I was an easy subject, followed me from one place to +another, and gave me no peace even when wandering among +the tombs, or when taking our lunch in the Temple of the +Sphinx, but at every step clamored for more; and when I +had given them a dozen times, an impudent rascal came up +even to the carriage, as we were ready to drive away, and +said that two or three shillings more would "make all serene!"—a +phrase which he had caught from some strolling +American, and which he turns to good account.</p> + +<p>But one would gladly give any sum to get rid of petty annoyances, +and to be able to look around him undisturbed. +Here we are at last on the very summit of the Great Pyramid, +and begin to realize its immensity. Below us men look like +mice creeping about, and the tops of trees in the long avenue +show no larger than hot-house plants. The eye ranges +over the valley of the Nile for many miles—a carpet of the +richest green, amid which groups of palms rise like islands +in a sea. To the east beyond the Nile is Cairo, its domes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> +and minarets standing out against the background of the +Mokattam hills, while to the west stretches far away the +Libyan desert.</p> + +<p>Overlooking this broad landscape, one can trace distinctly +the line of the overflow of the Nile. Wherever the waters +come, there is greenness and fertility; at the point where +they cease, there is barrenness and desolation. It is a perpetual +struggle between the waters and the sands, like that +which is always going on in human history between barbarism +and civilization.</p> + +<p>In the Pyramids the two things which impress us most are +their vast size and their age. As we stand on the top, and +look down the long flight of steps which leads to the valley +below, we find that we are on the crest of a mountain of +stone. Some idea of the enormous mass imbedded in the +Great Pyramid may be gathered from the fact, ascertained +by a careful computation (estimating its weight at seven millions +of tons, and considering it a solid mass, its chambers +and passages being as far as discovered but 1/2000th of the +whole), that these blocks of stone, placed end to end, would +make a wall a foot and a half broad, and ten feet high around +England, a distance of 883 miles—a wall that would shut in +the island up to the Scottish border.</p> + +<p>And the Pyramids are not only the greatest, but the +oldest monuments of the human race, the most venerable +structures ever reared by the hand of man. They are far +older than any of the monuments of Roman or Grecian antiquity. +They were a marvel and a mystery then as much as +they are to-day. How <i>much</i> older cannot be said with certainty. +Authorities are not fully agreed, but the general belief +among the later chronologists is that the Great Pyramid +was built about two thousand one hundred and seventy +years before the time of Christ, and the next in size a century +later. Thus both have been standing about four thousand +years. Napoleon was right therefore when he said to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> +his soldiers before the battle fought with the Mamelukes +under the shadow of the Pyramids, "From those heights +forty centuries behold you." This disposes of the idea which +some have entertained, that they were built by the children +of Israel when they were in Egypt; for according to this +they were erected two hundred years before even the time +of Abraham. Jacob saw them when he came down into +Egypt to buy corn; and Joseph showed them to his brethren. +The subject Hebrews looked up to them in the days of their +bondage. Moses saw them when he was brought up in the +court of Pharaoh, and they disappeared from the view of the +Israelites only when they fled to the Red Sea. They had +been standing a thousand years when Homer sang of the +siege of Troy; and here came Herodotus the father of history, +four hundred years before Christ, and gazed with wonder, +and wrote about them as the most venerable monuments of +antiquity, with the same curious interest as Rawlinson does +to-day. So they have been standing century after century, +while the generations of men have been flowing past, like the +waters of the Nile.</p> + +<p>We visited the Great Pyramid again on our return from +Upper Egypt, and explored the interior, but reserve the +description to another chapter. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER II.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">ON THE NILE.</p> + +<p>At last we are on the Nile, floating as in a dream, in the +finest climate in the world, amid the monuments and memories +of thousands of years. Anything more delightful than +this climate for winter cannot be imagined. The weather is +always the same. The sky is always blue, and we are bathed +in a soft, delicious atmosphere. In short, we seem to have +come, like the Lotus-eaters, to "a land where it is always +afternoon." In such an air and such a mood, we left Cairo +to make the voyage to which we had been looking forward +as an event in our lives.</p> + +<p>To travellers who desire to visit Egypt, and to see its +principal monuments, without taking more time than they +have at command, it is a great advantage that there is now a +line of steamers on the Nile. The boats belong to the Khedive, +but are managed by Cook & Son, of London, the well-known +conductors of excursions in Europe and the East. +They leave Cairo every fortnight, and make the trip to the +First Cataract and back in twenty days, thus comprising the +chief objects of interest within a limited time. Formerly +there was no way to go up the Nile except by chartering a +boat, with a captain and crew for the voyage. This mode of +travel had many charms. The kind of boat—called a <i>dahabeeah</i>—was +well fitted for the purpose, with a cabin large +enough for a single family, or a very small party, and an upper +deck covered with awnings; and as it spread its three-cornered +lateen sail to the wind, it presented a pretty and +picturesque object, and the traveller floated along at his own +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> +sweet will. This had only the drawback of taking a whole +winter. But to leisurely tourists, who like to do everything +thoroughly, and so take but one country in a year; or +learned Egyptologists, who wish, in the intervals of seeing +monuments, to make a special study of the history of Egypt; +or invalids, who desire only to escape the damps and fogs of +Britain, or the bitter cold of the Northern States of America—nothing +can be imagined more delightful. There is a class +of overworked men for whom no medicine could be prescribed +more effectual than a winter idled away in this soothing, +blissful rest. Nowhere in the world can one obtain +more of the <i>dolce far niente</i>, than thus floating slowly and +dreamily on the Nile. But for those of us who are wandering +over all the earth, crossing all the lands and seas in the +round world, this slow voyaging will not answer.</p> + +<p>Nor is it necessary. One can see Egypt—not of course +minutely, but sufficiently to get a general impression of the +country—in a much less time. It must be remembered that +this is not like other countries which lie four-square, presenting +an almost equal length and breadth, but in shape is +a mere line upon the map, being a hundred times as long as +it is broad. To be exact, Egypt from the apex of the Delta—that +is from Cairo—to the First Cataract, nearly six hundred +miles, is all enclosed in a valley, which, on an average, +is only six miles wide, the whole of which may be seen from +the deck of a steamer, while excursions are made from day +to day to the temples and ruins. It is a mistake to suppose +that one sees more of these ruins on a boat because he is so +much longer about it, when the extra time consumed is not +spent at Denderah or Thebes, but floating lazily along with +a light wind, or if the wind be adverse, tied up to a bank to +await a change. In a steamer the whole excursion is well +divided, ample time being allowed to visit every point of interest, +as at Thebes, where the boat stops three days. As +soon as one point is done, it moves on to another. In this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> +way no time is lost, and one can see as much in three weeks +as in a dahabeeah in three months.</p> + +<p>Our boat carried twenty-seven passengers, of whom more +than half were Americans, forming a most agreeable company. +All on deck, we watched with interest the receding shores, +as we sailed past the island of Rhoda, where, according to +tradition, the infant Moses was found in the bulrushes; and +where the Nilometer, a pillar planted in the water ages ago, +still marks the annual risings and fallings of the great river +of Egypt. The Pyramids stood out clear against the western +sky. That evening we enjoyed the first of a series of glorious +sunsets on the Nile. Our first sail was very short—only +to Sakkara, a few miles above Cairo, where we lay to for the +night, the boat being tied up to the bank, in the style of a +steamer on the Mississippi.</p> + +<p>Early the next morning our whole company hastened +ashore, where a large array of donkeys was waiting to receive +us. These had been sent up from Cairo the night before. +My faithful attendant was there with "Yankee Doodle," +and claimed me as his special charge. We were soon +mounted and pricking over what we should call "bottom +lands" in the valleys of our Western rivers, the wide plain +being relieved only by the palm groves, and rode through an +Arab village, where we were pursued by a rabble rout of +ragged children. The dogs barked, the donkeys brayed, and +the children ran. Followed by such a retinue, we approached +the Pyramids of Sakkara, which stand on the same plateau +as those of Ghizeh, and are supposed to be even older in +date. Though none of them are equal to the Great Pyramid, +they belong to the same order of Cyclopean architecture, and +are the mighty monuments of an age when there were giants +in the earth.</p> + +<p>There is a greater wonder still in the Tombs of the Sacred +Bulls, which were long buried beneath the sands of the +desert, but have been brought to light by a modern explorer, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> +but which I will not describe here, as I shall speak of them +again in illustration of the religious ideas of the Egyptians.</p> + +<p>Near the Pyramids of Sakkara is the site of Memphis, the +capital of ancient Egypt, of whose magnificence we have the +most authentic historic accounts, but of which hardly a trace +remains. We galloped our donkeys a long distance that we +might pass over the spot where it stood, but found only great +mounds of earth, with here and there a few scattered blocks +of granite, turned up from the soil, to tell of the massive +structures that are buried beneath. The chief relic of its +former glory is a statue of Rameses the Great, one of the +most famous of the long line of the Pharaohs—a statue which +was grand enough to be worthy of a god—being some fifty +feet high, but which now lies stretched upon the earth, with its +face downward, all its fine proportions completely buried in +a little pond—or rather puddle—of dirty water! At certain +seasons of the year, when the Nile subsides, the features are +exposed, and one may look upon a countenance "whose bend +once did awe the world;" but at present, seeing only the +back, and that broken, it has no appearance or shape of anything, +and might be a king, or queen, or crocodile. What a +bitter satire is it on all human pride, that this mighty king +and conqueror, the Napoleon of his day—who made nations +tremble—now lies prone on the earth, his imperial front +buried in the slime and ooze of the Nile! That solitary stone +is all that is left of a city of temples and palaces, which are +here entombed, and where now groves of palms wave their +tasselled plumes, like weeping willows over the sepulchre of +departed greatness.</p> + +<p>Our next excursion was to the remains of a very remote +antiquity on the other side of the Nile—the Rock-Tombs of +Beni-Hassan—immense caverns cut in the side of a mountain, +in which were buried the great ones of Egypt four thousand +years ago. Many of them are inscribed with hieroglyphics, +and decorated with frescoes and bas-reliefs, in which we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> +recognize not only the appearance of the ancient Egyptians, +but even of the animals which were familiar in that day, +such as the lion, the jackal, and the gazelle, and more frequently +the beasts of burden—bulls and donkeys; but in none +do we discover the horse, nor, what is perhaps even more +remarkable in a country surrounded by deserts—the camel.</p> + +<p>In the King's tomb, or sepulchral chamber, a room some +forty feet square, hollowed out of the solid rock, the vaulted +roof is supported by Doric pillars, which shows that the +Greeks obtained many of their ideas of architecture in +Egypt, as well as of philosophy and religion.</p> + +<p>As we continue our course up the river, we observe more +closely the features of the valley of the Nile. It is very +narrow and is abruptly bounded by barren and ragged mountains. +Between these barriers the river winds like a serpent +from side to side, now to the east, and now to the west, +but inclining more to the range of Eastern or Arabian hills, +leaving the greater breadth of fertility on the western bank. +Here is the larger number of villages; here is the railroad +which the Khedive has built along the valley, beside +which runs the long line of telegraph poles, that sign of +civilization, keeping pace with the iron track, and passing +beyond it, carrying the electric cord to the upper Nile, to Nubia +and Soudan. The Khedive, with that enterprise which marks +his administration, has endeavored to turn the marvellous +fertility of this valley to the most profitable uses. He has +encouraged the culture of cotton, which became very extensive +during our civil war, and is still perhaps the chief industry +of the country. Next to this is the growth of the +sugar-cane: he has expended millions in the erection of +great manufactories of sugar, whose large white walls and +tall chimneys are the most conspicuous objects at many +points along the Nile.</p> + +<p>Now, as thousands of years ago, the great business of the +people is <i>irrigation</i>. The river does everything. It fertilizes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> +the land; it yields the crops. The only thing is to bring +the water to the land at the seasons when the river does not +overflow. This is done by a very simple and rude apparatus, +somewhat like an old-fashioned well-sweep, by which a bucket +is lowered into the river, and as it is swung up the water is +turned into a trench which conducts it over the land. This +is the <i>shadoof</i>, the same which was used in the time of Moses. +There is another method by which a wheel is turned by an +ox, lifting up a series of buckets attached to a chain, but +this is too elaborate and expensive for the greater part of the +poor people who are the tillers of the soil.</p> + +<p>We pass a great number of villages, but, larger and smaller, +all present the same general features. At a distance they +have rather a pretty effect, as they are generally embowered in +palm trees, out of which sometimes peers the white minaret +of a mosque. But a nearer approach destroys all the picturesqueness. +The houses are built of unburnt brick, dried +in the sun. They are mere huts of mud—as wretched habitations +as an Irish hovel or an Indian wigwam. The floor is +the earth, where all sexes and ages sit on the ground, while +in an enclosure scarcely separate from the family, sheep and +goats, and dogs and asses and camels, lie down together.</p> + +<p>The only pretty feature of an Arab village is the <i>doves</i>. +Where these Africans got their fondness for birds, I know +not, but their mud houses are surmounted—and one might +almost say <i>castellated</i>—with dove-cotes, which of course are +literally "pigeon-holed," and stuck round with branches, to +seem like trees, and these rude aviaries are alive with wings +all day long. It was a pretty and indeed a touching sight to +see these beautiful creatures, cooing and fluttering above, +presenting such a contrast, in their airy flights and bright +plumage, to the dark and sad human creatures below.</p> + +<p>But if the houses of the people are so mean and poor, their +clothing is still worse, consisting generally of but one garment, +a kind of sack of coarse stuff. The men working at the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> +<i>shadoof</i> on the river brink have only a strip of cloth around +their loins. The women have a little more <i>dress</i> than the +men, though generally barefoot and bareheaded—while carrying +heavy jars of water on their heads. The children have +the merest shred of a garment, a clout of rags, in such tatters +that you wonder how it can hold together, while many are +absolutely naked.</p> + +<p>This utter destitution would entail immense suffering, and +perhaps cause the whole race to die out, but for the climate, +which is so mild that it takes away in a great degree the +need of shelter and raiment, which in other countries are +necessary to human existence.</p> + +<p>This extreme poverty is aggravated by one disease, which +is almost universal. The bright sun, glaring on the white +sands, produces an inflammation of the eyes, which being +neglected, often ends in blindness. I have seen more men in +Egypt with one eye, or with none, than in all Europe.</p> + +<p>It might be supposed that a people, thus reduced by poverty +and smitten by disease, would be crushed out of +all semblance of humanity. And yet this Arab race is +one which has a strong tenacity of life. Most travellers +judge them harshly, because they are disgusted by the unceasing +cry for <i>backsheesh</i>, which is the first word that a stranger +hears as he lands in Egypt, and the last as he leaves it. +But even this (although it is certainly a nuisance and a pest) +might be regarded with more merciful judgment, if it were +considered that it is only the outward sign of an internal disease; +that general beggary means general poverty and general +misery.</p> + +<p>Leaving this noisy crowd, which gathers about us in every +village that we enter, it is easy to find different specimens of +Arab character, which engage our interest and compel our +respect. One cannot look at these men without admiring +their physique. They remind me much of our American Indians. +Like them, they are indolent, unless goaded to work +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> +by necessity, and find nothing so pleasant as to sit idly in the +sun. But when they stand up they have an attitude as erect +as any Indian chief, and a natural dignity, which is the badge +of their race. Many a man who has but a single garment to +cover him, will wrap it about him as proudly as any Spanish +cavalier would toss his cloak over his shoulders, and stalk +away with a bold, free stride, as if, in spite of centuries of +humiliation, he were still the untamed lord of the desert. +Their old men are most venerable in appearance. With their +long beards, white turbans, and flowing garments, they might +stand for the picture of Old Testament patriarchs. The women +too (who do not cover their faces as much as those in +lower Egypt), though coarsely and meanly dressed, yet as they +walk with their water-jars on their heads, stand more erect +than the fashionable ladies of our cities. I see them every +day coming to fill their "pitchers" precisely as Rebecca and +Rachel came three thousand years ago, and if I should approach +one, saying, Give me to drink, (which I might well do, +for the water of the Nile—though containing so much sediment, +that it needs to be filtered—is as soft and sweet as +that of our own Croton), she would let down her jar from +her head just as Rebecca let down her jar for the servant +of Abraham, when he came to ask her in marriage for his +master's son Isaac.</p> + +<p>The children too, though often naked, and if clothed at +all, always in rags, yet have fine olive complexions, and +dazzling teeth, and those bright eyes which are the sign of +a degree of native intelligence.</p> + +<p>Nor can I refuse to say a word for the poor donkey-boy. +Many years ago a Scotchman in the Cape Colony, South +Africa, who was accustomed to make long journeys in the +bush, wrote a little poem, depicting the joys of that solitary +life, which began,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1">"Afar in the desert I love to ride,</p> +<p>With the silent bush-boy by my side."</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span></p> + +<p>The donkey-boy is never silent, he is always singing or +calling to his donkey, urging him forward with stick and +voice; yet who could wish a more patient or faithful attendant, +who, though on foot, trots by your side from morning +to night, the slave of your caprice, taking meekly all your +rebukes, perhaps undeserved, and content at last with a +pittance for his service?</p> + +<p>So have I had a little girl as a water-carrier, running +close to my saddle all day long, keeping up with the donkey's +pace, and carrying a small jar of water on her head, +to wash my hands and face, or assuage my thirst, thankful +at last for a few piastres as her reward.</p> + +<p>We reached Assiout, the capital of Upper Egypt, early +Sunday morning, and laid up for the day. While our boat's +company were preparing to go on shore to see the town, I +mounted a donkey and started off to find the American Mission, +which is at work among the Copts, who claim to be +the descendants of the ancient Egyptians. I arrived at the +chapel in time to hear a sermon and an address to the Sunday-school. +As the services were in Arabic, I could not +understand what was said, but I could perceive at once the +earnestness of the speakers, and the close attention of the +hearers. After the sermon there was a baptism. The congregation +was a very respectable one both in numbers and +appearance. There were perhaps two hundred present, all +decently, although some were very poorly clad, and presented +a striking contrast to the ragged and dirty people around +them. In the quiet and orderly worship, and the songs that +were sung, which were Arabic words to American tunes, +there was much to make one think of home. There was +nothing to distinguish the congregation except the Oriental +turbans and dress, and the fact that the women sat apart +from the men, separated by a screen, which shows that the +seclusion of women is not confined to the Mohammedans. +It is an Oriental custom, and is observed by the Copts as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> +well as the Moslems. I am told that even among Christian +families here, it is not considered quite "the thing" for +women to go abroad and show impertinent curiosity, and +that ladies of good position, who are as intelligent as most +Orientals, have never seen the Nile, but two miles distant! +Such is the power of fashion even in Africa. In the church +are several men of wealth, who give freely of their means, +as well as use their influence, for its support. The Copts +are nominal Christians, although, like most of the Christian +sects of the East, they are very ignorant and very superstitious. +But they have not the fanatical hatred to Christianity +of the Mussulmans. They acknowledge the authority +of the Bible, and are thus more open to argument and persuasion. +Besides this congregation, the mission has some dozen +schools in the surrounding country. In the town itself, +besides the schools for the poorest children, it has a boarding-school +for those of a better class, an academy which is +the beginning of a college, and half a dozen young men are +preparing for the ministry. The field is a very hopeful one, +and I was assured that the success of the mission was limited +only by the means at its disposal.</p> + +<p>After visiting the schools, Rev. Mr. Strang accompanied +me through the town. It has over twenty-five thousand inhabitants, +and is the point of departure for the caravans +which cross the Great Desert to Darfour and the far interior +of Africa, returning laden with ivory and ostrich +feathers, as in the days of King Solomon. We saw in an +open square, or market-place, some hundred camels, that, as +they lay wearily on the earth, looked as if they might have +made the long journey over the trackless sands. Laborers +were at work, with no respect for the day, for Friday is the +Mohammedan Sabbath; and my friend pointed out, where a +number of workmen were building a house, the "taskmaster" +sitting on the top of the wall to overlook them, as +in the days of the Bible. As we returned by an old portal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> +in the city walls, we found a number of long-bearded and +venerable men, who were "sitting in the gate" as "elders" +to administer justice. The city gate is the place of honor +and of justice now, as it was thousands of years ago.</p> + +<p>In the mountain behind the town are a great number of +tombs, like those of Beni-Hassan, vast chambers hewn out +of the rock ages ago for burial places. We walked along +by these silent memorials of the mighty dead, to the summit, +from which is one of the most beautiful views of the +valley of the Nile. Below the plain is spread out for many +miles, well watered like the garden of the Lord, the emerald +green coming up to the very foot of the barren hills. But +there it ceases instantly, giving place to the desert.</p> + +<p>These contrasts suggest some comparisons between the +scenery and the climate of Egypt, and our own country. +Whoever breathes this balmy air, and looks up to this cloudless +sky, must feel that the Lord of all the earth has been +bountiful to Egypt. As we read of the winter storms now +raging over half of Europe, we bless the more kindly skies +that are over us now. But after a few weeks of this dreamy, +languid life, one begins to feel the want of something else to +stir his blood. He finds that nature in Egypt, like the +works of man, like the temples and the pyramids, is a sublime +monotony. The landscapes are all the same. There are +four or five grand features, the river, the valley, the hills +that enclose it, and beyond the boundless desert, and over +all the burning sun and sky. These are the elements that +enter into every landscape. There is no change, no variety. +Look where you will, there is no vision in the distance of +lofty peaks dark with pines, or white with snow, no torrents +leaping down the mountain side (the <i>silence</i> of Egypt is one +of the things that most oppress me), no brooks that run +among the hills, no winding paths along their banks that +invite the stranger to lose himself in their shade. I see indeed +hills on either horizon, but they are barren and desolate. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> +On all this double range, for six hundred miles, there +is not a single green thing—not a tree, not a shrub, not a +blade of grass, not even a rock covered with moss, only a +waste of sand and stone. If you climbed those hills yonder +across the valley you would look off upon a boundless plain +of sand that stretches to the Red Sea; while behind where +we stand is the Libyan Desert, which is only an arm of the +Great Sahara, that crosses almost the whole of the continent. +In all this waste the valley of the Nile is the one narrow +strip of fertility. And even this is parched and burnt up to +the very water's edge. Hence the monotony of vegetation. +There is not a forest in all Egypt, only the palm +groves, which are planted like garden flowers, but no tangled +wild wood, no lofty elms, no broad-spreading oaks that cast +their grateful shadow on the burning plains. All that variety +of nature, with which in other lands she beguiles the +weary heart of man, is wanting here. It is indeed the land +of the sun, and in that is at once its attraction and its terror, +as the fiery orb beats down upon it, withering man and beast, +and turning the earth into a desert.</p> + +<p>Seeing this monotony of nature, and feeling this monotony +of life, one begins to pine after awhile, for a return to +the scenes more varied, though more wild and rugged, of his +own more northern clime. We hear much of the beauty of +a "cloudless sky." It is indeed a relief for a few weeks to +those who escape from wintry storms, from bitter winds and +blinding snow. But who would have sunshine <i>forever</i>? +The light and warmth are better when softened and subdued +by clouds that intercept the overpowering rays. But here +the clouds are few, and they do not "return after the rain," +for there <i>is</i> no rain. In Lower Egypt there is what may be +called a rainy season. In the Delta, as the clouds roll up +from the Mediterranean, there is sometimes a sound of abundance +of rain. But in Upper Egypt it may be said that it +never rains. In Assiout it has rained but three times in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> +ten years! Of course the heat is sometimes fearful. Now +it is mid-winter, and the air is comparatively cool and bracing, +but in midsummer it reaches 110 and 112 degrees in the +shade! For days and nights together the heat is so intense +that not a leaf stirs in the palm groves. Not only is there +not a drop of rain—there is not a breath of air. This it is +to have a "cloudless sky"! Gladly then would our friend +exchange for half the year the climate of Egypt for that of +America. How refreshing it would be to him to see, just +for once, great masses of black clouds gathering over the +Arabian Hills, to see the lightnings flash as he has seen +them in his native Ohio, and to hear the thunder-peals rolling +across the valley from mountain to mountain, and at last +dying away on the Libyan desert.</p> + +<p>Think of this, ye who shiver in your winter storms at +home, and sigh for Egypt. Take it all in all, would you +make the exchange? +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER III.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">THE TEMPLES OF EGYPT—DID MOSES GET HIS LAW FROM THE +EGYPTIANS?</p> + +<p>In the distribution of the monuments of Egypt, it is a +curious fact that the Pyramids are found almost wholly in +Lower Egypt, and the great Temples in Upper Egypt. It +was not till we had been a week on the Nile, that we had +our first sight of the latter at Denderah. We have since +spent three days at Thebes, the great centre of historical interest, +and have made a regular campaign of sight-seeing, +starting on excursions every morning, and thus have explored +the ruins on both sides of the river—for Thebes, like many +other great cities—like London and Paris—was built on two +sides of a river, but one much greater than the Thames or +the Seine, yet not so great but that it was spanned by a +bridge (at least this is inferred from some ancient sculptures +and inscriptions), over which poured a population such as +pours over London Bridge to-day. The site seems made for +a great capital, for here the mountains retire from the river, +sweeping round in a circuit of some fifty miles, leaving a +broad plain to be filled with human habitations. Here four +thousand years ago was built a city greater than that on the +banks of the Tigris or the Euphrates, than Nineveh or Babylon. +Here was the centre of power and dominion for two +continents—not only for Africa, but for Asia—to which +flocked the multitudinous nations of Assyria and Arabia and +Persia and the farthest East, as well as the tribes of Ethiopia—as +two thousand years later all the peoples of the earth +flocked to Rome. It is easy, from historical records and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> +monumental inscriptions, to form some idea of the glory of +this capital of the ancient world. We can imagine the tumult +and the roar of this more ancient Rome, when the chariots +of mighty kings, and the tread of armies returning +victorious from distant wars, thundered through her hundred +gates.</p> + +<p>Then did the kings of Egypt rear temples and palaces and +statues and obelisks worthy of all that greatness. Then +were built the most gigantic temples ever raised by the hand +of man—as much surpassing in vastness and grandeur those +reared centuries afterward by the Greeks, as the latter surpass +anything by the moderns. The temples of Thebes—including +Luxor and Karnac, which are parts of one city—are +as much grander than the Parthenon, as the Parthenon is +grander than the Madeleine at Paris, which is a feeble attempt +to copy it.</p> + +<p>We have now been a week—beginning with Denderah—studying +these ruins, and may give certain general impressions. +We do not attempt any detailed description, which +must necessarily be inadequate, since neither words nor figures +convey an idea of them, any more than they do of the +Alps. What would be thought of an avenue nearly two +miles long, lined with over twelve hundred colossal sphinxes? +Yet such was the avenue from Luxor to Karnac—an approach +worthy to lead to the temple of the gods. What can +we say of a forest of columns, each twelve feet in diameter, +stretching out in long colonnades; of the massive walls covered +with bas-reliefs; and obelisks in single shafts of granite, +of such height and weight that it is the wonder of modern +engineering how they could be cut from the side of the hills, +and be brought a hundred and forty miles, and erected on +their firm bases.</p> + +<p>But this temple—or rather cluster of temples and palaces—was +not, like the temple of Solomon, finished in a single +reign. Karnac was not the work of one man, or of one generation. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> +It was twenty-five hundred years in building, successive +kings and dynasties adding to the mighty whole, +which was to represent all the glory of Egypt.</p> + +<p>The general impression of these temples—and the same is +true of the Egyptian statues and sculptures—is one of grandeur +rather than beauty. They seek to overpower the senses +by mere size. Sometimes they overdo the matter. Thus in +the temples at Karnac the columns seem to me too large +and too much crowded for the best effect. Ordinary trees +may be planted in a dense grove, but great, broad-spreading +oaks or elms require space around them; and if these columns +were a little more <i>spaced</i>—to use a printer's word—the +architectural effect would be still grander. So in the +Egyptian sculpture, everything is colossal. In the granite +lions and sphinxes there is always an aspect of power in repose +which is very impressive, and strikes one with awe. But +in any lighter work, such as frescoes and bas-reliefs, there is +a total absence of delicacy and grace. Nothing can be more +stiff. They sometimes have a rude force of drawing, but +beauty they have none. That was born in Greece. All the +sculptures on all the temples of Egypt are not worth—except +as historical monuments—the friezes of the Parthenon.</p> + +<p>One thing else has struck me much as to the plan of these +temples, viz.: that we see in them the types and models of +much that has been reproduced in various forms of ecclesiastical +architecture. One has but to observe with some care +the construction of these vast basilicas, to see how many features +of Jewish, and even of Christian and Moslem architecture, +have been adopted from still older temples and an +earlier religion. Thus in the temple at Edfoo there is first +the vast enclosure surrounding the whole, and then within +the walls an outer court open to the sky, corresponding to +the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple at Jerusalem, to +the Court of the Fountains leading to the Mosques, and the +cloister surrounding the approaches to old abbeys and cathedrals. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> +One might find a still closer resemblance in forms of +worship, in the vestments of priests, in the altars, and in the +burning of incense, etc., a parallel which scholars have often +traced.</p> + +<p>And now of all this magnificence and glory of the ancient +capital of Egypt, what remains? Only these vast ruins of +temples and palaces. The "plain of Thebes" is still here, +but deserted and silent. A few columns and statues rise +above the plain to mark where the city stood, but the city +itself is gone as much as the people who inhabited it four +thousand years ago. A few miserable mud huts are built +against the walls of mighty temples, and the ploughman +drives his team over the dust of the city of a hundred gates. +I saw a fellah ploughing with a cow and a camel yoked together, +and a couple of half-naked Arabs raising water with +their <i>shadoof</i> between the Memnon (the statue which was +said to sing when its stony lips were touched by the rising +of the sun) and its brother statue—the two great Colossi, +between which ran the Royal street to Luxor. Was there +ever a more complete and utter desolation? In the temple +called the Rameseum once stood the largest statue that ever +was known—that of Rameses the Great (the same who had +a statue at Memphis, for he erected monuments to himself +everywhere), cut out of a single block of granite brought +from the First Cataract, and weighing nearly nine hundred +tons! On this was inscribed, as Herodotus writes, who saw +it twenty-three hundred years ago: "I am the king of kings: +if any man wish to know how great I am, and where I lie, +let him surpass one of my works!" What a comment on +the emptiness of human ambition, that this colossal statue, +which was to last to the end of the world, was long ago +pulled down by a later conqueror, Cambyses, the Persian, +and now lies on its back, with its nose knocked off, and eyes +put out, and all its glory in the dust!</p> + +<p>In studying the figures and the inscriptions on the walls +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> +of temples, there are many things which throw light on the +manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians. Here is a +scene of hunting, or of fishing, or of feasting. Here are the +different trades, which show the skill of the people in the +mechanic arts, and many scenes which give us an insight +into their domestic life. These have been the subjects of +two learned and most interesting works by Wilkinson, +which open the very interior of ancient Egypt to our modern +eyes. They show a very high degree of civilization—of skill +in all the useful arts, a skill fully equal in many things, and +in some greatly superior, to that of our own day. Wendell +Phillips, in his famous lecture on "The Lost Arts," finds +many of his illustrations in ancient Egypt. I could not but +think that this furnished a very effective answer to those +advocates of evolution, who hold that mankind sprung from +animals, and have gradually developed to their present +state. How much progress have the Egyptians made in four +thousand years? Here the race has gone backward, so that +there is certainly no inherent tendency in our nature to +advance.</p> + +<p>But I was less interested in studying the domestic life of +the ancient Egyptians, than their religious ideas. Herodotus +says that the Egyptians were a very religious people, excelling +all others in the honors paid to their gods; and this we +can well believe, seeing the temples that they reared for their +worship. But what were the gods they adored, and what +sort of worship did they render, and how did all this act on +the life and character of the people? Here we obtain a less +exalted estimate of the ancient Egyptians. The remains +which they have left, while they illustrate the greatness of +the empire, which four thousand years ago had its seat in +the valley of the Nile, do not give a high idea of its Religion. +The land was wholly given to idolatry. The Egyptians had +as many gods as the Greeks and Romans, only baser and +lower, indicating baser and lower ideas. They made gods, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> +not only of the sun, moon, and stars, but of beasts and birds +and reptiles—of the apis and the ibis—of the serpent and +the crocodile.</p> + +<p>At Sakkara we visited one of the most stupendous mausoleums +that we have seen in Egypt—one which Herodotus +described, but which for centuries was so buried by the +sands of the desert that its very site was not known until +brought to light by the researches of Mariette Bey, who has +done so much to restore the monuments of ancient Egypt. +The approach to it was by an avenue of sphinxes, which led +to a vast subterranean gallery—twenty feet wide and high—and +leading two thousand feet, more than a third of a mile, +under the earth. This long, vaulted passage is hewn in the +solid rock—out of which open on either side a series of +chambers or recesses, like side chapels—each containing a +sarcophagus, 15 × 8 feet. These tombs, hollowed out of the +solid granite, are so huge and massive that we wonder how +they ever could have been got there. Yet these great sarcophagi—fit +for the burial places of a long line of kings—were +not for the Pharaohs or the Ptolemies, but for the Sacred +Bulls! Thirty of these sarcophagi have been found, and on +the walls are tablets which record the birth, and death, and +burial of each one of these sacred beasts. These were the +gods of Egypt, mother of the arts, and civilizer of the earth! +This great repository of dead divinities is a colossal monument, +at once of the architectural skill of the ancient Egyptians, +and of their degrading superstition.</p> + +<p>This single fact is enough to answer those who would imply, +if they do not quite dare to assert, that the inspiration +of the Books of Moses was derived from the Egyptians. It +is a favorite theory of certain writers that Moses, being +brought up in Egypt, here obtained both the Law and the +Religion which he gave to the Israelites. No doubt he did +learn much from a country that was at that time the most +civilized in the world. He was brought up in a court, and enjoyed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> +every advantage of a royal education. He was "learned +in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." And it detracts not at +all from his inspiration, to suppose that he may have been +instructed to embody in his new and better code whatever +was excellent in the older system, and had been approved by +the experience of centuries. The ceremonial laws—such as +those of purification—may have been adopted from the +Egyptians. But these are the mere fringes of the garment +of the great Lawgiver. As soon as we open the Hebrew +Scriptures, we find traces of a wisdom such as the Egyptians +never knew. The very first sentence—"In the beginning +God created the heavens and the earth"—scatters the fables +of Isis and Osiris, and substitutes for the troop of heathen +deities the worship of One Living and True God. This single +declaration marks a stupendous advance in the religious faith +and worship of mankind.</p> + +<p>The same first principle appears as the corner-stone of the +law given on Mount Sinai: "I am the Lord thy God which +brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of +bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."</p> + +<p>The second law of the first table breaks in pieces the images +of the gods of the Egyptians: "Thou shalt not make +unto thee any graven image, nor any likeness of any thing +that is in heaven above, nor in the earth beneath, nor in the +waters under the earth." This was spoken to a people that +had just come out of a country where they worshipped beasts +and birds and reptiles, and where the walls of the temples +were covered with the images of all kinds of foul and creeping +things.</p> + +<p>In this age of the world, and among civilized nations, we +cannot understand the passion for idolatry. Yet it is one of +the most universal and ineradicable instincts of a half barbarous +people. They see tokens of an unseen power in the +forces of nature, in clouds and winds, in lightning and tempest, +and they torment themselves with all imaginable terrors, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> +from which they seek relief and protection in bowing +down to gods of wood and stone.</p> + +<p>The Israelites coming out of Egypt, were out of the house +of bondage in one sense, but they were in it in another. +They were continually relapsing into idolatry. The golden +calf of Aaron was but an imitation of the sacred bulls of +Egypt. Often they pined for the products of the fertile valley +of the Nile. With nothing but the burning sands beneath +their feet, they might well long for the shade of the palm +tree and for its delicious fruit, and they said, Why hath this +man Moses brought us up to die in this wilderness? It required +forty years of wandering, and that a whole generation +should leave their bones to whiten the sands of the desert, +before their children could be wholly alienated from the worship +of false gods. So not only with the Israelites, but with +all nations of men, ages of fiery discipline have been necessary +to bring back the race to this first article of our faith: +"I believe in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven +and earth."</p> + +<p>We might follow the comparison through all the tables of +the law, to show how absurd is the pretence that what Moses +taught to the Israelites he first learned from the Egyptians. +Tell us, ye learned antiquaries, where on all these temples, +and in all the records which they have left us, is there any +trace of the Ten Commandments?</p> + +<p>And yet Egypt is connected very intimately, in history at +least, with the birth of our religion. No other country, except +Palestine, figures so largely in the Bible. Abraham +went down into Egypt. Here came the sons of Jacob to buy +corn, and found Joseph ruling in the house of Pharaoh. +And hither centuries later fled the virgin mother with her +child from the wrath of Herod, fulfilling the prediction, "Out +of Egypt have I called my son."</p> + +<p>But Religion—the Divine wisdom which at once instructs +and saves mankind—came not from the valley of the Nile. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> +Abraham and Jacob and Moses saw the Pyramids standing +just as we see them now, but they did not point them to the +true God. That knowledge came from a higher source. +"History," says Bunsen, "was born on that night when +Moses, with the law of God in his heart, led the people of +Israel out of Egypt." And not History only, but Religion +then came to a new birth, that was to be the herald of new +and better hopes, and of a higher civilization than was known +to the ancient world. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER IV.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">THE EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE.</p> + +<p>The valley of the Nile is one vast sepulchre. Tombs and +temples! Temples and tombs! This is the sum of the +monuments which ancient Egypt has left us. Probably no +equal portion of the earth's surface was ever so populous, at +once with the living and the dead. It is but a narrow strip +of territory—a line of green between two deserts; and +yet on this mere <i>ribbon</i> of Africa lived the millions that +made one of the most populous and powerful of ancient +empires. They were fed by the marvellous fertility of +the Nile valley, till they stood upon it almost as thick as +the ranks of corn that waved around them: and here, when +life was ended, they found a resting-place in the bosom of the +earth that nourished them, on which they slept as children on +a mother's breast. This strip of earth, long and narrow like +a grave, has been the sepulchre of nations. Here the +myriads of Egypt's ancient reigns—from the time of Menes—through +the long line of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies—the +generations that built the Pyramids and those that came after—laid +themselves down to sleep in the great valley. Thus +the very dust of Egypt was made up of the dust of ancient +Egyptians.</p> + +<p>But this was only the lot of the common people, to mingle +their dust with common clay—their tomb the common earth, +their end to be exhaled into the common air, or to reappear +in other natural forms, living in plants, blooming in flowers, +or in broad-leaved palms, casting a shadow on the earth from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> +which they sprung. But for her great ones, more enduring +monuments were reared to guard their dust and perpetuate +their names. No people, ancient or modern, ever lavished +so much on these sacred and pious memorials. They expended +more on the tombs of the dead than on the houses of +the living, for they reasoned that the latter were but temporary +dwellings, while the former were everlasting habitations. +The kings of Egypt cared more for great tombs than +great palaces, and they reared such mausoleums as the earth +never saw before. The Pyramids were their tombs, and the +mountains were hollowed into royal sepulchres. The rock +tombs of Beni-Hassan are cut in the side of the hills. +The barren mountain that looks off upon the great Libyan +desert, is honeycombed with vast and silent halls of the dead. +At Thebes the traveller, ascending from the Nile, winds his +way among hills of sand into a valley of desolation. The +summits around are not covered with pines like our own +darkly wooded hills, nor do even the rocks gather moss—but +all is bare and desolate. The desert has overflowed the earth +like a sea, and not a shrub nor a blade of grass has survived +the universal deluge. Yet here where not a living thing can +be found, has been discovered underground the most remarkable +series of tombs which exists. A whole mountain is +pierced with deep excavations. Passages open into its rocky +sides, running many hundred feet into the bowels of the earth, +and branching off into recesses like side chapels. These Halls +of Death are like kings' palaces, with stately chambers broad +and high, whose sides and ceilings are covered with hieroglyphics +and illustrative symbols.</p> + +<p>A fact so remarkable as this, that the architecture of a +great empire which has built the most colossal structures in +the world, has this tomblike character, must have a meaning. +The Egyptians were a very religious people. They were not a +gay and thoughtless race, like some of their Asiatic and European +neighbors. There is something grave even in their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> +faces, as seen in ancient statues and monuments. Their very +architecture had this heavy and solemn character. These +colossal temples, these silent sphinxes, seem oppressed with +some great mystery which they cannot reveal. These tombs +show that the Egyptian mind was full of the idea of death, +and of another life. The Egyptians were not Atheists, nor +Sadducees. They believed devoutly in God, and in a life to +come.</p> + +<p>How strongly the idea of another life had taken hold of the +Egyptian mind is evident from the symbols in their religion. +The symbol most frequently employed is that of the <i>scarabæus</i>—or +beetle—the image of which appears everywhere, which +by analogy teaches that life, in passing through death, may +be born to a new life. The beetle lays its eggs in the slime +of the Nile; it buries them in mud, which it works into a +ball, and rolls over and over, back to the edge of the desert, +and buries in sand. There its work is ended: nature does +the rest. Out of this grave comes in time a resurrection, and +life is born of death. The ostrich eggs hung up in mosques, +have the same symbolical meaning. The ostrich buries its +eggs in the sand, and nature, that kind mother which watches +over all life, gives them being. Thus is conveyed the same +idea as in the analogy of the chrysalis and the butterfly.</p> + +<p>Studying the religious faith of the Egyptians a little more +closely, we see that they believed not only in the immortality +of the soul, but in the resurrection of the body. The doctrine +taught by Paul, was long before taught by the priests of +Egypt. Their tombs were not merely memorials of those +who had ceased to live, but resting-places for the bodies of +those whose spirits were absent but would some day return. +For this, bodies were embalmed with religious care; they +were buried in tombs hewn out of the solid rock, laid away +in Pyramids, or in caverns hollowed out of the heart of the +mountains. There, embedded in the eternal rocks, locked +up with the bars of the everlasting hills, it seemed that their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> +remains would rest secure till the morning of the resurrection +day.</p> + +<p>Further, they believed not only in immortality and in +resurrection, but also in retribution. The soul that was to +pass into another life, was to go into it to be judged. There +it was to be called to account for the deeds done in the body. +Even the funeral rites indicated how strong was the belief of +a judgment to come for all who departed this life. After the +bodies were embalmed, they were borne in solemn procession +to the Nile (most of the tombs being on the western bank), +or to a sacred lake, across which they were to be ferried. +(Did not this suggest to later Roman mythologists the river +Styx, and the boatman Charon who conveyed departed souls +to the gloomy shades of Pluto?) As the funeral procession +arrived at the borders of the lake, it paused till certain +questions were answered, on which it depended whether the +dead might receive burial: or should be condemned to +wander in darkness three thousand years. If it passed +this ordeal, it moved forward, not to its everlasting repose, +but to the Hall of Judgment, where Osiris sits upon his +throne as the judge of all mankind. This scene is constantly +represented in sculptures, in bas-reliefs, and in frescoes on +the walls of tombs. In one of them a condemned wretch is +driven away in the shape of a pig! (Was it here that Pythagoras, +who studied in Egypt, obtained his doctrine of the +transmigration of souls?) Before Osiris is the scribe, the +recording angel, who keeps a faithful record of the deeds done +in the body. A long line of judges—forty-two in number—sit +arrayed as the final arbiters of his fate—each with his +question, on the answer to which may depend the destiny of +the departed soul.</p> + +<p>The "Book of the Dead" (copies of which are still found +wrapped up with mummies: several are in the British Museum) +gives the answers to be made to these searching questions, +and also the prayers to be offered, and the hymns that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> +are to be sung, as the soul enters the gloomy shades of the +under-world.</p> + +<p>In this Egyptian doctrine of a future life there are Christian +ideas. Some indeed will say that Egypt gave rather +than received; that she was the mother of all learning and +all wisdom in the ancient world; that the Greeks obtained +their philosophy from her (for Plato as well as Pythagoras +studied in Egypt); that the Eleusinian mysteries came from +Africa; that Moses here found what he taught the Hebrews; +and that even the Christian mysteries and the Christian faith +came from the banks of the Nile.</p> + +<p>There is certainly much food for reflection in this reappearance +of certain religious ideas in different countries and under +different forms. But there is a contrast as well as a resemblance. +While the Hebrews learned so much from the +Egyptians, it is very remarkable that they did <i>not</i> imbibe +that strong faith in the reality of the invisible world, which +lies at the foundation of religion. One would suppose that +the Israelites, coming out of Egypt, would be full of these +thoughts, and of the hopes and fears of a life to come. Yet +in all the books of Moses, rarely, if ever, are these motives +addressed to the Hebrews. The German critics argue from +this that the Hebrews did not believe in another life. The +late Dr. Edward Robinson, the distinguished Hebrew scholar, +said that he could not find that doctrine in the Old Testament. +Without admitting such an extreme view, it is certainly +remarkable that that idea is much less prominent in +the Old Testament than in the New. It is not Moses, but +Christ who has brought life and immortality to light.</p> + +<p>But the Egyptian doctrine of a future life, while very curious +and interesting as a study of ancient belief, is utterly +unsatisfying. The ideas are detached and fragmentary, and +wholly without evidence or authority; they are merely the +crude fancies of mythology, and not the precise teachings of +Revelation. And so in all the tombs and temples of Egypt +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> +there is nothing which can relieve the doubts of a troubled +mind, or the sorrows of a heavy heart.</p> + +<p>I have had some sober thoughts while floating on the bosom +of the Nile. We cannot but see the world through our own +eyes and through our moods of mind. To those who have +left their dead beyond the sea, foreign travel has many sad +and lonely hours. The world seems cold and empty, and +even the most religious mind is apt to be haunted with gloomy +thoughts. This is not a mood of mind peculiar to atheists +and unbelievers. Many devout men, in seasons of mental +depression, are tortured with doubts whether, after all, their +religious faith is not a delusion and a dream.</p> + +<p>And so many dark and bitter questionings come to me here +in this land of sepulchres. I have come to Egypt to learn +something of the wisdom of the Egyptians. Tell me then, +ye tombs and temples and pyramids, about God; tell me +about the life to come! But the Pyramids speak not; and +the Sphinx still looks towards the East, to watch for the rising +sun, but is voiceless and mute. This valley of the Nile +speaks of nothing but death. From end to end its rock-ribbed +hills are filled with tombs. Yet what do they all +teach the anxious and troubled heart of man? Nothing! +All these hills are silent. Not a sound, or even an echo, +comes from these dark sepulchres. No voice of hope issues +out of the caverns hollowed in the bosom of the hills. The +hard granite of the tombs itself is not more deaf to the cry +of human anguish, or the voice of supplication.</p> + +<p>I turn from the monuments of man to nature. I stand +on the bank of the Great River, and ask if it brings not some +secret out of the heart of Africa? Tell me, ye night winds, +blowing from African deserts; tell me, ye stars shining in the +African heaven (this sky of Egypt is so pure and clear that +the stars seem higher and more distant from this lower world), +what light can ye throw on this great mystery of death? +And the stars twinkle, but speak not, and the palm trees +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> +quiver in the night wind, but give no answer; and the great +Nile flows on silently to the sea, as life flows on to eternity. +Nature is dumb; the great secret is not revealed.</p> + +<p>For the revelation of that secret we turn not to Egypt, but +to Jerusalem. While the Egyptians groped darkly after the +truth, how do these dim shadows, these poor emblems and +analogies, set forth by contrast the clearer and better truth +of revelation! All that is written on the tombs of Egypt; +all that is carved in stone, or written in hieroglyphics on ancient +sarcophagi; all that is built in temples and pyramids; +is not worth that one saying of our Lord, "I am the Resurrection +and the Life; he that believeth in me, though he +were dead, yet shall he live."</p> + +<p>We spent Christmas day at Thebes, where a number of +English boats had drawn up to the landing to keep the day, +so dear to the hearts of Englishmen throughout the world. +On Christmas eve they were decorated with palm branches, +and at night were lighted up with Chinese lanterns, while +row-boats were floating about, the Arab boatmen singing +their wild, plaintive melodies.</p> + +<p>Christmas brought a scene, if not so picturesque, yet far +more sweet and tender. It had been our good fortune to +meet there Rev. Dr. Potter of New York, the rector of Grace +Church. He was going up the Nile with Miss Wolfe, of Madison +square. They were on two dahabeeahs, but kept company, +and anchored every night together. On Christmas day +there was a service on board Miss Wolfe's boat, which was +attended by all the English parties. It was held on the upper +deck, which was spread with carpets and covered with +an awning on the top and sides to protect us from the sun. +Whether it was the strange scene, occurring in a distant part +of the world, or sad memories which were recalled by these +anniversary days, seldom has a service touched me more. It +was very sweet to hear the old, old prayers—some of them +almost as old as Christianity itself—to which we had so often +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> +listened in other lands, and to join with the little company +in the Christmas hymn:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1">"Hark! the herald angels sing,</p> +<p>Glory to the new-born King;</p> +<p>Peace on earth and mercy mild;</p> +<p>God and man are reconciled."</p> +</div> + +<p>Dr. Potter read the service in his clear, rich voice, following +it with a sermon which was quite extempore and brief, but +so simple and so appropriate to the day that it went to every +heart. And when at the close was celebrated the communion, +we all felt how pleasant it was in such a place, so far +from home, in a country surrounded by the ruins of the temples +of old idolatries, to join in the worship of Him who on +this day was born to be the Light and the Hope of the world. +Better is this than all that Egypt can teach us about a life to +come.</p> + +<p>And so we turn from these great temples and tombs, which +only mock our hopes, to Him who has passed through the +grave, and lighted the way for us to follow Him. Let scholars +dispute the first intent of the words, yet nothing in the +Old Testament or the New, more distinctly expresses what I +rest upon than this: "I know that my Redeemer liveth and +that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and +though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see +God!" +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER V.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">THE RELIGION OF THE PROPHET.</p> + +<p>In a review of the faiths of Egypt, one cannot overlook +that which has ruled in the land for more than a thousand +years, and still rules, not only in Egypt, but over a large +part of Asia and Africa. We arrived in Cairo a few days +too late to witness the departure of the pilgrims for Mecca. +Once in the year there is a gathering of the faithful for a +journey which is the event of their lives. The spectacle is +one of the most picturesque in the East, as a long procession, +mounted on camels, many of which are richly caparisoned, +files through the streets of the city, amid the admiring gaze +of the whole population, and takes the way of the desert. +Slowly it moves Eastward to the Red Sea, and passing +around it, turns South to the heart of the Arabian Peninsula.</p> + +<p>A caravan of pilgrims crossing the desert to visit the birthplace +of the prophet, is a proof that religious enthusiasm still +lives even in this unbelieving age. Perhaps the Moslem +spirit is not so bigoted here as at Constantinople. The Turk, +with his heavy stolid nature, is a more obstinate religionist +than the Arab. And yet Mohammed was not a Turk; he +was an Arab, and the faith which he taught still fires the +heart of his race.</p> + +<p>In one view Cairo may be considered the capital of Islam, +as it is the seat of the great University, from which its +priests go forth to all parts of the Mohammedan world. +This University is nine hundred years old—older than Oxford, +and still flourishes with as much vigor as in the palmy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> +days of the Arabian conquest. A visit to it is the most +interesting sight in Cairo. There I saw collected together—not +one hundred or two hundred students, such as are found +in our Theological Seminaries in America—but ten thousand! +As one expressed it, "there were two acres of turbans," +assembled in a vast inclosure, with no floor but a pavement, +and with a roof over it, supported by four hundred columns, +and at the foot of every column a teacher, surrounded by +pupils, who sat at his feet precisely as Paul sat at the feet +of Gamaliel. As we entered there rose a hum of thousands +of voices, reciting the Koran. These students are not only +from Egypt, but from all parts of Africa, from Morocco to +Zanzibar. They come from far up the Nile, from Nubia +and Soudan; and from Darfour beyond the Great Desert, +and from the western coast of Africa. Asia too is largely +represented in students both from Western Asia, from +Turkey, Arabia, and Persia; and from Central Asia, from +Khiva and Bokhara, and Turkistan and Afghanistan, and +the borders of China. They come without staff or scrip. +There is no endowment to support them; no Students' Fund +or Education Board. They live on the charities of the faithful, +and when their studies are ended, those who are to be +missionaries on this continent mount their camels, and joining +a caravan, cross the Desert, and are lost in the far +interior of Africa.</p> + +<p>This strange sight has set me a-thinking, and the more +I think, the more the wonder grows. A religion that supports +great universities from generation to generation; and +that sends forth caravans, that are like armies, on long pilgrimages, +is not dead; it is full of life, and can bring into the +field tremendous forces to uphold its empire in the East. +What is the secret of its power, by which it lives on from +century to century, and seems as if it could not but by annihilating +die? There is no question of more interest to the +historical student; and no one which it is more necessary to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> +understand in order to form some just idea of the great +Eastern War which is already looming above the horizon. +A full recognition of that which is good in Islam, and of that +which gives it power, would prevent many mistakes in forecasting +the future, although it might abate the sanguine confidence +of our missionary friends in the speedy triumph of +Christianity over its hereditary foe.</p> + +<p>First of all, we must recognize the fact of its existence as +one of the great religions of the world. The number of its +adherents is variously estimated at from a hundred and fifty +to a hundred and eighty millions. It holds but a corner of +Europe, but extends its empire over a large part of Asia and +Africa. The whole of Africa which is not Pagan, is Moslem. +In Asia Islam disputes the sway of Hindooism in India, +where the Queen has more Moslem subjects than the Sultan +himself, and of Buddhism in the islands of the Malayan +Archipelago. Over so large a part of the earth's surface is +extended the wide dominion of the Prophet. His followers +number one-tenth, perhaps one-eighth, or even one-sixth part +of the human race.</p> + +<p>Nor is this dominion a merely nominal thing. On the +contrary, the true believers are strong believers. It may +well be doubted, whether among the nations nominally +Christian the mass of the people really believe with half the +firmness and the fervor of Mussulmans. The Moslems are as +sincere, and in their way as devout, as the adherents of any +religion on the face of the globe. No one can enter the +mosque of St. Sophia, and see the worshippers turning their +faces towards Mecca, not only kneeling but prostrating themselves, +touching the pavement with their foreheads, and repeating, +in a low, mournful tone, passages from the Koran, +without feeling that these men really believe. Those prostrate +forms, those wailing voices, are not the signs of hypocrisy, +but of a faith that, however mistaken, is at least sincere. +In their own minds they are in the presence of the Highest, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> +and offer worship to the unseen God. Indeed they are more +than believers, they are zealots, carrying their faith to fanaticism. +A body so vast in number, composed of such fierce +religionists, is certainly a great power in the political and +military, as well as religious, forces, that are yet to contend +for the mastery of the Eastern world.</p> + +<p>Nor is this power inactive in spreading its faith; it is full +of missionary zeal. Max Müller divides all the religions of +the world into proselytizing and non-proselytizing. Mohammedanism +belongs to the former class as much as Christianity. +The days are past when the followers of the Prophet swept +over large parts of Asia and Africa, converting tribes and +nations by the sword. And yet even at the present day it +keeps up a Propaganda as vigorous as that of the Catholics +at Rome. Its university here is training ten thousand young +apostles. Moslem missionaries preach the Koran, and make +proselytes, in all parts of India. But the chief field of their +labors is in Africa, where they have penetrated far into the +interior, and converted numerous tribes to the faith. It is +difficult to obtain accurate statistics in regard to the spread +of Islam in Africa. Livingstone thought the reports greatly +exaggerated. That is quite possible, and yet, making every +allowance, there can be no doubt that it has obtained a success +much greater than that of Christian missions.</p> + +<p>A religion which has such a foundation on the solid earth, +holding nations and empires in its wide dominion; and which +has such a history, stretching over twelve centuries; is a subject +worthy the closest attention of scholars. Its history is +not unlike that of Christianity itself, in the feebleness of its +beginning and the greatness of its results. It started in an +obscure corner of the world—in the deserts of Arabia—and +rapidly conquered the East, overrunning all the adjacent +parts of Asia and Africa, and extending along the Mediterranean +to the Straits of Gibraltar, and thence crossed into +Spain, where it maintained itself for eight hundred years +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> +against all the power of Europe to expel it. Such conquests +show a prodigious vitality—a vitality not yet exhausted, as +it still holds the half of Asia and Africa. A faith which +commands the allegiance of so large a part of mankind must +have some elements of truth to give it such tremendous +power. Perhaps we can find the key in the character of its +Founder, and in the faith which he taught.</p> + +<p>A great deal has been written about the life of Mohammed, +but even yet his character is imperfectly understood. +Perhaps we cannot fully understand it, for there are in it +contradictions which perplex the most patient and candid +student. By many he is dismissed at once as a vulgar impostor, +a sort of Joe Smith, who invented monstrous lies, and +by stoutly sticking to them got others to believe in them, and +as soon as he rallied a few followers about him, compelled +neighboring tribes to accept his faith by the unsparing use +of the sword.</p> + +<p>This is an easy way to get rid of a difficult historical question, +but unfortunately it does not explain the facts. It is +by that sort of cheap reasoning that Gibbon undertakes to +explain the rapid spread of Christianity. But if Mohammed +had been a cunning impostor, his first claim would have been +to work miracles, which on the contrary he never claimed at +all, but distinctly repudiated. Nor was he a greedy mercenary; +he was a poor man; his followers relate with pride +how he mended his own clothes, and even pegged his own +shoes. But he combined every element of the visionary and +the enthusiast. He had that vivid imagination that conceives +strongly of things invisible to the natural sense, to +which "things that are not become as things that are," and that +ardent temperament that kindles at the sight of these unseen +realities. Perhaps this temperament was connected with his +bodily constitution; from his youth he was subject to epileptic +fits, and his revelations were accompanied with convulsions. +Such things are found in other religions. They are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> +quite common in the history of devout and passionate Romanists. +Nor are they unknown even among Protestants, who +profess to be more sober and rational. Among the Methodists, +at camp-meetings, a very frequent effect of religious +emotion has been that strong men were so prostrated that +they fell to the ground and became as dead, and when they +recovered, retained impressions never to be effaced, as if they +had seen things which it was not lawful to utter. The revelations +of Mohammed were all accompanied by these "physical +manifestations." Sometimes the angel spoke to him as +one man to another; at other times something within his +bosom sounded like a bell, which he said "rent him in +pieces." At such times he fell to the ground and foamed at +the mouth, or his eyes turned red, and he streamed with perspiration, +and roared like a camel, in his struggle to give +utterance to the revelation of God. This does not look like +imposture, but like insanity. The constitution of such a man +is a psychological study.</p> + +<p>This natural ardor was inflamed by long seclusion. From +his youth he loved solitude. Like the old prophets, he withdrew +from the world to be alone with God. Like Elijah, he +hid himself in a cave. Every year, during the month of +Ramadan, he retired to a cave in Mount Hera, three miles +from Mecca, to give himself up to religious contemplation; +and there, it is said, amid spasmodic convulsions, he had his +first vision, in which the angel Gabriel appeared to him.</p> + +<p>This explanation of a mind half disordered, subject to +dreams and visions and fanatical illusions, is much more +rational than that of supposing in him an artful design to +impose a new religion on his countrymen. Like other enthusiasts, +he became the victim of his own illusions. His +imagination so wrought upon him that he came to accept his +visions as Divine revelations. In this he was not playing a +part; he was not the conscious hypocrite. No doubt he +believed himself what he wished others to believe. Indeed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> +he made them believe, by the very sincerity and intensity of +his own convictions.</p> + +<p>Mohammedanism may be considered as a system of theology, +and as a system of morality. The former seems to have +been derived largely from Judaism. Mohammed belonged to +the tribe of the Koreishites, who claimed to be descended from +Abraham through Ishmael. His family were the keepers of +the Caaba, or holy place of Mecca, where is the black stone +which was brought from heaven, and the spring Zemzem, +which sprang up in the desert to save the life of Hagar and +her child. Thus he was familiar from his earliest years with +the traditions of the patriarchs.</p> + +<p>When a boy of fourteen he made a journey with his uncle +into Syria, where he may have learned more of the ancient +faith. Much is said of his becoming acquainted with a Nestorian +bishop or monk, from whom he is supposed to have +learned something of Christianity. But he could not have +learned <i>much</i>, for his views of it were always extremely vague. +It is doubtful whether he ever saw the New Testament, or had +any knowledge of it other than that derived from some apocryphal +books. There is no trace in the Koran of the sublime +doctrines of the Gospel, or even of its moral precepts. Although +Mohammed professed great reverence for Jesus, whom +with Moses he considers the greatest of prophets next to himself, +yet his ideas of the Religion which He taught were of the +most indefinite kind.</p> + +<p>But one thing he did learn, which was common to Judaism +and Christianity—that there is but one God. The Monotheism +of the Hebrews took the stronger hold of him, from its +contrast to the worship around him, which had degenerated +into gross idolatry. The tribes of Arabia had become as base +idolaters as the Canaanites. Even the holy Caaba was filled +with idols, and the mission of the prophet—as he regarded +it—was to restore the worship of the One Living and True +God. His first burst of prophetic fire and prophetic wrath +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> +was a fierce explosion against idolatry, and it was a moment of +triumph when he was able to walk through the Caaba, and see +the idols dashed in pieces.</p> + +<p>Here then is the first and last truth of Islam, the existence +of one God. The whole is comprehended in this one saying, +"God is God, and Mohammed is his prophet."</p> + +<p>With the homage due to God, is the respect due to His +revealed will. Moslems claim for the Koran what many +Christians do not claim for the Bible—a literal and verbal +inspiration. Every word is Divine.</p> + +<p>And not only is the unity of God the cardinal truth, but +it is vital to salvation. In this respect Islam is a Religion. +It is not a mere philosophy, the acceptance or rejection of +which is a matter of indifference. It is not merely a system +of good morals—it is a Divine code for the government of +mankind, whose acceptance is a matter of life and death—of +salvation or damnation.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of <i>retribution</i> is held by the Moslems in its +most rigid form—more rigid indeed than in the Christian +system: for there is no atonement for sin. The judgment is +inexorable; it is absolute and eternal. Before their eyes +ever stands the Day of Judgment—the Dies Iræ—when all +men shall appear before God to receive their doom.</p> + +<p>But in that last day, when unbelievers shall be destroyed, +the followers of the prophet shall be saved. They can go to +the tribunal of their Maker without trembling. One day riding +outside the walls of Constantinople, we approached a +cemetery just as a funeral procession drew near, bearing the +form of the dead. We stopped to witness the scene. The +mourners gathered around the place where the body was laid, +and then the ulema approached the grave, and began <i>an address +to the dead</i>, telling her (it was a woman) not to be +afraid when the angel came to call her to judgment, but to +appear before the bar of the Almighty, and answer without +fear, for that no follower of the prophet should perish. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span></p> + +<p>The religious observances of the Moslems are very strict. +As God is the sole object of worship, so the great act of Religion +is communion with Him. Five times a day the voice +of the muezzin calls them to prayer. The frequent ablutions +were perhaps derived from the Jewish law. Fasting is +imposed with a severity almost unknown in the Christian +world. The most rigid Catholics hardly observe the forty +days of Lent as the Moslems do the month of Ramadan. +Almsgiving is not only recommended, but required. Every +true believer is commanded to give one-tenth of his income +to charity.</p> + +<p>As to the moral results of Mohammedanism, it produces +some excellent effects. It inculcates the strictest temperance. +The Koran prohibits the use of wine, even though +wine is one of the chief products of the East. In this virtue +of total abstinence the Moslems are an example to Christians.</p> + +<p>So in point of integrity; the honesty of the Turk is a proverb +in the East, compared with the lying of Christians. +Perhaps this comes in part not only from his religion, but +from the fact that he belongs to the conquering race. Tyrants +and masters do not need to deceive, while falsehood +and deceit are the protection of slaves. Subject races, +which have no defence before the law, or from cruel masters, +seek it in subterfuge and deception. But this claim of integrity +may be pushed too far. However it may be in Asia +Minor, among simple-minded Turks, who have not been +"spoiled by coming in contact with Christians," those who +have to do with Turks in the bazaars of Constantinople, are +compelled to confess, that if they do not tell lies, they tell +very big truths. However, as between the Turk and the +Greek, in point of honesty, it is quite possible that those +who know them both would give the preëminence to the +former.</p> + +<p>Whatever the weakness of Mohammedanism, it does not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> +show itself in <i>that sort</i> of vices. His very pride makes the +Mussulman scorn these meaner sins. His religion, as it lifts +him up with self-esteem, produces an effect on his outward +bearing. He has an air of independence which is unmistakable. +I think I never saw a Mussulman that was afraid +to look me in the face. He has none of the sneaking servility +that we see in some races. This is a natural consequence +of his creed, according to which God is so great that +no man is great in his sight. Islam is at once a theocracy +and a democracy. God is sole Lawgiver and King, before +whom all men stand on the same level. Hence men of all +nations and races fraternize together. In Constantinople +blacks and whites, the men of Circassia and the men of +Ethiopia, walk arm in arm, and stand on the level of absolute +equality.</p> + +<p>This democratic spirit is carried everywhere. There is no +caste in Islam, not even in India, where it is at perpetual +war with the castes of Hindooism. So as it spreads in the +interior of Africa, it raises the native tribes to a degree of +manliness and self-respect which they had not known before. +It "levels up" the African race. Our missionaries in +Liberia, who come in contact with certain Moslem tribes +from the interior, such as the Mandingoes, will testify that +they are greatly superior to those farther South, on the Gold +Coast, the Ashantees and the people of Dahomey, who have +filled the world with horror by their human sacrifices. All +this disappears before the advance of Islam. It breaks in +pieces the idols; it destroys devil worship and fetichism and +witchcraft, and puts an end to human sacrifices. Thus it +renders a service to humanity and civilization.</p> + +<p>So far Islam is a pretty good religion—not so good indeed +as Christianity, but better than any form of Paganism. It +has many elements of truth, derived chiefly from Judaism. +So far as Mohammed followed Moses—so far as the Koran +followed the Old Testament—they uttered only the truth, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> +and truth which was fundamental. The unity of God is +the foundation of religion. It is not only a truth, but the +greatest of truths, the first condition of any right religious +worship. In declaring this, Mohammed only proclaimed to +the Arabs what Moses had proclaimed to the Hebrews: +"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." But he +repeated it with great vehemence and effect, wielding it as +a battle-axe to break in pieces the idols of the heathen. +And so far—as against idolatry—Islam has served a great +purpose in history. But there its utility ends. It teaches +indeed that there is but one God. But what a God is that +which it presents to our worship! "This God is not our +God." The Mohammedan idea of God is very different from +the Christian idea of a Father in heaven. It is the idea of +the Awful, the Invisible—grand indeed, yet cold and distant +and far away, like the stars on the desert, or in the Arctic +night, "wildly, spiritually bright," shining with a glittering +splendor, but lofty and inaccessible, beyond the cries of +human agony or despair. This view of God is so limited +and partial as to produce the effect of positive error. In a +just religious system there must be included the two ideas of +God and man; and these in their proper relation to each +other. Exclusive contemplation of either leads astray. +When man fastens on the idea of one God, he plants himself +on a rock. But he must not bow himself upon the rock, +and clasp it so as to forget his own separate individuality, +lest the mighty stone roll over upon him and crush him. +This the Mussulman does. He dwells so on the idea of God, +that his own existence is not only lost sight of, but annihilated. +The mind, subdued in awe, is at length overpowered +by what it beholds. Man is nothing in that awful presence, +as his life is but a point in the Divine eternity.</p> + +<p>It cannot be denied that the idea of God, and God alone, +may produce some grand effects on human character. It inspires +courage. If God be for us, who can be against us? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> +That God <i>is</i> for him, the Mussulman never doubts; and this +confidence inspires him in danger, and on the field of battle, +so that he fights with desperation. But if the fortune of +war be against him, who so well as the devout Mussulman +knows how to suffer and to die? He murmurs not; but +bows his head, saying "God is great," and submits to his +fate. Thus his creed carried out to its logical consequence +ends in fatalism. He believes so absolutely in God, that +the decrees of the Almighty become a fixed fate, which the +will of man is impotent to resist. All this comes from an +imperfect idea of God. Here Islam is defective, just where +Christianity is complete.</p> + +<p>There is nothing in Mohammedanism that brings God +down to earth, within the range of human sympathy or +even of human conception. There is no incarnation, no +Son of God coming to dwell among men, hungry and weary, +bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows, suffering in the +garden, and dying on the cross.</p> + +<p>The Mussulman does not feel his need of such help. In +his prayers there is no acknowledgment of sin, no feeling of +penitence, no confession of unworthiness. He knows not +how poor and weak he is, with a religion in which there +is no Saviour and Redeemer, no Lamb of God that taketh +away the sin of the world, no Holy Spirit to help our infirmities, +to strengthen our weaknesses.</p> + +<p>So with Moslem morality; if we scan it closely, we find +it wanting in many virtues. Some writers give the most +elevated ideas of it. Says Chambers' Cyclopædia: "Aside +from the domestic relations, the ethics of the Mohammedan +religion are of the highest order. Pride, calumny, revenge, +avarice, prodigality, and debauchery, are condemned throughout +the Koran; while trust in God, submission to His will, +patience, modesty, forbearance, love of peace, sincerity, frugality, +benevolence, liberality, are everywhere insisted upon."</p> + +<p>This is very high praise. But mark the exception: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> +"Aside from the domestic relations." That exception takes +out of the system a whole class of virtues, and puts a class +of vices in their place. Here is the great crime of Islam +against humanity—its treatment of woman. We will not +charge against it more than belongs to it. The seclusion of +woman is not a Mohammedan custom so much as an Oriental +one, and one of a very ancient date. When Abraham sent +a servant to find a wife for Isaac, and he returned bringing +Rebekah, as the caravan drew near home, and Isaac went +out to meditate at eventide, as soon as Rebekah saw him in +the distance, she lighted off from her camel and "veiled herself." +Polygamy too existed before Mohammed: it existed +among the patriarchs. It is claimed that Mohammed repressed +it, limiting a man to four wives, although he far +exceeded the number himself. Gibbon, who never misses +an opportunity of making a point against the Bible, says: +"If we remember the seven hundred wives and three hundred +concubines of the wise Solomon, we shall applaud the modesty +of the Arabian who espoused no more than seventeen or +fifteen wives." But this pretence of self-restraint is a +mockery. It is notorious that Mohammed was a man of the +grossest licentiousness; and the horrible and disgusting thing +about it is that he grew more wicked as he grew older; and +while trying to put restraint upon others put none upon +himself. He punished licentiousness with a hundred stripes, +and adultery with death, and yet he was a man of unbounded +profligacy, and to make it worse, pleaded a Divine revelation +to justify it!</p> + +<p>This example of the prophet has had its influence on all +the generations of his followers. It has trailed the slime of +the serpent over them all. Any one who has been in a +Mohammedan country must have felt that the position of +woman is a degradation. One cannot see them gliding through +the streets of Cairo or Constantinople, with their faces veiled +as if it were a shame to look on them, and passing swiftly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> +as if indeed it were a sin for them to be seen abroad, without +a feeling of pity and indignation.</p> + +<p>And in what a position are such women at home, if it can +be called a home, where there is no family, no true domestic +life! The wife of a Mohammedan—the mother of his children—is +little better than a slave. She is never presented to +his friends—indeed you could not offer a greater insult to a +Turk than to ask after his wife! Of course there is no such +thing as society where women are not allowed to appear. +Such a society as that of London or Paris, composed of men +eminent in government, in science and literature—a society +refined and elevated by the presence of women of such education +and manners and knowledge of the world as to be the +fit companions of such men—could not possibly exist in Constantinople.</p> + +<p>But the degradation of woman is not the only crime to be +charged to Islam. In fit companionship with it is cruelty. +Mohammed had many virtues, but he had no mercy. He +was implacable toward his enemies. He massacred his prisoners, +not from hard necessity, but with a fierce delight. Fanaticism +extinguished natural compassion, and he put his enemies +to death with savage joy. In this his followers have +"bettered his instructions." The Turks are cruel, perhaps +partly by nature, but partly also because any tender sympathies +of nature are kept down by a fiery zeal. Their religion +does not make them merciful. When a people have become +possessed with the idea that they are the people of God, and +that others are outcasts, they become insensible to the sufferings +of those outside of the consecrated pale.</p> + +<p>In the Greek Revolution the people of Scio joined in the +rebellion. A Turkish army landed on the island, and in two +months put 23,000 of the inhabitants to the sword, without +distinction of age or sex; 47,000 were sold into slavery, and +5,000 escaped to Greece. In four months the Christian population +was reduced from 104,000 to 2,000. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span></p> + +<p>What the Turks are in Europe and Asia, the Arabs are in +Africa. The spread of Mohammedanism is a partial civilization +of some heathen tribes. But, alas, the poor natives +come in contact with "civilization" and "religion" in another +way—in the Arab slave-hunters, who, though they are +Mohammedans, and devoutly pray toward Mecca, are the +most merciless of human beings. One cannot read the pages +of Livingstone without a shudder at the barbarities practised +on defenceless natives, which have spread terror and desolation +over a large part of the interior of Africa.</p> + +<p>These cruel memories rise up to spoil the poetry and romance +which some modern writers have thrown about the religion +of the prophet. They disturb my musings, when awed +or touched by some features of Moslem faith; when I listen +to the worship in St. Sophia, or witness the departure of +pilgrims for Mecca. Whatever Oriental pomp or splendor +may still survive in its ancient worship, at its heart the system +is cold, and hard, and cruel; it does not acknowledge the +brotherhood of man, but exalts the followers of the prophet +into a caste, who can look down on the rest of mankind +with ineffable scorn. Outside of that pale, man is not a +brother, but an enemy—an enemy not to be won by love, but +to be conquered and subdued, to be made a convert or a +slave. Not only does the Koran not bid mercy to be shown +to unbelievers, but it offers them, as the only alternatives, +conversion, or slavery, or death.</p> + +<p>Needs it any argument to show how impossible is good +government under a creed in which there is no recognition +of justice and equality? I think it is Macaulay who says +that the worst Christian government is better than the best +Mohammedan government. Wherever that religion exists, +there follow inevitably despotism and slavery, by which it +crushes man, as by its polygamy and organized licentiousness, +it degrades and crushes woman. Polygamy, despotism, and +slavery form the trinity of woes which Mohammedanism has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> +caused to weigh for ages, like a nightmare, on the whole +Eastern world. Such a system is as incompatible with +civilization as with Christianity, and sooner or later must pass +away, unless the human race is to come to a standstill, or to +go backward.</p> + +<p>But when and how? I am not sanguine of any speedy +change. Such changes come slowly. We expect too much +and too soon. In an age of progress we think that all forms +of ignorance and superstition must disappear before the advance +of civilization. But the <i>vis inertiæ</i> opposes a steady +resistance. It has been well said, "We are told that knowledge +is power, but who has considered the power of ignorance?" +How long it lives and how hard it dies! We hear +much of the "waning crescent," but it wanes very slowly, and +it sometimes seems as if the earth itself would grow old and +perish before that waning orb would disappear from the +heavens. Christian Missions make no more impression upon +Islam than the winds of the desert upon the cliffs of Mount +Sinai.</p> + +<p>I do not look for any great change in the Mohammedan +world, except in the train of political changes. That religion +is so bound up with political power, that until that is destroyed, +or terribly shaken, there is little hope of a general +turning to a better faith. War and Revolution are the fiery +chariots that must go before the Gospel, to herald its coming +and prepare its way. Material forces may open the door to +moral influences; the doctrines of human freedom and of +human brotherhood may be preached on battle plains as well +as in Christian temples. When the hard iron crust of Islam +is broken up, and the elements begin to melt with fervent +heat, the Eastern world may be moulded into new forms. +Then will the Oriental mind be brought into an impressible +state, in which argument and persuasion can act upon it; +and it may yield to the combined influence of civilization and +Christianity. The change will be slow. It will take years; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> +it may take centuries. But sooner or later the fountains of +the great deep will be broken up. That cold, relentless system +must pass away before the light and warmth of that milder +faith which recognizes at once the brotherhood of man and +the fatherhood of God.</p> + +<p>In that coming age there may be other pilgrimages and +processions going up out of Egypt. "The dromedaries shall +come from far." But then, if a caravan of pilgrims issues +from Cairo, to cross the desert, to seek the birthplace of the +founder of its religion, it will not turn South to Mecca, but +North to Bethlehem, asking with the Magi of old, "Where +is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his +star in the East, and are come to worship him." +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER VI.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">MODERN EGYPT AND THE KHEDIVE.</p> + +<p>Egypt is a country with a long past, as we found in going +up the Nile; may we not hope, also, with a not inglorious +future? For ages it was sunk so low that it seemed to be +lost from the view of the world. No contrast in history +could be greater than that between its ancient glory and its +modern degradation. Its revival dates from about the beginning +of the present century, and, strange to say, from the +invasion of Egypt by Napoleon, which incidentally brought +to the surface a man whose rise from obscurity, and whose +subsequent career, were only less remarkable than his own. +When Napoleon landed in Egypt at the head of a French +army of invasion, among the forces gathered to oppose him +was a young Albanian, who had crossed over from Greece at +the head of three hundred men. This was Mehemet Ali, +who soon attracted such attention by his daring and ability, +that a few years after the French had been driven out, as the +country was still in a distracted state, which required a man of +vigor and capacity, he was made Pasha of Egypt—a position +which he retained from that time (1806) until his death in +1850. Here he had new dangers, which he faced with the +same intrepidity. That which first made his name known +to the world as a synonym of resolute courage and implacable +revenge, was the massacre of the Mamelukes. These +had long been the real masters of Egypt—a terror to every +successive government, as were the Janissaries to the Sultan +in Constantinople. Mehemet Ali had been but five years in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> +power, when, finding that he was becoming too strong for +them, they plotted to destroy him. He learned of the conspiracy +just in time, and at once determined to "fight fire +with fire;" and, inviting them to the Citadel of Cairo for +some public occasion, suddenly shut the gates, and manning +the walls with his troops, shot them down in cold blood. Only +one man escaped by leaping his horse from the wall. This +savage butchery raised a cry of horror throughout Europe, +and Mehemet Ali was regarded as a monster of treachery +and of cruelty. It is impossible to justify such a deed by +any rules of civilized warfare. But this, it is said, was not +civilized warfare; it was simply a plot of assassination on +one side, forestalled by assassination on the other. I do not +justify such reasoning. And yet I could not but listen with +interest to Nubar Pasha (the most eloquent talker, as well +as the most enlightened statesman, of Egypt), as he defended +the conduct of his hero. He, indeed, has a hereditary +allegiance to Mehemet Ali, which he derived from his +uncle, the prime minister. Said he: "The rule of the +Mamelukes was anarchy of the worst kind; it was death to +Egypt, and <span class="smcap">IT IS RIGHT TO KILL DEATH</span>." The reasoning is +not very different from that by which Mr. Froude justifies +Cromwell's putting the garrison of Drogheda to the sword. +Certainly in both cases, in Egypt as in Ireland, the end was +peace. From that moment the terror of Mehemet Ali's name +held the whole land in awe; and from one end of the valley +of the Nile to the other, there was perfect security. "Every +tree planted in Egypt," said Nubar Pasha, "is due to him; +for till then the people in the country did not dare to plant +a tree, for the Mamelukes or the wandering Bedouins came +and pitched their tents under its shade, and then robbed the +village." But now every wandering tribe that hovered on +the borders of the desert, was struck with fear and dread, +and did not dare to provoke a power which knew no mercy. +Hence the plantations of palms which have sprung up +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> +around the Arab villages, and the beautiful avenues of trees +which have been planted along the roads.</p> + +<p>It is not strange that such a man soon became too powerful, +not only for the Mamelukes, but for Turkey. The Sultan +did not like it that one of his subjects had "grown so +great," and tried more than once to remove him. But the +servant had become stronger than his master, and would not +be removed. He raised a large army, to which he gave the +benefit of European discipline, and in the latter part of his +life invaded Syria, and swept northward to Damascus and +Aleppo, and was only prevented from marching to Constantinople +by the intervention of foreign powers. It seems a +pity now that France and England interfered. The Eastern +question might have been nearer a solution to-day, if the +last blow to the Grand Turk had been given by a Moslem +power. But at least this was secured, that the rule of +Egypt was confirmed in the family of Mehemet Ali, and the +Viceroy of Egypt became as fixed and irremovable as the +Sultan himself.</p> + +<p>Mehemet Ali died in 1850, and was succeeded by his son +Ibrahim Pasha, who inherited much of his father's vigor. +Ismail Pasha, the present Khedive, is the son of Ibrahim +Pasha, and grandson of Mehemet Ali. Thus he has the +blood of warriors in his veins, with which he has inherited +much of their proud spirit and indomitable will.</p> + +<p>No ruler in the East at the present moment attracts more +of the attention of Europe. I am sorry to go away from +Cairo without seeing him. I have had two opportunities +of being presented, though not by any seeking or suggestion +of my own. But friends who were in official positions had +arranged it, and the time was fixed twice, but in both cases +I had to leave on the day appointed, once to go up the Nile, +and the other to embark at Suez. I cannot give therefore a +personal description of the man, but can speak of him only +from the reports of others, among whom are some who see +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> +him often and know him well. The Khedive has many +American officers in his service, some of them in high commands +(General Stone is at the head of the army), and these +are necessarily brought into intimate relations with him. +These officers I find without exception very enthusiastic in +their admiration. This is quite natural. They are brought +into relations with him of the most pleasant kind. He +wants an army, and they organize it for him. They discipline +his troops; if need be, they fight his battles. As they +minister to his desire for power, and for military display, he +gives them a generous support. And so both parties are +equally pleased with each other.</p> + +<p>But making full allowance for all these prepossessions in +his favor, there are certain things in which not only they, +but all who know the present ruler of Egypt, agree, and +which therefore may be accepted without question, which +show that he has a natural force of mind and character +which would be remarkable in any man, and in one of his +position are still more extraordinary. Though living in a +palace, and surrounded by luxury, he does not pass his time +in idleness, but gives himself no rest, hardly taking time for +food and sleep. I am told that he is "the hardest-worked +man in Egypt." He rises very early, and sees his Ministers +before breakfast, and supervises personally every department +of the Government to such extent indeed as to leave little +for others to do, so that his Ministers are merely his secretaries. +He is the government. Louis XIV. could not more +truly say, "I am the State," than can the Khedive of Egypt, +so completely does he absorb all its powers.</p> + +<p>Such activity seems almost incredible in an Oriental. It +would be in a Turk. But Ismail Pasha boasts that "he +has not a drop of Turkish blood in his veins." It is easy to +see in his restless and active mind the spirit of that fierce +old soldier, Mehemet Ali, though softened and disciplined by +an European education. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span></p> + +<p>This may be a proof of great mental energy, but it is not +necessarily of the highest wisdom. The men who accomplish +most in the world, are those who use their brains chiefly to +plan, and who know how to choose fit instruments to carry +out their plans, and do not spend their strength on petty +details which might be done quite as well, or even better, +by others.</p> + +<p>The admirers of the Khedive point justly to what he has +done for Egypt. Since he came into power, the Suez Canal +has been completed, and is now the highway for the commerce +of Europe with India; great harbors have been made +or improved at Alexandria, at Port Said, and at Suez; canals +for irrigation have been dug here and there, to carry over +the country the fertilizing waters of the Nile; and railroads +have been cut across the Delta in every direction, and one +is already advanced more than two hundred miles up the +Nile. These are certainly great public works, which justly +entitle the Khedive to be regarded as one of the most enlightened +of modern rulers.</p> + +<p>But while recognizing all this, there are other things +which I see here in Egypt which qualify my admiration. I +cannot praise without reserve and many abatements. The +Khedive has attempted too much, and in his restless activity +has undertaken such vast enterprises that he has +brought his country to the verge of bankruptcy. Egypt, +like Turkey, is in a very bad way. She has not indeed yet +gone to the length of repudiation. From this she has been +saved for the moment by the sale of shares of the Suez Canal +to England for four millions sterling. But this is only a temporary +relief, it is not a permanent cure for what is a deep-seated +disease. The financial troubles of Egypt are caused +by the restless ambition of the Khedive to accomplish in a +few years the work of a century; and to carry out in an impoverished +country vast public works, which would task the +resources of the richest country in Europe. The Khedive has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> +the reputation abroad of being a great ruler, and he certainly +shows an energy that is extraordinary. But it is not always +a well regulated energy. He does too much. He is a man of +magnificent designs, and projects public works with the grandeur +of a Napoleon. This would be very well if his means +were at all equal to his ambition. But his designs are so +vast that they would require the capital of France or Great +Britain, while Egypt is a very poor country. It has always +of course the natural productiveness of the valley of the +Nile, but beyond that it has nothing; it has no accumulated +wealth, no great capitalists, no large private fortunes, no +rich middle class, from which to draw an imperial revenue. +With all that can be wrung from the miserable fellahs, taxed +to the utmost limit of endurance, still the expenses outrun +enormously the income.</p> + +<p>It is true that Egypt has much more to show for her +money than Turkey. If she has gone deeply in debt, and +contracted heavy foreign loans, she can at least point to +great public works for the permanent good of Egypt; although +in the construction of some of these she has anticipated, +if not the wants of the country, at least its resources for +many years to come.</p> + +<p>For example, at the First Cataract, I found men at work +upon a railroad that is designed to extend to Khartoum, +the capital of Soudan, and the point of junction of the Blue +and the White Nile! In the latter part of its course to this +point, it is to cross the desert; as it must still farther, if +carried eastward, as projected, to Massowah on the Red Sea! +These are gigantic projects, but about as necessary to the +present commerce of Egypt as would be a railway to the very +heart of Africa.</p> + +<p>But all the money has not gone in this way. The Khedive +has had the ambition to make of Egypt a great African Empire, +by adding to it vast regions in the interior. For this +he has sent repeated expeditions up the Nile, and is in a continual +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> +conflict with his barbarous neighbors, and has at last +got into a serious war with Abyssinia.</p> + +<p>But even this is not all. Not satisfied with managing the +affairs of government, the Khedive, with that restless spirit +which characterizes him, is deeply involved in all sorts of +private enterprises. He is a speculator on a gigantic scale, +going into every sort of mercantile adventure. He is a great +real estate operator. He owns whole squares in the new +parts of Cairo and Alexandria, on which he is constantly +building houses, besides buying houses built by others. He +builds hotels and opera houses, and runs steamboats and railroads, +like a royal Jim Fisk. The steamer on which we +crossed the Mediterranean from Constantinople to Alexandria, +belonged to the Khedive, and the railroad that brought +us to Cairo, and the hotel in which we were lodged, and the +steamer in which we went up the Nile.</p> + +<p>Nor is he limited in his enterprises to steamers and railroads. +He is a great cotton and sugar planter. He owns a +large part of the land in Egypt, on which he has any number +of plantations. His immense sugar factories, on which he +has expended millions of pounds, may be seen all along the +valley of the Nile; and he exports cotton by the shipload +from the port of Alexandria.</p> + +<p>A man who is thus "up to his eyes" in speculation, who +tries to do everything himself, must do many things badly, +or at least imperfectly. He cannot possibly supervise every +detail of administration, and his agents have not the stimulus +of a personal interest to make the most of their opportunity. +I asked very often, when up the Nile, if these +great sugar factories which I saw <i>paid</i>, and was uniformly +answered "No;" but that they <i>would</i> pay in private hands, +if managed by those who had a personal stake in saving +every needless expense, and increasing every possible source +of income. But the Khedive is cheated on every side, and +in a hundred ways. And even if there were not actual +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> +fraud, the system is one which necessarily involves immense +waste and loss. Here in Cairo I find it the universal opinion +that almost all the Khedive's speculations have been gigantic +failures, and that they are at the bottom of the trouble +which now threatens the country.</p> + +<p>Such is the present financial condition of the Khedive and +of Egypt. I couple the two together; although an attempt +is made to distinguish them, and we hear that although +Egypt is nearly bankrupt, yet that the Khedive is personally +"the richest man in the world!" But the accounts are so +mixed that it is very difficult to separate them. There is no +doubt that the Khedive has immense possessions in his hands; +but he is, at the same time, to use a commercial phrase, enormously +"extended;" he is loaded with debt, and has to borrow +money at ruinous rates; and if his estate were suddenly +wound up, and a "receiver" appointed to administer upon +it, it is extremely doubtful what would be the "assets" left.</p> + +<p>Such an administrator has appeared. Mr. Cave has just +come out from England, to try and straighten out the Khedive's +affairs. But he has a great task before him. Wise +heads here doubt whether his mission will come to anything, +whether indeed he will be allowed to get at the "bottom facts," +or to make anything more than a superficial examination, as +the basis of a "whitewashing report" which may bolster up +Egyptian credit in Paris and London.</p> + +<p>But if he does come to know "the truth and the whole +truth," then I predict that he will either abandon the case in +despair, or he will have to recommend to the Khedive, as the +only salvation for him, a more sweeping and radical reform +than the latter has yet dreamed of. It requires some degree +of moral courage to talk to a sovereign as to a private individual; +to speak to him as if he were a prodigal son who had +wasted his substance in riotous living; to tell him to moderate +his desires, and restrain his ambition, and to live a quiet +and sober life; and to "live within his means." But this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> +he must do, or it is easy to see where this brilliant financiering +will end.</p> + +<p>If Mr. Cave can persuade the Khedive to restrain his extravagance; +to stop building palaces (he has now more than +he can possibly use); and to give up, once for all, as the follies +of his youth, his grand schemes of annexing the whole +interior of Africa, as he has already annexed Nubia and +Soudan; and to "back out" as gracefully as he can (although +it is a very awkward business), of his war with Abyssinia; +and then to follow up the good course he has begun with his +Suez Canal shares, by selling all his stock in every commercial +company (for one man must not try to absorb all the industry +of a kingdom); if he can persuade him to sell all the +railways in Egypt; and to sell every steamship on the Mediterranean, +except such as may be needed for the use of the +government; and every boat on the Nile except a yacht or +two for his private pleasure; to sell all his hotels and theatres; +his sugar factories and cotton plantations; and abandoning +all his private speculations, to be content with being +simply the ruler of Egypt, and attending to the affairs of +government, which are quite enough to occupy the thoughts +of "a mind capacious of such things;" then he may succeed +in righting up the ship. Otherwise I fear the Khedive will +follow the fate of his master the Sultan.</p> + +<p>But impending bankruptcy is not the worst feature in +Egypt. There is something more rotten in the State than +bad financial management. It is the want of justice established +by law, which shall protect the rights of the people. +At present, liberty there is none; the government is an +absolute despotism, as much as it was three thousand years +ago. The system under which the Israelites groaned, and +for which God brought the plagues upon Egypt, is in full +force to-day. The Khedive has obtained great credit abroad +by the expeditions of Sir Samuel Baker and others up the +Nile, which were said to be designed to break up the slave +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> +trade. But what signifies destroying slavery in the interior +of Africa, when a system still more intolerable exists in +Egypt itself? It is not called slavery; it is simply <i>forced +labor</i>, which, being interpreted, means that when the Khedive +wants ten thousand men to dig a canal or build a railroad, +he sends into the requisite number of villages, and "conscripts" +them <i>en masse</i>, just as he conscripts his soldiers +(taking them away from their little farms, perhaps, at the +very moment when their labor is most needed), and sets +them to work for himself, under taskmasters, driving them +to work under the goad of the lash, or, if need be, at the +point of the bayonet. For this labor, thus cruelly exacted, +they receive absolutely nothing—neither pay <i>nor food</i>. A +man who has constructed some of the greatest works of +Modern Egypt, said to me, as we were riding over the Delta, +"I built this railroad. I had under me twenty thousand +men—all forced labor. In return for their labor, I gave +them—<i>water</i>!" "But surely you paid them wages?" "No." +"But at least you gave them food?" "No." "But how +did they live?" "The women worked on the land, and +brought them bread and rice." "But suppose they failed +to bring food, what became of the workmen?" "They +starved." And not only were they forced to work without +pay and without food, but were often required to furnish +their own tools. Surely this is making bricks without straw, +as much as the Israelites did. Such a system of labor, however +grand the public works it may construct, can hardly +excite the admiration of a lover of free institutions.</p> + +<p>On all who escape this forced labor, the <i>taxation</i> is fearful. +The hand of the government is as heavy upon them as in the +ancient days. To one who was telling me of this—and +no man knows Egypt better—I said, "Why, the government +takes half of all that the country yields." "Half?" +he answered, "<i>It takes all.</i>" To the miserable fellahs who +till the soil it leaves only their mud hovels, the rags that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> +scarcely hide their nakedness, and the few herbs and fruits +that but just keep soul and body together. Every acre of +ground in Egypt is taxed, and every palm tree in the valley +of the Nile. What would our American farmers say to a +tax of twelve dollars an acre on their land, and of from +twenty-five to fifty cents on every apple tree in their orchards? +Yet this enormous burden falls, not on the rich +farmers of New England, or New York, or Ohio, but on the +miserable fellahs of Egypt, who are far more destitute than +the negroes of the South. Yet in the midst of all this +poverty and wretchedness, in these miserable Arab villages +the tax gatherer appears regularly, and the tax, though it +be the price of blood, is remorselessly exacted. If anybody +refuses, or is unable to pay, no words are wasted on him, he +is immediately bastinadoed till his cries avail—not with the +officers of the law, who know no mercy, but with his neighbors, +who yielding up their last penny, compel the executioner +to let go his hold.</p> + +<p>Such is the Egyptian Government as it presses on the people. +While its hand is so heavy in ruinous taxations, the +administration of justice is pretty much as it was in the time +of the Pharaohs. It has been in the hands of a set of native +officials, who sometimes executed a rude kind of justice on +the old principle of strict retaliation, "an eye for an eye, and +a tooth for a tooth," but commonly paid no regard to the +merits of a case, but decided it entirely by other considerations. +In matters where the Government was concerned, no +private individual had any chance whatever. The Khedive +was the source of all authority and power, a central divinity, +of whom every official in the country was an emanation, before +whom no law or justice could stand. In other matters +judges decided according to their own pleasure—their like +or dislike of one or the other of the parties—or more often +according to their interest, for they were notoriously open to +bribes. Thus in the whole land of Egypt justice there was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> +none. In every Arab village the sheik was a petty tyrant, +who could bastinado the miserable fellahs at his will.</p> + +<p>This rough kind of government answered its purpose—or +at least there was no one who dared to question it—so long +as they had only their own people to rule over. But when +foreigners came to settle in Egypt, they were not willing to be +subjected to this Oriental justice. Hence arose a system of +Consular Courts, by which every question which concerned +a foreigner was argued and decided before a mixed tribunal, +composed of the Consul of the country and a native judge. +This seemed very fair, but in fact it only made confusion worse +confounded. For naturally the Consul sided with his own +countryman (if he did not, he would be considered almost a +traitor), his foreign prejudices came into play; and so what +was purely a question of law, became a political question. +It was not merely a litigation about property between A +and B, but a matter of diplomatic skill between France (or +any other foreign power) and Egypt; and as France was the +stronger, she was the more likely to succeed. Hence the +foreigner had great advantages over the native in these Consular +Courts, and if in addition the native judge was open +to a bribe, and the foreigner was willing to give it, the native +suitor, however wronged, was completely at his mercy.</p> + +<p>Such was the state of things until quite recently. But +here at least there has been a reform in the introduction of +a new judicial system, which is the greatest step forward +that has been taken within half a century.</p> + +<p>The man who was the first to see what was the radical +vice of the country, the effectual hindrance to its prosperity, +was Nubar Pasha. He had the sagacity to see that the +first want of Egypt was not more railroads and steamboats, +but simple justice—the protection of law. How clearly he +saw the evil, was indicated by a remark which I once heard +him make. He said: "The idea of justice does not exist +in the Oriental mind. We have governors and judges, who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> +sit to hear causes, and who decide them after the Oriental +fashion—that is, they will decide in favor of a friend against +an enemy, or more commonly in favor of the man who can +pay the largest bribe; but to sit patiently and listen to evidence, +and then decide according to abstract justice, is something +not only foreign to their customs, but of which they +have absolutely no idea—they cannot conceive of it." He +saw that a feeling of insecurity was at the bottom of the +want of confidence at home and abroad; and that to "establish +justice" was the first thing both to encourage native +industry, and to invite the capital of France and England to +expend itself in the valley of the Nile. To accomplish this +has been his single aim for many years. He has set himself +to do away with the old Oriental system complicated by the +Consular Courts, and to introduce the simple administration +of justice, by which there should be one law for natives and +foreigners, for the rich and the poor, for the powerful and +the weak.</p> + +<p>To inaugurate such a policy, which was a virtual revolution, +the initiative must be taken by Egypt. But how could +the Khedive propose a change which was a virtual surrender +of his own absolute power? He could no longer be absolute +<i>within the courts</i>: and to give up this no Oriental despot +would consent, for it was parting with the dearest token of +his power over the lives and fortunes of his subjects. But +the Khedive was made to see, that, if he surrendered something, +he gained much more; that it was an immense advantage +to himself and his country to be brought within the +pale of European civilization; and that this could not be +until it was placed under the protection of European law.</p> + +<p>But Egypt was not the only power to be consulted. The +change could only be made by treaty with other countries, +and Egypt was not an independent State, and had no right +to enter into negotiations with foreign powers without the +consent of the Porte. To obtain this involved long and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> +tedious delays at Constantinople. And last of all, the +foreign States themselves had to be persuaded into it, for of +course the change involved the surrender of their consular +jurisdiction; and all were jealous lest it should be giving up +the rights of their citizens. To persuade them to the contrary +was a slow business. Each government considered +how it would affect its own subjects. France especially, +which had had great advantages under the old Consular +Courts, was the last to give its consent to the new system. +It was only a few days before the New Year, at which it +was to be inaugurated, that the National Assembly, after a +debate lasting nearly a week, finally adopted the measure by +a majority of three to one, and thus the great judicial reform, +on which the wisest statesman of Egypt had so long +fixed his heart, was consummated.</p> + +<p>The change, in a word, is this. The old Consular Courts +are abolished, and in their place are constituted three courts—one +at Cairo, one at Alexandria, and one at Ismailia—each +composed of seven judges, of whom a majority are +nominated by the foreign powers which have most to do with +Egypt: France, England, Germany, Austria, Russia, and the +United States. In the selection of judges, as there are three +benches to be filled, several are taken from the smaller states +of Europe. There is also a higher Court of Appeal constituted +in the same way.</p> + +<p>The judges to fill these important positions have already +been named by the different governments, and so far as the +<i>personnel</i> of the new courts is concerned, leave nothing to +be desired. They are all men of reputation in their own +countries, as having the requisite legal knowledge and ability, +and as men of character, who will administer the law in the +interest of justice, and that alone. The United States is +represented by Judge Barringer at Alexandria, and Judge +Batcheller at Cairo—both of whom will render excellent +service to Egypt, and do honor to their own country. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span></p> + +<p>The law which these courts are to administer, is not Moslem +law (until now the supreme law of Egypt was the +Koran, as it still is in Turkey), nor any kind of Oriental +law—but European law. Guided by the same intelligence +which framed the new judicial system, Egypt has adopted +the Code Napoleon. The French language will be used in +the courts for the European judges, and the Arabic for the +native.</p> + +<p>In administering this law, these courts are supreme; they +cannot be touched by the Government, or their decisions +annulled; for <i>they are constituted by treaty</i>, and any attempt +to interfere with them would at once be resented by all the +foreign powers as a violation of a solemn compact, and bring +down upon Egypt the protest and indignation of the whole +civilized world.</p> + +<p>The change involved in the introduction of such a system +can hardly be realized by Europeans or Americans. It is +the first attempt to inaugurate a reign of law in Egypt, or +perhaps in any Oriental country. It is a breakwater equally +against the despotism of the central power, and the meddlesomeness +of foreign governments, acting through the Consular +Courts. For the first time the Khedive is himself put +under law, and has some check to his power over the lives +and property of his subjects. Indeed we may say that it is +the first time in the history of Egypt that there has been +one law for ruler and people—for the Khedive and the +fellah, for the native-born and for the stranger within their +gates.</p> + +<p>The completion of such a system, after so much labor, has +naturally been regarded with great satisfaction by those who +have been working for it, and its inauguration on the first +of the year was an occasion of congratulation. On that day +the new judges were inducted into office, and after taking +their official oaths they were all entertained at the house of +Judge Batcheller, where was present also Mr. Washburne, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> +our Minister at Paris, and where speeches were made in +English, French, German, and Arabic, and the warmest +wishes expressed both by the foreign and native judges, that +a system devised with so much care for the good of Egypt, +might be completely successful. Of course it will take time +for the people to get accustomed to the new state of things. +They are so unused to any form of justice that at first they +hardly know what it means, and will be suspicious of it, as +if it were some new device of oppression. They have to be +educated to justice, as to everything else. By and bye they +will get some new ideas into their heads, and we may see a +real administration of justice in the valley of the Nile. That +it may realize the hopes of the great man by whom it has +been devised, and "establish justice" in a country in which +justice has been hitherto unknown, will be the wish of every +American.</p> + +<p>This new judicial system is the one bright spot in the state +of Egypt, where there is so much that is dark. It is the one +step of real progress to be set over against all the waste and +extravagance, the oppression and tyranny. Aside from that +I cannot indulge in any rose-colored views. I cannot go into +ecstasies of admiration over a government which has had +absolute control of the country for so many years, and has +brought it to the verge of ruin.</p> + +<p>And yet these failures and disasters, great as they are, do +not abate my interest in Egypt, nor in that remarkable man +who has at present its destinies in his hands. I would not ask +too much, nor set up an unreasonable standard. I am not so +foolish as to suppose that Egypt can be a constitutional monarchy +like England; or a republic like America. This would +be carrying republicanism to absurdity. I am not such an +enthusiast for republican institutions, as to believe that they +are the best for all peoples, whatever their degree of intelligence. +They would be unsuited to Egypt. The people are +not fit for them. They are not only very poor, but very +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> +ignorant. There is no middle class in Egypt in which to find +the materials of free institutions. Republican as I am, I +believe that <i>the best possible government for Egypt is an enlightened +despotism</i>; and my complaint against the government +of the Khedive is, not that he concentrates all power +in himself, but that he does not use it wisely—that his government +unites, with many features of a civilized state, some +of the very worst features of Oriental tyranny.</p> + +<p>But with all that is dark in the present state of this country, +and sad in the condition of its people, I believe that +Egypt has a great future before it; that it is to rise to a new +life, and become a prosperous State of the modern world. +The Nile valley has a great part yet to play in the future +civilization of Africa, as an avenue of access to the interior—to +those central highlands where are the Great +Lakes, which are the long-sought sources of the Nile; and +from which travellers and explorers, merchants and missionaries, +may descend on the one hand to the Niger, and to +the Western Coast; or, on the other, to those vast regions +which own the rule of the Sultan of Zanzibar. I watch +with interest every Expedition up the Nile, if so be it is an +advance, not of conquest, but of peaceful commerce and civilization.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the Khedive will rise to the height of the emergency, +and bring his country out of all its difficulties, and set +it on a new career of prosperity. He has great qualities, +great capacity and marvellous energy. Has he also the gift +of political wisdom?</p> + +<p>Never had a ruler such an opportunity. He has a part to +act—if he knows how to act it well—which will give him +a name in history greater than any of the old kings of +Egypt, since to him it is given to reconstruct a kingdom, and +to lead the way for the regeneration of a continent. If only +he can see that his true interest lies, not in war, but in +peace, not in conquering all the tribes of Africa, and annexing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> +their territory, but in developing the resources of his own +country, and in peaceful commerce with his less civilized +neighbors, he will place himself at the head of a continent, +and by the powerful influence of his example, and of his own +prosperous State, become not only the Restorer of Egypt, but +the Civilizer of Africa. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER VII.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">MIDNIGHT IN THE HEART OF THE GREAT PYRAMID.</p> + +<p>Our last night in Cairo we spent in riding out to +Ghizeh by moonlight, and exploring the interior of the +Great Pyramid. We had already been there by day, and +climbed to the top, but did not then go inside. There is +no access but by a single narrow passage, four feet wide +and high, which slopes at a descending angle, so that one +must stoop very low while he slides down an inclined plane, +as if he were descending into a mine by a very small shaft. +There is not much pleasure in crouching and creeping along +such a passage, with a crowd of Arab guides before and behind, +lighting the darkness with their torches, and making +the rocky cavern hideous with their yells. These creatures +fasten on the traveller, pulling and pushing, smoking in his +face, and raising such a dust that he cannot see, and is almost +choked, and keeping up such a noise that he cannot hear, and +can hardly think. One likes a little quiet and silence, a +little chance for meditation, when he penetrates the sepulchre +of kings, where a Pharaoh was laid down to rest four thousand +years ago. So I left these interior researches, on our first +visit to the Pyramid, to the younger members of our party, +and contented myself with clambering up its sides, and looking +off upon the desert and the valley of the Nile, with Cairo +in the distance.</p> + +<p>But on our trip up the Nile, I read the work of Piazzi +Smyth, the Astronomer Royal of Scotland, "Our Inheritance +in the Great Pyramid," and had my curiosity excited to see +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> +again a structure which was not only the oldest and greatest +in the world, but in which he thought to have discovered +the proofs of a divine revelation. Dr. Grant of Cairo, who +had made a study of the subject, and had spent many nights +in the heart of the Pyramid, taking accurate measurements, +kindly offered to accompany us; and so we made up a party +of those who had come down the Nile—an Episcopal clergyman +from New England, a Colonel from the United States +Army, a lady from Cambridge, Mass., and a German lady +and her daughter who had been with us for more than two +months, and my niece and myself. It was to be our last +excursion together, as we were to part on the morrow, and +should probably never all meet again.</p> + +<p>At half-past eight o'clock we drove away from the Ezbekieh +square in Cairo. It was one of those lovely nights +found only in Egypt. The moon, approaching the full, cast +a soft light on everything—on the Nile, as we crossed the +long iron bridge, and on the palms, waving gently in the +night wind. We rode along under the avenue of trees planted +by old Mehemet Ali, keeping up an animated conversation, +and getting a great deal of information about Egypt. +It was two hours before we reached the Pyramid. Of course +the Arabs, who had seen the carriages approaching along the +road, and who like vultures, discern their prey from a great +distance, were soon around us, offering their services. But +Dr. Grant, whose experience had taught him whom to seek, +sent for the head man, whom he knew, who had accompanied +him in his explorations, and bade him seek out a sufficient +number of trusty guides for our party, and keep off the rest.</p> + +<p>While the sheik was seeking for his retainers, we strolled +away to the Sphinx, which looked more strange and weird +than ever in the moonlight. How many centuries has he +sat there, crouching on the desert, and looking towards the +rising sun. The body is that of a recumbent lion. The +back only is seen, as the giant limbs, which are stretched out +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> +sixty feet in front, are wholly covered by the sand. But the +mighty head still lifts its unchanged brow above the waste, +looking towards the East, to see the sun rise, as it has every +morning for four thousand years.</p> + +<p>On our return to the Pyramid, Dr. Grant pointed out the +"corner sockets" of the original structure, showing how +much larger it was when first built, and as it stood in the +time of the Pharaohs. It is well known that it has been mutilated +by the successive rulers of Egypt, who have stripped +off its outer layers of granite to build palaces and mosques +in Cairo. This process of spoliation, continued for centuries, +has reduced the size of the Pyramid <i>two acres</i>, so that now +it covers but eleven acres of ground, whereas originally it +covered thirteen. Outside of all this was a pavement of +granite, extending forty feet from the base, which surrounded +the whole.</p> + +<p>By the time we had returned, the sheik was on hand with +his swarthy guides around him, and we prepared to enter the +Pyramid. It was not <i>intended</i> to be entered. If it had been +so designed—as it is the largest building in the world—it +would have had a lofty gateway in keeping with its enormous +proportions, like the temples of Upper Egypt. But it +is not a temple, nor a place for assembly or for worship, nor +even a lofty, vaulted place of burial, like the tombs of the +Medici in Florence, or other royal mausoleums. Except the +King's and Queen's chambers (which are called chambers by +courtesy, not being large enough for ordinary bedrooms in a +royal palace, but more like a hermit's rocky cell), the whole +Pyramid is one mass of stone, as solid as the cliff of El Capitan +in the Yo Semite valley. The only entrance is by the +narrow passage already described; and even this was walled +up so as to be concealed. If it were intended for a tomb, +whoever built it sealed it up, that its secret might remain +forever inviolate; and that the dead might slumber undisturbed +until the Judgment day. It was only by accident +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> +that an entrance was discovered. About a thousand years +ago a Mohammedan ruler, conceiving the idea that the +Pyramid had been built as a storehouse for the treasures of +the kings of Egypt, undertook to break into it, and worked +for months to pierce the granite sides, but was about to give +it up in despair, when the accidental falling of a stone led to +the discovery of the passage by which one now gains access +to the interior.</p> + +<p>In getting into the Pyramid one must stoop to conquer. +But this stooping is nothing to the bodily prostrations he has +to undergo to get into some passages of the temples and underground +tombs. Often one has not only to crouch, but to +crawl. Near the Pyramid are some tombs, the mouths of +which are so choked up with sand that one has actually to +forego all use of hands and knees. I threw myself in despair +on the ground, and told the guides to drag me in by the +heels. As one lies prone on the earth, he cannot help feeling +that this horizontal posture is rather ridiculous for one who +is in the pursuit of knowledge. I could not but think to +what a low estate I had fallen. Sometimes one feels indeed, +as he is thus compelled to "lick the dust," as if the curse of +the serpent were pronounced upon him, "On thy belly shalt +thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life."</p> + +<p>We had trusted to the man in authority to protect us +from the horde of Arabs; but nothing could keep back the +irrepressible camp-followers, who flocked after us, and when +we got into the King's chamber, we found we had twenty-four! +With such a bodyguard, each carrying a lighted +candle, we took up our forward march, or rather our forward +<i>stoop</i>, for no man can stand upright in this low passage. +Thus bending one after another, like a flock of sheep, we +vanished from the moonlight. Dr. Grant led the way, and, +full of the wonders of the construction of the Pyramid, he +called to me, as he disappeared down its throat, to look back +and see how that long tube—longer and larger than any telescope +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> +that ever was made—pointed towards the North Star. +But stars and moon were soon eclipsed, and we were lost in +the darkness of this labyrinth. The descent is easy, indeed +it is too easy, for the sides of the passage are of polished +limestone, smooth as glass, and the floor affords but a slight +hold for the feet, so that as we bent forward, we found it +difficult to keep our balance, and might have fallen from top +to bottom if we had not had the strong arms of our guides to +hold us up. With such a pair of crutches to lean upon, we +slid down the smooth worn pavement till we came to a huge +boulder, a granite portcullis, which blocked our way, around +which a passage had been cut. Creeping around this, pulled +and hauled by the Arabs, who lifted us over the dangerous +places, we were shouldered on to another point of rock, and +now began our ascent along a passage as slippery as that before. +Here again we should have made poor progress alone, +with our boots which slipped at every moment on the smooth +stones, but for the Arabs, whose bare feet gave them a better +hold, and who held us fast.</p> + +<p>And now we are on a level and move along a very low +passage, crouching almost on our hands and knees, till we +raise our heads and stand in the Queen's Chamber—so called +for no reason that we know but that it is smaller than the +King's.</p> + +<p>Returning from this, we find ourselves at the foot of the +Grand Gallery, or, as it might be called, Grand Staircase +(as in its lofty proportions it is not unlike one of the great +staircases in the old palaces of Genoa and Venice), which +ascends into the heart of the Pyramid. This is a magnificent +hall, 157 feet long, 28 feet high, and 7 feet wide. But +the ascent as before is over smooth and polished limestone, to +climb which is like climbing a cone of ice. We could not +have got on at all but for the nimble Arabs, whose bare feet +enabled them to cling to the slippery stone like cats, and +who, grasping us in their naked arms, dragged us forward by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> +main force. The ladies shrank from this kind of assistance, +as they were sometimes almost embraced by these swarthy +creatures. But there was no help for it. This kind of +bodily exercise, passive and active, soon brought on an excessive +heat. We were almost stifled. Our faces grew +red; I tore off my cravat to keep from choking. Still, like +a true American, I was willing to endure anything if only I +got ahead, and felt rewarded when we reached the top of the +Grand Gallery, and instead of looking <i>up</i>, looked <i>down</i>.</p> + +<p>From this height we creep along another passage till we +reach the object of our climbing, in the lofty apartment +called the King's Chamber. This is the heart of the Great +Pyramid—the central point for which apparently it was +built, and where, if anywhere, its secret is to be found. At +one end lies the sarcophagus (if such it was; if the Pyramid +was designed to be a tomb) in which the great Cheops +was buried. It is now tenantless, except by such fancies as +travellers choose to fill it withal. I know not what sudden +freak of fancy took me just then, perhaps I thought, How +would it seem to be a king even in his tomb? and instantly +I threw myself down at full length within the sarcophagus, +and lay extended, head thrown back, and hands folded on +my breast, lying still, as great Cheops may have lain, when +they laid him in his royal house of death. It was a soft bed +of dust, which, as I sank in it, left upon my whole outward +man a <i>marked</i> impression. It seemed very like ordinary +dust, settled from the clouds raised by the Arabs in their +daily entrances to show the chamber to visitors. But it was +much more poetical to suppose that it was the mouldering +dust of Cheops himself, in which case even the mass that +clung to my hair might be considered as an anointing from +the historic past. From this I was able to relieve myself, +after I reached home that night, by a plentiful application +of soap and water; but alas, my gray travelling suit bore +the scars of battle, the "dust of conflict," much longer, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> +it was not till we left Suez that a waiter of the ship took +the garment in hand, and by a vigorous beating exorcised +the stains of Egypt, so that Pharaoh and his host—or his +dust—were literally cast into the Red Sea.</p> + +<p>And now we were all in the King's Chamber, our party +of eight, with three times the number of Arabs. The latter +were at first quite noisy, after their usual fashion, but Dr. +Grant, who speaks Arabic, hushed them with a peremptory +command, and they instantly subsided, and crouched down +by the wall, and sat silent, watching our movements. One +of the party had brought with him some magnesium wire, +which he now lighted, and which threw a strong glare on +the sides and on the ceiling of the room, which, whether or +not intended for the sepulchre of kings, is of massive solidity—faced +round with red granite, and crossed above with +enormous blocks of the same rich dark stone. With his +subject thus illuminated, Dr. Grant pointed out with great +clearness those features of the King's Chamber which have +given it a scientific interest. The sarcophagus, which is an +oblong chest of red granite, in his opinion, as in that of +Piazzi Smyth, is not a sarcophagus at all; indeed it looks +quite as much like a huge bath-tub as a place of burial for one +of the Pharaohs. He called my attention to the fact that it +could not have been introduced into the Pyramid by any of +the known passages. It must, therefore, have been built in +it. It is also a singular fact that it has no cover, as a sarcophagus +always has. No mummy was ever found in it so +far as we have any historic record. Piazzi Smyth, in his +book, which is full of curious scientific lore, argues that it +was not intended for a tomb, but for a fixed standard of +measures, such as was given to Moses by Divine command. +It is certainly a remarkable coincidence, if nothing more, +that it is of the exact size of the Ark of the Covenant. +But without giving too much importance to real or supposed +analogies and correspondences, we must acknowledge +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> +that there are many points in the King's Chamber which +make it a subject of curious study and of scientific interest; +and which seem to show that it was constructed with reference +to certain mathematical proportions, and had a design +beyond that of being a mere place of burial.</p> + +<p>After we had had this scientific discussion, we prepared +for a discussion of a different kind—that of the lunch which +we had brought with us. A night's ride sharpens the appetite. +As the only place where we could sit was the sarcophagus +itself, we took our places in it, sitting upon its granite +sides. An Arab who knew what we should want, had +brought a pitcher of water, which, as the heat was oppressive, +was most grateful to our lips, and not less acceptable to +remove the dust from our eyes and hands. Thus refreshed, +we relished our oranges and cakes, and the tiny cups of +Turkish coffee.</p> + +<p>To add to the weirdness of the scene, the Arabs asked if +we would like to see them perform one of their native dances? +Having our assent, they formed in a circle, and began moving +their bodies back and forth, keeping time with a strange +chant, which was not very musical in sound, as the dance +was not graceful in motion. It was quickly over, when, of +course, the hat was passed instantly for a contribution.</p> + +<p>The Colonel proposed the health of Cheops! Poor old +Cheops! What would he have said to see such a party disturbing +the place of his rest at such an hour as this? I +looked at my watch; it was midnight—an hour when the +dead are thought to stir uneasily in their graves. Might he +not have risen in wrath out of his sarcophagus to see these +frivolous moderns thus making merry in the place of his +sepulture? But this midnight feast was not altogether gay, +for some of us thought how we should be "far away on +the morrow." For weeks and months we had been travelling +together, but this excursion was to be our last. We +were taking our parting feast—a fact which gave it a touch +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> +of sadness, as the place and the hour gave it a peculiar +interest.</p> + +<p>And now we prepared to descend. I lingered in the +chamber to the last, waiting till all had gone—till even the +last attendant had crawled out and was heard shouting afar +off—that I might for a moment, at least, be alone in the +silence and the darkness in the heart of the Pyramid; and +then, crouching as before, followed slowly the lights that +were becoming dimmer and dimmer along the low and narrow +passage. Arrived at the top of the Grand Gallery, I waited +with a couple of Arabs till all our party descended, and then +lighting a magnesium wire, threw a sudden and brilliant +light over the lofty walls.</p> + +<p>It was one o'clock when we emerged from our tomb to the +air and the moonlight, and found our carriages waiting for +us. The moon was setting in the West as we rode back under +the long avenue of trees, and across the sacred Nile. It +was three o'clock when we reached our hotel, and bade each +other good-night and good-bye. Early in the morning two +of us were to leave for India on our way around the world, +and others were to turn their faces towards the Holy Land +and Italy. But however scattered over Europe and America, +none of us will ever forget our Midnight in the Heart of the +Great Pyramid.</p> + +<p>In recalling this memory of Egypt, my object is not +merely to furnish a poetical and romantic description, but to +invite the attention of the most sober readers to what may +well be a study and an instruction. This Pyramid was the +greatest of the Seven Wonders of the World in the time of +the Greeks, and it is the only one now standing on the earth. +May it not be that it contains some wisdom of the ancients that +is worthy the attention of the boastful moderns; some secret +and sacred lore which the science of the present day may +well study to reveal? It may be (as Piazzi Smyth argues +in his learned book) that we who are now upon the earth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> +have "an inheritance in the Great Pyramid;" that it was +built not merely to swell the pride of the Pharaohs, and to +be the wonder of the Egyptians; but for our instruction, on +whom the ends of the world are come. Without giving our +adhesion in advance to any theory, there are certain facts, +clearly apparent, which give to this structure more than a +monumental interest. For thousands of years it had been +supposed to have been built for a royal tomb—for that and +that only. So perhaps it was—and perhaps not. At any +rate a very slight observation will show that it was built also +for other purposes. For example:</p> + +<p>Observe its geographical position. It stands at the apex +of the Delta of the Nile, and Piazzi Smyth claims, in the +centre of the habitable globe! He has a map in which +its point is fixed <i>in</i> Africa, yet between Europe and Asia, +and which shows that it stands in the exact centre of the +land surface of the whole world. This, if it be an accident, +is certainly a singular one.</p> + +<p>Then it is exactly on the thirtieth parallel of latitude, +and it stands four-square, its four sides facing exactly the +four points of compass—North, South, East, and West. +Now the chances are a million to one that this could not +occur by accident. There is no need to argue such a matter. +It was certainly done by design, and shows that the old +Egyptians knew how to draw a meridian line, and to take +the points of compass, as accurately as the astronomers of the +present day.</p> + +<p>Equally evident is it that they were able to measure the +solar year as exactly as modern astronomers. Taking the +sacred cubit as the unit of measure there are in each side of +the Pyramid just 365¼ cubits, which gives not only the +number of days in the year, but the six hours over!</p> + +<p>That it was built for astronomical purposes, seems probable +from its very structure. Professor Proctor argues that +it was erected for purposes of astrology! Never was there +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> +such an observatory in the world. Its pinnacle is the loftiest +ever placed in the air by human hands. It seems as if +the Pyramid were built like the tower of Babel, that its top +might "touch heaven." From that great height one has +almost a perfect horizon, looking off upon the level valley of +the Nile. It is said that it could not have been ascended +because its sides were covered with polished stone. But +may there not have been a secret passage to the top? It is +hard to believe that such an elevation was not made use of +by a people so much given to the study of the stars as were +the ancient Egyptians. In some way we would believe that +the priests and astrologers of Egypt were able to climb to +that point, where they might sit all night long looking at the +constellations through that clear and cloudless sky; watching +Orion and the Pleiades, as they rose over the Mokattam hills +on the other side of the Nile, and set behind the hills of the +Libyan desert.</p> + +<p>There is another very curious fact in the Pyramid, that +the passage by which it is entered points directly to the +North Star, and yet not to the North Star that now is, but to +Alpha Draconis, which was the North Star four thousand +years ago. This is one way in which the age of the Pyramid +is determined, for it is found by the most exact calculations +that 2170 years before Christ, a man placed at the bottom of +that passage, as at the bottom of a well, and looking upward +through that shaft, as if he were looking through the great +telescope of Lord Rosse, would fix his eye exactly on the +North Star—the pole around which was revolving the whole +celestial sphere. As is well known, this central point of the +heavens changes in the lapse of ages, but that star will +come around to the same point in 25,800 years more, when, +if the Pyramid be still standing, the observers of that remote +period can again look upward and see Alpha Draconis on his +throne, and mark how the stars "return again" to their +places in the everlasting revolutions of the heavens. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span></p> + +<p>As to the measurement of <i>time</i>, all who have visited astronomical +observatories know the extreme and almost infinite +pains taken to obtain an even temperature for clocks. +The slightest increase of temperature may elongate the pendulum, +and so affect the duration of a second, and this, +though it be in a degree so infinitesimal as to be almost +inappreciable, yet becomes important to the accuracy of computations, +when a unit has to be multiplied by hundreds of +millions, as it is in calculating the distances of the heavenly +bodies. To obviate this difficulty, astronomical clocks are +sometimes placed in apartments under ground, closed in with +thick walls (where even the door is rarely opened, but the +observations are made through a glass window), so that it +cannot be affected by the variations of temperature of the +outer world. But here, in the heart of this mountain of +stone, the temperature is preserved at an absolute equilibrium, +so that there is no expansion by heat and no contraction by +cold. What are all the observatories of Greenwich, and Paris +and Pulkowa, to such a rock-built citadel as the Great Pyramid?</p> + +<p>But not only was the Pyramid designed to stand right in +its position towards the earth and the heavenly bodies; but +also, and perhaps chiefly (so argues Prof. Smyth) was it designed +for metrological (not met<i>eo</i>rological) purposes—to +furnish an exact standard of weights and measures. The unit +of lineal measure used in the Pyramid he finds to correspond +not to the English <i>foot</i>, nor to the French <i>metre</i>, but to the +Hebrew <i>sacred cubit</i>. This is certainly a curious coincidence, +but may it not prove simply that the latter was derived from +the former? Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the +Egyptians, and may have brought from the Valley of the +Nile weights and measures, as well as customs and laws.</p> + +<p>But this cubit itself, wherever it came from, has some very +remarkable correspondences. French and English mathematicians +and astronomers have had great difficulty to fix upon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> +an exact standard of lineal measure. Their method has been +to take some length which had an exact relation to one of +the unchangeable spaces or distances of the globe itself. +Thus the English inch is one five hundred millionth part of +the axis of the earth. But Prof. Smyth finds in the Great +Pyramid a still better standard of measure. The cubit contains +twenty-five of what he calls "Pyramid inches," and +fifty of these are just equal to one ten-millionth part of the +earth's axis of rotation! He finds in the Pyramid a greater +wonder still in a measure for determining the distance of the +earth from the sun, which is the unit for calculating the distances +of the heavenly bodies! That which scientific expeditions +have been sent into all parts of the earth within the +last two years to determine by more accurate observations of +the transit of Venus, is more exactly told in the Great Pyramid +erected four thousand years ago!</p> + +<p>It is a very fascinating study to follow this learned professor +in his elaborate calculations. He seems to think the +whole of the exact sciences contained in the Great Pyramid. +The vacant chest of red granite in the King's Chamber, over +which Egyptologists have puzzled so much, is to him as the +very ark of the Lord. That which has been supposed to be +a sarcophagus, with no other interest than as having once +held a royal mummy, he holds not to be the tomb of Cheops, +or of any of the kings of Egypt, but a sacred coffer intended +to serve as a standard of weights and measures for all time to +come. He thinks it accomplishes perfectly the arithmetical +feat of squaring the circle!—the height being to the circumference +of the base, as the radius is to the circumference of a +circle.</p> + +<p>But the Great Pyramid has, to Professor Smyth, more +than a scientific—it has a religious interest. He is a Scotchman, +and not only a man of science, but one who believes, +with all the energy of his Scotch nature, in a Divine revelation; +and as might be supposed, he connects this monument +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> +of scientific learning with One who is the source of all wisdom +and knowledge. However great may have been the +wisdom of the Egyptians, he does not believe that they had +a knowledge of geodesy and astronomy greater than the most +learned scientific men of our day. He has another explanation, +that the Great Pyramid was built by the guidance of +Him who led the Israelites out of Egypt, and who, as he +shone upon their path in the desert, now shines by this lighthouse +and signal tower upon the blindness and ignorance of +the world. He believes that the Pyramid was constructed +by Divine inspiration just as much as the Jewish Tabernacle; +that as Moses was commanded to fashion everything according +to the pattern showed to him in the Mount, so some ancient +King of Egypt, working under Divine inspiration, +builded better than he knew, and wrought into enduring +stone, truths which he did not perhaps himself understand, +but which were to be revealed in the last time, and to testify +to a later generation the manifold wisdom of God. As to its +age he places it somewhere between the time of Noah and +the calling of Abraham. Dr. Grant even thinks it was built +before the death of Noah! But mankind could hardly have +multiplied in the earth in the lifetime of even the oldest of +the patriarchs, so as to be capable of building such monuments. +The theory is that it was not built by an Egyptian +architect. There is a tradition mentioned in Herodotus of a +shepherd who came from a distant country, from the East, +who had much to do with the building of the Pyramid, and +was regarded as a heavenly visitant and director. Prof. +Smyth thinks it probable, that this visitor was Melchisedek! +He even gives the Pyramid a prophetic character, and thinks +that the different passages and chambers are designed to be +symbolical of the different economies through which God +educates the race. The entrance at first <i>descends</i>. That may +represent the gradual decadence of mankind to the time of +the Flood, or to the exodus of the Israelites. Then the passage +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> +begins to <i>ascend</i>, but slowly and painfully, which represents +the Jewish Dispensation, when men were struggling +towards the light. After a hundred and twenty-seven feet +of this stooping and creeping upward, there is a sudden enlargement, +and the low passage rises up into the Grand Gallery, +just as the Mosaic economy, after groping through many +centuries, at last bursts into the full glory of the Christian +Dispensation.</p> + +<p>Believing in its inspired character, he finds in every part +of this wonderful structure signs and symbols. Taking it +as an emblem of Christian truth, where is the chief corner-stone? +Not at the base, but at the top—the apex! At the +bottom, there are four stones which are equal—no one of +which is above another—the <i>chief</i> corner-stone therefore +must be the capstone!</p> + +<p>It will be perceived that this is a very original and very +sweeping theory; that it overturns all our ideas of the Great +Pyramid; that it not only turns Cheops out of it, but turns +Science and Revelation together into it. We may well +hesitate before accepting it in its full extent, and yet we +must acknowledge our indebtedness to Prof. Smyth. He +has certainly given a new interest to this hoary monument +of the past. Scientific men who reject his theory are still +deeply interested in the facts which he brings to light, which +they recognize as very extraordinary, and which show a +degree of scientific knowledge which not only they did not +believe to exist among the Egyptians, but which hardly +exists in our day.</p> + +<p>So much as this we may freely concede, that the Pyramid +has a scientific value, if not a sacred character; that it is +full of the wisdom of the Egyptians, if not of the inspiration +of the Almighty; and that it is a storehouse of ancient +knowledge, even if it be not the very Ark of the Covenant, +in which the holiest mysteries are enshrined!</p> + +<p>Leaving out what may be considered fanciful in the speculations +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> +of the Scotch astronomer, there is yet much in the +facts he presents worthy the consideration of the man of +science, as well as the devout attention of the student of +the Bible, and which, if duly weighed, will at once enlarge +our knowledge and strengthen our faith.</p> + +<p>Such are the lessons that we derive from even our slight +acquaintance with the Great Pyramid; and so, as we looked +back that night, and saw it standing there in the moonlight, +its cold gray summit, its "chief corner-stone," pointing +upwards to the clear unclouded firmament, it seemed to +point to something above the firmament—to turn our eyes +and thoughts to Heaven and to God. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER VIII.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">LEAVING EGYPT—THE DESERT.</p> + +<p>We left Cairo the next morning. Our departure from +Egypt was not exactly like that of the Israelites, though we +came through the land of Goshen, and by the way of the +Red Sea. We did not flee away at night, nor hear the rush +of horses and chariots behind us. Indeed we were very +reluctant to flee at all; we did not like to go away, for in +those five or six weeks we had grown very fond of the country, +to which the society of agreeable travelling companions +lent an additional charm.</p> + +<p>But the world was all before us, and necessity bade us +depart. It was the 6th of January, the beginning of the +feast of Bairam, the Mohammedan Passover. The guns of +the Citadel ushered in the day, observed by all devout Mussulmans, +which commemorates the sacrifice by Abraham—not +of Isaac, but of <i>Ishmael</i>, for the Arabs, who are descendants +of Ishmael, have no idea of his being set aside by the other +son of the Father of the Faithful. On this day every family +sacrifices the paschal lamb (which explains the flocks of +sheep which we had seen for several days in the streets of +the city), and sprinkles its blood upon the lintels and doorposts +of their houses, that the angel of death may pass them +by. The day is one of general rejoicing and festivity. The +Khedive gives a grand reception to all the foreign representatives +at his palace of Gezireh, at which I had been invited +to be present. But from this promised pleasure I had to +tear myself away, to reach the steamer at Suez on which we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> +were to embark the next day for India. But if we missed +the Khedive, we had at least a compensation, for as we were +at the station, who should appear but Nubar Pasha! He +had just resigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which +took a load off his shoulders, and felt like a boy out of +school, and was now going off to a farm which he has a few +miles from Cairo, to have a holiday. He immediately came +to us and took a seat in the same carriage, and we sat together +for an hour, listening to his delightful conversation, +as he talked of Egypt with a patriot's love and a poet's +enthusiasm. There is no man who more earnestly wishes +its prosperity, and it would be well for the Khedive if he +were always guided by such advisers. At the station his +servants met him with one of those beautiful white donkeys, +so much prized in the East, and as he rode away waving his +hand to us, we felt that we were parting from one of the +wisest and wittiest men whom it had been our good fortune +to meet in all our travels.</p> + +<p>At Zagazig, the railroad from Cairo unites with that from +Alexandria. Here we stopped to dine, and while waiting, a +special train arrived with Mr. Cave, who has come out from +London to try and put some order into the financial affairs +of Egypt. If he succeeds, he will deserve to be ranked very +high as a financier. He was going on to Ismailia to meet +M. de Lesseps, that they might go through the Suez Canal +together.</p> + +<p>And now we leave behind us the rich land of Goshen, +where Joseph placed his father Jacob and his brethren, with +their flocks and herds; we leave the fertile meadows and the +palm groves. We are on the track of the Israelites; we +have passed Rameses, the first station in their march, and +entered the desert, that "great and terrible wilderness" in +which they wandered forty years. We enter it, not on +camels or horses, but drawn by a steed of fire. A railway +in the desert! This is progress indeed. There is something +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> +very imposing to the imagination in the idea of an iron +track laid in the pathless sands, over which long trains move +swifter than "the swift dromedaries," and carrying burdens +greater than the longest caravans. These are the highways +of civilization, which may yet carry it into the heart of +Africa. Here, too, are the great ships, passing through the +Suez Canal, whose tall masts are outlined against the horizon, +as they move slowly from sea to sea.</p> + +<p>And now we are approaching the border line between +Asia and Africa. It is an invisible line; no snow-capped +mountains divide the mighty continents which were the seats +of the most ancient civilization; no sea flows between them: +the Red Sea terminates over seventy miles from the Mediterranean; +even the Suez Canal does not divide Asia and Africa, +for it is wholly in Egypt. Nothing marks where Africa +ends and Asia begins, but a line in the desert, covered by +drifting sands. And yet there is something which strangely +touches the imagination, as we move forward in the twilight, +with the sun behind us, setting over Africa, and before us +the black night coming on over the whole continent of Asia.</p> + +<p>So would I take leave of Africa—in the Night and in the +Desert. Byron closes his Childe Harold with an apostrophe +to the Ocean, his Pilgrim ending his wanderings on the shore. +The Desert is like the Sea: it fills the horizon, and shuts out +the sight of "busy cities far away," leaving one on the +boundless plain, as on the Ocean—alone with the Night. +Perhaps I may be indulged in some quiet musings here, +before we embark on the Red Sea, and seek a new world in +India.</p> + +<p>But what can one say of the desert? The subject seems +as barren as its own sands. <i>Life</i> in the desert? There is +<i>no</i> life; it is the very realm of death, where not a blade of +grass grows, nor even an insect's wing flutters over the +mighty desolation; the only objects in motion, the clouds +that flit across the sky, and cast their shadows on the barren +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> +waste below; and the only sign that man has ever passed +over it, the bleaching bones that mark the track of caravans.</p> + +<p>But as we look, behold "a wind cometh out of the North," +and stirring the loose sand, whirls it into a column, which +moves swiftly towards us like a ghost, as if it said: "I am +the spirit of the desert; man, wherefore comest thou here? +Pass on. If thou invadest long my realm of solitude and +silence, I will make thy grave." We shall not linger, but +only "tarry for a night," to question a little the mystery +that lies hidden beneath these drifting sands.</p> + +<p>We look again, and we see shadowy forms coming out of +the whirlwind—great actors in history, as well as figures of +the imagination. The horizon is filled with moving caravans +and marching armies. Ancient conquerors pass this way for +centuries from Asia into Africa, and back again, the wave +of conquest flowing and reflowing from the valley of the +Tigris to the valley of the Nile. As we leave the Land of +Goshen, we hear behind us the tramp of the Israelites beginning +their march; and as the night closes in, we see in +another quarter of the horizon the wise men of the East +coming from Arabia, following their guiding star, which +leads them to Bethlehem, where Christ was born.</p> + +<p>And so the desert which was "dead" becomes "alive;" +a whole living world starts up from the sands, and glides +into view, appearing suddenly like Arab horsemen, and then +vanishing as if it had not been, and leaving no trace in the +sands any more than is left by a wreck that sinks in the +ocean. But like the sea, it has its passing life, which has a +deep human interest. And not only is there a life of the +desert, but a literature which is the expression of that life—a +history and a poetry, which take their color from these +peculiar forms of nature—and even a music of the desert, +sung by the camel-drivers, to the slow movement of the caravan, +its plaintive cadence keeping time to the tinkling of +the bells. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span></p> + +<p>It has been one of the problems of physical geographers: +What was the <i>use</i> of deserts in the economy of nature? A +large part of Africa is covered by deserts. The Libyan +Desert reaches to the Sahara, which stretches across the continent. +All this seems an utterly waste portion of the earth's +surface. The same question has been raised in regard to the +sea: Why is it that three-fourths of the globe are covered by +water? Perhaps the same answer may be given in both +cases. These vast spaces may be the generators and purifiers +of the air we breathe—the renovators of our globe's atmosphere.</p> + +<p>And the desert has its beauty as well as its utility. It is +not all a dead level, a boundless monotony, but is billowy +like the sea, with great waves of sand cast up by the wandering +winds. The color, of course, is always the same, for +there is no green thing to relieve the yellow sand. But nature +sometimes produces great effects with few materials. +This monotony of color is touched with beauty by the glow +of sunset, as the light of day fades over the wide expanse. +Sunrise and sunset on the desert have all the simple but +grand effects of sunrise and sunset on the ocean. What +painter that has visited Egypt has not tried to put on canvas +that after-glow on the Nile, which is alike his wonder and +his despair? Egypt is one of the favorite countries sought +by European artists, who seek to catch that marvellous color +which is the effect of its atmosphere. They find many a +subject in the desert. With the accessories of life, few as +they are, it presents many a scene to attract a painter's eye, +and furnishes full scope to his genius. A great artist finds +ample material in its bare and naked outlines, relieved by a +few solitary figures—the Arab and his tent, or the camel and +his rider. Perhaps the scene is simply a few palm trees beside +a spring, under whose shade a traveller has laid him down +to rest from the noon-tide heat, and beside him are camels +feeding! But here is already a picture. With what effect +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> +does Gérome give the Prayer in the Desert, with the camel +kneeling on the sands, and his rider kneeling beside him, +with his face turned towards Mecca; or Death in the Desert, +where the poor beast, weary and broken, is abandoned to die, +yet murmurs not, but has a look of patience and resignation +that is most pathetic, as the vultures are seen hovering in +the air, ready to descend on their prey!</p> + +<p>A <i>habitat</i> so peculiar as the desert must produce a life as +peculiar. It is of necessity a lonely life. The dweller in +tents is a solitary man, without any fixed ties, or local habitation. +Whoever lives on the desert must live alone, or with +few companions, for there is nothing to support existence. +It must be also a nomadic life. If the Arab camps, with his +flocks and herds, in some green spot beside a spring, yet it +is only for a few days, for in that time his sheep and cattle +have consumed the scanty herbage, and he must move on to +some new resting-place. Thus the life of the desert is a life +always in motion. The desert has no settled population, no +towns or villages, where men are born, and grow up, and live +and die. Its only "inhabitants" are "strangers and pilgrims," +that come alone or in caravans, and pitch their tents, +and tarry for a night, and are gone.</p> + +<p>Such a life induces peculiar habits, and breeds a peculiar +class of virtues and vices. Nomadic tribes are almost always +robbers, for they have to fight for existence, and it is a desperate +struggle. But, on the other hand, their solitary life +as well as the command of the prophet, has taught them the +virtue of hospitality. Living alone, they feel at times the +sore need of the presence of their kind, and welcome the +companionship even of strangers. An Arab sheik may live +by preying on travellers, but if a wanderer on the desert approaches +his tent and asks shelter and protection, he gives it +freely. Even though the old chief be a robber, the stranger +sleeps in peace and safety, and his entertainer is rewarded by +the comfort of seeing a human face and hearing a human voice. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span></p> + +<p>To traverse spaces so vast and so desolate would not be +possible were it not for that faithful beast of burden which +nature has provided. Horses may be used by the Bedouins +on their marauding expeditions, but they keep near the borders +of the desert, where they can make a dash and fly; but +on the long journey across the Great Sahara, by which the +outer world communicates with the interior of Africa, no +beast could live but the camel, which is truly the ship of the +desert. Paley might find an argument for design in the peculiar +structure of the camel for its purpose; in its stomach, +that can carry water for days, and its foot, which is not +small like that of the horse, but broad, to keep the huge animal +from sinking in the sands. It serves as a snow-shoe, +and bears up both the beast and his rider. Then it is not +hard like a horse's hoof, that rings so sharp on the pavement, +but soft almost like a lion's paw. And tall as the creature +is, he moves with a swinging gait, that is not unpleasant to +one accustomed to it, and as he comes down on his soft foot, +the Arab mother sits at ease, and her child is lulled to rest +almost as if rocked in a cradle.</p> + +<p>Thus moving on in these slow and endless marches, what so +natural as that the camel-riders should beguile their solitude +with song? The lonely heart relieves itself by pouring its +loves and its sorrows into the air; and hence come those +Arabian melodies, so wild and plaintive and tender, which +constitute the music of the desert. Some years since a symphony +was produced in Paris, called "The Desert," which +created a great sensation, deriving its peculiar charm from its +unlikeness to European music. It awakened, as it were, a +new sense in those who had been listening all their lives to +French and German operas. It seemed to tell—as music only +tells—the story of the life of the desert. In listening one could +almost see the boundless plain, broken only by the caravan, +moving slowly across the waste. He could almost "feel the +silence" of that vast solitude, and then faintly in the distance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> +was heard the tinkling of the camel-bells, and the song +of the desert rose upon the evening air, as softly as if cloistered +nuns were singing their vesper hymns. The novel conception +took the fancy of the pleasure seekers of Paris, always +eager for a new sensation. The symphony made the fame of +the composer, Felicien David, who was thought to have shown +a very original genius in the composition of melodies, such as +Europe had not heard before. The secret was not discovered +until some French travellers in the East, crossing the desert, +heard the camel-drivers singing and at once recognized the +airs that had so taken the enthusiasm of Paris. They were +the songs of the Arabs. The music was born on the desert, +and produced such an effect precisely because it was the outburst +of a passionate nature brooding in solitude.</p> + +<p>Music and poetry go together: the life that produces the one +produces the other also. And as there is a music of the desert, +so there is a poetry of the desert. Indeed the desert may +be almost said to have been the birthplace of poetry. The +Book of Job, the oldest poem in the world, older than Homer, +and grander than any uninspired composition, was probably +written in Arabia, and is full of the imagery of the desert.</p> + +<p>But while the mind carols lightly in poetry and music, its +deeper musings take the form of Religion. It is easy to see +how the life of the desert must act upon a thoughtful and +"naturally religious" mind. The absence of outward objects +throws it back upon itself; and it broods over the great +mystery of existence. Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, when he +was</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +"Alone on the wide, wide sea,"</p> +</div> + +<p>found that</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>"So lonely 'twas that God himself</p> +<p>Scarce seemèd there to be."</p> +</div> + +<p>But in the desert one may say there is nothing but God. If +there is little of earth, there is much of heaven. The glory of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> +the desert is at night, when the full moon rises out of the level +plain, as out of the sea, and walks the unclouded firmament. +And when she retires, then all the heavenly host come forth. +The atmosphere is of such exquisite purity, that the stars +shine with all their splendor. No vapor rises from the earth, +no exhalation obscures the firmament, which seems all aglow +with the celestial fires. It was such a sight that kindled the +mind of Job, as he looked up from the Arabian deserts three +thousand years ago, and saw Orion and the Pleiades keeping +their endless march; and as led him to sing of the time "when +the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God +shouted for joy."</p> + +<p>Is it strange that God should choose such a vast and silent +temple as this for the education of those whom He would set +apart for his own service? Here the Israelites were led apart +to receive the law from the immediate presence of God. The +desert was their school, the place of their national education. +It separated them from their own history. It drew a long +track between them and the bitter past. It was a fit introduction +to their new life and their new religion, as to their +new country.</p> + +<p>In such solitudes God has had the most direct communion +with the individual soul. It was in the desert that Moses +hid himself in a cleft of the rock while the Lord passed by; +that the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind; and from +it that John the Baptist came forth, as the voice of one crying +in the wilderness.</p> + +<p>So in later ages holy men who wished to shun the temptations +of cities, that they might lead lives of meditation and +prayer, fled to the desert, that they might forget the world +and live for God alone. This was one of the favorite retreats +of Monasticism in the early Christian centuries. The tombs +of the Thebaïd were filled with monks. Convents were built +on the cliffs of Mount Sinai that remain to this day.</p> + +<p>We do not feel the need of such seclusion and separation +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> +from the world, but this passing over the desert sets the mind +at work and supplies a theme for religious meditation. Is not +life a desert, where, as on the sea, all paths are lost, and the +traveller can only keep his course by observations on the +stars? And are we not all pilgrims? Do we not all belong +to that slow moving caravan, that marches steadily across the +waste and disappears in the horizon? Can we not help some +poor wanderer who may be lonely and friendless, or who may +have faltered by the way; or guide another, if it be only to +go before him, and leave our footprints in the sands, that</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1">"A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,</p> +<p>Seeing may take heart again?"</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER IX.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span></p> + +<p class="ch_summ">ON THE RED SEA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN.</p> + +<p>Suez lies between the desert and the sea, and is the point +of departure both for ships and caravans. But the great +canal to which it gives its name, has not returned the favor +by giving it prosperity. Indeed the country through which +it passes derives little benefit from its construction. Before +it was opened, Egypt was on the overland route to India, +from which it derived a large revenue. All passengers had +to disembark at Alexandria and cross by railroad to Suez; +while freight had to be unshipped at the one city and reshipped +at the other, and thus pay tribute to both. Now +ships pass directly from the Mediterranean into the canal, +and from the canal into the Red Sea, so that the Englishman +who embarks at Southampton, need not set his foot on the +soil of Egypt. Thus it is not Egypt but England that profits +by the opening of the Suez Canal; while Egypt really suffers +by the completion of a work which is of immense benefit to +the commerce of the world.</p> + +<p>Though the Suez Canal is an achievement of modern times, +yet the idea is not modern, nor indeed the first execution. It +was projected from almost the earliest period of history, and +was begun under the Pharaohs, and was at one time completed, +though not, as now, solely for the passage of ships, +but also as a defence, a gigantic moat, which might serve as +a barrier against invasions from Asia. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span></p> + +<p>There is nothing in Suez to detain a traveller, and with +the morning we were sailing out in one of the native boats, +before a light wind, to the great ship lying in the harbor, +which was to take us to India. We had, indeed, a foretaste, +or rather fore<i>sight</i>, of what we were soon to look upon in the +farthest East, as we saw some huge elephants moving along +the quay; but these were not familiar inhabitants, but had +just been disembarked from a ship arrived only the day before +from Bombay—a present from the Viceroy of India to the +Viceroy of Egypt.</p> + +<p>Once on board ship I was as in mine own country, for now, +for the first time in many months, did I hear constantly the +English language. We had been so long in Europe, and +heard French, German, Italian, Greek and Turkish; and +Arabic in Egypt; that at first I started to hear my own +mother tongue. I could not at once get accustomed to it, but +called to the waiter "garçon," and was much surprised that +he answered in English. But it was very pleasant to come +back to the speech of my childhood. Henceforth English +will carry me around the globe. It is the language of the sea, +and of "the ends of the earth;" and it seems almost as if the +good time were coming when the whole earth should be of one +language and of one speech.</p> + +<p>And now we are on the Red Sea, one of the historical seas +of the world. Not far below the town of Suez is supposed +to be the spot where the Israelites were hemmed in between +the mountains and the sea; where Moses bade the waves +divide, and the fleeing host rushed in between the uplifted +walls, feeling that, if they perished, the waters were more +merciful than their oppressors; while behind them came the +chariots of their pursuers.</p> + +<p>It was long before we lost sight of Egypt. On our right +was the Egyptian coast, still in view, though growing +dimmer on the horizon; and as we sat on deck at evening +the gorgeous sunsets flamed over those shores, as they did +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> +on the Nile, as if reluctant to leave the scene of so much +glory.</p> + +<p>On the other side of the sea stretched the Peninsula of +Sinai, with its range of rugged mountains, among which +the eye sought the awful summit from which God gave the +law.</p> + +<p>This eastern side of the Red Sea has been the birthplace +of religions. Half way down the coast is Jhidda, the port +of Mecca. Thus Islam was born not far from the birthplace +of Judaism, of which in many features it is a close +imitation.</p> + +<p>I have asked many times, What gave the name to the Red +Sea? Certainly it is not the color of the water, which is blue +as the sea anywhere. It is said that there is a phosphorescent +glow, given by a marine insect, which at night causes the +waters to sparkle with a faint red light. Others say it is +from the shores, which being the borders of the desert, have +its general sandy red, or yellow, appearance. I remember +years ago, when sailing along the southern coast of Wales, +a gentleman, pointing to some red-banked hills, said they +reminded him of the shores of the Red Sea.</p> + +<p>But whether they have given it its name or not, these surrounding +deserts have undoubtedly given it its extreme heat, +from which it has become famous as "the hottest place in the +world." The wind blowing off from these burning sands, +scorches like a sirocco; nor is the heat much tempered by +the coolness of the sea—for indeed the water itself becomes +heated to such a degree as to be a serious impediment to the +rapid condensation of steam.</p> + +<p>We began to feel the heat immediately after leaving Suez. +The very next day officers of the ship appeared in white +linen pantaloons, which seemed to me a little out of season; +but I soon found that they were wiser than I, especially as +the heat increased from day to day as we got more into the +tropics. Then, to confess the truth, they sometimes appeared +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> +on deck in the early morning in the most negligé attire. At +first I was a little shocked to see, not only officers of the +ship, but officers of the army, of high rank, coming on deck +after their baths barefoot; but I soon came to understand +how they should be eager, when they were almost burning +with fever, to be relieved of even the slightest addition to +weight or warmth. In the cabin, <i>punkas</i>, long screens, +were hung over the tables, and kept swinging all day long. +The deck was hung with double awnings to keep off the +sun; and here the "old Indians" who had made this +voyage before, and knew how to take their comfort in the +hot climate, were generally stretched out in their reclining +bamboo-chairs, with a cigar in one hand and a novel in the +other.</p> + +<p>The common work of the ship was done by Lascars, from +India, as they can stand the heat much better than English +sailors. They are docile and obedient, and under the training +of English officers make excellent seamen.</p> + +<p>But we must not complain, for they tell us our voyage has +been a very cool one. The thermometer has never been +above 88 degrees, which however, considering that this is +<i>midwinter</i>, is doing pretty well!</p> + +<p>If such be the heat in January, what must it be in July? +Then it is fairly blistering; the thermometer rises to 110 +and 112 degrees in the shade; men stripped of clothing to +barely a garment to cover them, are panting with the heat; +driven from the deck, they retreat to the lower part of the +ship, to find a place to breathe; sometimes in despair, the +captain tells me, they turn the ship about, and steam a few +miles in the opposite direction, to get a breath of air; and +yet, with all precautions, he adds that it is not an infrequent +thing, that passengers overpowered sink under a sunstroke +or apoplexy.</p> + +<p>Such heat would make the voyage to India one of real +suffering, and of serious exposure, were it not for the admirable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> +ships in which it can be made. But these of the Peninsular +and Oriental company are about as perfect as anything +that swims the seas. We were fortunate in hitting +upon the largest and best of the fleet, the Peshawur. Accustomed +as we have been of late to the smaller steamers on the +Mediterranean, she seems of enormous bulk, and is of great +strength as well as size; and being intended for hot climates, +is constructed especially for coolness and ventilation. The +state-rooms are much larger than in most sea-going steamers, +and though intended for three persons, as the ship was not +crowded (there were berths for 170 passengers, while we had +but 34, just one-fifth the full complement) we had each a +whole state-room to ourselves. There were bath-rooms in +ample supply, and we took our baths every morning as +regularly as on land.</p> + +<p>On the Peshawur, as on all English ships, the order and +discipline were admirable. Every man knew his place, +and attended to his duty. Everything was done silently, +and yet so regularly that one felt that there was a sharp eye +in every corner of the ship; that there was a vigilant watch +night and day, and this gave us such a sense of safety, +that we lay down and rose up with a feeling of perfect +security.</p> + +<p>Besides, the officers, from the captain down, not only took +good care for the safety of our lives, but did everything for +our comfort. They tried to make us feel at home, and were +never so well pleased as when they saw us all pleasantly +occupied; some enjoying games, and others listening to +music, when some amateur was playing on the piano, at +times accompanied by a dozen manly and womanly voices. +Music at sea helps greatly to beguile the tedium of a voyage. +Often the piano was brought on deck, at which an extemporized +choir practised the hymns for public service; among +which there was one that always recurred, and that none can +forget: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"> +"Eternal Father, strong to save,</p> +<p>Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,</p> +<p>Who bid'st the mighty ocean deep</p> +<p>Its own appointed limits keep:</p> +<p class="i2">Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee</p> +<p class="i2">For those in peril on the sea."</p> +</div> + +<p>And when the Sunday morning came and the same prayers +were read which they had been accustomed to hear in England, +many who listened felt that, whatever oceans they +might cross, here was a tie that bound them to their island +home, and to the religion of their fathers.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the sixth day we passed the island of +Perim, which guards the Gates of the Red Sea, and during +the day passed many islands, and were in full sight of the +Arabian coast, and at the evening touched at Aden. Here +the heat reaches the superlative. In going down the Red +Sea, one may use all degrees of comparison—hot, hotter, +hottest—and the last is Aden. It is a barren point of rock +and sand, within twelve degrees of the Equator, and the town +is actually in the crater of an extinct volcano, into which the +sun beats down with the heat of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. +But the British Government holds it, as it commands the +entrance to the Red Sea, and has fortified it, and keeps a +garrison here. However it mercifully sends few English +soldiers to such a spot, but supplies the place chiefly with +native regiments from India. All the officers hold the place +in horror, counting it a very purgatory, from which it is +Paradise to be transferred to India.</p> + +<p>But from this point the great oppression of the heat ceased. +Rounding this rock of Aden, we no longer bore southward +(which would have taken us along the Eastern coast of +Africa, to the island of Zanzibar, the point of departure for +Livingstone to explore the interior, and of Stanley to find +him), but turned to the East, and soon met the Northeast +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> +monsoon, which, blowing in our faces, kept us comparatively +cool all the way across the Indian Ocean.</p> + +<p>And now our thoughts began to be busy with the strange +land which we were soon to see, a land to which most of those +on board belonged, and of which they were always ready to +converse. Strangers to each other, we soon became acquainted, +and exchanged our experiences of travel. Beside me at +the table sat a barrister from Bombay, and next to him three +merchants of that city, who, leaving their families in England, +were returning to pursue their fortunes in India. One +had been a member of the Governor's Council, and all were +familiar with the politics and the business of that great +Empire. There was also a missionary of the Free Church of +Scotland, who, after ten years' service, had been allowed a +year and a half to recruit in the mother country, and was +now returning to his field of labor in Bombay, with whom I +had many long talks about the religions of India and the +prospects of missions. There was a fine old gentleman who +had made his fortune in Australia, to which he was returning +with his family after a visit to England.</p> + +<p>The military element, of course, was very prominent. A +large proportion of the passengers were connected in some +way with the army, officers returning to their regiments, or +officers' wives returning to their husbands. Of course those +who live long in India, have many experiences to relate; +and it was somewhat exciting to hear one describe the particulars +of a tiger hunt—how the game of all kind was driven +in from a circuit of miles around by beaters, and by elephants +trained for the work; how the deer and lesser animals fled +frightened by, while the hunter, bent on royal game, disdained +such feeble prey, and every man reserved his fire, sitting +in his howdah on the back of an elephant till at last a +magnificent Bengal tiger sprang into view, and as the balls +rained on his sides, with a tremendous bound he fell at the +feet of the hunters; or to hear a Major who had been in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> +India during the Mutiny, describe the blowing away of +the Sepoys from the mouths of cannon; with what fierce +pride, like Indian warriors at the stake, they shrank not +from the trial, but even when not bound, stood unmoved +before the guns, till they were blown to pieces, their +legs and arms and mangled breasts scattered wide over the +field.</p> + +<p>There was a surgeon in the Bengal Staff Corps, Dr. Bellew, +who had travelled extensively in the interior of Asia, +attached to several missions of the Government, and had published +a volume, entitled "From the Indus to the Tigris." +He gave me some of his experiences in Afghanistan, among +the men of Cabul, and in Persia. Three years since he was +attached to the mission of Sir Douglas Forsyth to Kashgar +and Yarkund. This was a secret embassy of the government +to Yakoob Beg, the Tartar chief, who by his courage as +a soldier had established his power in those distant regions +of Central Asia. In carrying out this mission, the party +crossed the Himalayas at a height far greater than the top +of Mont Blanc. Our fellow traveller gave us some fearful +pictures of the desolation of those snowy wastes, as well as +some entertaining ones of the strange manners of some parts +of High Asia. He passed through Little Thibet, where +prevails the singular custom of polyandry—instead of one +man having many wives, one woman may have many husbands, +although they cannot be of different families. She can marry +half a dozen brothers at once, but must not extend her household +into another family. He was now bound for Nepaul, +under the shadow of the Himalayas, being ordered to report +at once to the Maharajah, who is preparing to receive the +Prince of Wales, and to entertain him with the grandest +tiger hunt ever known in India.</p> + +<p>With such variety of company, and such talk to enliven +the hours, as we sat on deck at twilight, or by moonlight—for +we had the full moon on the Indian Ocean—the days did +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> +not seem long, and we were almost taken by surprise as we +approached the end of our voyage.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the twelfth day from Suez we +were nearing our destined port, and eyes and glasses were +turned in that direction; but it was not till the sun was +setting that his light shone full on the Ghauts, the range +of mountains that line the western coast of India—steps, as +their name implies, to the high table-land of the interior. +Presently as the darkness deepened, the revolving light of +the lighthouse shot across the deep; signal guns from the +city announced the arrival of the mail from England; rows +of lamps shining for miles round the bay lighted up the +waters and the encircling shore; and, there was India! +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER X.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">BOMBAY—FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA.</p> + +<p>Never did travellers open their eyes with more of wonder +and curiosity than we, as we awoke the next morning and +went on deck and turned to the unaccustomed shore. The sun +had risen over the Ghauts, and now cast his light on the +islands, covered with cocoanut palms, and on the forest of +shipping that lay on the tranquil waters. Here were ships +from all parts of the world, not only from the Mediterranean +and from England, but from every part of Asia and Africa, +and from Australia. A few weeks before had been witnessed +here a brilliant sight at the landing of the Prince of Wales. +A long arched way of trellis work, still hung with faded wreaths, +marked the spot where the future Emperor of India first set +foot upon its soil. Our ship, which had anchored off the +mouth of the harbor, now steamed up to her moorings, a tug +took us off to the Mazagon Bunder, the landing place of the +Peninsular and Oriental Company, where we mounted a long +flight of granite steps to the quay—and were in India.</p> + +<p>Passing through the Custom House gates, we were greeted +not by the donkey-boys of Egypt, but by a crowd of barefooted +and barelegged Hindoos, clad in snowy white, and +with mountainous turbans on their heads, who were ambitious +of the honor of driving us into the city. The native +carriage (or <i>gharri</i>, as it is called) is not a handsome equipage. +It is a mere box, oblong in shape, set on wheels, having +latticed windows like a palanquin, to admit the air and shut +out the sun. Mounting into such a "State carriage," our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> +solemn Hindoo gave rein to his steed, and we trotted off into +Bombay. As our destination was Watson's Hotel, in the +English quarter at the extreme end of the city, we traversed +almost its whole extent. The streets seemed endless. On +and on we rode for miles, till we were able to realize that we +were in the second city in the British empire—larger than +any in Great Britain except London—larger than Liverpool +or Glasgow, or Manchester or Birmingham.</p> + +<p>Of course the population is chiefly native, and this it is +which excites my constant wonder. As I ride about I ask +myself, Am I on the earth, or in the moon? Surely this +must be some other planet than the one that I have known +before. I see men as trees walking, but they are not of any +familiar form or speech. Perhaps it is because we are on the +other side of the world, and everything is turned topsy-turvy, +and men are walking on their heads. We may have to +adopt the Darwinian theory of the origin of man; for +these seem to be of another species, to belong to another +department of the animal kingdom. That old Hindoo that I +see yonder, sitting against the wall, with his legs curled up +under him, seems more like a chimpanzee than a man. +He has a way of sitting on his <i>heels</i> (a posture which would +be impossible for a European, but which he will keep for +hours), which is more like an animal than a human creature.</p> + +<p>Truly we have never been in such a state of bewilderment +since we began our travels, as since we landed in Bombay. +Constantinople seemed strange, and Egypt stranger still; but +India is strangest of all. The streets are swarming with life, +as a hive swarms with bees. The bazaars are like so many +ant-hills, but the creatures that go in and out are not like +any race that we have seen before. They are not white like +Europeans, nor black like Africans, nor red like our American +Indians; but are pure Asiatics, of a dark-brown color, +the effect of which is the greater, as they are generally clad +in the garments which nature gives them. The laboring class +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> +go half naked, or more than half. It is only the house-servants +that wear anything that can be called a costume. +The coolies, or common laborers, have only a strip of cloth +around their loins, which they wear for decency, for in this +climate they scarcely need any garment for warmth. One thing +which is never omitted is the turban, or in its place a thick +blanket, to shield the head from the direct rays of the sun. +But there is nothing to hide the swarthy breast or limbs. +Those of a better condition, who do put on clothing, show +the Oriental fondness for gorgeous apparel by having the +richest silk turbans and flowing robes. The women find a +way to show their feminine vanity, being tricked out in +many colors, dark red, crimson and scarlet, with yellow and +orange and green and blue—the mingling of which produces +a strange effect as one rides through the bazaars and crowded +streets, which gleam with all the colors of the rainbow. The +effect of this tawdry finery is heightened by the gewgaws +which depend from different parts of their persons. Earrings +are not sufficiently conspicuous for a Hindoo damsel, who has +a ring of gold and pearl hung in her nose; which is considered +a great addition to female beauty. Heavy bracelets of silver +also adorn her wrists and ankles. Almost every woman who +shows herself in the street, though of the lowest condition, +and barefoot, still gratifies her pride by huge silver anklets +clasping her naked feet.</p> + +<p>But these Asiatic faces, strange as they are, would not be +unattractive but for artificial disfigurements—if men did not +chew the betel nut, which turns the lips to a brilliant red, +and did not have their foreheads striped with coarse pigments, +which are the badges of their different castes!</p> + +<p>Imagine a whole city crowded with dark skinned men and +women thus dressed—or not dressed—half naked on the one +hand, or bedizened like harlequins on the other, walking +about, or perchance riding in little carriages <i>drawn by oxen</i>—a +small breed that trot off almost as fast as the donkeys we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> +had in Cairo—and one may have some idea of the picturesque +appearance of the streets of Bombay.</p> + +<p>We are becoming accustomed to the manners and customs +of this eastern world. We never sit down to dinner +but with the punka swinging over us, and the "punka-walla," +the coolie who swings it, is a recognized institution. +In the hot months it is kept swinging all night, and Europeans +sleep under it. These things strike us strangely at +first, but we soon get used to these tropical devices, and in +fact rather like them. In a few days we have become quite +Oriental. To confess the truth, there are some things here +in the East that are not at all disagreeable to the natural +man, especially the devices for coolness and comfort, and the +extreme deference to Europeans, which we begin to accept as +naturally belonging to us.</p> + +<p>At first I was surprised and amused at the manners of the +people. It was a new sensation to be in this Asiatic atmosphere, +to be surrounded and waited upon by soft-footed Hindoos, +who glided about noiselessly like cats, watching every +look, eager to anticipate every wish before they heard the +word of command. I was never the object of such reverence +before. Every one addressed me as "Sahib." I did not +know at first what this meant, but took it for granted that +it was a title of respect—an impression confirmed by the +deferential manner of the attendants. I could not walk +through the corridor of the hotel without a dozen servants +rising to their feet, who remained standing till I had passed. +I was a little taken aback when a turbaned Oriental, in flowing +robe, approached me with an air of profound reverence, +bending low, as if he would prostrate himself at my feet. If +he desired to present a petition to my august majesty (which +was, probably, that I would buy a cashmere shawl), he bowed +himself almost to the ground, and reached down his hand +very low, and then raising it, touched his forehead, as if he +would take up the dust of the earth and cast it on his head, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> +in token that he was unworthy to enter into such an awful +presence. I never knew before how great a being I was. +There is nothing like going far away from home, to the other +side of the world, among Hindoos or Hottentots, to be fully +appreciated.</p> + +<p>After a little experience, one learns to accept these Hindoo +salaams and obeisances. Now, when I walk down the +passages of the hotel, and snowy turbans rise on either side +in token of homage, I bow in acknowledgment, though very +slightly, so as not to concede a particle of my dignity, or +encourage any familiarity. When I open my door in the +morning, I find half a dozen coolies in the passage, who have +curled up on mats and slept there all night, as Napoleon's +Mameluke slept before his master's door. It gives one a +sense of dignity and importance to be thus served and +guarded and defended! I suspect all of us have a little (or +a good deal) of the Asiatic in our composition, and could +easily play the pasha and drop into these soft Eastern ways, +and find it not unpleasant to recline on a divan, and be +waited on by dusky slaves!</p> + +<p>We find that we are in a tropical climate by the heat that +oppresses us. Although it is midwinter, we find it prudent +as well as pleasant to remain indoors in the middle of the +day (time which is very precious for writing), and make our +excursions in the morning or evening.</p> + +<p>Morning in the tropics is delightful. There is a dewy +freshness in the air. Rising at daylight we take a small open +carriage—a kind of "one horse shay"—for our ride. It has +but one seat, but the Hindoo driver, nimble as a cat, +crouches at our feet, with his legs dangling over the side in +front of the wheels, and thus mounted we gallop off gayly.</p> + +<p>One of our morning excursions was to the Flower Market, +where the fruits and flowers of the country are displayed +with truly tropical profusion. The building, designed with +English taste, is of great extent, surrounding a spacious +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> +court, which is laid out like a garden, with fountains and +ferns, and flowering shrubs and creepers growing luxuriantly. +Here are offered for sale all kinds of poultry and birds, parrots, +and even monkeys. The Flower Market is especially +brilliant, as flowers are the customary offerings at temples. +They are very cheap. Five cents bought a large bunch of +roses. White jessamines and yellow marigolds are wrought +into wreaths and garlands for their festivities. The fruits +we liked less than the flowers. They were very tempting to +the eye, but too rich for our appetite. The famous mango +cloyed us with its sweetness. Indeed, I made the observation +here, which I had to repeat afterwards in Java, that the +tropical fruits, though large and luscious, had not the delicate +flavor of our Northern fruits. A good New Jersey +peach would have been far sweeter to my taste than the +ripest orange or mango, or the longest string of bananas.</p> + +<p>In the evening we ride out to Malabar Hill, or go to the +public gardens which English taste has laid out in different +parts of the city. Although Bombay is a city of Hindoos, +yet the stamp of English rule is everywhere impressed upon +it. Like the cities of Great Britain, it is thoroughly governed. +The hand of a master is seen in its perfect police, +its well ordered and well lighted streets. There are signs of +its being gained by conquest and held by military power. +The English quarter is still called the Fort, being on the site +of an old fortress, the ramparts of which are all swept away, +and in their place are wide streets (indeed too wide for shade), +and a number of public buildings—Government offices, the +Postoffice, and the Telegraph Building, and the University—which +would be an ornament to any city in England. Here +English taste comes in to add to its natural beauty in the laying +out of open squares. Our windows at the Hotel look out +upon the Esplanade, a large parade ground, the very spot +where the Sepoys were shot away from the guns after the +mutiny, and upon the sea, from which comes at evening +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> +a soft, delicious air from the Indian ocean. It is a +pretty sight to go here at sunset, when the band is playing +and there is a great turnout of carriages, bringing +the fashion and wealth of Bombay to listen to the music +and inhale the fresh breezes from the sea, that no doubt +are sweeter to many in that they seem to come from +their beloved England. In the crowd of well dressed people +wealthy Parsees (distinguished by their high hats), and Hindoos +by their turbans, mingle with English officers, and the +children of all run about together on the lawn. My companion +noticed particularly the Parsee children, whose dresses +were gay with many colors—little fellows shining in pink +trousers, blue shirts, green vests, and scarlet caps! Others +had satin trousers and vests of some bright color, and over +all white muslin or lace trimmings. The effect of such a +variety of colors was as if parterres of flowers were laid out +on the smooth shaven lawn. In another part of the city the +Victoria Gardens are set out like a Botanical Garden, with +all manner of plants and trees, especially with an endless +variety of palms, under which crowds saunter along the +avenues, admiring the wonders of tropical vegetation, and +listening to the music that fills the evening air.</p> + +<p>The environs of Bombay are very beautiful. Few cities +have a more delightful suburb than Malabar Hill, where the +English merchant, after the business of the day is over, retreats +from the city to enjoy a home which, though Indian +without, is English within. Hundreds of bungalows are +clustered on these eminences, shaded with palms and embowered +in tropical foliage, with steep roofs, always thatched as a +better protection from the sun. Here the occupants sit at +evening on the broad verandahs, stretched in their long bamboo +chairs, enjoying the cool air that comes in from the sea, +and talk of England or of America.</p> + +<p>There are not many Americans in Bombay, although in one +way the city is, or was, closely connected with our country. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> +Nowhere was the effect of our civil war more felt than in +India, as it gave a great impetus to its cotton production. +Under the sudden and powerful stimulus, Bombay started up +into an artificial prosperity. Fortunes were made rapidly. +The close of the war brought a panic from which it has not +yet recovered. But the impulse given has remained, and I +am told that there is at this moment more cotton grown in +India than ever before, although the fall in prices has cut off +the great profits. But the cost of transportation is much less, +as the railroads constructed within a few years afford the +means of bringing it to market, where before it had to be +drawn slowly over the mountains in ox-carts. This flow of +cotton to the seaports has been turned to account by the +erection of cotton mills (several of which have been started +here in Bombay), which, under the direction of Englishmen, +and having the double advantage of native cotton and native +labor, may yet supplant English fabrics in the markets of +India.</p> + +<p>Though there are few Americans (except the missionaries) +here, yet there is one who has all the enterprise of his countrymen, +Mr. Kittredge, who came out to India many years ago, +and is now the head of the old house of Stearns, Hobart & Co. +He has introduced that peculiarly American institution, the +street railway—or tramway, as it is called here—which is a +great comfort in moving about the city, where transportation +before was chiefly by little ox-carts. The cars run smoothly, +and as they are open at the sides are delightfully cool. The +Hindoos, though slow in adopting new ideas or new ways, +take to these as an immense convenience. Not the least good +effect is the pressure which they bring to bear on caste, by +forcing those of different castes to sit side by side!</p> + +<p>A very singular people, found in Bombay, and nowhere +else in India, are the Parsees, who differ from the Hindoos +both in race and religion. They are followers of Zoroaster, +the philosopher of Persia, from which they were driven out centuries +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> +ago by the merciless followers of the Prophet, and +took refuge in Western India, and being, as a class, of superior +intelligence and education, they have risen to a high position. +They are largely the merchants of Bombay, and among +them are some of its wealthiest citizens, whose beautiful +houses, surrounded with gardens, line the road to Parell, the +residence of the Governor. They are fire-worshippers, adoring +it as the principle of life. Morning and evening they +may be seen uncovering their heads, and turning reverently +to the rising or the setting sun, and offering their adoration +to the great luminary, which they regard as the source of +all life on earth. As I have seen them on the seashore, +turning their faces to the setting sun, and lifting their hands +as if in prayer, I have thought, that if this be idolatry, it is +at least not so degrading as that of the Hindoos around them, +for if they bow to a material object, it is at least the most +glorious which they see in nature. The more intelligent of +them, however, explain that it is not the sun itself they worship, +but only regard it as the brightest symbol and manifestation +of the Invisible Deity. But they seem to have an idolatrous +reverence for fire, and keep a lamp always burning in +their houses. It is never suffered to go out day nor night, +from year to year. The same respect which they show to +fire, they show also to the other elements—earth, air, and +water.</p> + +<p>A revolting application of their principles is seen in their +mode of disposing of the dead. They cannot burn them, as +do the Hindoos, lest the touch of death should pollute the +flames; nor can they bury them in the earth, nor in the sea, +for earth and water and air are all alike sacred. They therefore +expose the bodies of their dead to be devoured by birds +of the air. Outside of Bombay, on Malabar Hill, are three +or four circular towers—called The Towers of Silence, +which are enclosed by a high wall to keep observers at a distance. +When a Parsee dies, his body is conveyed to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> +gates, and there received by the priests, by whom it is exposed +on gratings constructed for the purpose.</p> + +<p>Near at hand, perched in groves of palms, are the vultures. +We saw them there in great numbers. As soon as a funeral +procession approaches, they scent their prey, and begin to +circle in the air; and no sooner is a body uncovered, and +left by the attendants, than a cloud of black wings settles +down upon it, and a hundred horned beaks are tearing at +the flesh. Such are their numbers and voracity, that in a few +minutes—so we are told—every particle is stripped from the +bones, which are then slid down an inclined plane into a deep +pit, where they mingle with common clay.</p> + +<p>Compared with this, the Hindoo mode of disposing of +the dead, by burning, seems almost like Christian burial. +Yet it is done in a mode which is very offensive. In returning +from Malabar Hill one evening, along the beautiful +drive around the bay, we noticed a number of furnace-like +openings, where fires were burning, from which proceeded a +sickening smell, and were told that this was the burning of +the bodies of the Hindoos!</p> + +<p>This mode of disposing of the dead may be defended on +grounds of health, especially in great cities. But, at any +rate, I wish there was nothing worse to be said of the Hindoos +than their mode of treating the forms from which life +has departed. But their religion is far more cruel to the +living than to the dead.</p> + +<p>To one who has never been in a Pagan country, that which +is most new and strange is its idolatry. Bombay is full of +temples, which at certain hours are crowded with worshippers. +Here they flock every morning to perform their devotions. +There is nothing like the orderly congregation +gathered in a Christian house of worship, sitting quietly in +their places, and listening to a sermon. The people come +and go at will, attending to their devotions, as they would to +any matter of business. A large part of their "worship" +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> +consists in washing themselves. With the Hindoos as with +the Mohammedans, bathing is a part of their religion. The +temple grounds generally enclose a large tank, into which +they plunge every morning, and come up, as they believe, +clean from the washing. At the temple of Momba Davi (the +god who gives name to Bombay), we watched these purifications +and other acts of worship. Within the enclosure, beside +the temple filled with hideous idols, there was the sacred +cow (which the people would consider it a far greater crime +to kill than to kill a Christian) which chewed her cud undisturbed, +though not with half so much content as if she had +been in a field of sweet-scented clover; and there stood the +peepul tree, the sacred tree of India (a species of banyan), +round which men and women were walking repeating their +prayers, and leaving flowers as offerings at its foot. This +latter custom is not peculiar to Pagan countries. In Christian +as well as in heathen lands flowers are laid on the +altar, as if their beauty were grateful to the Unseen Eye, +and their perfume a kind of incense to the object of devotion. +Inside the enclosure men were being washed and +shaved (on their heads as well as on their faces), and painted +on their foreheads (as Catholics might be with the sign of +the cross) to mark the god they worship. And not only in +the temples, but along the streets, in the houses, which were +open to the view of passers-by, people were taking plentiful +ablutions, almost a full bath, and making their toilet, quite +unembarrassed by the presence of strangers.</p> + +<p>These observances (if divested of any religious value) are +not to be altogether condemned. The habit of frequent +bathing is very useful in a sanitary point of view, especially +in this hot climate. But that which most excites our +admiration is the scrupulous regularity of the Hindoos +in their worship. They have to "do their pooja" (that +is, make their offerings and perform their devotions) before +they go to their work, or even partake of food! Here is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> +an example of religious fidelity worthy of Christian imitation.</p> + +<p>The religious ideas of the Hindoos show themselves in +other ways, which at least challenge our respect for their +consistency. In their eyes all life is sacred, the life of beast +and bird, nay, of reptile and insect, as well as of man. To +carry out this idea they have established a Hospital for Animals, +which is one of the institutions of Bombay. It is on a +very extensive scale, and presents a spectacle such as I do +not believe can be seen anywhere else in the world. Here, +in an enclosure covering many acres, in sheds, or stables, or +in the open grounds, as may best promote their recovery, are +gathered the lame, the halt, and the blind, not of the human +species, but of the animal world—cattle and horses, sheep +and goats, dogs and cats, rabbits and monkeys, and beasts +and birds of every description. Even poor little monkeys +forgot to be merry, and looked very solemn as they sat on +their perch. The cows, sacred as they were, were yet not +beyond the power of disease, and had a most woe-begone +look. Long rows of stables were filled with broken-down +horses, spavined and ring-boned, with ribs sticking out of +their sides, or huge sores on their flanks, dripping with blood. +In one pen were a number of kittens, that mewed and cried +for their mothers, though they had a plentiful supply of milk +for their poor little emaciated bodies. The Hindoos send +out carts at night and pick them up wherever they have been +cast into the street. Rabbits, whom no man would own, +have here a snug warren made for them, and creep in and +out with a feeling of safety and comfort. In a large enclosure +were some hundred dogs, more wretched-looking than +the dogs of Constantinople—"whelps and curs of low degree." +These poor creatures had been so long the companions +of man that, ill-treated as they were, starved and kicked, +they still apparently longed for human society, and as soon +as they saw us they seemed to recognize us as their deliverers, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> +and set up a howling and yelping, and leaped against +the bars of their prison house, as if imploring us to give them +liberty.</p> + +<p>And here is a collection of birds to fill an extensive aviary, +though in their present condition they do not look exactly +like birds of Paradise. There are not only "four black +crows," but more than any farmer would like to see in his +wheat field (for India is the land of crows). Tall cranes, +that had been wont to step with long legs by the marshy +brink of rivers, here were bandaged and splintered till they +could walk once more. Broken-winged seagulls, that could +no more sweep over the boundless sea, free as its own waves, +were nursed till they could fly again.</p> + +<p>The spectacle thus presented was half touching and half +ludicrous. One cannot but respect the Hindoo's regard for +life, as a thing not to be lightly and wantonly destroyed. +And yet they carry it to an extent that is absurd. They will +not take the life of animals for food, nor even of creatures +that are annoying or dangerous to themselves. Many will +not crush the insects that buzz around them and sting them, +nor kill a cobra that crawls into their houses, even when it +threatens to bite them or their children. It has been said +that they even nurse serpents, and when recovered, turn them +loose into the jungle; but of this we saw no evidence. But +certainly many wretched creatures, whose existence is not +worth keeping, which it were a mercy to let die, are here rescued +and brought back to life.</p> + +<p>While walking through these grounds in company with a +couple of missionaries, I thought how much better these animals +were cared for than some men. I was thinking of some +of our broken-down ministers at home, who, after serving +their people faithfully for a whole generation, are at last sent +adrift without ceremony, like an old horse turned out by the +roadside to die! What lives of drudgery and toil do such +ministers lead! They are "beasts of burden," more than any +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> +beast of the field. And when their working days are over, +can they not be cared for as well as the Hindoos care for old +horses and camels? If only these shattered wrecks (and +magnificent wrecks some of them are) were towed into port +and allowed to rest in tranquil waters; or (to change the +figure) if these old veterans were housed and warmed and fed +and nursed as carefully as the Hindoos nurse their broken-down +animals, we should have fewer of those instances of +cruel neglect which we sometimes hear of to our sorrow and +shame!</p> + +<p>Of the antiquities of India, one of the most notable is found +here in the Caves of Elephanta, which are on an island lying +off the harbor. We set apart a day to this visit, which we +made with a couple of Americans and a couple of Englishmen, +the latter of whom we met first in Bombay, but who were to +keep us company a large part of our journey around the +world. We were to embark at the Apollo Bunder, and while +waiting here for our boat (a steam launch which is used for +this purpose), a snake-charmer desired to entertain us with +the dexterous manner in which he handled cobras, taking +them up like kittens, coiling them round his neck, and tossing +them about in a very playful and affectionate manner. +No doubt their fangs had been completely extracted before +he indulged in these endearments. A very cruel form of +sport was to throw one on the ground, and let it be set upon +by a mangoose, a small animal like a weasel, that is not +poisoned by the bite of serpents, and attacks them without +hesitation. One of these the man carried in a bag for the +purpose. As soon as let loose, the little creature flew at the +snake spitefully, as a terrier dog would at a rat, and seized +it by the head, and bit it again and again with its sharp teeth, +and left it covered with blood. As we expressed our disgust +at this cruelty, the juggler assured us that the deceitful reptile +was not dead (in fact as soon as laid on the ground it began +to wriggle), and that he would take it by the tail and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> +hold it up, and pour water on its head, and it would come all +right again. He did not say, but no doubt thought, "and +will be all ready for torture when the next American or Englishman +comes along."</p> + +<p>By this time the steam launch had come round to the Bunder, +and we got on board. It was a little mite of a vessel, +just big enough for the half dozen of us, with a steam boiler not +much larger than a teapot, that wheezed as if it had the asthma. +But it did its work well, and away we shot swiftly across the +beautiful bay. The island of Elephanta is seven miles +from the city, and takes its name from a gigantic statue of +an elephant that once stood upon its shore. Landing here, +we found ourselves at the foot of a rocky hill, which we +mounted by several hundred steps, and stood at the entrance +of a gigantic cave or cavern cut into the hill-side, with a +lofty ceiling, pillared like a temple. The main hall, as it +might be called, runs back a hundred and thirty feet into the +solid rock.</p> + +<p>The first thing that struck me on entering was the resemblance +to the temples of Egypt. Though in size and extent +it does not approach the ruins of Karnak, yet one recognizes +the same massive architecture in this temple, which is literally +"cut out of a mountain," its roof the overhanging cliff, +supported by rows of heavy columns.</p> + +<p>The resemblance to Egypt appears also in the symbol of +divinity and the objects of worship; the sacred bull in one +country answering to the sacred cow in the other; and the +serpent, the same hooded cobra, rearing its head on the front +of the Temples of Thebes, and in the Caves of Elephanta.</p> + +<p>At the end of the great hall are the objects of worship in +three colossal images of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. This is +the Hindoo Trinity, and the constant recurrence of these figures +in their mythology shows how the idea of a Trinity pervaded +other ancient religions besides our own. It is a question +for scholars, whence came the original conception of this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> +threefold personality in the Divine Being, whether from revelation, +or from a tradition as old as the human race.</p> + +<p>The faces are Egyptian—immobile like the Sphinx, with +no expression of eagerness or desire, but only of calm and +eternal repose. Such was the blessedness of the gods, and +such the beatitude sought by their worshippers.</p> + +<p>The age of the Caves of Elephanta is not known, but they +must be of a great antiquity. For many centuries this rock-temple +has been the resort of millions of worshippers. +Generation after generation have the poor people of India +crossed these waters to this sacred island, and climbed wearily +up this hill as if they were climbing towards heaven.</p> + +<p>That such a religion should have lived for thousands of +years, and be living still (for the worship of Brahma and +Vishnu and Shiva is still the religion of India), is a reflection +that gives one but little hope for the future of the human +race. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XI.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">LEAVING BOMBAY—TRAVELLING IN INDIA—ALLAHABAD—THE +MELA.</p> + +<p>We had been in Bombay a week, and began to feel quite +at home, when we had to leave. A man who undertakes to +go around the world, must not stop too long in the soft +places. He must be always on the march, or ready to start +at the tap of the drum. We had a long journey before us, to +the North of India, and could not linger by the way. So we +set out just at evening. Much of the travelling in India is +at night, to avoid the heat of the day. The sun was setting +over the waters as we moved slowly out of the station at +Bombay, and sweeping around the shores, caught our last +glimpse of the Western sea, and then rushed off for the +mountains.</p> + +<p>"You'll need to take beds with you," said our friends, +foreseeing that we might have to lie down in rough places. +So we procured for each of us what is called a resai, a well-stuffed +coverlet, which answered the purpose of a light mattress. +There are no sleeping-cars in India; but the first-class +carriages have generally a sofa on either side, which +may be turned into a sort of couch. On these sofas, having +first secured a whole compartment, we spread our resais, with +pillows on which to rest our weary heads, and stretch ourselves +"to sleep—perchance to dream." But the imagination +is so busy that sleep comes but slowly. I often lie +awake for hours, and find a great peace in this constant +wakefulness. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span></p> + +<p>It was quite dark when we found ourselves climbing the +Ghauts (what in California would be called the Coast Range), +a chain of mountains not very high, but which separates the +coast from the table-land of the interior. As the train +moved more slowly, we perceived that we were drawing up +a heavy incline. This slow motion soothes one to slumber, +and at length we closed our eyes, and when the morning +broke, found that we had passed the summit, and were rushing +on over an open country, not unlike our Western prairies. +These were the Plains of India—a vast plateau, broken +here and there, but preserving its general character across the +whole peninsula from Bombay to Calcutta, and North to the +Himalayas.</p> + +<p>In this month of January, these plains are without verdure +to give them beauty. The trees keep their foliage, and here +and there is a broad-spreading banyan, or a mango grove, +with its deep shade. But we miss the fresh green grass and +the flowers that come only with the Spring. Landscapes +which are not diversified in surface by hills and valleys are +only relieved from monotony by varieties of color. These +are wanting now, and hence the vast plain is but "a gray +and melancholy waste" like the sea. We visit India in +winter because the summer would be too oppressive. But in +choosing this season, we have to sacrifice that full glory +when nature comes forth in all the richness of tropical vegetation. +It is in the rainy season that the earth bursts suddenly +into bloom. Then the dead plain, so bleak and bare, +in a few days is covered with a carpet of green, and decked +with innumerable flowers. But there are drawbacks to that +gorgeous time and that prodigality of nature. With the +bursting into light of the vegetable world, the insect world +also comes forth. All the insects that buzz and sting, fill the +summer air; and then the reptile world creeps abroad. Out +of millions of holes, where they have slept all winter long, +crawl cobras and other deadly serpents, and all slimy things. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> +On the whole, therefore, I am content to see India in its sombre +dress, and be spared some other attendants of this tropical +world.</p> + +<p>Nor is there much animal life to give animation to the +scene. A few cattle are grazing here and there. Now a +deer startled looks up, as we go by, or a monkey goes leaping +across the fields, but not a wild beast of any kind is seen—not +even a wild-cat or a jackal. As for birds, storks are at +home in India as much as in Holland. Red flamingoes +haunt</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +"The plashy brink, or marge of river wide,"</p> +</div> + +<p>while on the broad open plain the birds most seen are crows! +They are very tame, and quite familiar with the rest of the +animal creation, a favorite perch being the backs of cows or +buffaloes, where they light without resistance, and make +themselves at home. They are said to be very useful as scavengers. +That is quite possible; but however useful, they are +certainly not beautiful.</p> + +<p>In these long stretches of course we pass hundreds of villages, +but these do not attract the eye nor form a feature in +the landscape, for the low mud hovels of which they are +composed hardly rise above the level of the plain. There is +no church spire to be seen, as from a New England village, +nor even the dome or minaret of a mosque, for we are not yet +in the Mohammedan part of India.</p> + +<p>One feature there is which relieves the monotony—the railway +stations are the prettiest I have seen out of England. +Simply but tastefully built, they are covered with vines and +flowers, which with irrigation easily grow in this climate in +the open air at all seasons of the year. The railway administration +has offered prizes for the embellishment of stations, +so that the natives, who are fond of flowers, and who are +thus tempted by the hope of reward, plant roses and trail +vines everywhere, so that the eye is relieved from the glare +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> +of the barren plain by resting on a mass of flowers and +verdure.</p> + +<p>In their internal arrangements, too, these stations are models +of comfort, which might furnish an example to us in +America. Wherever we are to breakfast or lunch ("take +tiffin") or dine, we find a table neatly spread, with soft-footed +Hindoos gliding about to serve us, and with plenty of time +to eat in peace, without that rushing which makes travel in +America such a hurry and fatigue. I am often asked about +the difficulty of travelling in India, to which I answer that +there is no difficulty, except from the climate, and that is to +be guarded against by going in the cold season. There are railroads +all over the country, and if Mr. Pullman would only +introduce his sleeping-cars, made more open to give more +ventilation in this hot climate, one might travel in India +with as perfect comfort as in any part of Europe or America.</p> + +<p>But with all these comforts, and all that there is to divert +the eye, the way seems long. It is not till one reaches India +that he comprehends how vast a country it is—not only in +density of population, but in extent of territory. In "magnificent +distances" it is almost equal to America itself: all +small ideas are dispelled as soon as one leaves the coast, and +penetrates into the interior. Our first stage from Bombay +to Allahabad was 845 miles, which took us not only the first +night and the day after, but the second night also, so that it +was not till the morning of the third day that we found ourselves +crossing the long bridge over the Jumna into the city +which is the great railroad centre in India—a sort of half-way +station, both on the "trunk line" from Bombay to Calcutta, +and on the line to the North of India.</p> + +<p>By this time we were glad of rest, and willingly exchanged +our railway carriage for a hotel, where we found the luxury +of baths, which refreshed us so that in an hour or two we +were able to come forth "clad in fine linen, white and +clean," and ride about to see the sights of the town. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span></p> + +<p>Allahabad is not a city of so much historical interest as +many others, but it has grown very much within a few years. +The railroads have given such an impulse to its business, and +increase to its population, that it has now 130,000 inhabitants. +It is the capital of the Northwest Provinces, and thus has a +political as well as a commercial importance. Owing to its +position, it has been chosen as a convenient centre for missionary +operations, and is the seat of one of the best organized +missions of our Presbyterian Board. Here we met +some excellent countrymen, who at once took us to their +hearts and homes: and though reluctant to accept hospitality, +or to trespass on their kindness, yet it was impossible +to refuse an invitation so cordially given, which took us +from a great barrack of a hotel to a refined American home. +Our Board is fortunate in owning for its mission premises a +large "compound," an enclosure of many acres, on the banks +of the Jumna—obtained years ago at a nominal price, and +which costs now only the small tax of fifty rupees (twenty-five +dollars) a year. Here under one broad roof were Rev. +Mr. Kellogg and his family—a wife and four children—and +Mr. Wynkoop, and Mr. Heyl: Dr. Brodhead had just left +for America. In the compound stands a neat chapel, in +which met three years ago the great conference of missionaries +of different denominations from all parts of India, the +most memorable gathering of the kind ever held in this +country. Here there is a service in Hindostanee every Sabbath. +In another building is a school of 300 pupils, under +charge of Mr. Heyl. He has also, to give sufficient variety +to his occupation, to look after an asylum for the blind, and +another for lepers. Rev. Messrs. Holcomb and Johnson live +in other parts of the city, where there is a Printing-press and +a large Depository for the sale of Bibles and Tracts in the +different languages of India. All of these missionaries, besides +preaching in churches, preach in the streets and bazaars, +and spend some months of the year in itinerating through +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> +the villages in a large circuit of country, living in tents, and +speaking to the people by the roadside, or in groves, or in +their houses, wherever they can find them—a work which +they enjoy greatly. Thus with preaching in city and country, +and keeping up their schools, and looking after printing +presses, writing and publishing books and tracts, they have +their hands full.</p> + +<p>Nor can I overlook our countrywomen in Allahabad. +There is here a "Zenana Mission," supported by the society +of the good Mrs. Doremus, and also two ladies connected +with the Presbyterian Board, one of whom, Miss Wilson, +devotes herself to visiting in the Zenanas, while the +other, Miss Seward, is a physician, practising with great success +in many of the best native families, thus rendering a +physical as well as a spiritual service. She is a niece of the +late Secretary of State, William H. Seward, who when in +India paid her a visit, and was so impressed with what she +was doing so quietly and yet so effectively; with the access +which her medical skill and her feminine tact gave her to +the interior life of the people; that on his return to America +he summed up the result of all his observations of missions +in this brief counsel: "Make all your missionaries women, +and give them all a medical education."</p> + +<p>Allahabad has a proud name—the City of God; but one +sees not much to render it worthy of that exalted title. It +is however, in the estimation of the Hindoos a sacred city, +as it stands at the junction of the Jumna and the Ganges, +the two sacred rivers of India, which issuing out of the glaciers +of the Himalayas, hundreds of miles to the north, here unite, +and flow on in a broader stream, and with an increased +volume of sanctity. The point of junction is of course a +very holy place—one of the most sacred in India—and +draws to it more pilgrims than Mecca. Every year hundreds +of thousands of pilgrims, come from all parts of India to +bathe in these holy waters. This is the Méla—or great +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> +religious festival—which was now in progress. The missionaries +congratulated us that we had arrived at such an opportune +moment, as we had thus an opportunity of witnessing +a spectacle which would show more of Hindooism than any +other that we could see in India, unless it might be in the +holy city of Benares.</p> + +<p>On a Saturday evening we rode down to the place of the +encampment, which we found covering a wide sandy plain at +the junction of two rivers. It was a camp-meeting of magnificent +dimensions. The tents or booths were laid out in +streets, and sometimes grouped in a hollow square, which for +the time being was a compact and populous city. As the +evening was not the hour for bathing, we did not go down +to the river bank, but strolled among the camps to see the +people. At every tent fires were burning, and they were +cooking their food.</p> + +<p>Our friends led the way to the camp of the Sikhs, the +famous warrior race of the Punjaub, who form a sect by +themselves, and, strange to say, are not idolators. They +follow the teachings of a prophet of their own, and like the +Mohammedans, make it a special virtue, that they do not worship +idols. But the old instinct is too strong for them, and +while they do not bow to images, they pay a reverence to +their sacred book—the writings of their teacher—which is +little short of idolatry. At several places in their camp was +something like an altar, a raised platform which was too +holy for us to ascend, where sat a priest reading from this +volume, before which all knelt as at the shrine of a saint, +while they scattered flowers around it as a kind of incense or +adoration.</p> + +<p>In other parts of the camp men were blowing horns and +making all sorts of hideous noise, as an intense way of offering +devotions. This mockery of religion moved the indignation +of our friends, who opened their mouths boldly in exposure +of such folly and superstition, but they found that those +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> +whom they addressed did not shrink from the encounter. +Some of them were very keen in argument. They have a +subtle philosophy at the bottom of their worship, which they +explained with a good deal of ingenuity, and tried to illumine +by apt analogies and illustrations. Like all Hindoos, they +were most liberal in their tolerance of other religions—much +more so than the Mohammedans—generously conceding that +our religion was best <i>for us</i>, while claiming that theirs was best +<i>for them</i>. They did not try to convert us, and saw no reason +why we should try to convert them. This was the Broad +Church indeed, large enough for "all sorts and conditions of +men." They even went further, and paid us not only the +respect due to men, but to gods. One of the fakirs said to +us in so many words: "You are God and I am God!" This +tells the whole story in a sentence. Their creed is the +baldest Pantheism: that God is in everything, and therefore +everything is God. As all life comes from Him, He is in +everything that lives—not only in man, but in beasts, and +birds, and reptiles. All alike are incarnations of a Divine +life, and hence all alike are fit objects of adoration. Man +can adore himself. He need not carry any burden of sorrow +or guilt; he need not know repentance or shame; for +how can he mourn for impulses which are but the inspirations +of the God in him, or for acts which are but the manifestations +of the Universal Soul?</p> + +<p>This was our first close contest with Hindooism, but still +we had not seen the Méla till we had seen the bathing of the +pilgrims in the Ganges, which was still in reserve. The Festival +lasts a month—like the Ramadan of the Mohammedans—and +is regulated by the changes of the moon. The day of +the new moon, which was last Wednesday, was the great day +of the feast. On that day there was a grand procession to the +river, in which there were twenty-five elephants, mounted +by their <i>mahants</i> (a sort of chief priests), with hundreds of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> +fakirs on foot, and a vast crowd in all the frenzy of devotion. +On Monday, as the moon was approaching her first quarter, +there was likely to be a large concourse, though not equal to +the first, and we made arrangements to be on hand to witness +a spectacle such as we had never seen before, and should probably +never see again. Rev. Mr. Holcomb came very early +in the morning with his carriage, to take us to the riverside. +As we drove along the roads, we passed thousands who were +flocking to the place of bathing. Some rode in ox-carts, +which carried whole families; now and then a mounted horseman +dashed by; while a long row of camels told of a caravan +that had toiled wearily over a great distance, perhaps from +the foot of the Himalayas or the Vale of Cashmere, to reach +the sacred spot. But the greater part of those who came +were on foot, and looked like pilgrims indeed. Most of them +carried on their shoulders a couple of baskets, in one of +which was their food, and in the other the ashes of their dead, +which they had brought from their homes, sometimes +hundreds of miles, to cast into the sacred waters of the +Ganges.</p> + +<p>The carriage brought us only to the Bund, near the Fort—a +huge embankment of earth raised to keep out the waters at +the time of the annual risings, and which during the past +year had saved the city from inundation. Here our friends +had provided an elephant to take us through the crowd. The +huge creature was waiting for us. The mahout who stood +at his head now mounted in an extraordinary manner. He +merely stepped in front of the elephant, and took hold of the +flaps of his ears, and put up a foot on his trunk, which the +beast raised as lightly as if the man had been a feather, and +thus tossed his rider upon his head. A word of command +then brought him to his knees, when a ladder was placed +against his side, and we climbed to the top, and as he rose +up, were lifted into the air. An elephant's back is a capital +lookout for observation. It raises one on high, from which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> +he can look down upon what is passing below; and the +mighty creature has not much difficulty in making his way +through even the densest crowd. He moved down the embankment +a little slowly at first, but once on level ground, +he strode along with rapid strides; while we, sitting aloft, +regarded with amazement the scene before us.</p> + +<p>Indeed it was a marvellous spectacle. Here was a vast +camp, extending from river to river. Far as the eye could +reach, the plain was covered with tents and booths. We had +no means of estimating the number of people present. Mr. +Kellogg made a rough calculation, as he stood in his preaching +tent, and saw the crowd pouring by. Fixing his eye on +the tent-pole, with watch in hand, he counted the number +that passed in a minute, and found it to be a hundred and +fifty, which would make nine thousand in an hour. If this +steady flow were kept up for four hours (as it began at daylight, +and was continued, though with varying volume, +through the forenoon), it would make thirty-six thousand; +and reckoning those encamped on the ground at twenty thousand, +the whole number would be over fifty thousand.</p> + +<p>This is a very small number, compared with that present +at some times. Last Wednesday it was twice as great, and +some years the multitude—which overflows the country for +miles, like an inundation of the Ganges—has been estimated +at hundreds of thousands, and even millions. Every twelve +years there is a greater Méla than at other times, and the +concourse assumes extraordinary proportions. This came +six years ago, in 1870. That year it was said that there were +present 75,000 fakirs alone, and on the great day of the feast +it was estimated that a million of people bathed in the Ganges. +So fearful was the crush that they had to be marshalled +by the police, and marched down to the river by ten or twenty +thousand at a time, and then across a bridge of boats to the +other side, returning by another way, so as to prevent a collision +of the entering and returning mass, that might have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> +occasioned a fearful loss of life. That year it was estimated +that not less than two millions of pilgrims visited the Méla. +Allowing for the common exaggeration in estimating multitudes, +there is no doubt whatever that the host of pilgrims +here has often been "an exceeding great army."</p> + +<p>I could not but look with pity at the ignorant creatures +flocking by, but the feeling of pity changed to disgust at the +sight of the priests by whom they were misled. Everywhere +were fakirs sitting on the ground, receiving the reverence of +the people. More disgusting objects I never looked upon, +not even in an asylum for the insane. They were almost +naked; their hair, which they suffer to grow long, had become +tangled and knotted, and was matted like swamp grass, and +often bound round with thick ropes; and their faces smeared +with filth. The meagerness of their clothing is one of the +tokens of their sanctity. They are so holy that they do not +need to observe the ordinary rules of decency. Yet these +filthy creatures are regarded not only with reverence, but +almost worshipped. Men—and women also—stoop down +and kiss their feet. On Wednesday some three hundred of +these fakirs marched in procession <i>absolutely naked</i>, while +crowds of women prostrated themselves before them, and +kissed the very ground over which they had passed. One is +amazed that such a disgusting exhibition was not prevented +by the police. Yet it took place under the guns of an English +fort, and—greatest shame of all—instead of being suppressed, +was accompanied and protected by the police, which, +though composed of natives, wore the uniform, and obeyed +the orders, of Christian England! There are not many +sights which make one ashamed of the English government +in India, but surely this is one of them.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span></p> + +<p>How such "brute beasts" can have any respect or influence, +is one of the mysteries of Hindooism. But the common +people, ignorant and superstitious, think these men have +a power that is more than human, and fear to incur their displeasure. +They dread their curses: for these holy men have +a fearful power of imprecation. Wherever they stroll +through the country, no man dares to refuse them food or +shelter, lest one of their awful curses should light upon his +head, and immediately his child should die, or disaster should +overtake his house.</p> + +<p>But let us pass on to the banks of the river, where the +crowd is already becoming very great. To go among them, +we get down from our elephant and walk about. Was there +ever such a scene—men, women, and children, by tens of +thousands, in all stages of nakedness, pressing towards the +sacred river? The men are closely shaved, as for every hair +of their heads they gain a million of years in Paradise! Some +had come in boats, and were out in the middle of the stream, +from which they could bathe. But the greater part were +along the shore. The water was shallow, so that they could +wade in without danger; but to afford greater security, lines +of boats were drawn around the places of bathing, to keep +them from drowning and from suicide.</p> + +<p>It would not have been easy to make our way through such +a crowd, had not the native police, with that respect for +Englishmen which is seen everywhere in India, cleared the +way for us. Thus we came down to the water's edge, passing +through hundreds that were coming up dripping from the +water, and other hundreds that were pressing in. They were +of all ages and sexes. It was hard to repress our disgust at +the voluntary debasement of men who might know better, but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> +with these there were some wretched objects, who could only +excite our pity—poor, haggard old women, who had dragged +themselves to this spot, and children borne on their mothers' +shoulders! In former times many infants were thrown into +the Ganges. This was the most common form of infanticide. +But this practice has been stopped by the strong hand of the +government. And now they are brought here only to "wash +and be cleansed." Even the sick were carried in palanquins, +to be dipped in the healing waters; and here and there one +who seemed ready to die was brought, that he might breathe +his last in sight of the sacred river.</p> + +<p>I observed a great number of flags flying from tall poles in +different parts of the ground, which made the place look like +a military encampment. These marked the headquarters of +the men who get up these Mélas, and in so doing contrive to +unite business with religion. During the year they perambulate +the country, drumming up pilgrims. A reputation for +sanctity is a stock in trade, and they are not too modest to +set forth their own peculiar gifts, and invite those who come +to the holy water to repair to their shop, where they can be +"put through" in the shortest time, and for the least money. +This money-making feature is apparent in all the arrangements +of these pious pilgrimages.</p> + +<p>In keeping with these coarser features of the scene, was +the presence of dancing girls, who gathered a group around +them close to the bathing places, and displayed their indecent +gestures on the banks of the holy river, to those who +had just engaged in what they considered an act of moral +purification.</p> + +<p>In other parts of the camp, retired from the river, was +carried on the business of "religious instruction." Here +and there pundits, or learned Brahmins, surrounded by large +companies, chiefly of women, were reading from the Shasters, +which, considering that they got over the ground with great +velocity, could hardly be very edifying to their hearers. This +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> +mattered little, however, as these sacred books are in Sanscrit, +which to the people is an unknown tongue.</p> + +<p>I was glad to see that these blind leaders of the blind did +not have it all their own way. Near by were the preaching-tents +of several missionaries, who also drew crowds, to whom +they spoke of a better religion. Among them was Rev. Mr. +Macombie, who is a famous preacher. He is a native of +India, and is not only master of their language, but familiar +with their ideas. He knows all their arguments and their +objections, and if a hearer interrupts him, whether a Hindoo, +or a Mohammedan, he is very apt to get a shot which makes +him sink back in the crowd, glad to escape without further +notice. Whether this preaching converts many to Christianity, +there can be no doubt that it diffuses a widespread sense +of the folly of these Mélas, and to this as one cause may be +ascribed the falling-off in the concourse of pilgrims, who were +formerly counted by millions and are now only by hundreds +of thousands.</p> + +<p>While "religion" thus went on vigorously, business was +not forgotten. In the remoter parts of the camp it was turned +into a market-place. A festival which brings together hundreds +of thousands of people, is an occasion not to be lost for +traffic and barter. So the camp becomes a huge bazaar (a +vast fair, such as one may see in America at a cattle show or +a militia muster), with streets of shops, so that, after one has +performed his religious duties, as he comes up from the holy +waters and returns to "the world," he can gratify his pride +and vanity by purchasing any quantity of cheap jewelry.</p> + +<p>There are shops for the sale of idols. We could have +bought a lovely little beast for a few pence. They are as +"cheap as dirt;" in fact, they are often made of dirt. As we +stood in front of one of the shops, we saw a group rolling up +a little ball of mud, as children make mud pies; who requested +a lady of our party to step one side, as her shadow, +falling on this holy object, polluted it! +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span></p> + +<p>It is hard to believe that even the most ignorant and degraded +of men can connect such objects with any idea of +sacredness or religion. And yet the wretched-looking creatures +seemed infatuated with their idolatries. To bathe in +the Ganges washes away their sins. It opens to them the +gates of paradise. Such value do they attach to it that even +death in its sacred waters is a privilege. Formerly suicides +were very frequent here, till they were stopped by the Government. +Fanaticism seems to destroy the common sympathies +of life. Last Wednesday, while the great procession +was in progress, a fire broke out in one of the booths. As +they are made of the lightest material it caught like tinder, +and spread so rapidly that in a few minutes a whole camp +was in a blaze. But for the presence of mind and energy of +a few English soldiers from the Fort who were on the +ground, and who seized an engine, and played upon the +burning wood and thatch, the entire encampment might +have been destroyed, involving an appalling loss of life. As +it was, some thirty perished, almost all women. Mr. Kellogg +came up in time to see their charred and blackened remains. +Yet this terrible disaster awakened no feeling of +compassion for its victims. They were accounted rather +favored beings to have perished in such a holy spot. Thus +does the blindness of superstition extinguish the ordinary +feelings of humanity.</p> + +<p>Weary and heart-sick at such exhibitions of human folly, +we mounted our elephant to leave the ground. The noble +beast, who had waited patiently for us (and was duly rewarded), +now seemed as if he could stand it no longer, and +taking us on his back, strode off as if disgusted with the +whole performance, and disdaining the society of such debased +human creatures.</p> + +<p>This Méla, with other things which I have seen, has quite +destroyed any illusions which I may have had in regard +to Hindooism. In coming to India, one chief object was to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> +study its religion. I had read much of "the mild Hindoo" +and "the learned Brahmin," and I asked myself, May not +their religion have some elements of good? Is it not better at +least than no religion? But the more I study it the worse +it seems. I cannot understand the secret of its power. I can +see a fascination in Romanism, and even in Mohammedanism. +The mythology of the Greeks had in it many beautiful creations +of the imagination. But the gods of the Hindoos are +but deified beasts, and their worship, instead of elevating men +intellectually or morally, is an unspeakable degradation.</p> + +<p>Hindooism is a mountain of lies. It is a vast and monstrous +system of falsehood, kept in existence mainly for the +sake of keeping up the power of the Brahmins. Their capacity +for deceit is boundless, as is that of the lower castes +for being deceived. Of this I have just had a specimen. In +the fort here at Allahabad is a subterranean passage which is +held in the highest veneration, as it is believed that here a +river flows darkly underground to join the sacred waters of +the Jumna and the Ganges, and here—prodigy of nature—is a +sacred tree, which has been here (they tell us) for hundreds +of years, and though buried in the heart of the earth, still it +lives. It is true it does show some signs of sap and greenness. +But the mystery is explained when the fact comes out +that the tree is changed every year. The sergeant-major, +who has been here four years, told me that he had himself +given the order three times, which admitted the party into the +Fort at midnight to take away the old stump and put in a +fresh tree! He said it was done in the month of February, +so that with the first opening of spring it was ready to bloom +afresh! How English officers can reconcile it with their +honor to connive at such a deception—even though it be to +please the Brahmins—I leave them to explain. But the fact, +thus attested, is sufficient to show the unfathomable lying of +this ruling caste of India, and the immeasurable credulity of +their disciples. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span></p> + +<p>A religion that is founded on imposture, and supported by +falsehood, cannot bear the fruits of righteousness. In the +essence of things truth is allied to moral purity. Its very +nature is "sweetness and light." But craft and deceit in +sacred things breed a vicious habit of defending by false reasoning +what an uncorrupted conscience would reject; and the +holy name of religion, instead of being a sacrament of good, +becomes a sacrament of evil, which is used to cover and consecrate +loathsome immoralities. Thus falsehood works like +poison in the blood, and runs through every vein till the +whole moral being is spotted with leprosy.</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XII.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">AGRA—VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES—PALACE OF THE +GREAT MOGUL—THE TAJ.</p> + +<p>We left Allahabad at midnight, and by noon of the next +day were at Agra, in the heart of the old Mogul Empire. As +we approached from the other side of the Jumna, we saw before +us what seemed a royal castle, of imposing dimensions, +strongly fortified, with walls and moat, like one of the strongholds +of the Middle Ages, a castle on the Rhine, built for a +double purpose, half palace and half fortress. As we crossed +the long bridge flags were flying in honor of the Prince of +Wales, who had arrived the week before. His entry into this +old Mogul capital was attended with a display of magnificence +worthy of the days of Aurungzebe. At the station he was +met by a great number of Rajahs, mounted on elephants richly +caparisoned, of which there were nearly two hundred in +the procession, with long suites of retainers, who escorted +him to his camp outside of the city. Rev. Mr. Wynkoop +(who came on a few days before to witness the fêtes, and was +staying with a friend who had a tent quite near to that of +the Prince), met us at the station and took us out to the +Royal camp. It was indeed a beautiful sight. The tents, +many of which were very large, were laid off in an oblong +square, with the marquee of the Prince at the end, in front +of which floated the royal standard of England. The rest of +the camp was laid off in streets. On the outskirts of the +Maidan (or parade ground) were the military selected from +different corps of the Indian army. Some of the native troops +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> +in drill and discipline were equal to the English. The Punjaubees +especially were magnificent fellows. Tall and athletic +in figure, they are splendid horsemen, so that a regiment of +Punjaubee (or Sikh) cavalry is one of the sights of India. +English artillery manned the guns with which they saluted +the native princes according to their rank, as they came to +pay their respects. Here, on the Saturday before, the Prince +had held a grand Durbar, to which the Rajahs came riding on +elephants, and each with a body-guard of cavalry, mounted +sometimes on horses and sometimes on camels, making altogether +such a scene of barbaric splendor as could not be witnessed +in any country in the world but India.</p> + +<p>The Prince was absent from the camp, having gone off a +day or two before to pay a visit to the Maharajah of Gwalior, +but an hour later, while we were making a first visit to the +Taj, we heard the guns which announced his return. A day +or two after we saw him starting for Jeypore, when, although +he drove off in a carriage very quietly, the camels and elephants +that went rolling along the different roads, as we drove +out once more to the camp, told of the brilliant pageant +that was ended.</p> + +<p>This visit of the Prince of Wales is a great event. It +has excited a prodigious interest in official and military circles. +His progress through the country has been in a blaze +of processions and illuminations. To himself it must have +been very gratifying. As he said, "It had been the dream +of his life to visit India." It was a matter of political wisdom +that he should know it, not only through others but by +personal observation. Mr. Disraeli, in proposing it in Parliament, +said justly that "travel was the best education for +princes." It was well that the future King of England, +should make himself acquainted with the great Empire that +he was one day to rule. But whether this royal visit will +result in any real benefit to India to correspond with the +enormous expense it has involved, is a question which I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> +hear a good deal discussed among Englishmen. In some +ways it cannot fail to do good. It has presented to +the people of India an impersonation of sovereignty, a +visible representative of that mighty power, the British +Empire. It has conciliated the native princes, who have +been greatly pleased by the frank and manly courtesy of +their future sovereign. In the art of courtesy he is a master. +History will give him this rank among princes, that he +was not great, but gracious. This is a kingly virtue which it +was well to have exhibited in the person of one of such exalted +rank, the more as English officials in India are charged +with showing, often in the most offensive way, the insolence +of power. Perhaps it was on this very account that he took +such pains to show a generous and even chivalrous courtesy +to natives of rank, even while he did not hesitate, so I was +told by Englishmen, to "snub" his own countrymen. Such a +bearing has certainly commanded respect, and given him a +personal popularity. But it has not converted the people to +loyalty any more than to Christianity. They run to see the +parades, the Rajahs, and the elephants. But as to its exciting +any deeper feeling in them, no Englishman who has lived +long in the country will trust to that for a moment. Even +though English rule be for their own safety and protection, +yet their prejudices of race and religion are stronger than +even considerations of interest. It is a curious illustration +of the power of caste that the very Rajahs who entertain the +Prince of Wales with such lavish hospitality, who build +palaces to receive him, and spread before him sumptuous +banquets, still do not themselves sit down at the table; they +will not even eat with their Royal guest; and count his touch +of food, and even his shadow falling upon it, a pollution! +Such a people are not to be trusted very far beyond the range +of English guns. The security of English rule in India is +not to be found in any fancied sentiment of loyalty, which +does not exist, but in the overwhelming proof of English +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> +power. British possession is secured by the well-armed fortresses +which overlook every great city, and which could lay +it in ruins in twenty-four hours. The rule that was obtained +by the sword, must be held by the sword.</p> + +<p>But the interest of Agra is not in the present, but in the +past. There are few chapters in history more interesting +than that of the Mohammedan invasion of India—a history +dating back to the Middle Ages, but culminating about the +time that Columbus discovered the New World. Those +fierce warriors, who had ravaged Central Asia, had long +made occasional incursions into India, but it was not till the +beginning of the sixteenth century that they became complete +masters of the country, and the throne was occupied by a +descendant of the house of Tamerlane.</p> + +<p>The dominion thus introduced into India was an exotic, +but like other products of the North, transplanted into a +tropical clime, it blossomed and flowered anew. The Moguls +(a corruption of Mongols) had all the wealth of Ormus and of +Ind at their feet, and they lavished it with Oriental prodigality, +displaying a royal state which surpassed the grandeur +of European courts.</p> + +<p>The Great Mogul! What power there is in a name! Ever +since I was a child, I had read about the Great Mogul, until +there was a magic in the very word. To be sure, I had not +much idea who or what he was; but perhaps this vagueness +itself added to the charm in my imagination. He was an +Oriental potentate, living somewhere in the heart of Asia, in +a pomp and glory quite unknown among barbarians of the +West. He was a sort of Haroun al Raschid, whose magnificence +recalled the scenes of the Arabian Nights. Even +more, he was like the Grand Lama, almost an object of worship. +To keep up the illusion, he withdrew from observation +into his Palace, where he sat like a god, rarely seen by mortal +eyes, except by his court, and dwelling in unapproachable +splendor. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span></p> + +<p>And now here I was in the very Palace of the Great Mogul, +walking through the glittering halls where he held his gorgeous +revelries, entering the private apartments of his harem, +and looking out of the very windows from which they looked +down upon the valley of the Jumna.</p> + +<p>The Palace is in the Citadel of Agra, for those old Emperors +took good care to draw fortified walls around their palaces. +The river front presents a wall sixty feet high, perhaps half +a mile long, of red sandstone, which heightens by contrast +the effect of the white marble pavilions, so graceful and airy-like, +that rise above it. The Fort is of great extent, but it +is the mere casket of the jewels within, the Palace and the +Mosque, in which one may see the infinite beauty of that +Saracenic architecture, which is found nowhere in Europe in +such perfection, except in the Alhambra. The Mohammedan +conquerors of India, like the same conquerors of Spain, had +gorgeous tastes in architecture. Both aimed at the grandeur +of effect produced by great size and massive construction, +combined with a certain lightness and airiness of detail, +which give it a peculiar delicacy and grace. Here the imagination +flowers in stone. The solid marble is made to +bend in vines and wreaths that run along the walls. The +spirit of Oriental luxury finds expression in cool marble +halls, and open courts, with plashing fountains, where the +monarch could dally with the beauties of his court. In all +these things the life of the Great Mogul did not differ from +that of the Moorish Kings of Spain.</p> + +<p>The glory of Agra dates from the reign of Akbar the Great +who made it the capital of the Mogul Empire. He built the +Fort, with its long line of castellated walls, rising above the +river, and commanding the country around. Within this +enclosure were buildings like a city, and open spaces with +canals, among which were laid out gardens, blooming with +flowers. On the river side of the Fort was a lofty terrace, +on which stood the Palace, built of the purest marble. It +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> +was divided into a number of pavilions whose white walls +and gilded domes glittered in the sun. Passing from one +pavilion to another over tessellated pavements, we enter +apartments rich in mosaics and all manner of precious stones. +Along the walls are little kiosks or balconies, the windows +of which are half closed by screens of marble, which yet are +so exquisitely carved and pierced as to seem like veils of +lace, drawn before the flashing eyes that looked out from behind +them. Straying through these rich halls, one cannot +but reproduce the scenes of three centuries ago, when Akbar +ruled here in the midst of his court; when the beauties of his +seraglio, gathered from all the East, sported in these gardens, +and looked out from these latticed windows.</p> + +<p>Of equal beauty with the palace is the mosque. It is called +the Pearl Mosque, and a pearl indeed it is, such is the +simplicity of outline, and such the exquisite and almost tender +grace in every arch and column. Said Bishop Heber: "This +spotless sanctuary, showing such a pure spirit of adoration, +made me, a Christian, feel humbled when I considered that +no architect of our religion had ever been able to produce anything +equal to this temple of Allah."</p> + +<p>But these costly buildings have but little use now. The +Mosque is still here, but few are the Moslems who come to +pray; and the palace is tenantless. The great Moguls are +departed. Their last descendant was the late King of Delhi, +who was compromised in the Great Mutiny, and passed the +rest of his life as a state prisoner. Not a trace remains here +nor at Delhi of the old Imperial grandeur. Yet once in a long +while these old palaces serve a purpose to entertain some +royal guest. Last week they were fitted up for a fête given +to the Prince of Wales, when the stately apartments were +turned into reception rooms and banqueting halls. It was a +very brilliant spectacle, as the British officers in their uniforms +mingled with the native princes glittering with diamonds. +But it would seem as if the old Moguls must turn +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> +in their coffins to hear this sound of revelry in their vacant +palaces, and to see the places where the Mohammedan ruled +so long now filled by unbelievers.</p> + +<p>Perhaps one gets a yet stronger impression of the magnificence +of the Great Mogul in a visit to the Summer Palace of +Akbar at Futtehpore-Sikri, so called from two villages embraced +in the royal retreat. This was the Versailles of the +old Moguls. It is over twenty miles from Agra, but starting +early we were able to drive there and return the same +day. The site is a rocky hill, which might have been chosen +for a fortress. The outer wall enclosing it, with the two villages +at its foot, is nine miles in extent. The buildings were +on a scale to suit the wants of an Imperial Court—the plateau +of the hill being laid off in a vast quadrangle, surrounded by +palaces, and zenanas for the women of the Imperial household, +and mosques and tombs. Perhaps the most exquisite +building of all is a tomb in white marble—the resting place +of Selim, a Moslem saint, a very holy shrine to the true believers; +although the Mosque is far more imposing, since +before it stands the loftiest gateway in the world. Around +the hill are distributed barracks for troops, and stables for +horses and camels and elephants. The open court in the +centre of all these buildings is an esplanade large enough to +draw up an army. Here they show the spot where Akbar +used to mount his elephant, and here his troops filed before +him, or subject princes came with long processions to pay him +homage.</p> + +<p>As this palace was built for a summer retreat, everything +is designed for coolness; pavilions, covered overhead, screen +from the sun, while open at the sides, they catch whatever +summer air may be stirring. In studying the architecture +of the Moors or the Moguls, one cannot but perceive, that in +its first inception it has been modelled after forms familiar +to their nomadic ancestors. The tribes of Central Asia first +dwelt in tents, and when they came to have more fixed habitations +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> +built of wood or stone, they reproduced the same form, +so that the canvas tent became the marble pavilion—just as +the builders of the Gothic cathedrals caught the lines of their +mighty arches from the interlacing branches of trees which +made the lofty aisles of the forest. So the tribes of the desert, +accustomed to live in tents, when endowed with empire, falling +heir to the riches of the Indies, still preserved the style +of their former life, and when they could no longer dwell in +tents, dwelt in tabernacles. These palaces are almost all constructed +on this type. There is one building of singular +structure, five stories high, which is a series of terraces, all +open at the side.</p> + +<p>If we believe the tales of travellers and historians, nothing +since the days of Babylon has equalled the magnificence of +the Great Mogul. But magnificence in a sovereign generally +means misery in his subjects. The wealth that is lavished on +the court is wrung from the people. So it is said to have been +with some of the successors of Akbar. The latest historian +of Mussulman India<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> says: "They were the most shameless +tyrants that ever disgraced a throne. Mogul administration +... was a monstrous system of oppression and extortion, +which none but Asiatics could have practised or endured. +Justice was a mockery. Magistrates could always be bribed; +false witnesses could always be bought.... The Hindoos +were always in the hands of grinding task-masters, foreigners +who knew not how to pity or to spare."</p> + +<p>But Akbar was not merely a magnificent Oriental potentate—he +was truly a great king. A Mohammedan himself, +he was free from Moslem fanaticism and bigotry. Those conquerors +of India had a difficult task (which has vexed their +English successors after two centuries), to rule a people of a +different race and a different religion. It was harder for the +Moslem than for the Christian, because his creed was more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> +intolerant; it made it his duty to destroy those whom he +could not convert. The first law of the Koran was the extermination +of idolatry, but the Hindoos were the grossest of +idolaters. How then could a Mohammedan ruler establish +his throne without exterminating the inhabitants? But the +Moslems—like many other conquerors—learned to bear the +ills which they could not remove. Necessity taught them +the wisdom of toleration. In this humane policy they were +led by the example of Akbar, who, though a Mussulman, +was not a bigot, and thought it a pity that subtle questions +of belief should divide inhabitants of the same country. He +admitted Hindoos to a share in his government, and endeavored +by complete tolerance to extinguish religious hatreds. +He had even the ambition to be a religious reformer, and +tried to blend the old faith with the new, and to make an +eclectic religion by putting together the systems of Zoroaster, +of the Brahmins, and of Christianity, while retaining some of +the Mohammedan forms. But he could not convert even his +own Hindoo wives, of whom he had one or two, and built a +house for each, in Hindoo architecture, with altars for idol +worship. What impression then could he make outside of +the circle of his court?</p> + +<p>But greatness commands our homage, even though it +sometimes undertakes tasks beyond human power. Akbar, +though he could not inspire others with his own spirit of +justice and toleration, deserves a place in history as the +greatest sovereign that ever sat in the seat of the Great Mogul. +And therefore, when in the Fort at Agra I stood beside +the large slab of black marble, on which he was wont to +sit to administer justice to his people, it was with the same +feeling that one would seek out the oak of Vincennes, under +which St. Louis sat for the same purpose; and at Secundra, +a few miles from Agra, we visited his tomb, as on another +continent we had visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, +and of Napoleon. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span></p> + +<p>But the jewel of India—the Koh-i-noor of its beauty—is +the <span class="smcap">Taj</span>, the tomb built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, the +grandson of Akbar, for his wife, whom he loved with an +idolatrous affection, and on her deathbed promised to rear +to her memory such a mausoleum as had never been erected +before. To carry out his purpose he gathered architects +from all countries, who rivalled each other in the extravagance +and costliness of their designs. The result was a +structure which cost fabulous sums of money (the whole +empire being placed under contribution for it, as were the +Jews for the Temple of Solomon), and employed twenty +thousand workmen for seventeen years. The building thus +erected is one of the most famous in the world—like the +Alhambra or St. Peter's—and of which enthusiastic travellers +are apt to say that it is worth going around the world +to see. This would almost discourage the attempt to describe +it, but I will try and give some faint idea of its marvellous +beauty.</p> + +<p>But how can I convey to others what is but a picture +in my memory? Descriptions of architecture are apt to +be vague unless aided by pictorial illustrations. Mere +figures and measurements are dry and cold. The most I +shall aim at will be to give a general (but I hope not indistinct) +<i>impression</i> of it. For this let us approach it +gradually.</p> + +<p>It stands on the banks of the Jumna, a mile below the +Fort at Agra. As you approach it, it is not exposed abruptly +to view, but is surrounded by a garden. You enter under +a lofty gateway, and before you is an avenue of cypresses a +third of a mile long, whose dark foliage is a setting for a form +of dazzling whiteness at the end. That is the <span class="smcap">Taj</span>. It +stands, not on the level of your eye, but on a double terrace; +the first, of red sandstone, twenty feet high, and a thousand +feet broad; at the extremities of which stand two mosques, +of the same dark stone, facing each other. Midway between +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> +rises the second terrace, of marble, fifteen feet high, and +three hundred feet square, on the corners of which stand four +marble minarets. In the centre of all, thus "reared in air," +stands the Taj. It is built of marble—no other material +than this of pure and stainless white were fit for a purpose +so sacred. It is a hundred and fifty feet square (or rather +it is eight-sided, since the corners are truncated), and surmounted +by a dome, which rises nearly two hundred feet +above the pavement below.</p> + +<p>These figures rather belittle the Taj, or at least disappoint +those who looked for great size. There are many larger +buildings in the world. But that which distinguishes it +from all others, and gives it a rare and ideal beauty, is the +union of majesty and grace. This is the peculiar effect of +Saracenic architecture. The slender columns, the springing +arches, the swelling domes, the tall minarets, all combine to +give an impression of airy lightness, which is not destroyed +even when the foundations are laid with massive solidity. +But it is in the finish of their structures that they excelled +all the world. Bishop Heber said truly: "They built like +Titans and finished like jewellers." This union of two +opposite features makes the beauty of the Taj. While its +walls are thick and strong, they are pierced by high arched +windows which relieve their heaviness. Vines and arabesques +running over the stone work give it the lightness of +foliage, of trees blossoming with flowers. In the interior +there is an extreme and almost feminine grace, as if here +the strength of man would pay homage to the delicacy of +woman. Enclosing the sacred spot is a screen of marble, +carved into a kind of fretwork, and so pure and white that +light shines through it as through alabaster, falling softly +on that which is within. The Emperor, bereaved of his +wife, lavished riches on her very dust, casting precious +stones upon her tomb, as if he were placing a string of +pearls around her neck. It is overrun with vines and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> +flowers, cut in stone, and set with onyx and jasper and +lapis lazuli, carnelians and turquoises, and chalcedonies and +sapphires.</p> + +<p>But the body rests in the crypt below. We descend a few +steps and stand by the very sarcophagus in which all that +loveliness is enshrined. Another sarcophagus contains the +body of her husband. Their tombs were covered with fresh +flowers, a perpetual tribute to that love which was so strong +even on the throne; to those who were thus united in life, +and in death are not divided.</p> + +<p>Here sentiment comes in to affect our sense of the beauty +of the place. If it were not for the touching history connected +with it, I could not agree with those who pronounce +the Taj the most beautiful building in the world. Merely as +a building, it does not "overcome" me so much as another +marble structure—the Cathedral of Milan. I could not say +with Bishop Heber that the mosques of Islam are more +beautiful, or more in harmony with the spirit of devotion, +than Christian churches or cathedrals. But the Taj is +not a mosque, it is a tomb—a monument to the dead. And +that gives it a tender interest, which spiritualizes the cold +marble, and makes it more than a building—a poem and a +dream.</p> + +<p>This impression grew upon us the more we saw it. On +our last night in Agra we drove there to take our last view +by moonlight. All slept peacefully on the banks of the +Jumna. Slowly we walked through the long avenue of dark +cypresses, that stood like ranks of mourners waiting for the +dead to pass, their tops waving gently in the night wind, as +if breathing a soft requiem over the departed. Mounting +the terrace we stood again before the Taj, rising into the +calm blue heavens. A few nights before the Prince of Wales +had been here, and the interior had been illuminated. As +we had not seen it then, we had engaged attendants with +blue lights, who gave us an illumination of our own. It +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> +was a weird scene as these swarthy natives, with naked +arms, held aloft their torches, whose blue flames, flaring and +flickering, cast a spectral light upward into the dim vault +above.</p> + +<p>To add to the ghostly effect, we heard whispers above us, +as if there were unseen witnesses. It was the echo of our +own voices, but one starts to hear himself in such a place. +The dome is a whispering gallery; and as we stood beside +the tomb, and spoke in a low voice (not to disturb the sleep +of the dead), our words seemed to be repeated. Any sound +at the tomb—a sigh of pity, or a plaintive melody—rising +upward, comes back again,—faintly indeed, yet distinctly and +sweetly—as if the very air trembled in sympathy, repeating +the accents of love and of despair, or as if unseen spirits +were floating above, and singing the departing soul to its +rest.</p> + +<p>Then we went down once more into the crypt below, +where sleeps the form of the beautiful empress, and of Shah +Jehan, who built this monument for her, at her side. The +place was dark, and the lights in the hands of the attendants +cast but a feeble glimmer, but this deep shadow and silence +suited the tenor of our thoughts, and we lingered, reluctant +to depart from the resting-place of one so much beloved.</p> + +<p>As we came out the moon was riding high overhead, flooding +the marble pile with beauty. Round and round we +walked, looking up at arch and dome and minaret. At such +an hour the Taj was so pale and ghostlike, that it did not +seem like a building reared by human hands, but to have +grown where it stood—like a night-blooming Cereus, rising +slowly in the moonlight—lifting its domes and pinnacles +(like branches growing heavenward) towards that world +which is the home of the love which it was to preserve in +perpetual memory.</p> + +<p>With such thoughts we kept our eyes fixed on that glittering +vision, as if we feared that even as we gazed it might +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> +vanish out of our sight. Below us the Jumna, flowing silently, +seemed like an image of human life as it glided by. And +so at last we turned to depart, and bade farewell to the Taj, +feeling that we should never look on it again; but hoping +that it might stand for ages to tell its history of faithful love +to future generations. Flow on, sweet Jumna, by the marble +walls, reflecting the moonbeams in thy placid breast; and +in thy gentle murmurs whispering evermore of Love and +Death, and Love that cannot die! +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XIII.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">DELHI—A MOHAMMEDAN FESTIVAL—SCENES IN THE MUTINY.</p> + +<p>Delhi is the Rome of the old Mogul Empire. Agra was +the capital in the time of Akbar, but Delhi is an older city. +It had a history before the Moguls. It is said to have been +destroyed and rebuilt seven times, and thus is overspread +with the ashes of many civilizations. Its very ruins attest +its ancient greatness. The plain around Delhi is like the +Campagna around Rome—covered with the remains of palaces +and mosques, towers and tombs, which give credit to the +historical statement that the city was once thirty miles in circuit, +and had two millions of inhabitants. This greatness +tempted the spoiler. In 1398 it was plundered by Tamerlane; +in 1525 it was taken by his descendant, Baber, the +founder of the Mogul dynasty. Akbar made Agra, 112 +miles to the south, his capital; but Shah Jehan, the monarch +of magnificent tastes, who built the Taj, attracted by the +mighty memories of this Rome of Asia, returned to Delhi, +and here laid the foundations of a city that was to exceed all +the capitals that had gone before it, if not in size, at least in +splendor.</p> + +<p>That distinction it still retains among the cities of India. +Though not a tenth of old Delhi in size, it has to-day over +160,000 inhabitants. It is surrounded by walls seven miles +in extent. We enter under lofty arched gateways, and find +ourselves in the midst of a picturesque population, representing +all the races of Southern and Central Asia. The city is +much gayer than Agra. Its streets are full of people of all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> +colors and costumes. Its shops are rich in Indian jewelry, +which is manufactured here, and in Cashmere shawls and +other Oriental fabrics; and in walking through the Chandney +Chook, the Broadway of Delhi, one might imagine himself +in the bazaars of Cairo or Constantinople.</p> + +<p>The Fort is very like that of Agra, being built of the same +red sandstone, but much larger, and encloses a Palace which +Bishop Heber thought superior to the Kremlin. In the Hall +of Audience, which still remains, stood the famous Peacock +Throne, which is estimated to have been worth thirty millions +of dollars. Here the Great Mogul lived in a magnificence +till then unknown even in Oriental courts. At the time that +Louis XIV. was on the throne of France, a French traveller, +Tavernier, made his way to the East, and though he had seen +all the glory of Versailles, he was dazzled by this greater +Eastern splendor. But what a comment on the vanity of all +earthly power, that the monarch who built this Palace was +not permitted to live in it! He was dethroned by his son, +the wily Aurungzebe, who imprisoned his father and murdered +his brother, to get possession of the throne. Shah +Jehan was taken back to Agra, and confined in the Fort, +where he passed the last years of his life. But as it is only +a mile from the Taj, the dethroned King, as he sat in his high +tower, could see from his windows the costly mausoleum he +had reared. Death came at last to his relief, as it comes +alike to kings and captives, and he was laid in his marble +tomb, beside the wife he had so much loved.</p> + +<p>This story of crime is relieved by one of the most touching +instances of fidelity recorded in history. When all +others deserted the fallen monarch, there was one true heart +that was faithful still. He had a daughter, the favorite +sister of that murdered brother, who shared her father's +captivity. She was famous throughout the East for her wit +and beauty, but sorrow brought out the nobler traits of her +character. She clung to her father, and thus comforted the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> +living while she mourned for the dead. She became very +religious, and spent her life in deeds of charity. She is not +buried in the Taj Mahal, but at Delhi in a humble grave. +Lowly in spirit and broken in heart, she shrank from display +even in her tomb. She desired to be buried in the common +earth, with only the green turf above her. There she sleeps +beneath a lowly mound (though surrounded by costly marble +shrines), and near the head is a plain tablet, with an inscription +in Persian, which reads: "Let no rich canopy cover my +grave. This grass is the best covering for the tomb of one +who was poor in spirit—the humble, the transitory Jehanara, +the disciple of the holy men of Cheest, the daughter of the +Emperor Shah Jehan." Was there ever a more touching +inscription? As I stood by this grave, on which the green +grass was growing, and read these simple words, I was more +moved than even when standing by the marble sarcophagus +under the dome of the Taj. That covered an Emperor's +wife, and was the monument of a royal husband's affection; +this recalled a daughter's fidelity—broken in heart, yet +loving and faithful, and devoted to the last.</p> + +<p>But humiliations were to come to the house of Aurungzebe. +As Louis XIV. on his deathbed had to mourn his +haughty policy, which had ended in disaster and defeat, so +Aurungzebe was hardly in his grave when troubles gathered +round his house.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> About thirty years after, a conqueror +from Persia, Nadir Shah, came down from the passes of the +Himalayas, ravaged the North of India to the gates of Delhi, +plundered the city and the palace, and carried off the Peacock +Throne—putting out the eyes of the Great Mogul, telling +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> +him in bitter mockery that he had no more need of his +throne, since he had no longer eyes to see it!</p> + +<p>Other sorrows followed hard after. The kingdom was +overrun by the terrible Mahrattas, whose horses' hoofs had +so often trampled the plains of India. Then came the English, +who took Delhi at the beginning of this century. But +still the phantom of the old Empire lived, and there was an +Indian Rajah, who bore the sounding name of the Great +Mogul. The phantom continued till the Mutiny twenty +years ago, when this "King of Delhi" was set up by the +Sepoys as their rallying cry. The overthrow of the Rebellion +was the end of his house. His sons were put to death, +and he was sent into exile, and the Great Mogul ceased to +reign.</p> + +<p>But though he no longer reigns in Delhi, yet it is one of +the chief centres of Islam in the world. Queen Victoria has +more Mohammedan subjects than the Sultan. There are +forty millions of Moslems in India. Delhi is their Mecca. +It has some forty mosques, whose tall minarets and gilded +domes produce a very brilliant effect. One especially, the +Jumma Musjid, is the most magnificent in India. It stands +on a high terrace, mounted by long flights of steps, which give +it an imposing effect. Huge bronze doors open into a large +court, with a fountain in the centre, and surrounded by arched +passages, like cloisters. Here are preserved with religious +care some very ancient copies of the Koran, and the footprint +of Mohammed in black marble (!), and (holiest relic of all) +a coarse red hair, which is said to have been plucked from +the beard of the prophet!</p> + +<p>Nor is Mohammedanism in India a dead faith, whose fire +has died out, its forms only being still preserved. The recurrence +of one of their festivals arouses their religious zeal +to the highest pitch of fanaticism. We were in Delhi at the +time of the Mohurrim, the Moslem "Feast of Martyrs," designed +to commemorate the bloody deaths of the grandsons +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> +of Mohammed. Macaulay, in his review of the Life of Lord +Clive, gives an instance in which this day was chosen for a +military assault because of the frenzy with which it kindled +all true Mussulmans. He says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"It was the great Mohammedan festival, which is sacred to the +memory of Hosein, the son of Ali. The history of Islam contains +nothing more touching than the event which gave rise to that solemnity. +The mournful legend relates how the chief of the Fatimites, +when all his brave followers had perished round him, drank his +latest draught of water and uttered his latest prayer; how the assassins +carried his head in triumph; how the tyrant smote the lifeless +lips with his staff; and how a few old men recollected with tears that +they had seen those lips pressed to the lips of the Prophet of God. +After the lapse of twelve centuries, the recurrence of this solemn season +excites the fiercest and saddest emotions in the bosoms of the +devout Moslems of India. They work themselves up to such agonies +of rage and lamentation, that some, it is said, have given up the +ghost from the mere effect of mental excitement." +</p> +</div> + +<p>Such was the celebration that we witnessed in Delhi. The +martyrdom of these Moslem saints is commemorated by little +shrines in their houses, made of paper and tinsel, and on the +great day of the feast they go in procession out of the city to +a cemetery five miles distant, and there bury them in hundreds +of newly-opened graves. As we drove out of Delhi, +we found the procession on its march; men, women, and +children by tens of thousands on foot, and others in bullock-carts, +or mounted on horses, camels, and elephants. Immense +crowds gathered by the roadside, mounting the steps of old +palaces, or climbing to the tops of houses, to see this mighty +procession pass, as it went rolling forward in a wild frenzy +to its Golgotha—its place of a skull. There they lay down +these images of their saints as they would bury their dead. We +went into the cemetery, and saw the open graves, and the little +shrines garlanded with flowers, that were laid in the earth, +not (so far as we saw) with weeping and wailing, but rather +with a feeling of triumph and victory. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span></p> + +<p>Leaving this scene of wild fanaticism, we rode on a few +miles farther to the Kootub Minar, the loftiest isolated +tower in the world, that has stood there six hundred years, +looking down on all the strange scenes that have passed within +its horizon, since watchers from its summit saw the armies +of Tamerlane march by. We rode back through a succession +of ruins, stopping at several royal tombs, but most interested +in one where the sons of the aged king of Delhi took refuge +after the fall of the city, and from which they were taken out +by Captain Hodson, and shot in the presence of their deluded +followers, and their bodies exposed in the Chandney Chook, to +the terror of the wretched people, who had seen the cruelty +of these young princes, and were awed to see the retribution +that overtook those who had stained their hands with blood.</p> + +<p>This tragedy took place less than twenty years ago, and +recalls that recent history from which fresh interest gathers +round the walls of Delhi. This city played a great part in +the Mutiny of 1857. Indeed it broke out at Meerut, thirty +miles from here, where the Sepoys rose upon their officers, +and massacred the Europeans of both sexes, and then rushed +along the road to Delhi, to rouse the natives here to mutiny. +Had those in command anticipated such a blow, they might +have rallied their little force, and shut themselves up in the +Fort (as was done at Agra), with provisions and ammunition +for a siege, and there kept the tigers at bay. But they could +not believe that the native troops, that had been obedient +till now, could "turn and rend them." They were undeceived +when they saw these Sepoys drunk with blood, rushing +into the town, calling on their fellow-soldiers to rise and +kill. Many perished on the spot. But they fell not ingloriously. +A brave officer shut himself up in the Arsenal, and +when the mutineers had gathered around, ready to burst in, +applied the torch, and blew himself and a thousand natives +into the air. The little handful of troops fled from the town, +and were scarcely able to rally enough to be safe even at a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> +distance. But then rose the unconquerable English spirit. +With this small nucleus of an army, and such reinforcements +as could be brought from the Punjaub, they held out through +the long, dreadful Summer, till in September they had mustered +all together seven thousand men (half of whom were +natives), with which they proposed to assault a walled city +held by sixty thousand native troops! Planting their guns +on the Ridge, a mile or two distant, they threw shells into the +town, and as their fire took effect, they advanced their lines +nearer and nearer. But they did not advance unopposed. +Many of the Sepoys were practised artillerists (since the +Mutiny all the artillery regiments in India are English), and +answered back with fatal aim. Still, though the English ranks +were thinned, they kept pushing on; they came nearer and +nearer, and the roar of their guns was louder and louder. Approaching +the walls at one point, they wished to blow up the +Cashmere Gate. It was a desperate undertaking. But when +was English courage known to fail? A dozen men were detailed +for the attempt. Four natives carried bags of powder +on their shoulders, but as they drew within rifle range, English +soldiers stepped up to take their places, for they would not +expose their native allies to a danger which they were ready +to encounter themselves. The very daring of the movement +for an instant bewildered the enemy. The Sepoys within +saw these men coming up to the gate, but thinking perhaps +that they were deserters, did not fire upon them, and it +was not till they darted back again that they saw the design. +Then came the moment of danger, when the mine was to be +fired. A sergeant advanced quickly, but fell mortally wounded; +a second sprang to the post, but was shot dead; the +third succeeded, but fell wounded; the fourth rushed forward, +and seeing the train lighted sprang into the moat, the +bullets whizzed over him, and the next instant a tremendous +explosion threw the heavy wall into the air.</p> + +<p>Such are the tales of courage still told by the camp-fires of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> +the regiments here. More than once did we walk out to the +Cashmere Gate, and from that point followed the track of +the English troops as they stormed the city, pausing at the +spot where the brave General Nicholson fell. With mingled +pride and sadness, we visited his grave, and those of others +who fell in the siege. The English church is surrounded +with them, and many a tablet on its walls tells of the heroic +dead. Such memories are a legacy to the living. We attended +service there, and as we saw the soldiers filing into +the church, and heard the swords of their officers ringing on +the pavement, we felt that the future of India was safe when +committed to such brave defenders!</p> + +<p>This church was standing during the siege, and above it +rose a gilded ball, supporting a cross, which was an object of +hatred to both Mohammedan and Hindoo, who wished to +see this symbol of our religion brought to the ground. Again +and again they aimed their guns at it, and the globe was riddled +with balls, but still <i>the cross stood</i>, until the city was +completely subdued, when it was reverently taken down by +English hands, and carried to the Historical Museum, to be +kept as a sacred relic. May we not take this as a sign of the +way in which the Christian faith will stand against all the +false religions of India?</p> + +<p>But I turn from battles and sieges to a lighter picture. +One may find great amusement in the street scenes of Delhi, +which will relieve these "dun clouds of war." In the Mohammedan +procession we had seen hundreds of the drollest +little carts, drawn by oxen, on which the natives were stuck +like pins, the sight of which, with the loads of happy life +they bore, excited our envy. Before leaving Delhi, we +thought it would be very "nice" to take a turn around the +town in one of these extraordinary vehicles. We had tried +almost every kind of locomotion; we had ridden on horses +and donkeys, on camels and elephants, and had been borne +in palanquins; but one more glory awaited us—to ride in a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> +"bali,"—and so we commanded one to attend us for our +royal pleasure. But when it drew up in the yard of the +hotel, we looked at it in amazement. There stood the oxen, +as ready to draw us as a load of hay; but what a "chariot" +was this behind! It was a kind of baby-house on cart-wheels—a +cushion and a canopy—one seat, with a sort of umbrella +over it, under which a native "lady" sits in state, with her +feet curled up between her. How we were to get into it was +the question. There were three of us, for the surgeon of the +Peshawur had joined us. C. of course had the place of +honor, while the Doctor and I sat on the edge of the seat, +with our lower limbs extended at right angles. The "bali" +is rigged somewhat like an Irish jaunting-car, in which one +sits sidewise, hanging over the wheels; only in a jaunting-car +there is a board for the feet to rest upon, whereas here +the feet are literally "nowhere." In the East there is no +provision for the lower part of a man. Legs are very much in +the way. A Turk or Hindoo curls them up under him, and +has done with them. But if an impracticable European will +dangle them about where they ought not to be, he must take +the consequences. I find that the only way is to look out +for the main chance—to see that the body is safe, and let the +legs take care of themselves. Then if an accident happens, +I am not responsible; I have done my duty. So we now +"faced the situation," and while the central personage reposed +like a Sultana on a soft divan, her attendants faced in +either direction, with their extremities flying all abroad. +We felt as if sitting on the edge of a rickety chair, that +might break any moment and pitch us into the street. But +we held fast to the slender bamboo reeds that supported the +canopy, and, thrusting our feet into the air, bade the chariot +proceed.</p> + +<p>The driver sits astride the tongue of the cart, and sets the +thing going by giving the animals a kick in the rear, or seizing +the tails and giving them a twist, which sets the beasts +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> +into an awkward, lumbering gallop. He was proud of his +team, and wished to show us their mettle, and now gave the +tails a Herculean twist, which sent them tearing like mad +bulls along the street. Everybody turned to look at us, +while we laughed at the absurdity of our appearance, and +wished that we could have our photograph taken to send +home. Thus we rode to the great Mosque of the city, and +through the Chandney Chook, the street of the bazaars, and +back to our hotel, having had glory enough for one day. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XIV.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">FROM DELHI TO LAHORE.</p> + +<p>Times have changed since twenty years ago, when Delhi +was the head and front of the Rebellion. It is now as tranquil +and loyal as any city in India. As we rode out to the +Ridge, where the English planted their guns during the +siege, we found it surmounted by a lofty Memorial Tower, +reared to mark the spot where the courage of a few thousand +men saved India. So completely is the English power re-established, +that Delhi was lately chosen over all Indian +cities as the one where should be gathered the most imposing +display of troops to do honor to their future sovereign, the +Prince of Wales. Some forty regiments, native and English, +were mustered here to form a grand Camp of Exercise. +Never before had India witnessed such a military display. +Here were native regiments in the picturesque costumes of +the East—the superb Sikh cavalry; a corps of guides +mounted on camels; and heavy artillery drawn by elephants, +which, as they came before the Prince, threw up their trunks +and trumpeted a salute to the Majesty of England. Two +weeks passed in military manœuvres, and the nights in a +constant round of festivities. The Fort was brilliantly illuminated, +and the Palace was thronged with "fair women and +brave men," but they were those of another race, and speaking +another language, from any known to the Great Mogul. +Manly English forms took the place of the dusky Hindoos, +and bright English eyes shone where once the beauties of the +Seraglio "looked out from the lattice." As we walked +through these marble halls that had just witnessed these +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> +splendid festivities, I could but think, What would the old +fanatical Mohammedan Aurungzebe have said, if he could +have seen, less than two hundred years after his day, a Christian +prince from that distant island of which he had perhaps +scarcely heard, received in his palace, the heir of a +power ten thousand miles away, that from its seat on the +banks of the Thames stretches out its hand across the seas +to grasp and hold the vast empire of the house of Tamerlane?</p> + +<p>The change has been from darkness to light. If England +has not done as much for Delhi as the Great Mogul to give +it architectural beauty, it has done far more for the people. +It has given them good government for their protection, just +laws rigidly enforced against the rich as well as the poor, a +police which preserves perfect order; and it even cares for the +material comfort of its subjects, giving them good roads, clean +and well-lighted streets, and public gardens; thus providing +for ornament and pleasure as well as for utility.</p> + +<p>The Camp of Exercise was breaking up as we left Delhi, +and the troops were marching home. We saw them filing +out of the gates of the city, and drew up by the roadside to +see the gallant warriors pass. Among them was the corps of +Sikh guides, or couriers, mounted on "swift dromedaries." +As they were scattered along the road, our guide asked some +of them to show us how they could go. In an instant they +dashed their feet against the sides of their "coursers," and +set them off at full speed. I cannot say that they were very +beautiful objects. The camel with his long strides, and with +the legs of his rider outspread like the wings of a bird, looked +like an enormous ostrich flying at once with legs and wings +in swift chase over the desert. But certainly it was a picturesque +sight. The infantry marched in column. The spectacle +was very gay, as the morning sun shone on the waving +banners and gleaming bayonets, and the sound of their bugles +died away in the distance. Regiments had been leaving for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> +days, and were scattered at intervals far to the North. As +we travelled at night, we saw their camp-fires for a hundred +miles. Indeed the whole country seemed to be a camp. +Once or twice we came upon a regiment at sunset, just as +they had pitched their tents. They had parked their guns, +and picketed their horses, and the men were cooking their +evening meal. It was a busy scene for an hour or two, till +suddenly all became quiet, and the silence of night was broken +only by the sentinel's tramp and the jackal's cry.</p> + +<p>At Gazeeabad we met Sir Bartle Frere, the chief of the +suite of the Prince of Wales, and Canon Duckworth, his +chaplain, who were going North on the same train, and found +them extremely courteous. The former, I think, must be of +French descent from his name (although his family has been +settled in England for generations), and from his manners, +which seemed to me more French than English, or rather to +have the good qualities of both. When French courtesy is +united with English sincerity, it makes the finest gentleman +in the world. He is an "old Indian," having been many +years in the Indian service, and at one time Governor of +Bombay. I could but share the wish (which I heard often +expressed) that in the change which was just taking place, he +were to be the new Governor-General of India.</p> + +<p>Canon Duckworth seemed to me also a very "manly +man." Though coming to India in the train of royalty, he +is much less interested in the fêtes which are setting the +country ablaze, than in studying missions, visiting native +churches and schools and orphanages. Our American missionaries +like his bearing, and wish that he might be appointed +the new Bishop of Bombay. One fact should be mentioned +to his credit—that he is one of the strongest temperance men +in England, carrying his principles and his practice to the +point of rigid total abstinence, which, for one travelling in +such company, and sitting at such entertainments, shows a +firmness in resisting temptation, greatly to his honor. It is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> +a good sign when such men are chosen to accompany the +future King of England on his visit to this great dependency, +over which he is one day to rule.</p> + +<p>That night we had our first sight of the Himalayas. Just +at evening we saw on the horizon a fire spreading on the +side of a mountain. It was kindled by the natives, as fires +are sometimes lighted in our forests or on our prairies. +There were the Himalayas!</p> + +<p>We now entered the most Northwestern Province of India, +the Punjaub, which signifies in Persian "the land of the +five streams," which coming together like the fingers of a +hand, make the Indus. About midnight we crossed the +Sutlej, which was the limit of the conquests of Alexander +the Great.</p> + +<p>Morning brought us to Umritzur, the holy city of the +Sikhs—a sect of reformed Hindoos, who began their "reforms" +by rejecting idolatry, but have found the fascination +of the old worship too strong for them, and have gradually +fallen back into their old superstitions. Their most holy +place is a temple standing in the centre of a large tank of +water, which they call the Lake of Immortality, and with its +pure white marble, and its roof made of plates of copper, +richly gilded, merits the title of the Golden Temple. This +is a very holy place, and they would not let us even cross +the causeway to it without taking off our shoes; and when +we put on slippers, and shuffled about, still they followed, +watching us with sharp eyes, lest by any unguarded step we +should profane their sanctuary. They are as fanatical as +Mussulmans, and glared at us with such fierce looks that the +ladies of our party were almost frightened. In the centre of +the temple sat two priests, on raised mats, to whom the rest +were making offerings, while half a dozen musicians kept up +a hideous noise, to which the people responded in a way that +reminded us of the Howling Dervishes of Constantinople.</p> + +<p>A pleasant change from this disgusting scene was a visit +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> +to the bazaars, and to the places where Cashmere shawls are +manufactured. Of the latter I must say that (as a visit to a +dirty kitchen does not quicken one's appetite for the steaming +dinner that comes from it), if our fine ladies could see +the dens in which these shawls are woven, they might not +wear them with quite so much pride. They are close, narrow +rooms, in which twenty or thirty men are crowded together, +working almost without light or air. The only poetical thing +about it is that the patterns are written out <i>in rhyme</i>, which +they read or sing as they weave, and thus keep the patterns +so regular. But the rooms themselves seem like breeding +places for the cholera and the plague. But out of this filth +comes beauty, as a flower shoots up from the damp, black +soil. Some of the shawls were indeed exquisite in pattern +and fabric. One was offered to us for eight hundred rupees +(four hundred dollars), which the dealer said had taken two +years and a half in its manufacture!</p> + +<p>We left Umritzur at five o'clock, and in a couple of hours +rolled into the station at Lahore. As the train stopped a +friendly voice called our name, and we were greeted most +heartily by Dr. Newton, the father of the Mission. Coolies +were waiting to carry our baggage, and in a few minutes we +were in an American home, sitting before a blazing fire, and +receiving a welcome most grateful to strangers on the other +side of the world. Dr. Newton is the head of a missionary +family, his four sons being engaged in the same work, while +his only daughter is the wife of Mr. Forman, another missionary. +Very beautiful it was to see how they all gathered +round their father, so revered and beloved, happy to devote +their lives to that form of Christian activity to which he +had led them both by instruction and example. Here we +spent four happy days in one of the most pleasant homes +in India.</p> + +<p>Lahore, like Delhi, has a historical interest. It was a +great city a thousand years ago. In 1241 it was taken and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> +plundered by Genghis Khan; a century and a half later came +Tamerlane, who did not spoil it only because it was too poor +to reward his rapacity. But as it recovered a little of its +prosperity, Baber, in 1524, plundered it and partially burnt +it. But again it rose from its ashes, and became a great +city. The period of its glory was during the time of the +Moguls, when it covered a space eighteen miles in circumference, +and this vast extent is still strewn with the ruins of +its former greatness. Huge mounds, like those which Layard +laid open at Nineveh, cover the mighty wreck of former +cities.</p> + +<p>But though the modern city bears no comparison to the +ancient, still it has a political and commercial importance. +It is the capital of the Punjaub, and a place of commerce +with Central Asia. The people are the finest race we have +seen in India. They are not at all like the effeminate Bengalees. +They are the Highlanders of India. Tall and athletic, +they seem born to be warriors. Their last great ruler, +old Runjeet Sing, was himself a soldier, and knew how to +lead them to victory. Uniting policy with valor, he kept peace +with the English, against whom his successors dashed themselves +and were destroyed. All readers of Indian history will +remember the Sikh war, and how desperate was the struggle +before the Punjaub was subdued. But English prowess conquered +at last, and the very province that had fought so +bravely became the most loyal part of the Indian empire. It +was fortunate that at the breaking out of the mutiny the +Governor of the Punjaub was Sir John Lawrence, who had +a great ascendancy over the natives, and by his courage and +prompt measures he succeeded not only in keeping them +quiet, but in mustering here a considerable force to restore +English authority in the rest of India. The Punjaubees took +part in the siege of Delhi. From that day they have been +the most trusted of natives for their courage and their fidelity. +They are chosen for police duty in the cities of India, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> +three months later we were much pleased to recognize our +old friends keeping guard and preserving order in the streets +of Hong Kong.</p> + +<p>Old Runjeet Sing is dead—and well dead, as I can testify, +having seen his tomb, where his four wives and seven +concubines, that were burnt on his funeral pile, are buried +with him. His son too sleeps in a tomb near by, but only +seven widowed women were sacrificed for him, and for a +grandson only four! Thus there was a falling off in the +glory of the old suttee, and then the light of these fires +went out altogether. These were the last widows burnt +on the funeral pile, and to-day the old Lion of the Punjaub +is represented by his son Maharajah Dhuleep Sing, +of whose marriage we heard such a romantic story in Cairo, +and who now lives with his Christian wife in Christian England.</p> + +<p>We had now reached almost the frontier of India. Two +hundred and fifty miles farther we should have come to Peshawur, +the last military post, on the border of Afghanistan, +which no man crosses but at the peril of his life. We find +how far North we have come by the race and the language +of the people. Persian begins to be mingled with Hindostanee. +In the streets of Lahore we meet not only the +stalwart Punjaubees, but the hill tribes, that have come out +of the fastnesses of the Himalayas; the men of Cabul—Afghans +and Beloochees—who have a striking resemblance to +the Circassians, who crossed the Mediterranean with us on +their pilgrimage to Mecca, the long dresses of coarse, dirty +flannel, looking not unlike the sheepskin robes of the wild +mountaineers of the Caucasus.</p> + +<p>One cannot be so near the border line of British India +without having suggested the possibility of a Russian invasion, +the fear of which has been for the last twenty years +(since the Mutiny and since the Crimean War) the bugbear +of certain writers who are justly jealous of the integrity of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> +the English Empire in the East. Russia has been steadily +pushing Eastward, and establishing her outposts in Central +Asia. These gradual advances, it is supposed, are all to the +end of finally passing through Afghanistan, and attacking +the English power in India. The appearance of Russian +soldiers in the passes of the Hindoo Koosh, it is taken for +granted, will be the signal for a general insurrection in +India; the country will be in a state of revolution; and at +the end of a struggle in which Russians and Hindoos will +fight together against the English, the British power will +have departed never to return. Or even should the Russians +be held back from actual invasion, their approach in a threatening +attitude would be such a menace to the Indian +Empire, as would compel England to remain passive, while +Russia carried out her designs in Europe by taking possession +of Constantinople.</p> + +<p>This is a terrible prospect, and no one can say that it is +impossible that all this should yet come to pass. India has +been invaded again and again from the time of Alexander +the Great. Even the mighty wall of the Himalayas has not +proved an effectual barrier against invasion. Genghis Khan +and Tamerlane, with their Tartar hordes, crossed the mountains +and swept over the plains of Northern India. A King +of Persia captured Delhi, and put out the eyes of the Great +Mogul, and carried off the Peacock Throne of Aurungzebe. +What has been, may be; what Persia has done, Russia may +do.</p> + +<p>But while no one can say that it is impossible, all can see +that the difficulties are enormous. The distance to be traversed, +the deserts and the mountains to be crossed, are so +many obstacles set up by nature itself. An army from the +Caspian Sea must march thousands of miles over great deserts, +where even a small caravan can hardly subsist, and then +only by carrying both food to eat and water to drink. Many +a caravan is buried by the sands of the desert. What then +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> +must be the difficulty of passing a whole army over such a +distance and such a desert, with food for men and horses, +and carrying guns and all the munitions of war! Five years +ago, Russia attempted a campaign against Khiva, and sent out +three separate expeditions, one of which was forced to turn +back, not by hostile armies, but by the natural obstacles in +its path, while the main column, under Gen. Kaufman, came +very near succumbing to heat and thirst before reaching its +destination. But if the deserts are crossed, then the army +is at the foot of the loftiest mountains on the globe, in the +passes of which it may have to fight against savage enemies. +It is assumed that Russia will have the support of Afghanistan, +which will give them free access to the country, and +aid them in their march on India; though how a government +and people, which are fanatically Mussulman, should +aid Russia, which in Europe is the bitterest enemy of Turkey, +the great Mohammedan power, is a point which these +alarmists seem not to consider.</p> + +<p>But suppose all difficulties vanquished—the deserts crossed +and the mountains scaled, and the Russians descending the +passes of the Himalayas—what an army must they meet at +its foot! Not a feeble race, like that which fled before Nadir +Shah or Tamerlane. With the railways traversing all India, +almost the whole Anglo-Indian army could be transported to +the Punjaub in a few days, and ready to receive the invaders.</p> + +<p>With these defences in the country itself, add another +supreme fact, that England is absolute master of the sea, and +that Russia has no means of approach except over the deserts +and the mountains, and it will be seen that the difficulties in the +way of a Russian invasion render it practically impossible, at +least for a long time to come. What may come to pass in +another century, no man can foresee; but of this I feel well +assured, that there will be no Russian invasion within the +lifetime of this generation. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span></p> + +<p>We had now reached the limit of our journey to the +North, though we would have gladly gone farther. Dr. Newton +had spent the last summer in Cashmere, and told us +much of its beauty. We longed to cross the mountains, but +it was too early in the year. The passes were still blocked +up with snow. It would be months before we could make +our way over into the Vale of Cashmere. And so, though +we "lifted up our eyes unto the hills," we had to turn back +from seeing the glory beyond. Might we not comfort ourselves +by saying with Mohammed, as he looked down upon +Damascus, "There is but one Paradise for man, and I will +turn away my eyes from this, lest I lose that which is to +come."</p> + +<p>And so we turned away our eyes from beholding Paradise. +But we had seen enough. So we thought as on Saturday +evening we rode out to the Shalamir gardens, where an emperor +had made a retreat, and laid out gardens with fountains, +and every possible accompaniment of luxury and pride. +All remains as he left it, but silent and deserted. Emperor +and court are gone, and as we walked through the gardens, +our own footfall on the marble pavement was the only sound +that broke the stillness of the place. But the beauty is as +great as ever under the clear, full moon, which, as we rode +back, recalled the lines of Scott on Melrose:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"> +"And home returning, sooth declare,</p> +<p>Was ever scene so sad and fair?"</p> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<p class="ch_summ">A WEEK IN THE HIMALAYAS.</p> + +<p>Ever since we landed in India my chief desire has been to +see the Himalayas. I had seen Mont Blanc, the highest +mountain in Europe, and now wished to look upon the highest +mountains in Asia, or the world. To reach them we had +travelled nearly fifteen hundred miles. We had already had +a distant view of them at night, lighted up by fires blazing +along their sides; but to come into their presence one must +leave the railway and cross the country some forty miles.</p> + +<p>We left Lahore Monday morning, and at noon were at +Lodiana, a place with sacred missionary associations; which +we left at midnight, and in the morning reached Saharanpur, +where also is one of our Presbyterian missions. Rev. Mr. +Calderwood met us at the station, and made us welcome to +his home, and sped us on our way to the Hills.</p> + +<p>Saharanpur is forty-two miles distant from Dehra Doon, +the beautiful valley which lies at the foot of the Himalayas. +A mail wagon runs daily, but as it suited our convenience +better, we chartered a vehicle not unlike an omnibus, and +which the natives, improving on the English, call an <i>omnibukus</i>. +It is a long covered <i>gharri</i>, that looks more like a +prison van than anything else to which I can compare it, +and reminded me of the Black Maria that halts before the +Tombs in New York to convey prisoners to Blackwell's +Island. There are only two seats running lengthwise, as +they are made to lie down upon in case of necessity. Much +of the travelling is at night, and "old Indians," who are used +to the ways of the country, will spread their "resais" and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> +sleep soundly over all the joltings of the road. But we could +sleep about as well inside of a bass drum. So we gave up +the idea of repose, and preferred to travel by day to see the +country, for which this sort of conveyance is very well contrived. +The canvas top keeps off the sun, while the latticed +slides (which are regular green blinds), drawn back, give a +fine view of the country as we go rolling over the road. Our +charioteer, excited by the promise of a liberal backsheesh if +he should get us into Dehra Doon before nightfall, drove at +full speed. Every five or six miles the blast of his horn told +those at the next stage that somebody was coming, and that +a relay of fresh horses must be ready. As we approached +the hills he put on an extra horse, and then two, so that we +were driving four-in-hand. Then as the hills grew steeper, +he took two mules, with a horse in front as a leader, mounted +by a postilion, who, with his white dress and turbaned head, +made a very picturesque appearance. How gallantly he rode! +He struck his heels into the spirited little pony and set him +into a gallop, which the mules could but follow, and so we +went tearing up hill and down dale at a furious rate; while +the coachman blew his horn louder still to warn common folks +to get out of the way, and the natives drew to the roadside, +wondering what great man it was who thus dashed by.</p> + +<p>But horses and mules were not enough to sustain such a +load of dignity, and at the last stage the driver took a pair +of the beautiful white hump-backed oxen of the country, +which drew us to the top of the pass. The hills which we +thus cross are known as the Sewalic range. The top once +attained, two horses were quite enough to take us down, and +we descended rapidly. And now rose before us a vision of +beauty such as we had not seen in all India. The vale of +Dehra Doon is enclosed between two walls of mountains—the +Sewalic range on one side, and the first range of the Himalayas +on the other. It is fifteen miles wide, and about sixty +miles long, extending from the Jumna to the Ganges. Thus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> +it lies between two mountains and two rivers, and has a temperature +and a moisture which keep it in perpetual green. +Nothing can be more graceful than the tall feathery bamboos, +which here grow to a great height. Here are fine specimens +of the peepul tree—the sacred tree of India, massive as an +English oak—and groves of mangoes. Everything seems to +grow here—tea, coffee, tobacco, cinnamon, cloves. The appearance +of this rich valley, thus covered with groves and +gardens, to us coming from the burnt plains of India, was like +that of a garden of Paradise. Riding on through this mass +of foliage, we rattled into the town, but were not obliged to +"find our warmest welcome at an inn." Rev. Mr. Herron +had kindly invited us to accept his hospitality, and so we +inquired for "Herron-sahib," and were driven along a smooth +road, embowered in bamboos, to the Missionary Compound, +where a large building has been erected for a Female Seminary, +chiefly by the labors of Messrs. Woodside and Herron, +the latter of whom is in charge of the institution, one of the +most complete in India. Here we were most cordially +received, and found how welcome, in the farthest part of the +world, is the atmosphere of an American home.</p> + +<p>But once in presence of the great mountains, we were impatient +to climb the first range, to get a view of the snows. +Mr. Herron offered to keep us company. We rose at four +the next morning, while the stars were still shining, and set +out, but could ride only five miles in a carriage, when we +came to the foot of the hills, and were obliged to take to the +saddle. Our "syces" had led three horses alongside, which +we mounted just as the starlight faded, and the gray light +of day began to show over the mountain-tops, while our +attendants, light of foot, kept by our side in case their services +were needed.</p> + +<p>And now we begin the ascent, turning hither and thither, +as the road winds along the sides of the mountain. The +slope of the Himalayas is not a smooth and even one, rising +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> +gently through an unbroken forest. The mountain side has +been torn by the storms of thousands of years. In the +spring, when the snows melt and the rains come, every torrent +whose rocky bed is now bare, becomes a foaming flood, +rushing down the hills, and tearing its way through the lowlands, +till lost in the Jumna or the Ganges. Thus the +mountain is broken into innumerable spurs and ridges that +shoot out into the valley. Where the scanty herbage can +gather like moss on the rocks, there is grazing for sheep and +goats and cattle; and these upland pastures, like those of +the Alps or the Tyrol, are musical with the tinkling of bells. +High up on the mountains they are dark with pines; while +on the inner ranges of the Himalayas the mighty cedars +"shake like Lebanon."</p> + +<p>One can imagine how lovely must be the Vale of Dehra +Doon, with its mass of verdure, set in the midst of such +rugged mountains. Although we were climbing upward, we +could but stop, as we came to turning points in the road, to +look back into the valley. Sometimes a projecting ledge of +rock offered a fine point of view, on which we reined up our +horses; or an old oak, bending its gnarled limbs over us, +made a frame to the picture, through which we looked down +into the fairest of Indian vales, unless it be the Vale of +Cashmere. From such a point the landscape seemed to combine +every element of beauty—plains, and woods, and streams +and mountains. Across the valley rises the long serrated ridge +of the Sewalic range. Within this space is enclosed a great +variety of surface—undulating in hill and valley, with green +meadows, and villages, and gardens, while here and there, +along the banks of the streams, whose beds are now dry, are +belts of virgin forest.</p> + +<p>The industry of the people, which turns every foot of soil +to account, is shown by the way in which the spurs of the +mountains are terraced to admit of cultivation. Wherever +there is an acre of level ground, there is a patch of green, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> +for the wheat fields are just springing up; and even spaces +of but a few rods are planted with potatoes. Thus the sides +of the Himalayas are belted with lines of green, like the +sides of the Alps as one descends into Italy. The view is +especially beautiful at this morning hour as the sun rises, +causing the dews to lift from the valley, while here and there +a curl of smoke, rising through the mist, marks the place of +human habitation.</p> + +<p>But we must prick up our horses, for the sun is up, and +we are not yet at the top. It is a good ride of two hours +(we took three) to the ridge on which are built the two +"hill stations" of Mussoorie and Landour—which are great +resorts of the English during the summer months. These +"stations" do not deserve the name of towns; they are +merely straggling Alpine villages. Indeed nowhere in the +Alps is there such a cluster of houses at such a height, or +in such a spot. There is no "site" for a regular village, no +place for a "main street." One might as well think of +"laying out" a village along the spine of a sharp-backed +whale, as on this narrow mountain ridge. There is hardly an +acre of level ground, only the jagged ends of hills, or points +of rocks, from which the torrents have swept away the earth +on either side, leaving only the bare surface. Yet on these +points and edges—wherever there is a shelf of rock to furnish +a foundation, the English have built their pretty bungalows, +which thus perched in air, 7,500 feet high, look like +mountain eyries, and might be the home of the eagles that +we see sailing over the valley below. From such a height +do they look over the very top of the Sewalic range to the +great plains of India.</p> + +<p>But we did not stop at this mountain to look back. +Dashing through the little straggling bazaar of Landour, we +spurred on to the highest point, "Lal Tiba"; from which +we hoped for the great view of "the snows." We reached +the spot at nine o'clock, but as yet we saw "only in part." +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> +Our final vision was to come three days later. Away to the +North and East the horizon was filled with mountains, whose +summits the foot of man had never trod, but the intervening +distance was covered with clouds, out of which rose the +snowy domes, like islands in a sea.</p> + +<p>My first impression of the Himalayas was one of disappointment, +partly because we "could not come nigh unto" +them. We saw their summits, but at such a distance that +they did not look so high as Mont Blanc, where we could +come "even to his feet" in the Vale of Chamouni. But the +Himalayas were seventy miles off,<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> filling the whole horizon. +Nor did they rise up in one mighty chain, like the Cordilleras +of Mexico, standing like a wall of rock and snow against the +sky; but seemed rather a sea of mountains, boundless and +billowy, rising range on range, one overtopping the other, +and rolling away to the heart of Asia; or, to change the +figure, the mountains appeared as an ice continent, like that +of the Polar regions, tossed up here and there into higher +and still higher summits, but around which, stretching away +to infinity, was the wild and interminable sea.</p> + +<p>Thus the view, though different from what I expected, +was very grand, and though we had not yet the full, clear +vision, yet the sight was sublime and awful, perhaps even +more so from the partial obscurity, as great clouds came +rolling along the snowy heights, as if the heavenly host uprose +at the coming of the day, and were moving rank on +rank along the shining battlements.</p> + +<p>We had hoped by waiting a few hours to get an unobstructed +view, but the clouds seemed to gather rather than +disperse, warning us to hasten our descent.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span></p> + +<p>In going up the mountain, C—— had kept along with us +on horseback, but the long ride to one not used to the saddle +had fatigued her so that on the return she was glad to accept +Mr. Herron's offer of a <i>dandi</i>, a chair borne by two men, +which two others accompanied as relays, while we, mounted +as before, followed as outriders. Thus mustering our little +force, we began to descend the mountain.</p> + +<p>A mile or so from the top we turned aside at the house of +a gentleman who was a famous hunter, and who had a large +collection of living birds, pheasants and manauls, while the +veranda was covered with tiger and leopard skins. He was +absent, but his wife (who has the spirit and courage of a +huntress, and had often brought down a deer with her own +hand) was there, and bade us welcome. She showed us her +birds, both living and stuffed, the number of which made +her house look like an ornithological museum. To our inquiry +she said, "The woods were full of game. Two deer had been +shot the evening before."</p> + +<p>We asked about higher game. She said that tigers were +not common up on the mountain as in the valley. She had +two enormous skins, but "the brutes" her husband had shot +over in Nepaul. But leopards seemed to be her special pets. +When I asked, "Have you many leopards about here?" she +laughed as she answered, "I should think so." She often +saw them just across a ravine a few rods in front of her +house, chasing goats or sheep. "It was great fun." Of +late they had become rather troublesome in killing dogs. +And so they had been obliged to set traps for them. They +framed a kind of cage, with two compartments, in one of +which they tied a dog, whose yelpings at night attracted the +leopard, who, creeping round and round, to get at his prey, +at length dashed in to seize the poor creature, but found bars +between them, while the trap closed upon him, and Mr. Leopard +was a prisoner. In this way they had caught four the +last summer. Then this Highland lady came out from her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> +cottage, and with a rifle put an end to the leopard's career in +devouring dogs. The number of skins on the veranda told +of their skill and success.</p> + +<p>Pursuing my inquiry into the character of her neighbors, +I asked, "Have you any snakes about here?" "Oh no," +she replied carelessly; "that is to say not many. The +cobras do not come up so high on the mountain. But there +is a serpent in the woods, a kind of python, but he is a +large, lazy creature, that doesn't do any mischief. One day +that my husband was out with his gun, he shot one that was +eighteen feet long. It was as big around as a log of wood, +so that when I came up I sat down and took my tiffin upon +it."</p> + +<p>While listening to these tales, the clouds had been gathering, +and now they were piled in dark masses all around the +horizon. The lightning flashed, and we could hear the +heavy though distant peals of thunder. Presently the big +drops began to fall. There was no time to be lost. We +could see that the rain was pouring in the valley, while +heavy peals came nearer and nearer, reverberating in the +hollows of the mountains. It was a grand spectacle of +Nature, that of a storm in the Himalayas. Thunder in front +of us, thunder to the right of us, thunder to the left of us! I +never had a more exciting ride, except one like it in the +Rocky Mountains four years before. At our urgent request, +Mr. Herron spurred ahead, and galloped at full speed down +the mountain. I came more slowly with C—— in the <i>dandi</i>. +But we did not lose time, and after an hour's chase, in which +we seemed to be running the gauntlet of the storm, "dodging +the rain," we were not a little relieved, just as the +scattered drops began to fall thicker and faster, to come into +the yard of the hotel at Rajpore.</p> + +<p>The brave fellows who had brought the dandi deserved a +reward, although Mr. Herron said they were his servants. I +wanted to give them a rupee each, but he would not hear of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> +it, and when I insisted on giving at least a couple of rupees +for the four, which would be twenty-five cents a piece, the +poor fellows were so overcome with my generosity that they +bowed almost to the ground in acknowledgment, and went +off hugging each other with delight at the small fortune +which had fallen to them.</p> + +<p>At Rajpore the carriage was waiting for us, and under its +cover from the rain, we rode back, talking of the incidents +of the day; and when we got home and stretched ourselves +before the blazing fire, the subject was renewed. I have a +boy's fondness for stories of wild beasts, and listened with +eager interest to all my host had to tell. It was hard to +realize that there were such creatures in such a lovely spot. +"Do you really mean to say," I asked, "that there are +tigers here in this valley?" "Yes," he answered, "within +five miles of where you are sitting now." He had seen one +himself, and showed us the very spot that morning as we +rode out to the hills, when he pointed to a ravine by the +roadside, and said: "As I was riding along this road one +day with a lady, a magnificent Bengal tiger came up out of +that ravine, a few rods in front of us, and walked slowly +across the road. He turned to look at us, and we were +greatly relieved when, after taking a cool survey, he moved +off into the jungle."</p> + +<p>But leopards are still more common and familiar. They +have been in this very dooryard, and on this veranda. One +summer evening two years ago, said Miss P., I was sitting on +the gravelled walk to enjoy the cool air, when an enormous +creature brushed past but a step in front between us and the +house. At first we thought in the gloaming it might be a +dog of very unusual size, but as it glided past, and came into +the light of some cottages beyond, we perceived that it was a +very different beast. At another time a leopard crossed the +veranda at night, and brushed over the face of a native woman +sleeping with her child in her arms. It was well the beast +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> +was not hungry, or he would have snatched the child, as they +often do when playing in front of native houses, and carried +it off into the jungle.</p> + +<p>But we will rest to-night in sweet security in this missionary +home, without fear of wild beasts or thunder storms. The +clouds broke away at sunset, leaving a rich "after-glow" upon +the mountains. It was the clear shining after the rain. +Just then I heard the voices of the native children in the +chapel, singing their hymns, and with these sweet suggestions +of home and heaven, "I will lay me down in peace and sleep, +for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety."</p> + +<p class="p2">We had had a glimpse of the Himalayas, but the glimpse +only made us eager to get the full "beatific vision"; so, after +resting a day, we determined to try again, going up in the +afternoon, and spending the night, so as to have a double +chance of seeing the snows—both at sunset and at sunrise. +This time we had also the company of Mr. Woodside, beside +whom I rode on horseback; while Mr. Herron gave his escort +to C——, who was "promoted" from a <i>dandi</i> to a <i>jahnpan</i>, +which differs from the former only in that it is more spacious, +and is carried by four bearers instead of two. Thus mounted +she was borne aloft on men's shoulders. She said the +motion was not unpleasant, except that the men had a habit, +when they came to some dangerous point, turning a rock, or +on the edge of a precipice, of changing bearers, or swinging +round the bamboo pole from one shoulder to another, which +made her a little giddy, as she was tossed about at such a +height, from which she could look down a gorge hundreds of +feet deep. However, she takes all dangers very lightly, and +was enraptured with the wildness and strangeness of the +scene—to find herself, an American girl, thus being transported +over the mountains of Asia.</p> + +<p>So we took up our line of march for the hills, and soon +found our pulses beating faster. Why is it that we feel such +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> +exhilaration in climbing mountains? Is it something in the +air, that quickens the blood, and reacts upon the brain? Or +is it the sensation of rising into a higher atmosphere, of "going +up into heaven?" So it seemed that afternoon, as we +"left the earth" behind us, and went up steadily into the +clouds.</p> + +<p>I found that the Himalayas grew upon acquaintance. They +looked more grand the second time than the first. The landscape +was changed by the westering sun, which cast new +lights and shadows across the valley, and into the wooded +bosom of the hills. To these natural beauties my companion +added the charm of historical associations. Few places in +India have more interest to the scholar. The Sewalic range +was almost the cradle of the Brahminical religion. Sewalic, +or Sivalic, as it might be written, means literally the hills +of Shiva, or the hills of the gods, where their worshippers +built their shrines and worshipped long before Christ was +born in Bethlehem. The same ridge is a mine to the naturalist. +It is full of fossils, the bones of animals that belonged +to some earlier geological epoch. The valley has had a part +in the recent history of India. Here the Goorkas—one of +the hill tribes, which stood out longest against the English—fought +their last battle. It was on yonder wooded height +which juts out like a promontory into the plain, where the +ruin of an old fort marks the destruction of their power. Today +the Goorkas, like the Punjaubees, are among the most +loyal defenders of English rule.</p> + +<p>At present the attraction of this valley for "old Indians" +is not so much in its historical or scientific associations, as +the field which it gives to the hunter. This belt of country, +running about a hundred miles along the foot of the Himalayas, +is composed of forest and jungle, and is a favorite +habitat of wild beasts—tigers and leopards and wild elephants. +It was in this belt, called the Terai, though further +to the East, in Nepaul, that the Prince of Wales a few +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> +weeks later made his great tiger-hunting expedition. He +might perhaps have found as good sport in the valley right +under our eyes. "Do you see that strip of woods yonder?" +said Mr. Woodside, pointing to one four or five miles distant. +"That is full of wild elephants." An Indian Rajah +came here a year or two since for a grand hunt, and in two +days captured twenty-four. This is done by the help of tame +elephants who are trained for the purpose. A large tract of +forest is enclosed, and then by beating the woods, the herd +is driven towards a corner, and when once penned, the tame +elephants go in among them, and by tender caressing engage +their attention, till the coolies slip under the huge beasts +and tie their feet with ropes to the trees. This done, they +can be left till subdued by hunger, when they are easily tamed +for the service of man.</p> + +<p>These creatures still have the range of the forests. In +riding through the woods one may often hear the breaking +of trees, as wild elephants crash through the dense thicket. +I had supposed that all kinds of wild beasts were very much +reduced in India under English rule. The hunters say they +are so much so as to destroy the sport. But my companion +thinks not, for two reasons: the government has made +stringent laws against the destruction of forests; and since +the mutiny the natives are not allowed to carry fire-arms.</p> + +<p>We might have startled a leopard anywhere on the mountain +side. A young Scotchman whom we met with his rifle +on his shoulder, said he had shot two a fortnight ago, +but that there was a very big one about, which he had seen +several times, but could never get a shot at, but he hoped to +bring him down before long.</p> + +<p>With such chat as this we trotted up the mountain road, +till we came to where it divides, where, leaving Mr. Herron +and C—— to go on straight to Landour, we turned to the +left to make a flying visit to the other hill station of Mussoorie. +As we rode along, Mr. Woodside pointed out to me +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> +the spot where, a few weeks before, his horse had backed off +a precipice, and been dashed to pieces. Fortunately he was +not on his back (he had alighted to make a call), or the +horse and his rider might have gone over together. As we +wound up the road he recalled another incident, which +occurred several years ago: "I had been to attend an +evening reception at the Young Ladies' school (which we +had just left), and about eleven o'clock mounted to ride +home. I had a white horse, and it was a bright moonlight +night, and as I rode up the hill, just as I turned a corner in +the road <i>there</i> (pointing to the spot) I saw a huge leopard +crouching in the attitude of preparing to spring. I rose up +in the saddle (my friend is a man of giant stature) and +shouted at the top of my voice, and the beast, not knowing +what strange monster he had encountered, leaped over the +bank and disappeared."</p> + +<p>"The next day," he added, "I was telling the story to a gentleman, +who replied, 'You were very fortunate to escape so,' +and then related an incident of his own, in which a leopard +sprang upon his horse, which the fright caused to give such +a bound that the brute fell off, and the horse starting at +full speed, they escaped. But he felt that the escape was so +providential that he had thanks returned in the church the +next Sabbath for his deliverance from a sudden death."</p> + +<p>Thus listening to my companion's adventures, we rode +along the ridge of Mussoorie to its highest point, which commands +a grand view of the Snowy Range. Here stands a +convent, which educates hundreds of the daughters of Protestant +Englishmen, as well as those of its own faith. Thus +the Catholic Church plants its outposts on the very crests of +the mountains.</p> + +<p>At Landour is another Catholic institution (for boys) +called St. George's College, perhaps as a delicate flattery to +Englishmen in taking the name of their guardian saint. It +has a chime of bells, which at that height and that hour +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> +strikes the ear with singular and touching effect. It may +well stir up our Protestant friends, both to admire and to +imitate, as it furnishes a new proof of the omnipresence of +Rome, when the traveller finds its convents, and hears the +chime of its vesper bells, on the heights and amid the valleys +of the Himalayas.</p> + +<p>But the sun was sinking, and it was four miles from Mussoorie +to Landour, where we were to make our second +attempt to see the snows. Turning our horses, we rode at +full speed along the ridge of the mountain, and reached the +top of Lal Tiba before sunset, but only to be again disappointed. +Northward and eastward the clouds hung upon +the great mountains. But if one part of the horizon was +hidden, on the other we looked over the top of the Sewalic +range, to where the red and fiery sun was sinking in a bank +of cloud—not "clouds full of rain," but merely clouds of +dust, rolling upward "like the smoke of a furnace" from the +hot plains of India. In the foreground was the soft, green +valley of Dehra Doon, more beautiful from the contrast with +the burning plains beyond. It was a peaceful landscape, as +the shadows of evening were gathering over it. From this +we turned to watch the light as it crept up the sides of the +mountains. The panorama was constantly changing, and +every instant took on some new feature of grandeur. As +daylight faded, another light flashed out behind us, for the +mountains were on fire. It is a custom of the people, who +are herdsmen, to burn off the low brush (as the Indians +burned over the prairies), that the grass may spring up fresh +and green for their flocks and cattle; and it was a fearful +spectacle, that of these great belts of fire running along the +mountain side, and lighting up the black gorges below.</p> + +<p>Giving our horses to the guides to be led down the declivity, +we walked down a narrow path in the rocks that led to +Woodstock, a female seminary, built on a kind of terrace +half a mile below—a most picturesque spot (none the less +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> +romantic because a tiger had once carried off a man from the +foot of the ravine a few rods below the house), and there, +around a cheerful table, and before a roaring fire, forgot the +fatigues of the day, and hoped for sunshine on the morrow.</p> + +<p>It was not yet daylight when we awoke. The stars were +shining when we came out on the terrace, and the waning +moon still hung its crescent overhead. A faint light began +to glimmer in the east. We were quickly muffled up (for it +was cold) and climbing up the steep path to Lal Tiba, hoping +yet trembling. I was soon out of breath, and had more than +once to sit down on the rocks to recover myself. But in a +moment I would rise and rush on again, so eager was I with +hope, and yet so fearful of disappointment. One more pull +and we were on the top, and behold the glory of God spread +abroad upon the mountains! Our perseverance was rewarded +at last. There were the Himalayas—the great mountains of +India, of Asia, of the globe. The snowy range was in full +view for more than a hundred miles. The sun had not yet +risen, but his golden limb now touched the east, and as the +great round orb rose above the horizon, it seemed as if God +himself were coming to illumine the universe which he had +created. One after another the distant peaks caught the light +upon their fields of snow, and sent it back as if they were +the shining gates of the heavenly city. One could almost +look up to them as Divine intelligences, and address them in +the lines of the old hymn:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>These glorious <i>minds</i>, how bright they shine,</p> +<p class="i1">Whence all their white array?</p> +<p>How came they to the happy seats</p> +<p class="i1">Of everlasting day?</p> +</div> + +<p>But restraining our enthusiasm for the moment, let us look +at the configuration of this Snowy Range, simply as a study in +geography. We are in presence of the highest mountains on +the globe. We are on the border of that table-land of Asia +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> +("High Asia") which the Arabs in their poetical language +call "The Roof of the World." Yonder pass leads over into +Thibet. The trend of the mountains is from southeast to +northwest, almost belting the continent. Indeed, physical +geographers trace it much farther, following it down on one +hand through the Malayan Peninsula and on the other running +it through the Hindoo Koosh (or Caucasus) northwest +to Mt. Ararat in Armenia; and across into Europe, through +Turkey and Greece, to the Alps and the Pyrenees, forming +what the Arabs call "The Stony Girdle of the Earth." But +the centre of that girdle, the clasp of that mighty zone, is here.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to form an idea of the altitude of mountains, +when we have no basis of comparison in those which are familiar. +But nature here is on another scale than we have +seen it before. In Europe Mont Blanc is "the monarch of +mountains," but yonder peak, Nunda Davee, which shows +above the horizon at the distance of a hundred and ten miles, +is 25,600 feet high—that is, nearly two miles higher than +Mont Blanc! There are others still higher—Kinchinganga +and Dwalaghiri—but they are not in sight, as they are +farther east in Nepaul. But from Darjeeling, a hill station +much frequented in the summer months by residents of Calcutta, +one may get an unobstructed view of Mount Everest, +29,000 feet high, the loftiest summit on the globe. And here +before us are a number of peaks, twenty-two, twenty-three, +and twenty-four thousand feet high—higher than Chimborazo, +or any peak of the Andes.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the Himalayas are less impressive than the Alps +<i>in proportion</i>, because the snow line is so much higher. In +Switzerland we reach the line of perpetual snow at 8,900 +feet, so that the Jungfrau, which is less than 14,000 feet, +has a full mile of snow covering her virgin breast. But here +the traveller must ascend 18,000 feet, nearly two miles higher, +before he comes to the line of perpetual snow. It is considered +a great achievement of the most daring Alpine climbers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> +to reach the top of the Jungfrau or the Matterhorn, but here +many of the <i>passes</i> are higher than the summit of either. +Dr. Bellew, who accompanied the expedition of Sir Douglas +Forsyth three years since to Yarkund and Kashgar, told me +they crossed passes 19,000 feet high, nearly 4,000 feet higher +than Mont Blanc. He said they did not need a guide, for +that the path was marked by bones of men and beasts that +had perished by the way; the bodies lying where they fell, +for no beast or bird lives at that far height, neither vulture +nor jackal, while the intense cold preserved the bodies from +decay.</p> + +<p>But the Himalayas are not all heights, but heights and +depths. The mountains are divided by valleys. From +where we stand the eye sweeps over the tops of nine or ten +separate ranges, with valleys between, in which are scattered +hundreds of villages. The enterprising traveller may descend +into these deep places of the earth, and make his toilsome +way over one range after another, till he reaches the snows. +But he will find it a <i>fourteen days' march</i>. My companion +had once spent six weeks in a missionary tour among these +villages.</p> + +<p>Wilson, the author of "The Abode of Snow,"<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> who spent +months in travelling through the Inner Himalayas, from +Thibet to Cashmere, makes a comparison of these mountains +with the Alps. There are some advantages to be claimed for +the latter. Not only are they more accessible, but combine +in a smaller space more variety. Their sides are more generally +clothed with forests, which are mirrored in those beautiful +sheets of water that give such a charm both to Swiss and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> +Scottish scenery. But in the Himalayas there is hardly a +lake to be seen until one enters the Vale of Cashmere. Then +the Alps have more of the human element, in the picturesque +Swiss villages. The traveller looks down from snow-covered +mountains into valleys with meadows and houses and the +spires of churches. But in the Himalayas there is not a sign +of civilization, and hardly of habitation. Occasionally a village +or a Buddhist monastery may stand out picturesquely +on the top of a hill, but generally the mountains are given +up to utter desolation.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"But," says Wilson, "when all these admissions in favor of Switzerland +are made, the Himalayas still remain unsurpassed, and even +unapproached, as regards all the wilder and grander features of +mountain scenery. There is nothing in the Alps which can afford +even a faint idea of the savage desolation and appalling sublimity of +many of the Himalayan scenes. Nowhere have the faces of the +rocks been so scarred and riven by the nightly action of frost and +the midday floods from melting snow. In almost every valley we +see places where whole peaks or sides of great mountains have very +recently come shattering down." +</p> +</div> + +<p>This constant action of the elements sometimes carves the +sides of the mountains into castellated forms, like the cañons +of the Yellowstone and the Colorado:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"Gigantic mural precipices, bastions, towers, castles, citadels, +and spires rise up thousands of feet in height, mocking in their immensity +and grandeur the puny efforts of human art; while yet +higher the domes of pure white snow and glittering spires of ice far +surpass in perfection, as well as in immensity, all the Moslem musjids +and minars." +</p> +</div> + +<p>But more impressive than the most fantastic or imposing +forms are the vast spaces of untrodden snow, and the awful +solitudes and silences of the upper air. No wonder that the +Hindoos made this inaccessible region the dwelling-place of +their gods. It is their Kylas, or Heaven. The peak of Badrinath, +24,000 feet high, is the abode of Vishnu; and that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> +of Kedarnath, 23,000, is the abode of Shiva—two of the Hindoo +Trinity. Nunda Davee (the goddess Nunda) is the wife +of Shiva. Around these summits gathers the whole Hindoo +mythology. Yonder, where we see a slight hollow in the +mountains, is Gungootree, where the Ganges takes its rise, +issuing from a great glacier by a fissure, or icy cavern, worn +underneath, called the Cow's Mouth. Farther to the west is +Jumnootree, the source of the Jumna. Both these places +are very sacred in the eyes of the Hindoos, and as near to +them as any structure can be placed, are shrines, which are +visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all parts +of India.</p> + +<p>Thus these snowy heights are to the Hindoo Mount Sinai +and Calvary in one. Here is not only the summit where +God gave the law, but where God dwells evermore, and out +of which issue the sacred rivers, which are like the rivers of +the water of life flowing out of the throne of God; or like +the blood of atonement, to wash away the sins of the world.</p> + +<p>But the associations of this spot are not all of Hindooism +and idolatry. True, we are in a wintry region, but there is +an Alpine flower that grows at the foot of the snows. Close +to Lal Tiba I observed a large tree of rhododendrons, in full +bloom, although it was February, their scarlet blossoms contrasting +with the snow which had fallen on them the night +before. But the fairest blossom on that Alpine height is a +Christian church. Lal Tiba itself belongs to the Presbyterian +mission, and adjoining it is the house of the missionaries. +On the ridge is a mission church, built chiefly by the +indefatigable efforts of Mr. Woodside. It is a modest, yet +tasteful building, standing on a point of rock, which is in full +view of the Snowy Range, and overlooks the whole mountain +landscape. It was like a banner in the sky—that white +church—standing on such a height, as if it were in the clouds, +looking across at the mighty range beyond, and smiling at +the eternal snows! +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span></p> + +<p>The hardest thing in going round the world, is to break +away from friends. Not the friends we have left in America, +for those we may hope to see again, but the friends made +along the way. One meets so many kind people, and enters +so many hospitable homes, that to part from them is an ever-renewing +sorrow and regret. We have found many such +homes in India, but none in which we would linger more than +in this lovely Vale of Dehra Doon.</p> + +<p>One attraction is the Girls' School, which we might almost +call the missionary flower of India. The building, which +would be a "Seminary" at home, stands in the midst of +ample grounds, where, in the intervals of study, the inmates +can find healthful exercise. The pupils are mostly the +daughters of native Christians—converted Hindoos or Mohammedans. +Some are orphans, or have been forsaken by +their parents, and have thus fallen to the care of an institution +which is more to them than their natural fathers and mothers. +Many of these young girls had very sweet faces, and all were +as modest and well behaved as the girls I have seen in any +similar institution in our own country. Some are adopted by +friends in America, who engage to provide for their education. +Wishing to have a part in this good work, we looked about +the school till we picked out the veriest morsel of a creature, +as small as Dickens's Tiny Tim—but whose eyes were very +bright, and her mind as active as her body was frail, and C—— +thereupon adopted her and paid down a hundred rupees for a +year's board and teaching. She is by birth a Mohammedan, +but will be trained up as a Christian. She is very winning in +her ways; and, dear me, when the little creature crept up +into my lap, and looked up into my face with her great black +eyes, it was such an appeal for love and protection as I could +not resist; and when she put her thin arms around my neck, +I felt richer than if I had been encircled with one of those +necklaces of pearl, which the Rajahs were just then throwing +around the neck of the Prince of Wales. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span></p> + +<p>Our last day was spent in a visit to the tea plantations. +The culture of tea has been introduced into India within a +few years, and portions of the country are found so favorable +that the tea is thought by many equal to that imported from +China. Mr. Woodside took us out in a carriage a few miles, +when we left the road and crossed the fields on the back of an +elephant, which is a better "coigne of vantage" than the +back of a horse, as the rider is lifted up higher into the air, +and in passing under trees can stretch out his hand (as we +did) and pick blossoms and birds' nests from the branches; +but there is a rolling motion a little too much like "life on +an ocean wave," and if it were not for the glory of the thing +I confess I should rather have under me some steady old trotter, +such as I have had at home, or even one of the little donkeys +with which we used to amble about the streets of Cairo. +But there are times when one would prefer the elephant, as +if he should chance to meet a tiger! The beast we were +riding this morning was an old tiger hunter, that had often +been out in the jungle, and as he marched off, seemed as if he +would like nothing better than to smell his old enemy. In a +deadly combat the tiger has the advantage in quickness of +motion, and can spring upon the elephant's neck, but if the +latter can get his trunk around him he is done for, for he is +instantly dashed to the ground, and trampled to death under +the monster's feet. We had no occasion to test his courage, +though, if what we heard was true, he might have found game +not far off, for a native village through which we passed was +just then in terror because of a tiger who had lately come +about and carried off several bullocks only a few days before, +and they had sent to Mr. Bell, a tea planter whom we met +later in the day, to come and shoot him. He told me he +would come willingly, but that the natives were of a low +caste, who had not the Hindoos' horror of touching such food, +and devoured the half eaten bullock. If, he said, they would +only let the carcass alone, the tiger always comes back, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> +he would plant himself in some post of observation, and with +a rifle which never failed would soon relieve them of their +terrible enemy.</p> + +<p>After an hour of this cross-country riding, our elephant +drew up before the door of a large house; a ladder was +brought, and we clambered down his sides. Just then we +heard the sharp cracks of a gun, and the planter came in, +saying that he had been picking off monkeys which were a +little troublesome in his garden. This was Mr. Nelson, one +of the largest planters in the valley, with whom we had engaged +to take tiffin. He took us over his plantation, which +is laid out on a grand scale, many acres being set in rows +with the tea plant, which is a small shrub, about as large as +a gooseberry bush, from which the leaves are carefully picked. +The green tea is not a different plant from the black tea, but +only differently prepared. From the plantation we were +taken to the roasting-house, where the tea lay upon the floor +in great heaps, like heaps of grain; and where it is subjected +to a variety of processes, to prepare it for use or for exportation. +It is first "wilted" in large copper pans or ovens; +then "rolled" on a table of stretched matting; then slightly +dried, and put back in the ovens; then rolled again; and +finally subjected to a good "roasting," by which time every +drop of moisture is got out of it, and it acquires the peculiar +twist, or shrivelled look, so well known to dainty lovers of +the cup which cheers but not inebriates. How perfect was +the growing and the preparation appeared when we sat down +at the generous table, where we found the flavor as delicate as +that of any we had ever sipped that came from the Flowery +Land.</p> + +<p>Leaving this kind and hospitable family, we rode on to the +plantation of Mr. Bell, who had the "engagement" to shoot +the tiger. He is a brave Scot, very fond of sport, and had +a room full of stuffed birds, which he was going to send off to +Australia. Occasionally he had a shot at other game. Once +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> +he had brought down a leopard, and, as he said, thought the +beast was "deed," and went up to him, when the brute gave +a spring, and tore open his leg, which laid him up for two +months. But such beasts are really less dangerous than the +cobras, which crawl among the rows of plants, and as the field-hands +go among them barefoot, some fall victims every year. +But an Englishman is protected by his boots, and Mr. Bell +strolls about with his dog and his gun, without the slightest +sense of danger.</p> + +<p>We had now accomplished our visit to the Himalayas, and +were to bid adieu to the mountains and the valleys. But +how were we to get back to Saharanpur? There was the +mail-wagon and the <i>omnibuckus</i>. But these seemed very +prosaic after our mountain raptures. Mr. Herron suggested +that we should try <i>dooleys</i>—long palanquins in which +we could lie down and sleep (perhaps), and thus be carried +over the mountains at night. As we were eager for new +experiences, of course we were ready for any novelty. But +great bodies move slowly, and how great we were we began to +realize when we found what a force it took to move us. Mr. +Herron sent for the <i>chaudri</i>—a kind of public carrier whose +office it is to provide for such services—and an engagement +was formally entered into between the high contracting parties +that for a certain sum he was to provide two dooleys and +a sufficient number of bearers, to carry us over the mountains +to Saharanpur, a distance of forty-two miles. This was +duly signed and sealed, and the money paid on the spot, with +promise of liberal backsheesh at the end if the agreement +was satisfactorily performed.</p> + +<p>Thus authorized and empowered to enter into negotiations +with inferior parties, the <i>chaudri</i> sent forward a courier, or +<i>sarbarah</i>, to go ahead over the whole route a day in advance, +and to secure the relays, and thus prepare for our royal +progress.</p> + +<p>This seemed very magnificent, but when our retinue filed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> +into the yard on the evening of our departure, and drew up +before the veranda, we were almost ashamed to see what a +prodigious ado it took to get us two poor mortals out of the +valley. Our escort was as follows: Each dooley had six +bearers, or <i>kahars</i>—four to carry it, and two to be ready as a +reserve. Besides these twelve, there were two <i>bahangi-wallas</i> +to carry our one trunk on a bamboo pole, making fourteen +persons in all. As there were five stages (for one set +of men could only go about eight miles), it took seventy +men (besides the two high officials) to carry our sacred persons +these forty-two miles! Of the reserve of four who +walked beside us, two performed the function of torch-bearers—no +unimportant matter when traversing a forest so full +of wild beasts that the natives cannot be induced to cross it +at night without lights kept burning.</p> + +<p>The torch was made simply by winding a piece of cloth +around the end of a stick, and pouring oil upon it from a +bottle carried for the purpose (just the mode of the wise +virgins in the parable). Our kind friends had put a mattress +in each dooley, with pillows and coverlet, so that if we +could not quite go to bed, we could make ourselves comfortable +for a night's journey. I took off my boots, and wrapping +my feet in the soft fur of the skin of the Himalayan goat, +which I had purchased in the mountains, stretched myself</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>Like a warrior taking his rest,</p> +<p>With his martial cloak around him,</p> +</div> + +<p>and bade the cavalcade take up its march. They lighted +their torches, and like the wise virgins, "took oil in their +vessels with their lamps," and set out on our night journey. +At first we wound our way through the streets of the town, +through bazaars and past temples, till at last we emerged +from all signs of human habitation, and were alone with the +forests and the stars.</p> + +<p>When we were fairly in the woods, all the stories I had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> +heard of wild beasts came back to me. For a week past I +had been listening to thrilling incidents, many of which +occurred in this very mountain pass. The Sewalic range is +entirely uninhabited except along the roads, and is thus +given up to wild beasts, and nowhere is one more likely to +meet an adventure. That very morning, at breakfast, Mrs. +Woodside had given me her experience. She was once +crossing this pass at night, and as it came near the break of +day she saw men running, and heard the cry of "tiger," but +thought little of it, as the natives were apt to give false +alarms; but presently the horses began to rear and plunge, +so that the driver loosed them and let them go, and just then +she heard a tremendous roar, which seemed close to the wagon, +where a couple of the brutes had come down to drink +of a brook by the roadside. She was so terrified that she +did not dare to look out, but shut at once the windows of +the gharri. Presently some soldiers came up the pass with +elephants, who went in pursuit, but the monsters had +retreated into the forest.</p> + +<p>That was some years ago, but such incidents may still happen. +Only a few weeks since Mr. Woodside was riding +through the pass at night in the mail-wagon, and had +dropped asleep, when his companion, a British officer, awoke +him, telling him he had just seen a couple of tigers distinctly +in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>One would suppose we were safe enough with more than a +dozen attendants, but the natives are very timid, and a +tiger's roar will set them flying. A lady at Dehra, the +daughter of a missionary, told us how she was once carried +with her mother and one or two other children in dooleys, +when just at break of day a huge tiger walked out of a +wood, and came right towards them, when the brave coolies +at once dropped them and ran, leaving the mother and her +children to their fate. Fortunately she had presence of +mind to light a piece of matting, and throw it out to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> +brute, who either from that, or perhaps because he was too +noble a beast to attack a woman, after eyeing them for some +moments, deliberately walked away.</p> + +<p>Such associations with the road we were travelling, gave +an excitement to our night journey which was not the most +composing to sleep. It is very well to sit by the fireside +and talk about tigers, but I do not know of anybody who +would care to meet one in the woods, unless well armed and +on an elephant's back.</p> + +<p>But what if a wild elephant should come out upon us? +In general, I believe these are quiet and peaceable beasts, but +they are subject to a kind of madness which makes them untamable. +A "rogue elephant"—one who has been tamed, +and afterwards goes back to his savage state—is one of the +most dangerous of wild beasts. When the Prince of Wales +was hunting in the Terai with Sir Jung Bahadoor, an alarm +was given that a rogue elephant was coming, and they pushed +the Prince up into a tree as quickly as possible, for the monster +has no respect to majesty. Mrs. Woodside told me that they +once had a servant who asked to go home to visit his friends. +On his way he lay down at the foot of a tree, and fell asleep, +when a rogue elephant came along, and took him up like a +kitten, and crushed him in an instant, and threw him on the +roadside.</p> + +<p>The possibility of such an adventure was quite enough to +keep our imagination in lively exercise. Our friends had +told us that there was no danger with flaming torches, although +we might perhaps hear a distant roar on the mountains, +or an elephant breaking through the trees. We listened +intently. When the men were moving on in silence, we +strained our ears to catch any sound that might break the +stillness of the forest. If a branch fell from a tree, it might +be an elephant coming through the wood. If we could not +see, we imagined forms gliding in the darkness. Even the +shadows cast by the starlight took the shapes that we dreaded. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> +Hush! there is a stealthy step over the fallen leaves. No, +it is the wind whispering in the trees. Thus was it all night +long. If any wild beasts glared on us out of the covert, our +flaming torches kept them at a respectful distance. We did +not hear the tramp of an elephant, the growl of a tiger, or +even the cry of a jackal.</p> + +<p>But though we had not the excitement of an adventure, +the scene itself was wild and weird enough. We were entirely +alone, with more than a dozen men, with not one of +whom we could exchange a single word, traversing a mountain +pass, with miles of forest and jungle separating us from +any habitation. Our attendants were men of powerful physique, +whose swarthy limbs and strange faces looked more +strange than ever by the torchlight. Once in seven or eight +miles they set down their burden. We halted at a camp fire +by the roadside, where a fresh relay was waiting. There our +fourteen men were swelled to twenty-eight. Then the curtain +of my couch was gently drawn aside, a black head was +thrust in, and a voice whispered in the softest of tones +"Sahib, backsheesh!" Then the new bearers took up their +load, and jogged on their way.</p> + +<p>I must say they did very well. The motion was not unpleasant. +The dooley rested not on two poles, but on one +long bamboo, three or four inches in diameter, at each end of +which two men braced themselves against each other, and +moved forward with a swinging gait, a kind of dog trot, +which they accompanied with a low grunt, which seemed to +relieve them, and be a way of keeping time. Their burdens +did not fatigue them much—at least they did not groan under +the load, but talked and laughed by the way. Nor were +luxuries forgotten. One of the men carried a hooka, which +served for the whole party, being passed from mouth to +mouth, with which the men, when off duty, refreshed themselves +with many a puff of the fragrant weed.</p> + +<p>Thus refreshed they kept up a steady gait of about three +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> +miles an hour through the night. At length the day began +to break. As we approached the end of our journey the +men picked up speed, and I thought they would come in on +a run. Glad were we to come in sight of Saharanpur. At +ten o'clock we entered the Mission Compound, and drew up +before the door of "Calderwood Padre," who, as he saw me +stretched out at full length, "like a warrior taking his rest," +if not "with his martial cloak around him," yet with his +Scotch plaid shawl covering "his manly breast," declared +that I was "an old Indian!" +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XVI.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">THE TRAGEDY OF CAWNPORE.</p> + +<p>The interest of India is not wholly in the far historic past. +Within our own times it has been the theatre of stirring +events. In coming down from Upper India, we passed over +the "dark and bloody ground" of the Mutiny—one of the +most terrible struggles of modern times—a struggle unrelieved +by any of the amenities of civilized warfare. On the banks +of the Ganges stands a dull old city, of which Bayard Taylor +once wrote: "Cawnpore is a pleasant spot, though it contains +nothing whatever to interest the traveller." That was +true when he saw it, twenty-four years ago. It was then a +"sleepy" place. Everything had a quiet and peaceful look. +The river flowed peacefully along, and the pretty bungalows +of the English residents on its banks seemed like so many +castles of indolence, as they stood enclosed in spacious +grounds, under the shade of trees, whose leaves scarcely +stirred in the sultry air. But four years after that American +traveller had passed, that peaceful river ran with Christian +blood, and that old Indian town witnessed scenes of cruelty +worse than that of the Black Hole of Calcutta, committed by +a monster more inhuman than Surajah Dowlah. The memory +of those scenes now gives a melancholy interest to the +place, such as belongs to no other in India.</p> + +<p>It was midnight when we reached Cawnpore (we had left +Saharanpur in the morning), and we were utter strangers; +but as we stepped from the railway carriage, a stalwart American +(Rev. Mr. Mansell of the Methodist Mission) came up, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> +and calling us by name, took us to his home, and "kindly +entreated us," and the next morning rode about the city with +us to show the sadly memorable places.</p> + +<p>The outbreak of the Mutiny in India in 1857, took its +English rulers by surprise. They had held the country for +a hundred years, and thought they could hold it forever. So +secure did they feel that they had reduced their army to a +minimum. In the Russian war, regiment after regiment was +called home to serve in the Crimea, till there were left not +more than twenty thousand British troops in all India—an +insignificant force to hold such a vast dependency; and weakened +still more by being scattered in small bodies over the +country, with no means of rapid concentration. There was +hardly a railroad in India. All movements of troops had to +be made by long marches. Thus detached and helpless, the +military power was really in the hands of the Sepoys, who +garrisoned the towns, and whom the English had trained to be +good soldiers, with no suspicion that their skill and discipline +would ever be turned against themselves.</p> + +<p>This was the opportunity for smothered discontent to +break out into open rebellion. There had long been among +the people an uneasy and restless feeling, such as is the precursor +of revolution—a ground swell, which sometimes comes +before as well as after a storm. It was just a hundred years +since the battle of Plassey (fought June, 1757), which decided +the fate of India, and it was whispered that when the century +was complete, the English yoke should be broken, and +India should be free. The Crimean war had aroused a spirit +of fanaticism among the Mohammedans, which extended +across the whole of Asia, and fierce Moslems believed that if +the English were but driven out, there might be a reconstruction +of the splendid old Mogul Empire. This was, therefore, +a critical moment, in which the defenceless state of India +offered a temptation to rebellion. Some there were (like the +Lawrences—Sir John in the Punjaub, and Sir Henry in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> +Lucknow) whose eyes were opened to the danger, and who +warned the government. But it could not believe a rebellion +was possible; so that when the storm burst, it was like a +peal of thunder from a clear sky.</p> + +<p>Thus taken by surprise, and off their guard, the English +were at a great disadvantage. But they quickly recovered +themselves, and prepared for a desperate defence. In towns +where the garrisons were chiefly of native troops, with only +a small nucleus of English officers and soldiers, the latter had +no hope of safety, but to rally all on whom they could rely, +and retreat into the forts, and hold out to the last. Such a +quick movement saved Agra, where Sir William Muir told +me, he and hundreds of refugees with him, passed the whole +time of the mutiny, shut up in the fort. The same promptness +saved Allahabad. But in Delhi, where the rising took +place a few days before, the alarm was not taken quickly +enough; the Sepoys rushed in, shooting down their officers, +and made themselves masters of the fort and the city, which +was not retaken till months after, at the close of a long and +terrible siege.</p> + +<p>At Cawnpore there was no fort. Sir Hugh Wheeler, who +was in command, had three or four thousand troops, but not +one man in ten was an English soldier. The rest were +Sepoys, who caught the fever of disaffection, and marched off +with horses and guns. Mustering the little remnant of his +force, he threw up intrenchments on the parade-ground, into +which he gathered some two hundred and fifty men of different +regiments. Adding to these "civilians" and native +servants, and the sick in the hospital, there were about +300 more, with 330 women and children. The latter, of +course, added nothing to the strength of the garrison, but +were a constant subject of care and anxiety. But with this +little force he defended himself bravely for several weeks, +beating off every attack of the enemy. But he was in no +condition to sustain a siege; his force was becoming rapidly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> +reduced, while foes were swarming around him. In this extremity, +uncertain when an English army could come to his +relief, he received a proposal to surrender, with the promise +that all—men, women, and children—should be allowed to +depart in safety, and be provided with boats to take them +down the Ganges to Allahabad. He did not listen to these +smooth promises without inward misgivings. He was suspicious +of treachery; but the case was desperate, and Nana +Sahib, who up to the time of the Mutiny had protested great +friendship for the English, took a solemn oath that they should +be protected. Thus tempted, they yielded to the fatal surrender.</p> + +<p>The next morning, June 27th, those who were left of the +little garrison marched out of their intrenchments, and were +escorted by the Sepoy army on their way to the boats. The +women and children and wounded were mounted on elephants, +and thus conveyed down to the river. With eagerness +they embarked on the boats that were to carry them to +a place of safety, and pushed off into the stream. At that +moment a native officer who stood on the bank raised his +sword, and a masked battery opened on the boats with grape-shot. +Instantly ensued a scene of despair. Some of the +boats sunk, others took fire, and men, women, and children, +were struggling in the water. The Mahratta horsemen +pushed into the stream, and cut down the men who tried to +save themselves (only four strong swimmers escaped), while +the women and children were spared to a worse fate. All +the men who were brought back to the shore were massacred +on the spot, in the presence of this human tiger, who feasted +his eyes with their blood; and about two hundred women +and children were taken back into the town as prisoners, in +deeper wretchedness than before. They were kept in close +confinement nearly three weeks in dreadful uncertainty of +their fate, till the middle of July, when Havelock was approaching +by forced marches; and fearful that his prey +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> +should escape, Nana Sahib gave orders that they should be +put to death. No element of horror was wanting in that +fearful tragedy. Says one who saw the bodies the next day, +and whose wife and children were among those who perished:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"The poor ladies were ordered to come out, but neither threats +nor persuasions could induce them to do so. They laid hold of each +other by dozens, and clung so close that it was impossible to separate +them, or drag them out of the building. The troopers therefore +brought muskets, and after firing a great many shots from the +doors and windows, rushed in with swords and bayonets. [One account +says that, as Hindoos shrink from the touch of blood, five +Mohammedan <i>butchers</i> were sent in to complete the work.] Some +of the helpless creatures, in their agony, fell down at the feet of +their murderers, clasped their legs, and begged in the most pitiful +manner to spare their lives, but to no purpose. The fearful deed +was done most deliberately, and in the midst of the most dreadful +shrieks and cries of the victims. From a little before sunset till +candlelight was occupied in completing the dreadful deed. The +doors of the building were then locked up for the night, and the +murderers went to their homes. Next morning it was found, on +opening the doors, that some ten or fifteen women, with a few of +the children, had managed to escape from death by falling and hiding +under the murdered bodies of their fellow-prisoners. A fresh +order was therefore sent to murder them also; but the survivors, +not being able to bear the idea of being cut down, rushed out into +the compound, and seeing a well, threw themselves into it without +hesitation, thus putting a period to lives which it was impossible for +them to save. The dead bodies of those murdered on the preceding +evening were then ordered to be thrown into the same well, and +'jullars' were employed to drag them along like dogs."<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +</p> +</div> + +<p>The next day after the massacre, Havelock entered the +city, and officers and men rushed to the prison house, hoping +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> +to be in time to save that unhappy company of English +women and children. But what horrors met their sight! +Not one living remained. The place showed traces of the +late butchery. The floors were covered with blood. "Upon +the walls and pillars were the marks of bullets, and of cuts +made by sword-strokes, not high up as if men had fought +with men, but low down, and about the corners, where the +poor crouching victims had been cut to pieces." "Locks of +long silky hair, torn shreds of dress, little children's shoes +and playthings, were strewn around."</p> + +<p>The sight of these things drove the soldiers to madness. +"When they entered the charnel house, and read the writing +on the walls [sentences of wretchedness and despair], +and saw the still clotted blood, their grief, their rage, their +desire for vengeance, knew no bounds. Stalwart, bearded +men, the stern soldiers of the ranks, came out of that house +perfectly unmanned, utterly unable to repress their emotions." +Following the track of blood from the prison to the +well, they found the mangled remains of all that martyred company. +There the tender English mother had been cast with +every indignity, and the child still living thrown down to die +upon its mother's breast. Thus were they heaped together, +the dying and the dead, in one writhing, palpitating mass.</p> + +<p>Turning away from this ghastly sight, the soldiers asked +only to meet face to face the perpetrators of these horrible +atrocities. But the Sepoys, cowardly as they were cruel, +fled at the approach of the English. Those who were taken +had to suffer for the whole. "All the rebel Sepoys and +troopers who were captured, were collectively tried by a +drumhead court-martial, and hanged." But for such a crime +as the cold-blooded murder of helpless women and children, +death was not enough—it should be death accompanied by +shame and degradation. The craven wretches were made to +clean away the clotted blood—a task peculiarly odious to a +Hindoo. Says General Neill: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"Whenever a rebel is caught, he is immediately tried, and unless +he can prove a defence, he is sentenced to be hanged at once; but +the chief rebels, or ringleaders, I make first clear up a certain portion +of the pool of blood, still two inches deep in the shed where the +fearful murder and mutilation of women and children took place. +To touch blood is most abhorrent to the high-caste natives; they +think by doing so, they doom their souls to perdition. Let them +think so. My object is to inflict a fearful punishment for a revolting, +cowardly, and barbarous deed, and to strike terror into these rebels.</p> + +<p>"The first I caught was a subahdar, or native officer—a high-caste +Brahmin, who tried to resist my order to clean up the very blood he +had helped to shed; but I made the provost-marshal do his duty, +and a few lashes made the miscreant accomplish his task. When +done, he was taken out and immediately hanged, and after death, +buried in a ditch at the roadside. No one who has witnessed the +scenes of murder, mutilation, and massacre, can ever listen to the +word mercy, as applied to these fiends.</p> + +<p>"Among other wretches drawn from their skulking places, was +the man who gave Nana Sahib's orders for the massacre. After this +man's identity had been clearly established, and his complicity in directing +the massacre proved beyond all doubt, he was compelled, +upon his knees, to cleanse up a portion of the blood yet scattered over +the fatal yard, and while yet foul from his sickening task, hung like +a dog before the gratified soldiers, one of whom writes: 'The collector +who gave the order for the murder of the poor ladies, was +taken prisoner day before yesterday, and now hangs from a branch +of a tree about two hundred yards off the roadside.'" +</p> +</div> + +<p>What became of Nana Sahib after the Mutiny, is +a mystery that probably will never be solved. If he +lived he sought safety in flight. Many of the Mutineers +took refuge in the jungle. The Government kept up a hunt +for him for years. Several times it was thought that he was +discovered. Only a year or two ago a man was arrested, +who was said to be Nana Sahib, but it proved to be a case of +mistaken identity. In going up from Delhi we rode in the +same railway carriage with an old army surgeon, whose testimony +saved the life of the suspected man. He had lived +in Cawnpore before the Mutiny, and knew Nana Sahib well, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> +indeed had been his physician, and gave me much information +about the bloody Mahratta chief. He said he was not +so bad a man by nature, as he became when he was put forward +as a leader in a desperate enterprise, and surrounded +by men who urged him on to every crime. So long as he was +under the wholesome restraint of English power, he was a +fair specimen of the "mild Hindoo," "as mild a mannered +man as ever scuttled ship or cut a throat." His movement +was as soft as that of a cat or a tiger. But like the tiger, +when once he tasted blood, it roused the wild beast in him, +and he took a delight in killing. And so he who might have +lived quietly, and died in his bed, with a reputation not worse +than that of other Indian rulers, has left a name in history +as the most execrable monster of modern times. It seems a +defeat of justice that he cannot be discovered and brought to +the scaffold. But perhaps the judgment of God is more severe +than that of man. If he still lives, he has suffered a +thousand deaths in these twenty years.</p> + +<p>My informant told me of the punishment that had come +on many of these men of blood. Retribution followed hard +after their crimes. When the rebellion was subdued, it was +stamped out without mercy. The leaders were shot away +from guns. Others who were only less guilty had a short +trial and a swift punishment. In this work of meting out +retribution, this mild physician was himself obliged to be an +instrument. Though his profession was that of saving lives, +and not of destroying them, after the Mutiny he was appointed +a Commissioner in the district of Cawnpore, where +he had lived, to try insurgents, with the power of life and +death, and with no appeal from his sentence! It was a +terrible responsibility, but he could not shrink from it, and +he had to execute many. Those especially who had been +guilty of acts of cruelty, could not ask for mercy which they +had never shown. Among those whom he captured was the +native officer who had given the signal, by raising his sword, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> +to the masked battery to fire on the boats. He said, "I +took him to that very spot, and hung him there!" All this +sad history was in mind as we went down to the banks of the +Ganges, where that fearful tragedy took place not twenty +years before. The place still bears the name of the Slaughter +Ghat, in memory of that fearful deed. We imagined the +scene that summer's morning, when the stream was covered +with the bodies of women and children, and the air was filled +with the shrieks of despair. With such bitter memories, we +recalled the swift retribution, and rejoiced that such a crime +had met with such a punishment.</p> + +<p>From the river we drove to "the well," but here nothing +is painful but its memories. It is holy ground, which pious +hands have decked with flowers, and consecrated as a shrine +of martyrdom. Around it many acres have been laid out as +a garden, with all manner of tropical plants, and well-kept +paths winding between, along which the stranger walks +slowly and sadly, thinking of those who suffered so much in +life, and that now sleep peacefully beyond the reach of pain. +In the centre of the garden the place of the well is enclosed, +and over the sacred spot where the bodies of the dead were +thrown, stands a figure in marble, which might be that of the +angel of Resignation or of Peace, with folded wings and face +slightly bended, and arms across her breast, and in her hands +palm-branches, the emblems of victory.</p> + +<p>The visit to these spots, consecrated by so much suffering, +had an added tenderness of interest, because some of our own +countrymen and countrywomen perished there. In those +fearful scenes the blood of Americans—men, women, and children—mingled +with that of their English kindred. One of +the most terrible incidents of those weeks of crime, was the +massacre of a party from Futteghur that tried to escape +down the Ganges, hoping to reach Allahabad. As they approached +Cawnpore, they concealed themselves in the tall +grass on an island, but were discovered by the Sepoys, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> +made prisoners. Some of the party were wealthy English +residents, who offered a large ransom for their lives. But +their captors answered roughly: "What they wanted was +not money, but blood!" Brought before Nana Sahib, he +ordered them instantly to be put to death. Among them +were four American missionaries, with their wives, who +showed in that hour of trial that they knew how to suffer and +to die. Of one of these I had heard a very touching story +but a few days before from my friend, Mr. Woodside. When +we were standing on the lower range of the Himalayas, looking +off to "the snows," he told me how he had once made an +expedition with a brother missionary among these mountains, +which are full of villages, like the hamlets in the High Alps. +He pointed out in the distance the very route they took, and +even places on the sides of the successive ranges where they +pitched their tents. They started near the close of September, +and were out all October, and came in about the middle +of November, being gone six weeks. After long and weary +marches for many days, they came to a little village called +Karsali near Jumnootree, the source of the sacred river Jumna, +near which rose a giant peak, 19,000 feet high (though we +could but just see it on the horizon), that till then had never +been trodden by human foot, but which they, like the daring +Americans they were, determined to ascend. Their guides +shrank from the attempt, and refused to accompany them; +but they determined to make the ascent if they went alone, +and at last, rather than be left behind, their men followed, +although one sank down in the snow, and could not reach the +summit. But the young missionaries pressed on with fresh +ardor, as they climbed higher and higher. As they reached +the upper altitudes, the summit, which to us at a distance of +ninety miles seemed but a peak or cone, broadened out into +a plateau of miles in extent; the snow was firm and hard; +they feared no crevasses, and strode on with fearless steps. +But there was something awful in the silence and the solitude. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> +Not a living thing could be seen on the face of earth +or sky. Not a bird soared to such heights; not an eagle or +a vulture was abroad in search of prey; not a bone on the +waste of snow told where any adventurous explorer had perished +before them. Alone they marched over the fields of +untrodden snow, and started almost to hear their own voices +in that upper air. And yet such was their sense of freedom, +that they could not contain their joy. My companion, +said Mr. Woodside, was very fond of a little hymn in Hindostanee, +a translation of the familiar lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>I'm a pilgrim, I'm a stranger,</p> +<p>And I tarry but a night,</p> +</div> + +<p>and as we went upward, he burst into singing, and sang joyously +as he strode over the fields of snow. Little he thought +that the end of his pilgrimage was so near! But six months +later the Mutiny broke out, and he was one of its first victims. +He was of the party from Futteghur, with a fate +made more dreadful, because he had with him not only his +wife, but two children, and the monster spared neither age +nor sex. After the Mutiny, Mr. Woodside visited Cawnpore, +and made diligent inquiry for the particulars of his +friend's death. It was difficult to get the details, as the +natives were very reticent, lest they should be accused; but +as near as he could learn, "Brother Campbell," as he spoke +of him, was led out with his wife—he holding one child +in his arms, and she leading another by the hand—and thus +all together they met their fate! Does this seem very hard? +Yet was it not sweet that they could thus die together, and +could come up (like the family of Christian in Pilgrim's +Progress) in one group to the wicket gate? No need had +he to sing any more:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p> +I'm a pilgrim, I'm a stranger,</p> +<p>And I tarry but a night,</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> +for on that summer morning he passed up a shining pathway, +whiter than the fields of snow on the crest of the Himalayas, +that led him straight to the gates of gold. Let no man complain +of the sacrifice, who would claim the reward; for so it +is written, "It is through much tribulation that we must +enter into the Kingdom of God." +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XVII.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">THE STORY OF LUCKNOW.</p> + +<p>"You are going to Lucknow?" she said. It was a lady +in black, who sat in the corner of the railway carriage, as +we came down from Upper India. A cloud passed over her +face. "I cannot go there; I was in the Residency during +the siege, and my husband and daughter were killed there. +I cannot revisit a place of such sad memories." It was +nothing to her that the long struggle had ended in victory, +and that the story of the siege was one of the most glorious +in English history. Nothing could efface the impression of +those months of suffering. She told us how day and night +the storm of fire raged around them; how the women took +refuge in the cellars; how her daughter was killed before +her eyes by the bursting of a shell; and how, when they +grew familiar with this danger, there came another terrible +fear—that of death by famine; how strong men grew weak +for want of food; how women wasted away from very hunger, +and children died because they could find no nourishment +on their mother's breasts.</p> + +<p>But amid those horrors there was one figure which she +loved to recall—that of Sir Henry Lawrence, the lion-hearted +soldier, who kept up all hearts by his courage and +his iron will—till he too fell, and left them almost in despair.</p> + +<p>Such memories might keep away one who had been a sufferer +in these fearful scenes, but they stimulated our desire +to see a spot associated with such courage and devotion, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> +led us from the scene of the tragedy of Cawnpore to that of +the siege of Lucknow.</p> + +<p>But how soon nature washes away the stain of blood! +As we crossed the Ganges, the gentle stream, rippling against +the Slaughter Ghat, left no red spots upon its stony steps. +Near the station was a large enclosure full of elephants, some +of which perhaps had carried their burden of prisoners down +to the river's brink on that fatal day, but were now "taking +their ease," as beasts and men like to do. Familiar as we +are with the sight, it always gives us a fresh impression of +our Asiatic surroundings, to come suddenly upon a herd of +these creatures of such enormous bulk, with ears as large as +umbrellas, which are kept moving like punkas to keep off +the flies; to see them drawing up water into their trunks, +as "Behemoth drinketh up Jordan," and spurting it over +their backs; or what is more ludicrous still, to see them at +play, which seems entirely out of character. We think of +the elephant as a grave and solemn creature, made to figure +on grand occasions, to march in triumphal processions, carrying +the howdahs of great Rajahs, covered with cloth of gold. +But there is as much of "youth" in the elephant as in any +other beast. A baby elephant is like any other baby. As +little tigers play like kittens, so a little elephant is like a colt, +or like "Mary's little lamb."</p> + +<p>Lucknow is only forty miles from Cawnpore, with which +it is connected by railway. A vast plain stretches to the +gates of the capital of Oude. It was evening when we +reached our destination, where another American friend, +Rev. Mr. Mudge of the Methodist Mission, was waiting to +receive us. A ride of perhaps a couple of miles through the +streets and bazaars gave us some idea of the extent of a city +which ranks among the first in India. Daylight showed us +still more of its extent and its magnificence. It spreads out +many miles over the plain, and has a population of three +hundred thousand, while in splendor it is the first of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> +native cities of India—by native I mean one not taking its +character, like Calcutta and Bombay, from the English element. +Lucknow is more purely an Indian city, and has +more of the Oriental style in its architecture—its domes and +minarets reminding us of Cairo and Constantinople. Bayard +Taylor says: "The coup d'œil from one of the bridges over +the Goomtee, resembles that of Constantinople from the bridge +over the Golden Horn, and is more imposing, more picturesque, +and more truly Oriental than any other city in India." +It is a Mohammedan city, as much as Delhi, the mosques +quite overshadowing the Hindoo temples; and the Mohurrim, +the great Moslem festival, is observed here with the +same fanaticism. But it is much larger than Delhi, and +though no single palaces equal those of the old Moguls, yet it +has more the appearance of a modern capital, in its busy +and crowded streets. It is a great commercial city, with rich +merchants, with artificers in silver and gold and all the +fabrics of the East.</p> + +<p>But the interest of Lucknow, derived from the fact of its +being one of the most populous cities of India, and one of +the most splendid, is quite eclipsed by the thrilling events +of its recent history. All its palaces and mosques have not +the attraction of one sacred spot. This is the Residency, +the scene of the siege, which will make the name of Lucknow +immortal. How the struggle came, we may see by +recalling one or two facts in the history of India.</p> + +<p>A quarter of a century ago, this was not a part of the +British possessions. It was the Kingdom of Oude, with a +sovereign who still lives in a palace near Calcutta, with large +revenues wherewith to indulge his royal pleasure, but +without his kingdom, which the English Government has +taken from him. This occurred just before the Mutiny, +and has often been alleged as one of the causes, if not <i>the</i> +cause, of the outbreak; and England has been loudly accused +of perfidy and treachery towards an Indian prince, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> +and of having brought upon herself the terrible events which +followed.</p> + +<p>No doubt the English Government has often carried things +with a high hand in India, and done acts which cannot be +defended, just as we must confess that our own Government, +in dealing with our Indian tribes, has sometimes seemed to +ignore both justice and mercy. But as to this king of Oude, +his "right" to his dominion (which is, being interpreted, a +right to torture his unhappy subjects) is about the same as +the right of a Bengal tiger to his jungle—a right which +holds good till some daring hunter can put an end to his +career.</p> + +<p>When this king ruled in Oude he was such a father to his +people, and such was the affection felt for his paternal government, +that he had to collect his taxes by the military, and it +is said that the poor people in the country built their villages +on the borders of the jungle, and kept a watch out for the +approach of the soldiers. As soon as they were signalled as +being in sight, the wretched peasants gathered up whatever +they could carry, and fled into the jungle, preferring to face +the wild beasts and the serpents rather than these mercenaries +of a tyrant. The troops came, seized what was left and +set fire to the village. After they were gone, the miserable +people returned and rebuilt their mud hovels, and tried by +tilling the soil, to gain a bare subsistence. Such was the +patriarchal government of one of the native princes of +India.</p> + +<p>This king of Oude now finds his chief amusement in collecting +a great menagerie. He has a very large number of +wild beasts. He has also a "snakery," in which he has +collected all the serpents of India. It must be confessed +that such a man seems more at home among his tigers +and cobras than in oppressing his wretched people. If +Americans who visit his palace near Calcutta are moved to +sympathy with this deposed king, let them remember what +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span> +his government was, and they may feel a little pity for his +miserable subjects.</p> + +<p>To put such a monster off the throne, and thus put an end +to his tyrannies, was about as much of a "crime" as it +would be to restrain the king of Dahomey or of Ashantee +from perpetuating his "Grand Custom." I am out of +patience with this mawkish sympathy. There is too much +real misery in the world that calls for pity and relief, to have +us waste our sensibilities on those who are the scourges of +mankind.</p> + +<p>But once done, the deed could not be undone. Having +seized the bull by the horns, it was necessary to hold him, +and this was not an easy matter. It needed a strong hand, +which was given it in Sir Henry Lawrence, who had been +thirty years in India. Hardly had he been made governor +before he felt that there was danger in the air. Neither he +nor his brother John, the Governor of the Punjaub, were +taken by surprise when the Mutiny broke out. Both expected +it, and it did not find them unprepared. Oude was +indeed a centre of rebellion. The partisans of the ex-king +were of course very active, so that when the Sepoys mutinied +at Meerut, near Delhi, the whole kingdom of Oude was +in open revolt. Every place was taken except Lucknow, +and that was saved only by the wisdom and promptness of +its new governor.</p> + +<p>His first work was to fortify the Residency (so called from +having been occupied by the former English residents), which +had about as much of a military character as an old English +manor-house. The grounds covered some acres, on which +were scattered a few buildings, official residences and guardhouses, +with open spaces between, laid out in lawns and +gardens. But the quick eye of the governor saw its capability +of defence. It was a small plateau, raised a few feet +above the plain around, and by connecting the different +buildings by walls, which could be mounted with batteries +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> +and loopholed for musketry, the whole could be constructed +into a kind of fortress. Into this he gathered the European +residents with their women and children. And behind such +rude defences a few hundred English soldiers, with as many +natives who had proved faithful, kept a large army at bay +for six months.</p> + +<p>There was a fort in Lucknow well supplied with guns and +ammunition, but it was defended by only three hundred +men, and was a source of weakness rather than strength, +since the English force was too small to hold it, and if it +should fall into the hands of the Sepoys with all its stores, it +would be the arsenal of the rebellion. At Delhi a similar +danger had been averted only by a brave officer blowing up +the arsenal with his own hand. It was a matter of the +utmost moment to destroy the fort and yet to save the +soldiers in it. The only hope of keeping up any defence was +to unite the two feeble garrisons. But they were more than +half a mile apart, and each beleaguered by watchful enemies. +Sir Henry Lawrence signalled to the officer in command: +"Blow up the fort, and come to the Residency at twelve +o'clock to-night. Bring your treasure and guns, and destroy +the remainder." This movement could be executed only by +the greatest secrecy. But the order was promptly obeyed. +At midnight the little band filed silently out of the gates, +and stole with muffled steps along a retired path, almost +within reach of the guns of the enemies, who discovered the +movement only when they were safe in the Residency, and +the fuse which had been lighted at the fort reached the +magazine, and exploding two hundred and fifty barrels of +gunpowder, blew the massive walls into the air.</p> + +<p>But the siege was only just begun. Inside the Residency +were collected about two thousand two hundred souls, of +whom over five hundred were women and children. Only +about six hundred were English soldiers, and seven or eight +hundred natives who had remained faithful, held to their allegiance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span> +by the personal ascendancy of Sir Henry Lawrence.<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +There were also some three hundred civilians, who, though +unused to arms, willingly took part in the defence. Thus +all together the garrison did not exceed seventeen hundred +men, of whom many were disabled by sickness and wounds. +The force of the besiegers was twenty to one. There is in +the Indian nature a strange mixture of languor and ferocity, +and the latter was aroused by the prospect of vengeance on the +English, who were penned up where they could not escape, +and where their capture was certain; and every Sepoy wished +to be in at the death. Under the attraction of such a prospect +it is said that the besieging force rose to fifty thousand +men. Many of the natives, who had been in the English +service, were practised artillerists, and trained their guns on +the slender defences with fatal effect. Advancing over the +level ground, they drew their lines nearer and nearer, till +their riflemen picked off the soldiers serving in the batteries. +Three times they made a breach by exploding mines under +the walls, and endeavored to carry the place by storm. But +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> +then rose high the unconquerable English spirit. They expected +to die, but they were determined to sell their lives +dearly. When the alarm of these attacks reached the hospital, +the sick and wounded crawled out of their beds and +threw away their crutches to take their place at the guns; +or if they could not stand, lay down flat on their faces and +fired through the holes made for musketry.</p> + +<p>But brave as were the defenders, the long endurance told +upon them. They were worn out with watching, and their +ranks grew thinner day by day. Those who were killed +were carried off in the arms of their companions, who gathered +at midnight for their burial in some lonely and retired spot, +and while the chaplain in a low voice read the service, the +survivors stood around the grave, thinking how soon their +turn would come, the gloom of the night in fit harmony with +the dark thoughts that filled their breasts.</p> + +<p>But darker than any night was the day when Sir Henry +Lawrence fell. He was the beloved, the adored commander. +"While he lived," said our informant, "we all felt safe." +But exposing himself too much, he was struck by a shell. +Those around him lifted him up tenderly and carried him +away to the house of the surgeon of the garrison, where two +days after he died. When all was over "they did not dare +to let the soldiers know that he was dead," lest they should +give up the struggle. But he lived long enough to inspire +them with his unconquerable spirit.</p> + +<p>He died on the 4th of July, and for nearly three months +the siege went on without change, the situation becoming +every day more desperate. It was the hottest season of the +year, and the sun blazed down fiercely into their little camp, +aggravating the sickness and suffering, till they longed for +death, and were glad when they could find the grave. +"When my daughter was struck down by a fragment of a +shell that fell on the floor, she did not ask to live. She +might have been saved if she had been where she could have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> +had careful nursing. But there was no proper food to nourish +the strength of the sick, and so she sunk away, feeling +that it was better to die than to live."</p> + +<p>But still they would not yield to despair. Havelock had +taken Cawnpore, though he came too late to save the English +from massacre, and was straining every nerve to collect a +force sufficient to relieve Lucknow. As soon as he could +muster a thousand men he crossed the Ganges, and began his +march. The movement was known to the little garrison, +and kept up their hopes. A faithful native, who acted as a +spy throughout the siege, went to and fro, disguising himself, +and crept through the lines in the night, and got inside the +Residency, and told them relief was coming. "He had seen +the general, and said he was a little man with white hair," +who could be no other than Havelock. Word was sent back +that, on approaching the city, rockets should be sent up to +notify the garrison. Night after night officers and men +gazed toward the west for the expected signal, till their +hearts grew sick as the night passed and there was no sign. +Deliverance was to come, but not yet.</p> + +<p>Havelock found that he had attempted the impossible. +His force was but a handful, compared with the hosts of his +enemies. Even nature appeared to be against him. It was +the hot and rainy season, when it seemed impossible to march +over the plains of India. Cannon had to be drawn by bullocks +over roads and across fields, where they sank deep in +mud. Men had to march and fight now in the broiling sun, +and now in floods of rain. "In the full midday heat of the +worst season of the year, did our troops start. The sun +struck down with frightful force. At every step a man +reeled out of the ranks, and threw himself fainting by the +side of the road; the calls for water were incessant all along +the line." "During the interval between the torrents of rain, +the sun's rays were so overpowering that numbers of the +men were smitten down and died." But the survivors +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> +closed up their ranks and kept their face to the foe. Their +spirit was magnificent. Death had lost its terrors for them, +and they made light of hardships and dangers. When fainting +with heat, if they found a little dirty water by the roadside +"it was like nectar." After marching all day in the +rain, they would lie down in the soaking mud, and grasp their +guns, and wrap their coats around them, and sleep soundly. +Says an officer:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"August 5th we marched toward Lucknow nine miles and then +encamped on a large plain for the night. You must bear in mind +that we had no tents with us, they are not allowed, so every day we +were exposed to the burning sun and to the rain and dew by night. +No baggage or beds were allowed; but the soldier wrapped his cloak +around him, grasped his musket and went to sleep, and soundly we +slept too. My Arab horse served me as a pillow, I used to lie down +alongside of him, with my head on his neck, and he never moved +with me except now and then to lick my hand." But he adds, "We +found that it was impossible to proceed to Lucknow, for our force +was too small—for though we were a brave little band, and could +fight to Lucknow, yet we could not compel them to raise the siege +when we got there." +</p> +</div> + +<p>Another enemy also had appeared. Cholera had broken +out in the camp; eleven men died in one day. The Rebels +too were rising behind them. As soon as Havelock crossed +the Ganges they began to gather in his rear. Nana Sahib +was mustering a force and threatened Cawnpore. Thus beset +behind and before, Havelock turned and marched against the +Mahratta chief, and sent him flying towards Delhi. In reading +the account of these marches and battles, it is delightful +to see the spirit between the commander and his men. After +this victory, as he rode along the lines, they cheered him +vehemently. He returned their salute, but said, "Don't +cheer me, my lads, you did it all yourselves." Such men, +fighting together, were invincible.</p> + +<p>In September Havelock had collected 2,700 men, and +again set out for Lucknow. Three days they marched "under +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> +a deluge of rain." But their eyes were "steadfastly set" +towards the spot where their countrymen were in peril, and +they cared not for hardships and dangers. The garrison was +apprised of their coming, and waited with feverish anxiety. +In the relieving force was a regiment of Highlanders, and if +no crazy woman could put her ears to the ground (according +to the romantic story so often told) and hear the pibroch, +and shout "The Campbells are coming," they knew that those +brave Scots never turned back. As they drew near the city +over the Cawnpore road, they found that it was mined to +blow them up. Instantly they wheeled off, and marched +round the city, and came up on the other side. Capturing +the Alumbagh, one of the royal residences, which, surrounded +by a wall, was easily converted into a temporary +fortress, Havelock left here his heavy baggage and stores of +ammunition, with an immense array of elephants and camels +and horses; and all his sick and wounded, and the whole train +of camp-followers; and three hundred men, with four guns +to defend it. Thus "stripped for the fight," he began his +attack on the city. It was two miles to the Residency, and +every step the English had to fight their way through the +streets. The battle began in the morning, and lasted all +day. It was a desperate attempt to force their way through +a great city, where every man was an enemy, and they were +fired at from almost every house. "Our advance was +through streets of flat-roofed and loop-holed houses, each +forming a separate fortress." Our informant told us of +the frenzy in the Residency when they heard the sound of +the guns. "The Campbells were coming" indeed! Sometimes +the firing lulled, and it seemed as if they were driven +back. Then it rose again, and came nearer and nearer. +How the tide of battle ebbed and flowed, is well told in +the narratives of those who were actors in the scenes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"Throughout the night of the 24th great agitation and alarm had +prevailed in the city; and, as morning advanced, increased and rapid +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span> +movements of men and horses, gave evidence of the excited state of +the rebel force. At noon, increasing noise proclaimed that street +fighting was growing more fierce in the distance; but from the Residency +nought but the smoke from the fire of the combatants could +be discerned. As the afternoon advanced, the sounds came nearer +and nearer, and then we heard the sharp crack of rifles mingled with +the flash of musketry; the well-known uniforms of British soldiers +were next discerned." +</p> +</div> + +<p>A lady who was in the Residency, and has written a Diary +of the Siege, thus describes the coming in of the English +troops:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"Never shall I forget the moment to the latest day I live. We +had no idea they were so near, and were breathing the air in the +portico as usual at that hour, speculating when they might be in; +when suddenly just at dusk, we heard a very sharp fire of musketry +close by, and then a tremendous cheering. An instant after, the +sound of bagpipes—then soldiers running up the road—our compound +and veranda filled with our deliverers, and all of us shaking hands +frantically, and exchanging fervent 'God bless you's' with the gallant +men and officers of the 78th Highlanders. Sir James Outram and +staff were the next to come in, and the state of joyful confusion and +excitement was beyond all description. The big, rough-bearded +soldiers were seizing the little children out of our arms, kissing +them, with tears rolling down their cheeks, and thanking God +they had come in time to save them from the fate of those at Cawnpore. +We were all rushing about to give the poor fellows drinks of +water, for they were perfectly exhausted; and tea was made down +in the Tye-khana, of which a large party of tired, thirsty officers partook, +without milk or sugar. We had nothing to give them to eat. +Every one's tongue seemed going at once with so much to ask and to +tell; and the faces of utter strangers beamed upon each other like +those of dearest friends and brothers." +</p> +</div> + +<p>It was indeed a great deliverance, but the danger was not +over. Of all that were in the Residency when the siege +began, three months before, more than half were gone. Out of +twenty-two hundred but nine hundred were left, and of these +less than one-half were fighting men. Even with the reinforcement +of Havelock the garrison was still far too small to hold +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span> +such a position in the midst of a city of such a population. +The siege went on for two months longer. The final relief did +not come till Sir Colin Campbell, arriving with a larger force, +again fought his way through the city. The atrocities of the +Sepoys had produced such a feeling that he could hardly restrain +his soldiers. Remembering the murders and massacres +of their countrymen and countrywomen, they fought with a +savage fury. In one walled enclosure, which they carried by +storm, were two thousand Sepoys, and they killed every man!</p> + +<p>Even then the work was not completed. Scarcely had Sir +Colin Campbell entered the Residency before he decided upon +its evacuation. Again the movement was executed at midnight, +in silence and in darkness. While the watch-fires +were kept burning to deceive the enemy, the men filed out of +the gates, with the women and children in the centre of the +column, and moving softly and quickly through a narrow +lane, in the morning they were several miles from the city, +in a strong position, which made them safe from attack.</p> + +<p>The joy of this hour of deliverance was saddened by the death +of Havelock. He had passed through all the dangers of battle +and siege, only to die at last of disease, brought on by the +hardships and exposures of the last few months. But his work +was done. He had nothing to do but to die. To his friend, +Sir James Outram, who came to see him, he stretched out his +hand and said: "For more than forty years I have so ruled +my life, that when death came, I might face it without fear."</p> + +<p>The garrison was saved, but the city was still in the hands +of the Rebels, who were as defiant as ever. It was some +months before Sir Colin Campbell gathered forces sufficient +for the final and crushing blow. Indeed it was not till winter +that he had collected a really formidable army. Then he +moved on the city in force and carried it by storm. Two +days of terrible fighting gave him the mastery of Lucknow, +and the British flag was once more raised over the capital of +Oude, where it has floated in triumph unto this day. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span></p> + +<p>But the chief interest gathers about the earlier defence. +The siege of Lucknow is one of the most thrilling events in +modern history, and may well be remembered with pride by +all who took part in it. A few weeks before we were here +the Prince of Wales had made his visit to Lucknow, and requested +that the survivors of the siege might be presented to +him. Mr. Mudge was present at the interview, and told me +he had never witnessed a more affecting scene than when +these brave old soldiers, the wrecks of the war, some of them +bearing the marks of their wounds, came up to the Prince, +and received his warmest thanks for their courage and fidelity.</p> + +<p>These heroic memories were fresh in mind as we took +our morning walk in Lucknow, along the very street by +which Havelock had fought his way through the city. +The Residency is now a ruin, its walls shattered by shot and +shell. But the ruins are overrun with vines and creeping +plants, and are beautiful even in their decay. With sad interest +we visited the spot where Sir Henry Lawrence was +struck by the fatal shell, and the cemetery in which he is +buried. He was a Christian soldier and before his death received +the communion. He asked that no eulogy might be +written on his tomb, but only these words: "Here lies +Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. May God have +mercy on his soul." This dying utterance is inscribed on the +plain slab of marble that covers his dust. It is enough. No +epitaph could say more. As I stood there and read these +simple words and thought of the noble dead, my eyes were +full of tears. With such a consciousness of duty done, who +could fear to die? How well do these words express that +which should be the highest end of human ambition. Happy +will it be for any man of whom, when he has passed from +the world, it can with truth be written above his grave, +"Here lies one who tried to do his duty!" +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">THE ENGLISH RULE IN INDIA.</p> + +<p>In reviewing the terrible scenes of the Mutiny, one cannot +help asking whether such scenes are likely to occur again; +whether there will ever be another Rebellion; and if so, +what may be the chance of its success? Will the people of +India wish to rise? How are they affected towards the +English government? Are they loyal? We can only +answer these questions by asking another: Who are meant +by the people of India? The population is divided into +different classes, as into different castes. The great mass of +the people are passive. Accustomed to being handed over +from one native ruler to another, they care not who holds +the power. He is the best ruler who oppresses them the +least. But among the high caste Brahmins, and especially +those who have been educated (among whom alone there is +anything like political life in India), there is a deep-seated +disaffection towards the English rule. This is a natural result +of an education which enlarges their ideas and raises +their ambition. Some of the Bengalees, for example, are +highly educated men, and it is but natural that, as they increase +in knowledge, they should think that they are quite +competent to govern themselves. Hence their dislike to the +foreign power that is imposed upon them. Not that they +have any personal wrongs to avenge. It may be that they +are attached to English <i>men</i>, while they do not like the English +rule. Every man whose mind is elevated by knowledge +and reflection, wishes to be his own master; and if ruled at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span> +all, he likes to be ruled by those of his own blood and race +and language. This class of men, whether Hindoos or Mohammedans, +however courteous they may be to the English +in their personal or business relations, are not thereby converted +to loyalty, any more than they are converted to +Christianity.</p> + +<p>But however strong their dislike, it is not very probable +that it should take shape in organized rebellion, and still less +likely that any such movement should succeed. The English +are now guarded against it as never before. In the +Mutiny they were taken at every possible disadvantage. The +country was almost stripped of English troops. Only 20,000 +men were left, and these scattered far apart, and surrounded +by three times their number of Sepoys in open rebellion. +Thus even the military organization was in the hands of the +enemy. If with all these things against them, English skill +and courage and discipline triumphed at last, can it ever be +put to such a test again?</p> + +<p>When the Mutiny was over, and the English had time to +reflect on the danger they had escaped, they set themselves +to repair their defences, so that they should never more be +in such peril. The first thing was to reorganize the army, +to weed out the elements of disaffection and rebellion, and to +see that the power was henceforth in safe hands. The English +troops were tripled in force, till now, instead of twenty, +they number sixty thousand men. The native regiments +were carefully chosen from those only who had proved faithful, +such as the Goorkas, who fought so bravely at Delhi, +and other hill tribes of the Himalayas; and the Punjaubees, +who are splendid horsemen, and make the finest cavalry. +But not even these, brave and loyal as they had been, were +mustered into any regiment except cavalry and infantry. +Not a single native soldier was left in the artillery. In the +Mutiny, if the Sepoys had not been practised gunners, they +would not have been so formidable at the siege of Lucknow +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span> +and elsewhere. Now they are stripped of this powerful arm, +and in any future rising they could do nothing against fortified +places, nor against an army in the field, equipped with +modern artillery. In reserving this arm of the service to +themselves, the English have kept the decisive weapon in +their own hands.</p> + +<p>Then it is hardly too much to say that by the present complete +system of railroads, the English force is <i>quadrupled</i>, as +this gives them the means of concentrating rapidly at any +exposed point.</p> + +<p>To these elements of military strength must be added the +greater organizing power of Englishmen. The natives make +good soldiers. They are brave, and freely expose themselves +in battle. In the Sikh war the Punjaubees fought desperately. +So did the Sepoys in the Mutiny. But the moment +the plan of attack was disarranged, they were "all at sea." +Their leaders had no "head" for quick combinations in presence +of an enemy. As it has been, so it will be. In any +future contests it will be not only the English sword, English +guns, and English discipline, but more than all, the English +brains, that will get them the victory.</p> + +<p>Such is the position of England in India. She holds a +citadel girt round with defences on every side, with strong +walls without, and brave hearts within. I have been round +about her towers, and marked well her bulwarks, and I see +not why, so guarded and defended, she may not hold her +Indian Empire for generations to come.</p> + +<p>But there is a question back of all this. Might does not +make right. A government may be established in power +that is not established in justice. It may be that the English +are to remain masters of India, yet without any right to +that splendid dominion. As we read the thrilling stories of +the Mutiny, it is almost with a guilty feeling (as if it betrayed +a want of sympathy with all that heroism), that we admit +any inquiry as to the cause of that fearful tragedy. But how +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span> +came all this blood to be shed? Has not England something +to answer for? If she has suffered terribly, did she not pay +the penalty of her own grasping ambition? Nations, like +individuals, often bring curses on themselves, the retribution +of their oppressions and their crimes. The fact that men +fight bravely, is no proof that they fight in a just cause. +Nay, the very admiration that we feel for their courage in +danger and in death, but increases our horror at the "political +necessity" which requires them to be sacrificed. If England +by her own wicked policy provoked the Mutiny, is she +not guilty of the blood of her children? Thomas Jefferson, +though a slaveholder himself, used to say that in a war of +races every attribute of Almighty God would take part with +the slave against his master; and Englishmen may well ask +whether in the conflict which has come once, and may come +again, they can be quite sure that Infinite Justice will always +be on their side.</p> + +<p>In these sentences I have put the questions which occur to +an American travelling in India. Wherever he goes, he sees +the English flag flying on every fortress—the sign that India +is a conquered country. The people who inhabit the country +are not those who govern it. With his Republican ideas of +the right of every nation to govern itself, he cannot help asking: +What business have the English in India? What right +have a handful of Englishmen, so far from their native island, +in another hemisphere, to claim dominion over two hundred +millions of men?</p> + +<p>As an American, I have not the bias of national feeling +to lead me to defend and justify the English rule in India; +though I confess that when, far off here in Asia, among these +dusky natives, I see a white face, and hear my own mother +tongue, I feel that "blood is thicker than water," and am +ready to take part with my kindred against all comers. Even +Americans cannot but feel a pride in seeing men of their own +race masters of such a kingdom in the East. But this pride +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> +of empire will not extinguish in any fair mind the sense of +justice and humanity.</p> + +<p>"Have the English any right in India?" If it be "a question +of titles," we may find it difficult to prove our own right +in America, from which we have crowded out the original +inhabitants. None of us can claim a title from the father of +the human race. All new settlers in a country are "invaders." +But public interest and the common law of the world +demand that power, once established, should be recognized.</p> + +<p>According to the American principle, that "all just government +derives its authority from the consent of the governed," +there never was a just government in India, for the +consent of the governed was never obtained. The people of +India were never asked to give their "consent" to the government +established over them. They were ruled by native +princes, who were as absolute, and in general as cruel tyrants, +as ever crushed a wretched population.</p> + +<p>No doubt in planting themselves in India, the English have +often used the rights of conquerors. No one has denounced +their usurpations and oppressions more than their own historians, +such as Mill and Macaulay. The latter, in his eloquent +reviews of the lives of Clive and Warren Hastings, has +spoken with just severity of the crimes of those extraordinary +but unscrupulous men. For such acts no justification can be +pleaded whatever. But as between Clive and Surajah Dowlah, +the rule of the former was infinitely better. It would be +carrying the doctrine of self-government to an absurd extent, +to imagine that the monster who shut up English prisoners in +the Black Hole had any right which was to be held sacred. +The question of right, therefore, is not between the English +and the people of India, but between the English and the +native princes. Indeed England comes in to protect the people +against the princes, when it gives them one strong master +in place of a hundred petty tyrants. The King of Oude collecting +his taxes by soldiers, is but an instance of that oppression +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span> +and cruelty which extended all over India, but which is +now brought to an end.</p> + +<p>And how has England used her power? At first, we must +confess, with but little of the feeling of responsibility which +should accompany the possession of power. Nearly a hundred +years ago, Burke (who was master of all facts relating to the +history of India, and to its political condition, more than any +other man of his time) bitterly arraigned the English government +for its cruel neglect of that great dependency. He denounced +his countrymen, the agents of the East India Company, +as a horde of plunderers, worse than the soldiers of +Tamerlane, and held up their greedy and rapacious administration +to the scorn of mankind, showing that they had left +no beneficent monuments of their power to compare with +those of the splendid reigns of the old Moguls. In a speech +in Parliament in 1783, he said:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"England has erected no churches, no palaces, no hospitals, no +schools; England has built no bridges, made no high roads, cut no +navigations, dug out no reservoirs. Every other conqueror of every +other description has left some monument either of State or beneficence +behind him. Were we to be driven out of India this day, +nothing would remain to tell that it had been possessed, during the +inglorious period of our dominion, by anything better than the +orang-outang or the tiger." +</p> +</div> + +<p>This is a fearful accusation. What answer can be made +to it? Has there been any change for the better since the +great impeacher of Warren Hastings went to his grave? +How has England governed India since that day? She +has not undertaken to govern it like a Model Republic. +If she had, her rule would soon have come to an end. +She has not given the Hindoos universal suffrage, or representation +in Parliament. But she has given them something +better—Peace and Order and Law, a trinity of blessings that +they never had before. When the native princes ruled in +India, they were constantly at war among themselves, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span> +thus overrunning and harassing the country. Now the English +government rules everywhere, and Peace reigns from +Cape Comorin to the Himalayas.</p> + +<p>Strange to say, this quietness does not suit some of the +natives, who have a restless longing for the wild lawlessness +of former times. A missionary was one day explaining to a +crowd the doctrine of original sin, when he was roughly interrupted +by one who said, "I know what is original sin: it +is the English rule in India." "You ought not to say that," +was the reply, "for if it were not for the English the people +of the next village would make a raid on your village, and +carry off five thousand sheep." But the other was not to be +put down so, and answered promptly, "<i>I should like that</i>, for +then we would make a raid on them and carry off ten thousand!" +This was a blunt way of putting it, but it expresses +the feeling of many who would prefer that kind of wild justice +which prevails among the Tartar hordes of Central Asia +to a state of profound tranquility. They would rather have +Asiatic barbarism than European civilization.</p> + +<p>With peace between States, England has established order +in every community. It has given protection to life and +property—a sense of security which is the first condition of +the existence of human society. It has abolished heathen +customs which were inhuman and cruel. It has extirpated +thuggism, and put an end to infanticide and the burning of +widows. This was a work of immense difficulty, because +these customs, horrid as they were, were supported by religious +fanaticism. Mothers cast their children into the Ganges +as an offering to the gods; and widows counted it a happy +escape from the sufferings of life to mount the funeral pile. +Even to this day there are some who think it hard that they +cannot thus sacrifice themselves.</p> + +<p>So wedded are the people to their customs, that they are +very jealous of the interference of the government, when it +prohibits any of their practices on the ground of humanity. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span> +Dr. Newton, of Lahore, the venerable missionary, told me +that he knew a few years ago a fakir, a priest of a temple, +who had grown to be very friendly with him. One day the +poor man came, with his heart full of trouble, to tell his +griefs. He had a complaint against the government. He +said that Sir John Lawrence, then Governor of the Punjaub, +was very arbitrary. And why? Because he wanted to bury +himself alive, and the Governor wouldn't let him! He had +got to be a very old man (almost a hundred), and of course +must soon leave this world. He had had a tomb prepared in +the grounds of the temple (he took Dr. Newton to see +what a nice place it was), and there he wished to lie down +and breathe his last. With the Hindoos it is an act of +religious merit to bury one's self alive, and on this the old man +had set his heart. If he could do this, he would go straight +to Paradise, but the hard English Governor, insensible to +such considerations, would not permit it. Was it not too +bad that he could not be allowed to go to heaven in his own +way?</p> + +<p>Breaking up these old barbarities—suicide, infanticide, +and the burning of widows—the government has steadily +aimed to introduce a better system for the administration of +justice, in which, with due regard to Hindoo customs and +prejudices, shall be incorporated, as far as possible, the principles +of English law. For twenty years the ablest men that +could be found in India or in England, have been engaged in +perfecting an elaborate Indian Code, in which there is one +law for prince and pariah. What must be the effect on the +Hindoo mind of such a system, founded in justice, and enforced +by a power which they cannot resist? Such laws +administered by English magistrates, will educate the Hindoos +to the idea of justice, which, outside of English colonies, +can hardly be said to exist in Asia.</p> + +<p>The English are the Romans of the modern world. Wherever +the Roman legions marched, they ruled with a strong +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span> +hand, but they established law and order, the first conditions +of human society. So with the English in all their Asiatic +dependencies. Wherever they come, they put an end to +anarchy, and give to all men that sense of protection and security, +that feeling of personal safety—safety both to life and +property—without which there is no motive to human effort, +and no possibility of human progress.</p> + +<p>The English are like the Romans in another feature of their +administration, in the building of roads. The Romans were +the great road-builders of antiquity. Highways which began +at Rome, and thus radiated from a common centre, led +to the most distant provinces. Not only in Italy, but in +Spain and Gaul and Germany, did the ancient masters of the +world leave these enduring monuments of their power. Following +this example, England, before the days of railroads, +built a broad macadamized road from Calcutta to Peshawur, +over 1,500 miles. This may have been for a military purpose; +but no matter, it serves the ends of peace more than of +war. It becomes a great avenue of commerce; it opens communication +between distant parts of India, and brings together +men of different races, speaking different languages; +and thus, by promoting peaceful and friendly intercourse, it +becomes a highway of civilization.</p> + +<p>Nor is this the only great road in this country. Everywhere +I have found the public highways in excellent condition. +Indeed I have not found a bad road in India—not one +which gave me such a "shaking up" as I have sometimes +had when riding over the "corduroys" through the Western +forests of America. Around the large towns the roads are +especially fine—broad and well paved, and often planted with +trees. The cities are embellished with parks, like cities in +England, with botanical and zoölogical gardens. The streets +are kept clean, and strict sanitary regulations are enforced—a +matter of the utmost moment in this hot climate, and in a +dense population, where a sudden outbreak of cholera would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span> +sweep off thousands in a few days or hours. The streets are +well lighted and well policed, so that one may go about at +any hour of day or night with as much safety as in London +or New York. If these are the effects of foreign rule, even +the most determined grumbler must confess that it has proved +a material and substantial benefit to the people of India.</p> + +<p>Less than twenty years ago the internal improvements of +India received a sudden and enormous development, when to +the building of roads succeeded that of railroads. Lord Dalhousie, +when Governor-General, had projected a great railroad +system, but it was not till after the Mutiny, and perhaps in +consequence of the lessons learned by that terrible experience, +that the work was undertaken on a large scale. The government +guaranteed five per cent. interest for a term of years, +and the capital was supplied from England. Labor was +abundant and cheap, and the works were pushed on with unrelaxing +energy, till India was belted from Bombay to Calcutta, +and trunk lines were running up and down the country, +with branches to every large city. Thus, to English +foresight and sagacity, to English wealth and engineering +skill, India owes that vast system of railroads which now +spreads over the whole peninsula.</p> + +<p>In no part of the world are railroads more used than in +India. Of course the first-class carriages are occupied chiefly +by English travellers, or natives of high rank; and the second-class +by those less wealthy. But there are trains for the +people, run at very low fares. There are huge cars, built +with two stories, and carrying a hundred passengers each, and +these two-deckers are often very closely packed. The Hindoos +have even learned to make pilgrimages by steam, and +find it much cheaper, as well as easier, than to go afoot. +When one considers the long journeys they have been accustomed +to undertake under the burning sun of India, the +amount of suffering relieved by a mode of locomotion so cool +and swift is beyond computation. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span></p> + +<p>Will anybody tell me that the people of India, if left alone, +would have built their own railways? Perhaps in the course +of ages, but not in our day. The Asiatic nature is torpid +and slow to move, and cannot rouse itself to great exertion. +In the whole Empire of China there is not a railroad, except +at Shanghai, where a few months ago was opened a little +"one-horse concern," a dozen miles long, built by the foreigners +for the convenience of that English settlement. This +may show how rapid would have been the progress of railroads +in India, if left wholly to native "enterprise." It +would have taken hundreds of years to accomplish what the +English have wrought in one generation.</p> + +<p>Nor does English engineering skill expend itself on railroads +alone. It has dug canals that are like rivers in their +length. The Ganges Canal in Upper India is a work equal +to our Erie Canal. Other canals have been opened, both for +commerce and for irrigation. The latter is a matter vital to +India. The food of the Hindoos is rice, and rice cannot be +cultivated except in fields well watered. A drought in the +rice fields means a famine in the province. Such a calamity +is now averted in many places by this artificial irrigation. +The overflow from these streams, which are truly "fountains +in the desert," has kept whole districts from being burnt up, +by which in former years millions perished by famine.</p> + +<p>While thus caring for the material comfort and safety of the +people of India, England has also shown regard to their enlightenment +in providing a magnificent system of National +Education. Every town in India has its government school, +while many a large city has its college or its university. Indeed, +so far has this matter of education been carried, that I +heard a fear expressed that it was being overdone—at least the +higher education—because the young men so educated were +unfitted for anything else than the employ of the government. +All minor places in India are filled by natives, and well +filled too. But there are not enough for all. And hence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span> +many, finding no profession to enter, and educated above the +ordinary occupations of natives, are left stranded on the +shore.</p> + +<p>These great changes in India, these schools and colleges, +the better administration of the laws, and these vast internal +improvements, have been almost wholly the work of the +generation now living. In the first century of its dominion +the English rule perhaps deserved the bitter censure of +Burke, but</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"> +"If 'twere so, it were a grievous fault,</p> +<p>And grievously hath Cæsar answered it."</p> +</div> + +<p>England has paid for the misgovernment of India in the blood +of her children, and within the last few years she has striven +nobly to repair the errors of former times. Thus one generation +makes atonement for the wrongs of another. She has +learned that justice is the highest wisdom, and the truest +political economy. The change is due in part to the constant +pressure of the Christian sentiment of England upon its government, +which has compelled justice to India, and wrought +those vast changes which we see with wonder and admiration.</p> + +<p>Thus stretching out her mighty arm over India, England +rules the land from sea to sea. I say not that she rules it in +absolute righteousness—that her government is one of ideal +perfection, but it is immeasurably better than that of the old +native tyrants which it displaced. It at least respects the +forms of law, and while it establishes peace, it endeavors also +to maintain justice. The railroads that pierce the vast interior +quicken the internal commerce of the country, while the +waters that are caused to flow over the rice-fields of Bengal +abate the horrors of pestilence and famine. Thus England +gives to her Asiatic empire the substantial benefits of modern +civilization; while in her schools and colleges she brings the +subtle Hindoo mind into contact with the science and learning +of the West. At so many points does this foreign rule +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span> +touch the very life of India, and infuse the best blood of +Europe into her languid veins.</p> + +<p>With such results of English rule, who would not wish that +it might continue? It is not that we love the Hindoo less, +but the cause of humanity more. The question of English +rule in India is a question of civilization against barbarism. +These are the two forces now in conflict for the mastery of +Asia. India is the place where the two seas meet. Shall +she be left to herself, shut up between her seas and her mountains? +That would be an unspeakable calamity, not only to +her present inhabitants, but to unborn millions. I believe in +modern civilization, as I believe in Christianity. These are +the great forces which are to conquer the world. In conquering +Asia, they will redeem it and raise it to a new life. +The only hope of Asia is from Europe:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +"Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay;"</p> +</div> + +<p>and the only hope of India is from England. So whatever +contests may yet arise for the control of this vast peninsula, +with its two hundred millions of people, our sympathies must +always be against Asiatic barbarism, and on the side of European +civilization. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XIX.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">MISSIONS IN INDIA—DO MISSIONARIES DO ANY GOOD?</p> + +<p>"Is it not all a farce?" said a Major in the Bengal Staff +Corps, as we came down from Upper India. We were talking +of Missions. He did not speak of them with hatred, but +only with contempt. The missionaries "meant well," but +they were engaged in an enterprise which was so utterly +hopeless, that no man in his senses could regard it as other +than supreme and almost incredible folly. In this he spoke +the opinion of half the military men of India. They have +no personal dislike to missionaries—indeed many an officer +in an out-of-the-way district, who has a missionary family +for almost his only neighbors, will acknowledge that they +are "a great addition to the English society." But as for +their doing any good, as an officer once said to me: "They +might as well go and stand on the shore of the sea and +preach to the fishes, as to think to convert the Hindoos!" +Their success, of which so much is said in England and +America, is "infinitesimally small." Some even go so far +as to say that the missionaries do great mischief; that they +stir up bad blood in the native population, and perpetuate +an animosity of races. Far better would it be to leave +the "mild Hindoo" to his gods; to let him worship his +sacred cows, and monkeys and serpents, and his hideous +idols, so long as he is a quiet and inoffensive subject of the +government.</p> + +<p>If one were preaching a sermon to a Christian congregation, +he might disdain a reply to objections which seem to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> +come out of the mouths of unbelievers; it would be enough +to repeat the words of Him who said, "Go into all the world +and preach the Gospel to every creature." But I am not +preaching, but conversing with an intelligent gentleman, +who has lived long in India, and might well assume that he +knows far more about the actual situation than I do. Such +men are not to be put down. They represent a large part of +the Anglo-Indian population. We may therefore as well +recognize the fact that Modern Missions, like any other +enterprise which is proposed in the interest of civilization, +are now on trial before the world. We may look upon them +as too sacred for criticism; but in this irreverent age nothing +is too sacred; everything that is holy has to be judged by +reason, and by practical results, and by these to be justified +or to be condemned. I would not therefore claim anything +on the ground of authority, but speak of missions as I would +of national education, or even of the railroad system of India.</p> + +<p>The question here raised I think deserves a larger and +more candid treatment than it commonly receives either +from the advocates or the opponents of missions. It is +not to be settled merely by pious feeling, by unreasoning +sentiment on the one hand, nor by sneers on the other. To +convert a whole country from one religion to another, is +an undertaking so vast that it is not to be lightly entered +upon. The very attempt assumes a superior wisdom on the +part of those who make it, which is itself almost an offence. +If it be not "a grand impertinence," an intrusion into +matters with which no stranger has a right to intermeddle, +it is at least taking a great liberty to thrust upon a man our +opinion in censure of his own. We may think him very +ignorant, and in need of being enlightened. But he may +have a poor opinion of our ability to enlighten him. We +think him a fool, and he returns the compliment. At any +rate, right or wrong, he is entitled to the freedom of his +opinion as much as we are to ours. If a stranger were to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span> +come to us day by day, to argue with us, and to force his +opinions upon us, either in politics or religion, we might +listen civilly and patiently at first, but we should end by +turning him out of doors. What right have we to pronounce +on his opinions and conduct any more than he upon ours?</p> + +<p>In the domain of religion, especially, a man's opinions are +sacred. They are between himself and God. There is no +greater offence against courtesy, against that mutual concession +of perfect freedom, which is the first law of all human +intercourse, than to interfere wantonly with the opinions—nay, +if you please, with the false opinions, with the errors +and prejudices—of mankind. Nothing but the most imperative +call of humanity—a plea of "necessity or mercy"—can +justify a crusade against the ancestral faith of a whole +people.</p> + +<p>I state the case as strongly as I can, that we may look +upon it as an English officer, or even an intelligent Hindoo, +looks upon it, and I admit frankly that we have no more +right to force our religion upon the people of India, than to +force upon them a republican form of government, unless we +can give a reason for it, which shall be recognized at the bar +of the intelligent judgment of mankind.</p> + +<p>Is there then any good reason—any <i>raison d'être</i>—for the +establishment of missions in India? If there be not some +very solid and substantial ground for their existence, they +are not to be justified merely because their motive is good. +Is there then any reason whatever which can justify any +man, or body of men, in invading this country with a new +religion, and attacking the ancient faith of the people?</p> + +<p>All students of history will acknowledge that there are +certain great revolutions in the opinions of mankind, which +are epochs in history, and turning points in the life of +nations. India has had many such revolutions, dating far +back before the Christian era. Centuries before Christ was +born, Buddha preached his new faith on the banks of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span> +Ganges. For a time it conquered the country, driving out +the old Brahminism, which however came back and conquered +in its turn, till Buddhism, retiring slowly from the +plains of India, planted its pagodas on the shores of Burmah +and among the mountains of Ceylon.</p> + +<p>Thus India is a land of missions, and has been from the +very beginnings of history. It was traversed by missionaries +of its ancient faith ages before Tamerlane descended +the passes of the Himalayas with the sword in one hand and +the Koran in the other; or Francis Xavier, the Apostle of +the Indies, laid his bones in the Cathedral of Goa. If then +Buddhists and Brahmins, and Moslems and Romanists, have +so long disputed the land, there is certainly no reason why +we should condemn at the very outset the entrance of Protestant +Christianity.</p> + +<p>Beside this great fact in the history of India place another: +that there is no country in the world where religion is such +a power, such an element in the life of the people. The Hindoos +are not only religious, they are intensely so. They have +not indeed the fierce fanaticism of the Moslems, for their +creed tolerates all religions, but what they believe they believe +strongly. They have a subtle philosophy which pervades +all their thinking, which digs the very channels in +which their thoughts run, and cannot overflow; and this philosophy, +which is imbedded in their religious creed, fixes +their castes and customs, as rigidly as it does their forms of +worship. Religion is therefore the chief element in the national +life. It has more to do in moulding the ideas and +habits, the manners and customs, of the people, than laws or +government, or any other human institution. Thus India +furnishes the most imposing illustration on earth of the +power of Religion to shape the destiny of a country or a +race.</p> + +<p>Whether there be anything to justify a friendly invasion +of India, and the attempt to convert its people to a better religion, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> +may appear if we ask, What is Hindooism? Is it a +good or bad faith? Does it make men better or worse—happy +or unhappy? Does it promote the welfare of human +beings, or is it a system which is false in belief and deadly +in its effects, and against which we have a right to wage a +holy war?</p> + +<p>Hindooism has a thousand shapes, spreading out its arms +like a mighty banyan tree, but its root is one—Pantheism. +When an old fakir at the Méla at Allahabad said to me, +"You are God and I am God!" he did not utter a wild +rhapsody, but expressed the essence of Hindoo philosophy, +according to which all beings that exist are but One Being; +all thoughts are but the pulse-beats of One Infinite Mind; +all acts are but the manifestation of One Universal Life.</p> + +<p>Some may think this theory a mere abstraction, which has +no practical bearing. But carried out to its logical consequences, +it overthrows all morality. If all acts of men +are God's acts, then they are all equally good or bad; or +rather, they are neither good nor bad. Thus moral distinctions +are destroyed, and vice and virtue are together banished +from the world. Hence Hindooism as a religion has nothing +whatever to do with morality or virtue, but is only a +means of propitiating angry deities. It is a religion of terror +and fear. It is also unspeakably vile. It is the worship +of obscene gods by obscene rites. Its very gods and goddesses +commit adultery and incest. Thus vice is deified. +Such a mythology pollutes the imaginations of the people, +whereby their very mind and conscience are defiled. Not only +the heart, but even the intellect is depraved by the loathsome +objects set up in their temples. The most common object +of worship in India is an obscene image. Indeed, so well +understood is this, that when a law was passed by the Government +against the exhibition of obscene images, an express +exception was made in favor of those exposed in temples, +and which were objects of religious worship. Thus Hindooism +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> +has the privilege of indecency, and is allowed to break +over all restraints. It is the licensed harlot, that is permitted, +in deference to its religious pretensions, to disregard +the common decencies of mankind. The effect of this on +public morals can be imagined. The stream cannot rise +higher than its source. How can a people be pure, when +their very religion is a fountain of pollution? But this is a +subject on which we cannot enlarge. It is an abyss into +which no one would wish to look. It is sufficient to indicate +what we cannot for very loathing undertake to describe.</p> + +<p>There is another element in the Hindoo religion, which +cannot be ignored, and which gives it a tremendous power +for good or evil. It is Caste. Every Hindoo child is born +in a certain caste, out of which he cannot escape. When I +landed at Bombay I observed that every native had upon his +forehead a mark freshly made, as if with a stroke of the finger, +which indicated the god he worshipped or the caste to +which he belonged. Of these there are four principal ones—the +Priest, or Brahmin caste, which issued out of the +mouth of Brahm; the Warrior caste, which sprung from his +arms and breast; the Merchant caste, from his thighs; and +the Shoodras, or Servile caste, which crawled out from between +his feet; beside the Pariahs, who are below all caste. +These divisions are absolute and unchangeable. To say that +they are maintained by the force of ancient custom is not +enough: they are fixed as by a law of nature. The strata of +society are as immovable as the strata of the rock-ribbed +hills. No man can stir out of his place. If he is up he stays +up by no virtue of his own; and if he is down, he stays +down, beyond any power of man to deliver him. No gift of +genius, or height of virtue, can ever raise up one of a low +caste into a higher, for caste is a matter of birth. Upon +these sub-strata this fixity of caste rests with crushing weight. +It holds them down as with the force of gravitation, as if the +Himalayas were rolled upon them to press them to the earth. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span></p> + +<p>Against this oppression there is no power of resistance, no +lifting up from beneath to throw it off. One would suppose +that the people themselves would revolt at this servitude, +that every manly instinct would rise up in rebellion against +such a degradation. But so ingrained is it in the very life +of the people, that they cannot cast it out any more than they +can cast out a poison in their blood. Indeed they seem to +glory in it. The lower castes crouch and bow down that +others may pass over them. A Brahmin, who had become a +Christian, told me that the people had often asked him to wash +his feet in the water of the street, that they might drink it!</p> + +<p>Caste is a cold and cruel thing, which hardens the heart +against natural compassion. I know it is said that high caste +is only an aristocracy of birth, and that, as such, it fosters +a certain nobility of feeling, and also a mutual friendliness +between those who belong to the same order. A caste is +only a larger family, and in it there is the same feeling, a mixture +of pride and affection, which binds the family together. +Perhaps it may nurture to some extent a kind of clannishness, +but it does this at the sacrifice of the broader and +nobler sentiment of humanity. It hardens the heart into +coldness and cruelty against all without one sacred pale. +The Brahmin feels nothing for the sufferings of the Pariah, +who is of another order of being as truly as if he were one +of the lower animals. Thus the feeling of caste extinguishes +the sentiment of human brotherhood.</p> + +<p>Taking all these elements together, Hindooism must rank +as the most despotic, the most cruel, and the vilest of all +that is called religion among men. There is no other that +so completely upturns moral distinctions, and makes evil +good and good evil. Other religions, even though false, +have some sentiment that ennobles them, but Hindooism, the +product of a land fertile in strange births, is the lowest and +basest, the most truly earth-born, of all the religions that +curse mankind. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span></p> + +<p>And what burdens does it lay upon a poor, patient, and +suffering people, in prayers, penances, and pilgrimages! +The faith of Hindooism is not a mild and harmless form of +human credulity. It exacts a terrible service, that must be +paid with sweat and blood. Millions of Hindoos go every +year on pilgrimages. The traveller sees them thronging the +roads, dragging their weary feet over the hot plains, many +literally <i>crawling</i> over the burning earth, to appease the +wrath of angry gods! A religion which exacts such service +is not a mere creature of the imagination—it is a tremendous +reality, which makes its presence felt at every moment. It +is therefore not a matter of practical indifference. It is not +a mere exhibition of human folly, which, however absurd, +does no harm to anybody. It is a despotism which grinds +the people to powder.</p> + +<p>Seeing this, how they suffer under a power from which +they cannot escape, can there be a greater object of philanthropy +in all the world than to emancipate them from the +bondage of such ignorance and superstition? Scientific +men, the apostles of "modern thought," consider it not only +a legitimate object, but the high "mission" of science, by +unfolding the laws of nature, to disabuse our minds of idle +and superstitious fears; to break up that vague terror of unseen +forces, which is the chief element of superstition. If +they may fight this battle in England, may we not fight the +battle of truth with error and ignorance in Hindostan? +Englishmen think it a noble thing for brave and adventurous +spirits to form expeditions to penetrate the interior of Africa +to break up the slave trade. But here is a slavery the most +terrible which ever crushed the life out of human beings. +Brahminism, which is fastened upon the people of India, embraces +them like an anaconda, clasping and crushing them in +its mighty folds. It is a devouring monster, which takes +out of the very body of every Hindoo, poor and naked +and wretched as he may be, its pound of quivering flesh. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> +Can these things be, and we look on unmoved? Can we see +a whole people bound, like Laocoön and his sons, in the grasp +of the serpent, writhing and struggling in vain, and not come +to their rescue?</p> + +<p>Such is Hindooism, and such is the condition to which it +has reduced the people of India. Do we need any other argument +for Christian missions? Does not this simple statement +furnish a perfect defence, and even an imperative demand +for their establishment? Christianity is the only hope +of India. In saying this I do not intend any disrespect to the +people of this country, to whom I feel a strong attraction. +We are not apt to hear from our missionary friends much +about the virtues of the heathen; but virtues they have, which +it were wrong to ignore. The Hindoos, like other Asiatics, are +a very domestic people, and have strong domestic attachments. +They love their homes, humble though they be, and their children. +And while they have not the active energy of Western +races, yet in the passive virtues—meekness, patience under +injury, submission to wrong—they furnish an example to +Christian nations. That submissiveness, which travellers +notice, and which moves some to scorn, moves me rather to +pity, and I find in this patient, long-suffering race much to +honor and to love. Nor are they unintelligent. They have +very subtle minds. Thus they have many of the qualities of +a great people. But their religion is their destruction. It +makes them no better, it makes them worse. It does not lift +them up, it drags them down. It is the one terrible and +overwhelming curse, that must be removed before there is +any hope for the people of India.</p> + +<p>Is there not here a legitimate ground for an attempt on the +part of the civilized and Christian world to introduce a better +faith into that mighty country which holds two hundred millions +of the human race? This is not intrusion, it is simple +humanity. In seeking to introduce Christianity into India, +we invade no right of any native of that country, Mohammedan +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> +or Hindoo; we would not wantonly wound their feelings, +nor even shock their prejudices, in attacking their hereditary +faith. But we claim that here is a case where we cannot +keep silent. If we are told that we "interfere with the people," +we answer, that we interfere as the Good Samaritan +interfered with the man who fell among thieves, and was left +by the roadside to die; as the physician in the hospital interferes +with those dying of the cholera; as one who sees a +brother at his side struck by a deadly serpent applies his +mouth to the wound, to suck the poison from his blood! If +that be interference, it is interference where it would be +cruelty to stand aloof, for he would be less than man who +could be unmoved in presence of misery so vast, which it was +in any degree in his power to relieve.</p> + +<p>Thus India itself is the sufficient argument for missions +in India. Let any one visit this country, and study its +religion, and see how it enters into the very life of the +people; how all social intercourse is regulated by caste; how +one feels at every instant the pressure of an ancient and unchangeable +religion, and ask how its iron rule is ever to be +broken? Who shall deliver them from the body of this +death? There is in Hindooism no power of self-cure. For +ages it has remained the same, and will remain for ages still. +Help, if it come at all, must come from without, and where +else can it come from, but from lands beyond the sea?</p> + +<p>Therefore it is that the Christian people of England and +America come to the people of India, not in a tone of self-righteousness, +assuming that we are better than they, but in +the name of humanity, of the brotherhood of the human race. +We believe that "God hath made of one blood all nations of +men to dwell on the face of the earth," and these Hindoos, +though living on the other side of the globe, are our brothers. +They are born into the same world; they belong to the same +human family, and have the same immortal destiny. To such +a people, capable of great things, but crushed and oppressed, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> +we come to do them good. We would break the terrible +bondage of caste, and bring forth woman out of the prison-house +where she passes her lonely existence. This involves +a social as well as a religious revolution. But what a sigh of +relief would it bring to millions who, under their present +conditions, are all their lifetime subject to bondage.</p> + +<p>There is a saying in the East that in India the flowers +yield no perfume, the birds never sing, and the women never +smile. Of course this is an exaggeration, and yet it has a +basis of truth. It is true that the flowers of the tropics, +though often of brilliant hues, do not yield the rich perfume +of the roses of our Northern clime; and many of the birds +whose golden plumage flashes sunlight in the deep gloom of +tropical forests, have only a piercing shriek, instead of the +soft, delicious notes of the robin and the dove; and the women +have a downcast look. Well may it be so. They lead a +secluded and solitary life. Shut up in their zenanas, away +from society, they have no part in many of the joys of human +existence, though they have more than their share of life's +burdens and its woes. No wonder that their faces should be +sad and sorrowful. Thus the whole creation seems to groan +and travail in pain.</p> + +<p>Now we desire to dispel the darkness and the gloom of +ages, and to bring smiles and music and flowers once more +into this stricken world. Teaching a religion of love and +good will to men, we would cure the hatred of races, and +bring all together in a common brotherhood. We would so lift +up the poor of this world, that sorrow and sighing shall flee +away, and that every lowly Indian hut shall be filled with the +light of a new existence. In that day will not nature share +in the joy of man's deliverance? Then will the birds begin +to sing, as if they were let loose from the gates of heaven to +go flying through the earth, and to fill our common air with +the voice of melody. Then shall smiles be seen once more +on human faces; not the loud cackling of empty laughter; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span> +but smiles breaking through tears (the reflection of a peace +that passeth understanding), shall spread like sunshine over +the sad faces of the daughters of Asia.</p> + +<p>But some "old Indian" who has listened politely, yet +smiling and incredulous, to this defence of missions, may +answer, "All this is very fine; no doubt it would be a good +thing if the people of India would change their religion; +would cast off Hindooism, and adopt Christianity. But is +it not practically impossible? Do all the efforts of missionaries +really amount to anything." This is a fair question, +and I will try to give it a fair answer.</p> + +<p>"Do missionaries do any good?" Perhaps we can best +answer the question by drawing the picture of an Indian +village, such as one may see at thousands of points scattered +over the country. It is a cluster of huts, constructed sometimes +with a light frame-work of bamboo, filled in with +matting, but more commonly of mud, with a roof of thatch to +prevent its being washed away in the rainy season. These +huts are separated from each other by narrow lanes that can +hardly be dignified with the name of streets. Yet in such a +hamlet of hovels, hardly fit for human habitation, may be a +large population. Every doorway is swarming with children. +On the outskirts of the village is <i>the missionary bungalow</i>, +a large one-story house, also built of mud, but neatly whitewashed +and protected from the rains by a heavy thatched +roof, which projects over the walls, and shades the broad +veranda. In the "compound" are two other buildings of +the same rude material and simple architecture, a church and +a schoolhouse. In the latter are gathered every day ten, +twenty, fifty—perhaps a hundred—children, with bare feet +and poor garments, though clean, but with bright eyes, and +who seem eager to learn. All day long comes from that low +building a buzz and hum as from a hive of bees. Every +Sunday is gathered in the little chapel a congregation chiefly +of poor people, plainly but neatly dressed, and who, as they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span> +sit there, reclaimed from heathenism, seem to be "clothed +and in their right minds." To the poor the Gospel is +preached, and never does it show its sweetness and power, +as when it comes down into such abodes of poverty, and +gives to these humble natives a new hope and a new life—a +life of joy and peace. Perhaps in the same compound +is an orphanage, in which are gathered the little castaways +who have been deserted by their parents, left by the roadside +to die—or whose parents may have died by cholera—and +who are thus rescued from death, and given the chance which +belongs to every human creature of life and of happiness.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the missionary is a little of a physician, and has a +small chest of medicines, and the poor people come to him +for cures of their bodily ailments, as well as for their spiritual +troubles. After awhile he gains their confidence, and +becomes, not by any appointment, but simply by the right +of goodness and the force of character, a sort of unofficial +magistrate, or head man of the village, a general peacemaker +and benefactor. Can any one estimate the influence of such +a man, with his gentle wife at his side, who is also active +both in teaching and in every form of charity? Who does +not see that such a missionary bungalow, with its school, +its orphanage, and its church, and its daily influences of +teaching and of example, is a centre of civilization, when +planted in the heart of an Indian village?</p> + +<p>How extensive is this influence will of course depend on +the many or the few devoted to this work, and the wisdom +and energy with which they pursue it. The number of missionaries +in India is very small compared with the vast population. +And yet the picture here drawn of one village is +reproduced in hundreds of villages. Take the representatives +of all the churches and societies of Protestant Christendom, +they would make a very respectable force. But even this +does not represent the full amount of influence they exert. +Moral influences cannot be weighed and measured like +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> +material forces. Nor are missionaries to be counted, like +the soldiers of an army. They are not drawn up on parade, +and do not march through the streets, with gleaming bayonets. +Their forces are scattered, and their work is silent and unseen.</p> + +<p>But in all quiet ways, by churches, schools, and orphanages, +their influence is felt; while by the printing-press they +scatter religious truth all over India, the effect of which, in +tens of thousands of those whom it does not "convert," is to +destroy the power of their old idolatry.</p> + +<p>That more Hindoos do not openly embrace Christianity is +not surprising, when one considers the social influences which +restrain them. When a Hindoo becomes a Christian, he is +literally an outcast. His most intimate friends will not know +him. His own family turn him from their door, feeling that +he has brought upon them a disgrace far greater than if he +had committed a crime for which he was to perish on the +scaffold. To them he is <i>dead</i>, and they perform his funeral +rites as if he were no more in this world. The pastor of the +native church in Bombay has thus been <i>buried</i> or <i>burned</i> by +his own family. Another told me that his own father turned +from him in the street, and refused to recognize him. These +things are very hard to bear. And so far from wondering +that there are not more conversions among the natives of India, +I wonder that there are so many.</p> + +<p>But what sort of Christians are they? Are they like +English or American Christians? When I landed in India, +and saw what a strange people I was among, how unlike +our own race, I asked a question which many have asked +before: Whether these people <i>could</i> become Christians? It +is a favorite idea of many travellers—and of many English +residents in India—that not only is the number of conversions +small, but that the "converts" are not worth having +when they are made. It is said that it is only low caste natives, +who have nothing to lose, that will desert their old religion; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span> +and that they are influenced only by the lowest motives, +and that while they profess to be converted, they are +in no wise changed from what they were, except that to their +old heathen vices they have added that of hypocrisy. Hearing +these things, I have taken some pains to ascertain what +sort of people these native converts are. I have attended +their religious services, and have met them socially, and, so +far as I could judge, I have never seen more simple-minded +Christians. Some of them are as intelligent as the best instructed +members of our New England churches. As to their +low caste, statistics show, among them, a greater proportion +of Brahmins than of any other caste, as might be expected +from their greater intelligence.</p> + +<p>The work, then, has not been in vain. The advance is +slow, but it is something that there <i>is</i> an advance. I am +told, as the result of a careful estimate, that if the progress +continues in the future as it has for the last fifteen years, in +two centuries the whole of India with its two hundred millions +of people, will be converted to the Christian religion. +This is a spread of Christianity more rapid than that in the +age of the apostles, for it was three centuries before the faith +which they preached became master of the Roman empire.</p> + +<p>With such a record of what Christian Missions have done +in India, with such evidences of their good influence and +growing power, they are entitled to honor and respect as one of +the great elements in the problem of the future of that country. +To speak of them flippantly, argues but small acquaintance +with the historical forces which have hitherto governed +India or indeed Britain itself. It ill becomes Englishmen to +sneer at missions, for to missionaries they owe it that their +island has been reclaimed from barbarism. When Augustine +landed in Britain their ancestors were clothed in skins, and +roaming in forests. It was the new religion that softened +their manners, refined their lives, and in the lapse of generations +wrought out the slow process of civilization. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span></p> + +<p>In Johnson's "Tour to the Hebrides," he refers to the +early missionaries who civilized Britain in a passage which is +one of the most eloquent in English literature: "We were +now treading that illustrious island which was once the luminary +of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and +roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the +blessings of religion.... Far from me and from my friends, +be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and +unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, +bravery or virtue. That man is little to be envied +whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of +Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among +the ruins of Iona."</p> + +<p>That power which has made England so great; which has +made the English race the foremost race in all this world; is +now carried to another hemisphere to work the same gradual +elevation in the East. It is a mighty undertaking. +The lifting up of a race is like the lifting up of a continent. +Such changes cannot come suddenly; but in the slow lapse +of ages the continent may be found to have risen, and to be +covered, as it were, with a new floral vegetation; as that +faith, which is the life of Europe, has entered into the vast +populations of Asia. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XX.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">BENARES, THE HOLY CITY.</p> + +<p>We had begun to feel ourselves at home in India. A +stranger takes root quickly, as foreign plants take root in the +soil, and spring up under the sun and rain of the tropics. A +traveller makes acquaintances that ripen into friendship and +bind him so fast that it is a real pain when he has to break +away and leave these new friends behind. Thus Allahabad +had become our Indian home. The missionary community +was so delightful, and everybody was so kind and hospitable, +that we had come to feel as if we were only in an outlying +corner of America. The missionary bungalow was like a +parsonage in New England; and when we left all, and the +train rolled across the long bridge over the Jumna, from +which we saw Miss Seward and Miss Wilson standing on +their veranda, and waving us farewell, it seemed as if we +were leaving home.</p> + +<p>But the holy city was before us. Some seventy miles from +Allahabad stands a city which, to the devout Hindoo, is the +most sacred place on earth—one which overtops all others, as +the Himalayas overtop all other mountains on the globe. +There are holy shrines in different countries, which are held +sacred by the devotees of different religions; but there are +four chief holy cities—Rome, Jerusalem, Mecca, and Benares. +As the devout Catholic makes a pilgrimage to Rome, to receive +the blessing of the Holy Father; as the Jew traverses +land and sea, that his feet may stand within the gates of Jerusalem, +where he weeps at the place of wailing under the +walls of the ancient temple; as the caravan of the Arab still +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span> +crosses the desert to Mecca; so does the devout Hindoo come +to Benares, and count it his supreme joy if he can but see its +domes and towers; and eternal felicity to die on the banks of +the sacred river.</p> + +<p>A couple of hours brought us to the Ganges, from which +we had a full view of the city on the other side of the river. +If the first sight did not awaken in us the same emotions as +in the mind of the Hindoo, the scene was picturesque enough +to excite our admiration. The appearance of Benares is very +striking. For two miles it presents a succession of palaces +and temples which are built not only on, but almost in, the +river, as Venice is built in the sea; the huge structures +crowding each other on the bank, and flights of steps going +down into the water, as if they would receive the baptism of +the sacred river as it flowed gently by; as if the people listened +fondly to its murmurs, and when wakened in their +dreams, were soothed to hear its waters lapping the very stones +of their palaces.</p> + +<p>We crossed the river on a bridge of boats, and drove out +to the English quarter, which is two or three miles distant, +and here rested an hour or two before we took a courier and +plunged into the labyrinth of the city, in which a stranger +would soon be lost who should attempt to explore it without +a guide. Benares would be well worth a visit if it were only +for its Oriental character. It is peculiarly an Indian city, +with every feature of Asiatic and of Indian life strongly marked. +Its bazaars are as curious and as rich as any in Asia, +with shawls of cashmere, and silks wrought by fine needlework +into every article of costly array. It has also cunning +workmen in precious metals and precious stones—in gold and +silver and diamonds. One special industry is workmanship +in brass. We brought away a number of large trays, curiously +wrought like shields. One contains a lesson in Hindoo +mythology for those who are able to read it, as on it are +traced all the incarnations of Vishnu. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span></p> + +<p>While thus rambling about the city, we had an opportunity +to see something of the marriage customs of the Hindoos, +as we met in the streets a number of wedding processions. +The heavenly influences were favorable to such unions. The +Hindoos are great astrologers, and give high importance to +the conjunction of the stars, and do not marry except when +Jupiter is in the ascendant. Just now he rides high in the +heavens, and this is the favored time of love. The processions +were very curious. The bridegroom was mounted on +horseback, tricked out in the dress of a harlequin, with a +crowd on horses and on foot, going before and following after, +waving flags, beating drums, and making all manner of noises, +to testify their joy; while the bride, who was commonly a +mere child, was borne in a palanquin, covered with ribbons +and trinkets and jewelry, looking, as she sat upright in her +doll's house, much more as if she were a piece of frosted cake +being carried to the wedding, than a living piece of flesh and +blood that had any part therein. Altogether the scene was +more like a Punch-and-Judy show, than any part of the serious +business of life. Engagements are often made when the +parties are in childhood, or even in infancy; and the marriage +consummated at twelve. These child-marriages are a great +curse to the country, as they fill the land with their puny offspring, +that wither like weeds in the hot sun of India. It is a +pity that they could not be prohibited; that marriages could +not be forbidden until the parties had reached at least sixteen +years of age.</p> + +<p>Another thing which greatly amused us was to see how +the people made way for us wherever we came. The streets +are very narrow, and there is not room for a jostling crowd. +But their politeness stopped at no obstacle. They meant to +give us a free passage. They drew to one side, making themselves +very small, and even hugging the wall, to get out of +our way. We accepted this delicate attention as a mark of +respect, which we thought a touching proof of Oriental courtesy; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> +and with the modesty of our countrymen, regarded it +as an homage to our greatness. We were a little taken aback +at being informed that, on the contrary, it was to avoid pollution; +that if they but touched the hem of our garments, +they would have had to run to the Ganges to wash away the +stain!</p> + +<p>But we need not make merry with these strict observances +of the people, for with them Religion is the great business of +life, and it is as the Mecca of their faith that Benares has +such interest for the intelligent traveller. No city in India, +perhaps none in all Asia, dates back its origin to a more remote +antiquity. It is the very cradle of history and of religion. +Here Buddha preached his new faith centuries before +Christ was born in Judea—a faith which still sways a larger +part of mankind than any other, though it has lost its dominion +in the place where it began. Here Hindooism, once +driven out, still fought and conquered, and here it still has +its seat, from which it rules its vast and populous empire.</p> + +<p>It is always interesting to study a country or a religion in +its capital. As we go to Rome to see Romanism, we come +to Benares to see Hindooism, expecting to find it in its +purest form. Whether that is anything to boast of, we can +tell better after we have seen a little of this, its most holy +city. Benares is full of temples and shrines. Of course we +could only visit a few of the more sacred. The first that +we entered was like a menagerie. It was called the Monkey +Temple; and rightly so, for the place was full of the little +creatures. It fairly swarmed with them. They were overhead +and all around us, chattering as if they were holding a +council in the heart of a tropical forest. The place was for +all the world like the monkey-house in the Zoölogical Gardens +in London, or in our Central Park in New York, and +would be an amusing resort for children were it not regarded +as a place for religious worship. Perhaps some innocent +traveller thinks this a touching proof of the charming simplicity +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span> +of the Hindoos, that they wish to call on all animated +nature to unite in devotion, and that thus monkeys (speaking +the language which monkeys understand) are permitted to +join with devout Hindoos in the worship of their common +Creator. But a glance shows the stranger that the monkeys +are here, not to worship, but to be worshipped. According +to the Pantheism of the Hindoos, all things are a part of +God. Not only is he the author of life, but he lives in +his creatures, so that they partake of his divinity; and +therefore whatsoever thing liveth and moveth on the earth—beast, +or bird, or reptile—is a proper object of worship.</p> + +<p>But the monkeys were respectable compared with the +hideous idol which is enthroned in this place. In the court +of the Temple is a shrine, a Holy of Holies, where, as the +gilded doors are swung open, one sees a black divinity, with +thick, sensual lips, that are red with blood, and eyes that +glare fiendishly. This is the goddess Doorgha, whose sacred +presence is guarded by Brahmin priests, so that no profane +foot may come near her. While they kept us back with holy +horror from approaching, they had no scruples about reaching +out their hands to receive our money. It is the habit of +strangers to drop some small coin in the outstretched palms. +But I was too much disgusted to give to the beggars. They +were importunate, and said the Prince of Wales, who was +there a few days before, had given them a hundred rupees. +Perhaps he felt under a necessity of paying such a mark of +respect to the religion of the great Empire he was to rule. +But ordinary travellers are under no such obligation. The +rascals trade in the curiosity of strangers. It might be well +if they did not find it such a source of revenue. So I would +not give them a penny; though I confess to spending a few +pice on nuts and "sweets" for the monkeys, who are the +only ones entitled to "tribute" from visitors; and then, returning +to the gharri, we rode disgusted away. In another +part of the city is the Golden Temple, devoted to the god +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> +Shiva, which divides with that of the monkeys the homage of +the Hindoos. Here are no chattering apes, though the place +is profaned with the presence of beasts and birds. Some +dozen cows were standing or lying down in the court, making +it seem more like a stable or a barnyard than a holy place. +Yet here was a fakir rapt in the ecstasies of devotion, with +one arm uplifted, rigid as a pillar of iron. He was looked +upon with awe by the faithful who crowded around him, and +who rewarded his sanctity by giving him money; but to our +profane eyes he was a figure of pride (though disguised under +the pretence of spirituality), as palpable to the sight as the +peacock who spread his tail and strutted about in the filthy +enclosure.</p> + +<p>But perhaps the reader will think that we have had enough +of this, and will gladly turn to a less revolting form of superstition. +The great sight of Benares is the bathing in the +Ganges. This takes place in the morning. We rose early +the next day, and drove down to the river, and getting a +boat, were rowed slowly for hours up and down the stream. +It is lined with temples and palaces, which descend to the +water by flights of steps, or <i>ghauts</i>, which at this hour are +thronged with devout Hindoos. By hundreds and thousands +they come down to the river's brink, men, women, and children, +and wade in, not swimming, but standing in the water, +plunging their heads and mumbling their prayers, and performing +their libations, by taking the water in their hands, +and casting it towards the points of the compass, as an act of +worship to the celestial powers, especially to the sun.</p> + +<p>As the boatmen rested on their oars, that we might observe +the strange scene, C—— started with horror to see a corpse +in the water. It was already half decayed, and obscene birds +were fluttering over it. But this is too common a sight in +Benares to raise any emotion in the breast of the Hindoo, +whose prayer is that he may die on the banks of the Ganges. +Does his body drift down with the stream, or become food +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> +for the fowls of the air, his soul floats to its final rest in the +Deity, as surely as the Ganges rolls onward to the sea.</p> + +<p>But look! here is another scene. We are approaching the +Burning Ghaut, and I see piles of wood, and human bodies, +and smoke and flame. I bade the boatmen draw to the shore, +that we might have a clearer view of this strange sight. +Walking along the bank, we came close to the funeral piles. +Several were waiting to be lighted. When all is ready, the +nearest male relative walks round and round the pile, and +then applies to it a lighted withe of straw. Here was a body +just dressed for the last rites. It was wrapped in coarse +garments, perhaps all that affection could give. Beside it +stood a woman, watching it with eager eyes, lest any rude +hand should touch the form which, though dead, was still +beloved. I looked with pity into her sad, sorrowful face. +What a tale of affection was there!—of love for the life that +was ended, and the form that was cherished, that was soon +to be but ashes, and to float away upon the bosom of the +sacred river.</p> + +<p>Another pile was already lighted, and burning fiercely. I +stood close to it, till driven away by the heat and smoke. +As the flames closed round the form, portions of the body +were exposed. Now the hair was consumed in a flash, leaving +the bare skull; now the feet showed from the other end +of the pile. It was a ghastly sight. Now a horrid smell filled +the air, and still the pile glowed like a furnace, crackling +with the intense heat, and shot out tongues of flame that +seemed eager to lick up every drop of blood.</p> + +<p>In this disposal of the dead there is nothing to soothe the +mourner like a Christian burial, when the body is committed +to the earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, when a beloved +form is laid down under the green turf gently, as on a mother's +breast.</p> + +<p>The spectacle of this morning, with the similar one at Allahabad, +have set me a-thinking. I ask, What idea do the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span> +Hindoos attach to bathing in the Ganges? Is it purification +or expiation, or both? Is it the putting away of sin by the +washing of water; the cleansing of the body for the sins of +the soul? Or is there in it some idea of atonement? What +is the fascination of this religious observance? Perhaps no +stranger can fully understand it, or enter into the feeling +with which the devout Hindoo regards the sacred river. The +problem grows the more we study it. However we approach +the great river of India, we find a wealth of associations +gathering around it such as belongs to no other river on the +face of the earth. No other is so intimately connected with +the history and the whole life of a people. Other rivers have +poetical or patriotic associations. The ancient Romans kept +watch on the Tiber, as the modern Germans keep watch on +the Rhine. But these are associations of country and of patriotic +pride—not of life, not of existence, not of religion. +In these respects the only river in the world which approaches +the Ganges is the Nile, which, coming down from the Highlands +of Central Africa, floods the long valley, which it has +itself made in the desert, turning the very sands into fertility, +and thus becoming the creator and life-giver of Egypt.</p> + +<p>What the Nile is to Egypt, the Ganges is to a part of +India, giving life and verdure to plains that but for it were +a desert. As it bursts through the gates of the Himalayas, +and sweeps along with resistless current, cooling with its icy +breath the hot plains of India, and giving fertility to the rice +fields of Bengal, it may well seem to the Hindoo the greatest +visible emblem of Almighty power and Infinite beneficence.</p> + +<p>But it is more than an emblem. The ancient Egyptians +worshipped the Nile as a god, and in this they had the same +feeling which now exists among the Hindoos in regard to the +Ganges. It is not only a sacred river because of its associations; +it is itself Divine, flowing, like the River of Life in +the Book of Revelation, out of the throne of God. It descends +out of heaven, rising in mountains whose tops touch +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> +the clouds—the sacred mountains which form the Hindoo +Kylas, or Heaven, the abode of the Hindoo Trinity—of +Brahma and Shiva and Vishnu. Rushing from under a glacier +in the region of everlasting snow, it seems as if it gushed +from the very heart of the Dweller on that holy mount; as +if that flowing stream were the life-blood of the Creator. +When the Hindoo has seized this idea, it takes strong hold +of his imagination. As he stands on the banks of the Ganges +at night, and sees its broad current quivering under the rays +of the full moon, it seems indeed as if it were the clear stream +flowing through the calm breast of God himself, bearing life +from Him to give life to the world. Hence in his creed it +has all the virtue and the "divine power that belongs in the +Christian system to the blood of Christ. It makes atonement +for sins that are past." "He that but looks on the +Ganges," says the Hindoo proverb, "or that drinks of it, +washes away the stains of a hundred births; but he that +bathes in it washes away the stains of a thousand births." +This is a virtue beyond that of the Nile, or the rivers of Damascus, +or of the Jordan, or even of</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="i6">Siloa's brook</p> +<p>That flowed fast by the oracle of God.</p> +</div> + +<p>It is a virtue which can be found alone in that blood which +"cleanseth from all sin."</p> + +<p>The spectacle of such superstition produced a strong revulsion +of feeling, and made me turn away from these waters +that cannot cleanse the guilty soul, nor save the dying, to +the Mighty Sufferer, whose blood was shed for the sins of +the world, and I seemed to hear voices in far-off Christian +lands singing:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +E'er since by faith I saw the stream</p> +<p class="i1">Thy flowing wounds supply,</p> +<p>Redeeming love has been my theme,</p> +<p class="i1">And shall be till I die.</p> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span></p> + +<p>But I do not sit in judgment on the Hindoos, nor include +a whole people in one general condemnation. Some of them +are as noble specimens of humanity, with as much "natural +goodness" as can be found anywhere; and are even religious +in their way, and in zeal and devotion an example to their +Christian neighbors. Of this, a very striking instance can +be given here.</p> + +<p>On the other side of the Ganges lives a grand old Hindoo, +the Maharajah of Benares, and as he is famed for his hospitality +to strangers, we sent him a letter by a messenger (being +assured that that was the proper thing to do), saying that +we should be happy to pay our respects to my lord in his +castle; and in a few hours received a reply that his carriage +should be sent to our hotel for us the next morning, and that +his boat would convey us across the river. We did not wait +for the carriage, as we were in haste to depart for Calcutta +the same forenoon, but rode down in our own gharri to the +river side, where we found the boat awaiting us. On the +other bank stood a couple of elephants of extraordinary size, +that knelt down and took us on their broad backs, and rolled +off at a swinging pace to a pleasant retreat of the Maharajah +a mile or two from the river, where he had a temple of +his own, situated in the midst of beautiful gardens.</p> + +<p>On our return we were marched into the courtyard of the +castle, where the attendants received us, and escorted us +within. The Maharajah did not make his appearance, as it +was still early, but his secretary presented himself to do the +honors, giving his master's respects with his photograph, and +showing us every possible courtesy. We were shown through +the rooms of state, where the Prince of Wales had been received +a few weeks before. The view from the terrace on +the river side is enchanting. It is directly on the water, and +commands a view up and down the Ganges for miles, while +across the smooth expanse rise the temples and palaces of the +Holy City. What a place for a Brahmin to live or to die! +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span></p> + +<p>This Maharajah of Benares is well known all over India. +He is a member of the Viceroy's Council at Calcutta, and +held in universal respect by the English community. Sir +William Muir, who is one of the most pronounced Christian +men in India, whom some would even call a Puritan for his +strictness, told me that the Maharajah was one of the best of +men. And yet he is of the straitest sect of the Hindoos, +who bathes in the Ganges every morning, and "does his +pooja." In all religious observances he is most exemplary, +often spending hours in prayer. The secretary, in excusing +his master's absence, said that he had been up nearly all +night engaged in his devotions. How this earnest faith in a +religion so vile can consist with a life so pure and so good, is +one of the mysteries of this Asiatic world which I leave to +those wiser than I am to explain.</p> + +<p>We had lingered so long that it was near the hour of our +departure for Calcutta, and we were three miles up the river. +The secretary accompanied us to the boat of the Maharajah, +which was waiting for us, and bade us farewell, with many +kind wishes that we might have a prosperous journey. Lying +against the bank was the gilded barge in which the Maharajah +had received and escorted the Prince of Wales. Waving +our adieu, we gave the signal, and the boatmen pushed off +into the stream. It was now a race against time. We had +a long stretch to make in a very few minutes. I offered the +men a reward if they should reach the place in time. The +stalwart rowers bent to their oars, their swarthy limbs making +swift strokes, and the boat shot like an arrow down the +stream. I stood up in the eagerness and excitement of the +chase, taking a last look at the sacred temples as we shot +swiftly by. It wanted but two or three minutes of the hour +as our little pinnace struck against the goal by the bridge of +boats, and throwing the rupees to the boatmen, we hurried +up the bank, and had just time to get fairly bestowed in the +roomy first-class carriage, which we had all to ourselves, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> +when the train started for Calcutta, and the towers and +domes and minarets of the holy city of India faded from our +sight.</p> + +<p>Thinking! Still thinking! What does it all mean? +Who can understand Hindooism—where it begins and where +it ends? It is like the fabled tree that had its roots down +in the Kingdom of Death, and spread its branches over the +world. Behind it, or beneath it, is a deep philosophy, which +goes down to the very beginnings of existence, and touches +the most vital problems of life and death, of endless dying +and living. Out of millions of ages, after a million births, +following each other in long succession, at last man is cast +upon the earth, but only as a bird of passage, darting swiftly +through life, and then, in an endless transmigration of souls, +passing through other stages of being, till he is absorbed in +the Eternal All. Thus does man find his way at last back +to God, as the drop of water, caught up by the sun, lifted +into the cloud, descends in the rain, trickles in streams +down the mountain side, and finds its way back to the ocean. +So does the human soul complete the endless cycle of existence, +coming from God and returning to God, to be swallowed +up and lost in that Boundless Sea.</p> + +<p>Much might be said, by way of argument, in support of +this pantheistic philosophy. But whatever may be urged in +favor of Hindooism in the abstract, its practical results are +terrible. By a logic as close and irresistible as it is fatal, it +takes away the foundation of all morality, and strikes down +all goodness and virtue—all that is the glory of man, and all +that is the beauty of woman. It is nothing to the purpose +to quote the example of such a man as the Maharajah of +Benares, for there is a strange alchemy in virtue, by which a +pure nature, a high intelligence, and right moral instincts, +will convert even the most pernicious doctrines to the purpose +of a spiritual life. But with the mass of Hindoos it is +only a system of abject superstition and terror. As we rolled +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span> +along the banks of the Ganges, I thought what tales that +stream could tell. Could we but listen in the dead of night, +what sounds we might hear! Hush! hark! There is a +footstep on the shore. The rushes on the bank are parted, +and a Hindoo mother comes to the water's edge. Look! she +holds a child in her arms. She starts back, and with a shriek +casts it to the river monsters. Such scenes are not frequent +now, because the government has repressed them by law, +though infanticide is fearfully common in other ways. But +even yet in secret—"darkly at dead of night"—does fanaticism +sometimes pay its offering to the river which is worshipped +as a god. This is what Hindooism does for the mother +and for her child. Thus it wrongs at once childhood and +motherhood and womanhood. Who that thinks of such +scenes can but pray that a better faith may be given to the +women of India, that the mother may no longer look with +anguish into the face of her own child, as one doomed to +destruction, but like any Christian mother, clasp her baby to +her breast, thanking God who has given it to her, and bidden +her keep it, and train it up for life, for virtue and for happiness.</p> + +<p>But is there any hope of seeing Hindooism destroyed? +I fear not very soon. When I think how many ages it has +stood, and what mighty forces it has resisted, the task seems almost +hopeless. For centuries it fought with Buddhism for the +conquest of India, and remained master of the field. Then +came Mohammedanism in the days of the Mogul Empire. It +gained a foothold, and reared its mosques even in the Holy +City of the Hindoos. To this day the most splendid structure +in Benares is the great Mosque of Aurungzebe. As I climbed +its tall minaret, and looked over the city, I saw here and +there the gilded domes and slender spires that mark the temples +of Islam. But these fierce iconoclasts, who set out from +Arabia to break the idols in pieces, could not destroy them +here. The fanatical Aurungzebe could build his mosque, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span> +with its minaret so lofty as to overtop all the temples of Paganism; +but he could not convert the idolaters. With such +tenacity did they cling to their faith, that even the religion +of the Prophet could make little impression, though armed +with all the power of the sword.</p> + +<p>And now come modern civilization and Christianity. The +work of "tearing down" is not left to Missions alone. There +is in India a vast system of National Education. In Benares +there is an University whose stately halls would not look out +of place among the piles of Oxford. In the teaching there is a +rigid—I had almost said a religious—abstinence from religion. +But science is taught, and science confutes the Hindoo cosmogony. +When it is written in the Purânas that the world +rests on the back of an elephant, and that the elephant stands +on the back of a tortoise, and the tortoise on the back of the +great serpent Nâga, it needs but a very little learning to convince +the young Hindoo that his sacred books are a mass of +fables. But this does not make him a Christian. It lands +him in infidelity, and leaves him there. And this is the state +of the educated mind of India, of what is sometimes designated +as Young India, or Young Bengal. Here they stand—deep +in the mire of unbelief, as if they had tried to plant their +feet on the low-lying Delta of the Ganges, and found it sink +beneath them, with danger of being buried in Gangetic ooze +and slime. But even this is better than calling to gods that +cannot help them; for at least it may give them a sense of +their weakness and danger. It may be that the educated +mind of India has to go through this stage of infidelity before +it can come into the light of a clearer faith. At present they +believe nothing, yet conform to Hindoo customs for social reasons, +for fear of losing caste. This is all-powerful. It is hard +for men to break away from it in detail. But once that a +breach is made in their ranks, the same social tyranny may +carry them over <i>en masse</i>, so that a nation shall be born in a +day. At present the work that is going on is that of sapping +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span> +and mining, of boring holes into the foundation of Hindooism; +and this is done as industriously, and perhaps as effectively, +by Government schools and colleges as by Missions.</p> + +<p>At Benares we observed, in sailing up and down the +Ganges, that the river had undermined a number of temples +built upon its banks, and that they had fallen with their huge +columns and massive architecture, and were lying in broken +and shapeless masses, half covered by the water. What a +spectacle of ruin and decay in the Holy City of the Hindoos! +This is a fit illustration of the process which has been going +on for the last half century in regard to Hindooism. The +waters are washing it away, and by and by the whole colossal +fabric, built up in ages of ignorance and superstition, will +come crashing to the earth. Hindooism will fall, and great +will be the fall of it. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XXI.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">CALCUTTA-FAREWELL TO INDIA.</p> + +<p>It is a good rule in travelling, as in rhetoric, to keep the +best to the last, and wind up with a climax. But it would +be hard to find a climax in India after seeing the old Mogul +capitals, whose palaces and tombs outshine the Alhambra; +after climbing the Himalayas, and making a pilgrimage +to the holy city. And yet one feels a <i>crescendo</i> of interest in +approaching the capital. India has three capitals—Delhi, +where once reigned the Great Mogul, and which is still +the centre of the Mohammedan faith; Benares, the Mecca +of the Hindoos; and Calcutta, the capital of the modern +British Empire. The two former we have seen; it is +the last which is now before us.</p> + +<p>Our route was southeast, along the valley of the Ganges, +and through the province of Bengal. What is the magic +of a name? From childhood the most vivid association +I had with this part of India, was that of Bengal tigers, +which were the wonder of every menagerie; and it was not +strange if we almost expected to see them crouching in +the forest, or gliding away in the long grass of the jungle. +But Bengal has other attractions to one who rides +over it. This single province of India is five times as +large as the State of New York. It is a vast alluvial +plain, through which the Ganges pours by a hundred mouths +to the sea, its overflow giving to the soil a richness and +fertility like that of the valley of the Nile, so that it +supports a population equal to that of the whole of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span> +United States. The cultivated fields that we pass show +the natural wealth of the country, as the frequent towns +show the density of the population. Of these the largest is +Patna, the centre of the opium culture. But we did not +stop anywhere, for the way was long. From Benares to +Calcutta is over four hundred miles, or about as far as +from New York city to Niagara Falls. We started at eleven +o'clock, and kept steadily travelling all day. Night fell, +and the moon rose over the plains and the palm groves, and +still we fled on and on, as if pursued by the storm spirits of +the Hindoo Kylas, till the morning broke, and found us on +the banks of a great river filled with shipping, and opposite +to a great city. This was the Hoogly, one of the mouths of +the Ganges, and there was Calcutta! A carriage whirled us +swiftly across the bridge, and up to the Great Eastern Hotel, +where we were glad to rest, after travelling three thousand +miles in India, and to exchange even the most luxurious +railway carriage for beds and baths, and the comforts of civilization. +The hotel stands opposite the Government House, +the residence of the Viceroy of India, and supplies everything +necessary to the dignity of a "burra Sahib." Soft-footed +Hindoos glided silently about, watching our every motion, +and profoundly anxious for the honor of being our servants. +A stalwart native slept on the mat before my door, +and attended on my going out and my coming in, as if I had +been a grand dignitary of the Empire.</p> + +<p>Calcutta bears a proud name in the East—that of the City +of Palaces—from which a traveller is apt to experience +a feeling of disappointment. And yet the English portion +of the city is sufficiently grand to make it worthy to +rank with the second class of European capitals. The Government +House, from its very size, has a massive and stately +appearance, and the other public buildings are of corresponding +proportions. The principal street, called the Chowringhee +road, is lined for two miles with the handsome +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span> +houses of government officials or wealthy English residents. +But the beauty of Calcutta is the grand esplanade, called the +Maidan—an open space as large as our Central Park in +New York; beginning at the Government House, and reaching +to Fort William, and beyond it; stretching for two +or three miles along the river, and a mile back from it to the +mansions of the Chowringhee Road. This is an immense parade-ground +for military and other displays. Here and there +are statues of men who have distinguished themselves in the +history of British India. Tropical plants and trees give to +the landscape their rich masses of color and of shade, while +under them and around them is spread that carpet of green +so dear to the eyes of an Englishman in any part of the +world—a wide sweep of soft and smooth English turf. Here +at sunset one may witness a scene nowhere equalled except in +the great capitals of Europe. In the middle of the day the +place is deserted, except by natives, whom, being "children +of the sun," he does not "smite by day," though the moon +may smite them by night. The English residents are shut +closely within doors, where they seek, by the waving of +punkas, and by admitting the air only through mats dripping +with water, to mitigate the terrible heat. But as the +sun declines, and the palms begin to cast their shadows +across the plain, and a cool breeze comes in from the sea, the +whole English world pours forth. The carriage of the Viceroy +rolls out from under the arches of the Government +House, and the other officials are abroad. A stranger is surprised +at the number of dashing equipages, with postilions +and servants in liveries, furnished by this foreign city. +These are not all English. Native princes and wealthy baboos +vie with Englishmen in the bravery of their equipages, +and give to the scene a touch of Oriental splendor. Officers +on horseback dash by, accompanied often by fair English +faces; while the band from Fort William plays the martial +airs of England. It is indeed a brilliant spectacle, which, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> +but for the turbans and the swarthy faces under them, would +make the traveller imagine himself in Hyde Park.</p> + +<p>From this single picture it is easy to see why Calcutta is to +an Englishman the most attractive place of residence in +India, or in all the East. It is more like London. It is a +great capital—the capital of the Indian Empire; the seat of +government; the residence of the Viceroy, around whom is +assembled a kind of viceregal court, composed of all the high +officials, both civil and military. There is an Army and +Navy Club, where one may meet many old soldiers who have +seen service in the Indian wars, or who hold high appointments +in the present force. The assemblage of such a number +of notable men makes a large and brilliant English society.</p> + +<p>Nor is it confined to army officers or government officials. +Connected with the different colleges are men who are distinguished +Oriental scholars. Then there is a Bishop of Calcutta, +who is the Primate of India, with his clergy, and English +and American missionaries, who make altogether a very +miscellaneous society.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Here Macaulay lived for three years +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span> +as a member of the Governor's Council, and was the centre +of a society which, if it lacked other attractions, must have +found a constant stimulus in his marvellous conversation.</p> + +<p>And yet with all these attractions of Calcutta, English residents +still pine for England. One can hardly converse +with an English officer, without finding that it is his dream +to get through with his term of service as soon as he may, +and return to spend the rest of his days in his dear native +island. Even Macaulay—with all the resources that he had +in himself, with all that he found Anglo-Indian society, and +all that he made it—regarded life in India as only a splendid +exile.</p> + +<p>The climate is a terrible drawback. Think of a country, +where in the hot season the mercury rises to 117-120° in the +shade; while if the thermometer be exposed to the sun, it +quickly mounts to 150, 160, or even 170°!—a heat to which +no European can be exposed for half an hour without danger +of sunstroke. Such is the heat that it drives the government +out of Calcutta for half the year. For six months the Viceroy +and his staff emigrate, bag and baggage, going up the +country twelve hundred miles to Simla, on the first range of +the Himalayas, which is about as if the President of the +United States and his Cabinet should leave Washington on +the first of May, and transfer the seat of government to some +high point in the Rocky Mountains.</p> + +<p>But the climate is not the only, nor the chief, drawback +to life in India. It is the absence from home, from one's +country and people, which makes it seem indeed like exile. +Make the best of it, Calcutta is not London. What a man +like Macaulay misses, is not the English climate, with its +rains and fogs, but the intellectual life, which centres in the +British capital. It was this which made him write to his +sister that "A lodgings up three pairs of stairs in London +was better than a palace in a compound at Chowringhee." +I confess I cannot understand how any man, who has a respectable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span> +position in his own country, should choose Calcutta, +or any other part of India, as a place of residence, except for +a time; as a merchant goes abroad for a few years, in the +hope of such gain as shall enable him to return and live in +independence in England or America; or as a soldier goes +to a post of duty ("Not his to ask the reason why"); or as +a missionary, with the purely benevolent desire of doing +good, for which he accepts this voluntary exile.</p> + +<p>But if a man has grown, by any mental or moral process, to +the idea that life is not given him merely for enjoyment; +that its chief end is not to make himself comfortable—to sit +at home in England, and hear the storm roar around the +British Islands, and thank God that he is safe, though all the +rest of the world should perish; if he but once recognize +the fact that he has duties, not only to himself, but to mankind; +then for such a man there is not on the round globe a +broader or nobler field of labor than India. For an English +statesman, however great his talents or boundless his ambition, +one cannot conceive of a higher place on the earth than +that of the Viceroy of India. He is a ruler over more than +two hundred millions of human beings, to whose welfare he may +contribute by a wise and just administration. What immeasurable +good may be wrought by a Governor-General like Lord +William Bentinck, of whom it was said that "he was William +Penn on the throne of the Great Mogul." A share in this beneficent +rule belongs to every Englishman who holds a place in +the government of India. He is in a position of power, and +therefore of responsibility. To such men is entrusted the protection, +the safety, the comfort, and the happiness of multitudes +of their fellow-men, to whom they are bound, if not by +national ties, yet by the ties of a common humanity.</p> + +<p>And for those who have no official position, who have +neither place nor power, but who have intelligence and a desire +to do good on a wide scale, India offers a field as broad +as their ambition, where, either as moral or intellectual instructors, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> +as professors of science or teachers of religion, they +may contribute to the welfare of a great people. India is a +country where, more than in almost any other in the world, +European civilization comes in contact with Asiatic barbarism. +Its geographical position illustrates its moral and intellectual +position. It is a peninsula stretched out from the +lower part of Asia into the Indian Ocean, and great seas dash +against it on one side and on the other. So, intellectually +and morally, is it placed "where two seas meet," where modern +science attacks Hindooism on one side, and Christianity +attacks it on the other.</p> + +<p>In this conflict English intelligence has already done much +for the intellectual emancipation of the people from childish +ignorance and folly. In Calcutta there are a number of +English schools and colleges, which are thronged with young +Bengalees, the flower of the city and the province, who are +instructed in the principles of modern science and philosophy. +The effect on the mind of Young Bengal has been very great. +An English education has accomplished all that was expected +from it, <i>except</i> the overthrow of idolatry, and here it has conspicuously +failed.</p> + +<p>When Macaulay was in India, he devoted much of his +time to perfecting the system of National Education, from +which he expected the greatest results; which he believed +would not only fill the ignorant and vacant minds of the +Hindoos with the knowledge of modern science, but would +uproot the old idolatry. In the recently published volumes of +his letters is one to his father, dated Calcutta, Oct. 12, 1836, +in which he says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully. We find it +difficult—in some places impossible—to provide instruction for all +who want it. At the single town of Hoogly 1400 boys are learning +English. The effect of this education on the Hindoos is prodigious. +No Hindoo who has received an English education ever remains sincerely +attached to his religion. Some continue to profess it as a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> +matter of policy; but many profess themselves pure Deists, and +some embrace Christianity. It is my firm belief that, if our plans of +education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among +the reputable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will be +effected without any efforts to proselytize; without the smallest interference +with religious liberty; merely by the natural operation of +knowledge and reflection." +</p> +</div> + +<p>These sanguine expectations have been utterly disappointed. +Since that letter was written, forty years have passed, and +every year has turned out great numbers of educated young +men, instructed in all the principles of modern science; and yet +the hold of Hindooism seems as strong as ever. I find it +here in the capital, as well as in the provinces, and I do +not find that it is any better by coming in contact with modern +civilization. Nothing at Benares was more repulsive +and disgusting than what one sees here. The deity most +worshipped in Calcutta is the goddess Kali, who indeed gives +name to the city, which is Anglicized from Kali-ghat. She +delights in blood, and is propitiated only by constant sacrifices. +As one takes his morning drive along the streets leading +to her shrine, he sees them filled with young goats, who +are driven to the sacred enclosure, which is like a butcher's +shambles, so constantly are the heads dropping on the pavement, +which is kept wet with blood. She is the patron of +thieves and robbers, the one to whom the Thugs always made +offerings, in setting out on their expeditions for murder. No +doubt the young men educated in the English colleges despise +this horrid worship. Yet in their indifference to all religion, +they think it better to keep up an outward show of conformity, +to retain the respect, or at least the good will, of their +Hindoo countrymen, among whom it is the very first condition +of any social recognition whatever, that they shall not +break away from the religion of their ancestors.</p> + +<p>How then are they to be reached? The Christian +schools educate the very young; and the orphanages take +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span> +neglected children and train them from the beginning. But +for young men who are already educated in the government +colleges, is there any way of reaching <i>them</i>? None, except +that of open, direct, manly argument. Several years since +President Seelye of Amherst College visited India, and +here addressed the educated Hindoos, both in Calcutta and +Bombay, on the claims of the Christian religion. He was +received with perfect courtesy. Large audiences assembled +to hear him, and listened with the utmost respect. What +impression he produced, I cannot say; but it seems to me +that this is "the way to do it," or at least one way, and a +way which gives good hope of success.</p> + +<p>In fighting this battle against idolatry, I think we should +welcome aid from any quarter, whether it be evangelical or +not. While in Calcutta, I paid a visit to Keshoob Chunder +Sen, whose name is well known in England from a visit which +he made some years ago, as the leader of the Brahmo Somaj. +I found him surrounded by his pupils, to whom he was giving +instruction. He at once interrupted his teaching for the +pleasure of a conversation, to which all listened apparently +with great interest. He is in his creed an Unitarian, so far +as he adopts the Christian faith. He recognizes the unity of +God, and gives supreme importance to <i>prayer</i>. The interview +impressed me both with his ability and his sincerity. +I cannot agree with some of my missionary friends who look +upon him with suspicion, because he does not go far enough. +On the contrary, I think it a matter of congratulation that +he has come as far as he has, and I should be glad if he could +get Young Bengal to follow him. But I do not think the +Brahmo Somaj has made great progress. It has scattered +adherents in different parts of India, but the whole number +of followers is small compared with the masses that cling to +their idols. He frankly confessed that the struggle was very +unequal, that the power of the old idolatry was tremendous, +and especially that the despotism of caste was terrific. To +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span> +break away from it, required a degree of moral courage that +was very rare. The great obstacle to its overthrow was a +social one, and grew out of the extreme anxiety of Hindoo +parents for the marriage of their children. If they once +broke away from caste, it was all over with them. They +were literally outcasts. Nobody would speak to them, and +they and their children were delivered over to one common +curse. This social ostracism impending over them, is a terror +which even educated Hindoos dare not face. And so +they conform outwardly, while they despise inwardly. +Hence, Keshoob Chunder Sen deserves all honor for the +stand he has taken, and ought to receive the cordial support +of the English and Christian community.</p> + +<p>What I have seen in Calcutta and elsewhere satisfies me +that in all wise plans for the regeneration of India, Christian +missions must be a necessary part. One cannot remember +but with a feeling of shame, how slow was England to receive +missionaries into her Indian Empire. The first attempt +of the English Church to send a few men to India was +met with an outcry of disapprobation. Sydney Smith hoped +the Government would send the missionaries home. When +Carey first landed on these shores, he could not stay in British +territory, but had to take refuge at Serampore, a Danish +settlement a few miles from Calcutta, where he wrought a +work which makes that a place of pilgrimage to every Christian +traveller in India. We spent a day there, going over +the field of his labor. He is dead, but his work survives. +There he opened schools and founded a college, the first of +its kind in India (unless it were the government college of +Fort William in Calcutta, in which he was also a professor), +and which led the way for the establishment of that +magnificent system of National Education which is now the +glory of India.</p> + +<p>What Carey was in his day, Dr. Duff in Calcutta and Dr. +Wilson in Bombay were a generation later, vigorous advocates +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span> +of education as an indispensable means to quicken the +torpid mind of India. They were the trusted advisers and +counsellors of the government in organizing the present +system of National Education. This is but one of many +benefits for which this country has to thank missionaries. +And if ever India is to be so renovated as to enter into the +family of civilized and Christian nations, it will be largely by +their labors. One thing is certain, that mere education will +not convert the Hindoo. The experiment has been tried and +failed. Some other and more powerful means must be taken +to quicken the conscience of a nation deadened by ages of +false religion—a religion utterly fatal to spiritual life. That +such a change may come speedily, is devoutly to be wished. +No intelligent traveller can visit India, and spend here two +months, without feeling the deepest interest in the country +and its people. Our interest grew with every week of our +stay, and was strongest as we were about to leave.</p> + +<p>The last night that we were in Calcutta, it was my privilege +to address the students at one of the Scotch colleges. +The hall was crowded, and I have seldom, if ever, spoken to +a finer body of young men. These young Bengalees had +many of them heads of an almost classical beauty; and with +their grace of person heightened by their flowing white +robes, they presented a beautiful array of young scholars, +such as might delight the eyes of any instructor who should +have to teach them "Divine philosophy." My heart "went +out" to them very warmly, and as that was my last impression +of India, I left it with a very different feeling from that +with which I entered it—with a degree of respect for its +people, and of interest in them, which I humbly conceive is +the very first condition of doing them any good.</p> + +<p>It was Sunday evening: the ship on which we were to +embark for Burmah was to sail at daybreak, and it was necessary +to go on board at once. So hardly had we returned +from our evening service, before we drove down to the river. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> +The steamer lay off in the stream, the tide was out, and even +the native boats could not come up to where we could step +on board. But the inevitable coolies were there, their long +naked legs sinking in the mud, who took us on their brawny +backs, and carried us to the boats, and in this dignified manner +we took our departure from India.</p> + +<p>The next morning, as we went on deck, the steamer was +dropping down the river. The guns of Fort William were +firing a salute; at Garden Reach we passed the palace of the +King of Oude, where this deposed Indian sovereign still +keeps his royal state among his serpents and his tigers. We +were all day long steaming down the Hoogly. The country +is very flat; there is nothing to break the monotony of its +swamps and jungles, its villages of mud standing amid rice +fields and palm groves. As we approach the sea the river +divides into many channels, like the lagoons of Venice. All +around are low lying islands, which now and then are swept +by terrible cyclones that come up from the Bay of Bengal. +At present their shores are overgrown with jungles, the +home of wild beasts, of serpents, and crocodiles, of all slimy +and deadly things, the monsters of the land and sea. Through +a net-work of such lagoons, we glide out into the deep; +slowly the receding shores sink till they are submerged, as if +they were drowned; we have left India behind, and all +around is only a watery horizon. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XXII.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">BURMAH, OR FARTHER INDIA.</p> + +<p>In America we speak of the Far West, which is an undefined +region, constantly receding in the distance. So in Asia +there is a Far and Farther East, ever coming a little nearer +to the rising sun. When we have done with India, there is +still a Farther India to be "seen and conquered." On the +other side of the Bay of Bengal is a country, which, though +called India, and under the East Indian Government, is not +India. The very face of nature is different. It is a country +not of vast plains, but of mountains and valleys, and springs +that run among the hills; a country with another people +than India, another language, and another religion. Looking +upon the map of Asia, one sees at its southeastern extremity +a long peninsula, reaching almost to the equator, with a central +range of mountains, an Alpine chain, which runs through +its whole length, as the Apennines run through Italy. This +is the Malayan peninsula, on one side of which is Burmah, +and on the other, Siam, the land of the White Elephant.</p> + +<p>Such was the "undiscovered country" before us, as we +went on deck of the good ship Malda, four days out from +Calcutta, and found her entering the mouth of a river which +once bore the proud name of the River of Gold, and was said +to flow through a land of gold. These fabled riches have +disappeared, but the majestic river still flows on, broad-bosomed +like the Nile, and which of itself might make the +riches of a country, as the Nile makes the riches of Egypt. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span> +This is the mighty Irrawaddy, one of the great rivers of +Eastern Asia; which takes its rise in the western part of +Thibet, not far from the head waters of the Indus, and runs +along the northern slopes of the Himalayas, till it turns +south, and winding its way through the passes of the lofty +mountains, debouches into Lower Burmah, where it divides +into two large branches like the Nile, making a Delta of ten +thousand square miles—larger than the Delta of Egypt—whose +inexhaustible fertility, yielding enormous rice harvests, +has more than once relieved a famine in Bengal.</p> + +<p>On the Irrawaddy, twenty-five miles from the sea, stands +Rangoon, the capital of British Burmah, a city of nearly a +hundred thousand inhabitants. As we approach it, the most +conspicuous object is the Great Pagoda, the largest in +the world, which is a signal that we are not only in a +new country, but one that has a new religion—not Brahmin, +but Buddhist—whose towering pagodas, with their gilded +roofs, take the place of Hindoo temples and Mohammedan +mosques. Rangoon boasts a great antiquity; it is said +to have been founded in the sixth century before Christ, but +its new masters, the English, with their spirit of improvement, +have given it quite a modern appearance. Large +steamers in the river and warehouses along its bank, show +that the spirit of modern enterprise has invaded even this +distant part of Asia.</p> + +<p>Burmah is a country with a history, dating back far into +the past. It was once the seat of a great empire, with +a population many fold larger than now. In the interior are +to be found ruins like those in the interior of Cambodia, +which mark the sites of ancient cities, and attest the greatness +of an empire that has long since passed away. This is a +subject for the antiquarian; but I am more interested in its +present condition and its future prospects than its past history. +Burmah is now a part of the great English Empire in +the East, and it has been the scene of events which make a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span> +very thrilling chapter in the history of American Missions. +Remembering this, as soon as we got on shore we took a +gharri, and rode off to find the American missionaries, +of whom and of their work I shall have more to say. We +brought a letter also to the Chief Commissioner, Mr. Rivers +Thompson, who invited us to be his guests while in Rangoon. +This gentleman is a representative of the best class of English +officials in the East, of those conscientious and laborious +men, trained in the civil service in India, whose intelligence +and experience make the English rule such a blessing +to that country. The presence of a man of such character +and such intelligence in a position of such power—for he is +virtually the ruler of Burmah—is the greatest benefit to the +country. We shall long remember him and his excellent +wife—a true Englishwoman—for their courtesy and hospitality, +which made our visit to Rangoon so pleasant. The Government +House is out of the city, surrounded partly by the +natural forest, which was alive with monkeys, that were +perched in the trees, and leaping from branch to branch. +One species of them had a very wild and plaintive cry, +almost like that of a human creature in distress. It is said +to be the only animal whose notes range through the whole +scale. It begins low, and rises rapidly, till it reaches a pitch +at which it sounds like a far-off wail of sorrow. Every +morning we were awakened by the singing of birds, the first +sound in the forest, with which there came through the open +windows a cool, delicious air, laden with a dewy freshness as +of Spring, the exquisite sensation of a morning in the tropics. +Then came the tramp of soldiers along the walk, changing +guard. In the midst of these strange surroundings stood the +beautiful English home, with all its culture and refinement, +and the morning and evening prayers, that were a sweeter +incense to the Author of so much beauty than "the spicy +breezes that blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle." The evening drive +to the public gardens, where a band of music was playing, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span> +gave one a sight of the English residents of Rangoon, and +made even an American feel, in hearing his familiar tongue, +that he was not altogether a stranger in a strange land. The +Commissioner gave me his Report on British Burmah, made +to the Government of India. It fills a large octavo volume, +and in reading it, one is surprised to learn the extent of the +country, which is twice as large as the State of New York, +and its great natural wealth in its soil and its forests—the +resources for supporting a dense population.</p> + +<p>I found the best book on Burmah was by an American +missionary, Dr. Mason, who, while devoted to his religious +work, had the tastes of a naturalist, and wrote of the country +with the enthusiasm of a poet and a man of science.<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> He +describes the interior as of marvellous beauty, with rugged +mountains, separated by soft green valleys, in which sometimes +little lakes, like the Scottish lochs, sleep under the +shadow of the hills; and rivers whose banks are like the banks +of the Rhine. He says: "British Burmah embraces all +variety of aspect, from the flats of Holland, at the mouths of +the Irrawaddy, to the more than Scottish beauty of the mountainous +valley of the Salwen, and the Rhenish river banks of +the Irrawaddy near Prome." With the zest of an Alpine +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span> +tourist, he climbs the wild passes of the hills, and follows the +streams coursing down their sides, to where they leap in +waterfalls over precipices fifty or one hundred feet high. +Amid this picturesque scenery he finds a fauna and flora, +more varied and rich than those of any part of Europe.</p> + +<p>The country produces a great variety of tropical fruits; it +yields spices and gums; while the natives make use for many +purposes of the bamboo and the palm. The wild beasts are +hunted for their skins, and the elephants furnish ivory. But +the staples of commerce are two—rice and the teak wood. +Rice is the universal food of Burmah, as it is of India and +of China. And for timber, the teak is invaluable, as it is the +only wood that can resist the attacks of the white ants. It is +a red wood, like our cedar, and when wrought with any degree +of taste and skill, produces a pretty effect. The better +class of houses are built of this, and being raised on upright +posts, with an open story beneath, and a broad veranda above, +they look more like Swiss chalets than like the common Eastern +bungalows. The dwellings of the poorer people are mere +huts, like Irish shanties or Indian wigwams. They are constructed +only with a frame of bamboo, with mats hung between. +You could put up one as easily as you would pitch +a tent. Drive four bamboo poles in the ground, put cross +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span> +pieces and hang mats of bark, and you have a Burmese house. +To be sure it is a slender habitation—"reeds shaken with the +wind;" but it serves to cover the poor occupants, and if an +earthquake shakes it down, little harm is done. It costs +nothing for house-rent; rice is cheap, and the natives are expert +boatmen, and get a part of their living from the rivers +and the sea. Their wants are few and easily supplied. +"There is perhaps no country in the world," says Mason, +"where there are so few beggars, so little suffering, and so +much actual independence in the lower strata of society." +Thus provided for by nature, they live an easy life. Existence +is not a constant struggle. The earth brings forth +plentifully for their humble wants. They do not borrow +trouble, and are not weighed down with anxiety. Hence the +Burmese are very light-hearted and gay. In this they present +a marked contrast to some of the Asiatics. They have +more of the Mongolian cast of countenance than of the Hindoo, +and yet they are not so grave as the Hindoos on the one +hand, or as the Chinese on the other. The women have +much more freedom than in India. They do not veil +their faces, nor are they shut up in their houses. They +go about as freely as men, dressed in brilliant colored +silks, wound simply and gracefully around them, and carrying +the large Chinese umbrellas. They enjoy also the +glorious liberty of men in smoking tobacco. We meet them +with long cheroots, done up in plantain leaves, in their +mouths, grinning from ear to ear. The people are fond of +pleasure and amusement, of games and festivals, and laugh +and make merry to-day, and think not of to-morrow. This +natural and irrepressible gayety of spirit has given them the +name of the Irish of the East. Like the Irish too, they are +wretchedly improvident. Since they can live so easily, they +are content to live poorly. It should be said, however, that +up to a recent period they had no motive for saving. The +least sign of wealth was a temptation to robbery on the part +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span> +of officials. Now that they have security under the English +government, they can save, and some of the natives have +grown rich.</p> + +<p>This is one of the benefits of English rule, which make me +rejoice whenever I see the English flag in any part of Asia. +Wherever that flag flies, there is protection to property and +life; there is law and order—the first condition of civilized +society. Such a government has been a great blessing to +Burmah, as to India. It is not necessary to raise the question +how England came into possession here. It is the old +story, that when a civilized and a barbarous power come in +contact, they are apt to come into conflict. They cannot be +quiet and peaceable neighbors. Mutual irritations end in +war, and war ends in annexation. In this way, after two +wars, England acquired her possessions in the Malayan +Peninsula, and Lower Burmah became a part of the great +Indian Empire. We cannot find fault with England for +doing exactly what we should do in the same circumstances, +what we have done repeatedly with the American Indians. +Such collisions are almost inevitable. So far from regretting +that England thus "absorbed" Burmah, I only regret that +instead of taking half, she did not take the whole. For +British Burmah is not the whole of Burmah; there is still a +native kingdom on the Upper Irrawaddy, between British +Burmah and China, with a capital, Mandelay, and a sovereign +of most extraordinary character, who preserves in full force +the notions of royalty peculiar to Asiatic countries. Recently +a British envoy, Sir Douglas Forsyth, was sent to have some +negotiations with him, but there was a difficulty about having +an audience of his Majesty, owing to the peculiar +etiquette of that court, according to which he was required +to take off his boots, and get down on his knees, and approach +the royal presence on all fours! I forget how the +great question was compromised, but there is no doubt that +the King of Burmah considers himself the greatest potentate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span> +on earth. His capital is a wretched place. A Russian +gentleman whom we met in Rangoon, had just come down +from Mandelay, and he described it as the most miserable +mass of habitations that ever assumed to be called a city. +There were no roads, no carriages, no horses, only a few bullock +carts. Yet the lord of this capital thinks it a great +metropolis, and himself a great sovereign, and no one about +him dares tell him to the contrary. He is an absolute despot, +and has the power of life and death, which he exercises +on any who excite his displeasure. He has but to speak a +word or raise a hand, and the object of his wrath is led to +execution. Suspicion makes him cruel, and death is sometimes +inflicted by torture or crucifixion. Formerly bodies +were often seen suspended to crosses along the river. Of +course no one dares to provoke such a master by telling him +the truth. Not long ago he sent a mission to Europe, and +when his ambassadors returned, they reported to the King +that "London and Paris were very respectable cities, but not +to be compared to Mandelay!" This was repeated to me by +the captain of the steamer which brought them back, who +said one of them told him they did not dare to say anything +else; that they would lose their heads if they should intimate +to his majesty that there was on the earth a greater sovereign +than himself.</p> + +<p>But in spite of his absolute authority, this old King lives +in constant terror, and keeps himself shut up in his palace, +or within the walls of his garden, not daring to stir abroad +for fear of assassination.</p> + +<p>It requires a few hard knocks to get a little sense into +such a thick head; and if in the course of human events the +English were called to administer these, we should be sweetly +submissive to the ordering of Providence.</p> + +<p>But though so ignorant of the world, this old king is +accounted a learned man among his people, and is quite religious +after his fashion. Indeed he is reported to have said +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> +to an English gentleman that "the English were a great +people, but what a pity that they had no religion!" In his +own faith he is very "orthodox." He will not have any +"Dissenters" about him—not he. If any man has doubts, +let him keep them to himself, lest the waters of the Irrawaddy +roll over his unbelieving breast.</p> + +<p>But in the course of nature this holy man will be gathered +to his rest, and then his happy family may perhaps not live +in such perfect harmony. He is now sixty-five years old, +and has <i>thirty sons</i>, so that the question of succession is +somewhat difficult, as there is no order of primogeniture. +He has the right to choose an heir; and has been urged to +do so by his English neighbors, to obviate all dispute to the +succession. But he did this once and it raised a storm about +his ears. The twenty-nine sons that were not chosen, with +their respective mothers, raised such a din about his head +that the poor man was nearly distracted, and was glad to +revoke his decision, to keep peace in the family. He keeps +his sons under strict surveillance lest they should assassinate +him. But if he thus gets peace in his time, he leaves things +in a state of glorious uncertainty after his death. Then +there may be a household divided against itself. Perhaps +they will fall out like the Kilkenny cats. If there should +be a disputed succession, and a long and bloody civil war, it +might be a duty for their strong neighbors, "in the interest +of humanity," to step in and settle the dispute by taking the +country for themselves. Who could regret an issue that +should put an end to the horrible oppression and tyranny of +the native government, with its cruel punishments, its tortures +and crucifixions?</p> + +<p>It would give the English the mastery of a magnificent +country. The valley of the Irrawaddy is rich as the valley +of the Nile, and only needs "law and order" for the wilderness +to bud and blossom as the rose. Should the English +take Upper Burmah, the great East Indian Empire would be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span> +extended over the whole South of Asia, and up to the borders +of China.</p> + +<p>But the excellent Chief Commissioner has no dream of +annexation, his only ambition being to govern justly the +people entrusted to his care; to protect them in their rights; +to put down violence and robbery, for the country has been +in such a fearful state of disorganization, that the interior +has been overrun with bands of robbers. Dacoity, as it is +called, has been the terror of the country, as much as brigandage +has been of Sicily. But the English are now putting +it down with a strong hand. To develop the resources of +the country, the Government seeks to promote internal communication +and foreign commerce. At Rangoon the track +is already laid for a railroad up the country to Prome. The +seaports are improved and made safe for ships. With such +facilities Burmah may have a large commerce, for which she +has ample material. Her vast forests of teak would supply +the demand of all Southern Asia; while the rice from the +delta of the Irrawaddy may in the future, as in the past, feed +the millions of India who might otherwise die from famine.</p> + +<p>With the establishment of this civilized rule there opens a +prospect for the future of Burmah, which shall be better +than the old age of splendid tyranny. Says Mason: "The +golden age when Pegu was the land of gold, and the Irrawaddy +the river of gold, has passed away, and the country +degenerated into the land of paddy (rice), and the stream +into the river of teak. Yet its last days are its best days. +If the gold has vanished, so has oppression; if the gems +have fled, so have the taskmasters; if the palace of the +Brama of Toungoo, who had twenty-six crowned heads at +his command, is in ruins, the slave is free." The poor native +has now some encouragement to cultivate his rice field, for +its fruit will not be taken from him. The great want of the +country is the same as that of the Western States of America—population. +British Burmah has but three millions of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span> +inhabitants, while, if the country were as thickly settled as +Belgium and Holland, or as some parts of Asia, it might +support thirty millions. Such a population cannot come at +once, or in a century, but the country may look for a slow +but steady growth from the overflow of India and China, +that shall in time rebuild its waste places, and plant towns +and cities along its rivers.</p> + +<p>While thus interested in the political state of Burmah we +cannot forget its religion. In coming from India to Farther +India we have found not only a new race, but a new faith +and worship. While Brahminism rules the great Southern +Peninsula of Asia, Buddhism is the religion of Eastern Asia, +numbering more adherents than any other religion on the +globe. Of this new faith one may obtain some idea by a visit +to the Great Pagoda. The Buddhists, like the priests of +some other religions, choose lofty sites for their places of worship, +which, as they overtop the earth, seem to raise them +nearer to heaven. The Great Pagoda stands on a hill, or +rocky ledge, which overlooks the city of Rangoon and the +valley of the Irrawaddy. It is approached by a long flight of +steps, which is occupied, like the approaches to the ancient +temple in Jerusalem, by them that buy and sell, so that it is +a kind of bazaar, and also by lepers and blind men, who +stretch out their hands to ask for alms of those who mount +the sacred hill to pray. Ascending to the summit, we find a +plateau, on which there is an enclosure of perhaps an acre or +two of ground. The Pagoda is a colossal structure, with a +broad base like a pyramid, though round in shape, sloping +upwards to a slender cone, which tapers at last to a sort of +spire over three hundred feet high, and as the whole, from +base to pinnacle, is covered with gold leaf, it presents a very +dazzling appearance, when it reflects the rays of the sun. As a +pagoda is always a solid mass of masonry, with no inner place +of worship—not even a shrine, or a chamber like that in the +heart of the Great Pyramid—there was more of fervor than of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span> +fitness in the language of an English friend of missions, who +prayed "that the pagodas might resound with the praises of +God!" They might resound, but it must needs be on the outside. +The tall spire has for its extreme point, what architects +call a finial—a kind of umbrella, which the Burmese call a +"htee," made of a series of iron rings gilded, from which hang +many little silver and brass bells, which, swinging to and fro +with every passing breeze, give forth a dripping musical sound. +The Buddhist idea of prayer is not limited to human speech; +it may be expressed by an offering of flowers, or the tinkling +of a bell. It is at least a pretty fancy, which leads them +to suspend on every point and pinnacle of their pagodas +these tiny bells, whose soft, aërial chimes sound sweetly in +the air, and floating upward, fill the ear of heaven with a +constant melody. Besides the Great Pagoda, there are other +smaller pagodas, one of which has lately been decorated with +a magnificent "htee," presented by a rich timber merchant +of Maulmain. It is said to have cost fifty thousand dollars, +as we can well believe, since it is gemmed with diamonds and +other precious stones. There was a great festival when +it was set up in its place, which was kept up for several +days, and is just over. At the same time he presented an +elephant for the service of the temple, who, being thus consecrated, +is of course a sacred beast. We met him taking +his morning rounds, and very grand he was, with his crimson +and gold trappings and howdah, and as he swung along with +becoming gravity, he was a more dignified object than the +worshippers around him. But the people were very good-natured, +and we walked about in their holy places, and made +our observations with the utmost freedom. In the enclosure +are many pavilions, some of which are places for worship, +and others rest-houses for the people. The idols are hideous +objects, as all idols are, though perhaps better looking than +those of the Hindoos. They represent Buddha in all positions, +before whose image candles are kept burning. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span></p> + +<p>In the grounds is an enormous bell, which is constantly +struck by the worshippers, till its deep vibrations make the +very air around holy with prayer. With my American +curiosity to see the inside of everything, I crawled under it +(it was hung but a few inches above the ground), and rose +up within the hollow bronze, which had so long trembled +with pious devotion. But at that moment it hung in silence, +and I crawled back again, lest by some accident the enormous +weight should fall and put an extinguisher on my further +comparative study of religions. This bell serves another +purpose in the worship of Buddhists. They strike upon it +before saying their prayers, to attract the attention of the +recording angel, so that they may get due credit for their +act of piety. Those philosophical spirits who admire all religions +but the Christian, will observe in this a beautiful economy +in their devotions. They do not wish their prayers to +be wasted. By getting due allowance for them, they not +only keep their credit good, but have a balance in their favor. +It is the same economy which leads them to attach prayers to +water-wheels and windmills, by which the greatest amount of +praying may be done with the least possible amount of labor +or time. The one object of the Buddhist religion seems to +be to attain merit, according to the amount of which they +will spend more or less time in the realm of spirits before +returning to this cold world, and on which depends also the +form they will assume on their reincarnation. Among those +who sit at the gate of the temple as we approach, are holy +men, who, by a long course of devotion, have accumulated +such a stock of merit that they have enough and to spare, +and are willing to part with it for a consideration to others +less fortunate than themselves. It is the old idea of works +of supererogation over again, in which, as in many other +things, they show the closest resemblance to Romanism.</p> + +<p>But however puerile it may be in its forms of worship, +yet as a religion Buddhism is an immeasurable advance on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span> +Brahminism. In leaving India we have left behind Hindooism, +and are grateful for the change, for Buddhism is altogether +a more respectable religion. It has no bloody rites like +those of the goddess Kali. It does not outrage decency nor +morality. It has no obscene images nor obscene worship. It +has no caste, with its bondage and its degradation. Indeed, the +scholar who makes a study of different religions, will rank +Buddhism among the best of those which are uninspired; if +he does not find in its origin and in the life of its founder +much that looks even like inspiration. There is no doubt that +Buddha, or Gaudama, if such a man ever lived (of which +there is perhaps no more reason to doubt than of any of the +great characters of antiquity), began his career of a religious +teacher, as a reformer of Brahminism, with the honest and +noble purpose of elevating the faith, and purifying the lives +of mankind. Mason, as a Christian missionary, certainly +did not desire to exaggerate the virtues of another religion, +and yet he writes of the origin of Buddhism:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +"Three hundred years before Alexandria was founded; about the +time that Thales, the most ancient philosopher of Europe, was +teaching in Greece that water is the origin of all things, the soul of +the world; and Zoroaster, in Media or Persia, was systematizing the +fire-worship of the Magi; and Confucius in China was calling on the +teeming multitudes around him to offer to guardian spirits and the +names of their ancestors; and Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden +image in the plains of Dura, and Daniel was laboring in Babylon to +establish the worship of the true God; a reverend sage, with his +staff and scrip, who had left a throne for philosophy, was travelling +from Gaya to Benares, and from Benares to Kanouj, exhorting the +people against theft, falsehood, adultery, killing and intemperance. +No temperance lecturer advocates teetotalism now more strongly +than did this sage Gaudama twenty-three centuries ago. Nor did +he confine his instructions to external vices. Pride, anger, lust, +envy and covetousness were condemned by him in as strong terms +as are ever heard from the Christian pulpit. Love, mercy, patience, +self-denial, alms-giving, truth, and the cultivation of wisdom, he +required of all. Good actions, good words, and good thoughts were +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span> +the frequent subjects of his sermons, and he was unceasing in his +cautions to keep the mind free from the turmoils of passion, and +the cares of life. Immediately after the death of this venerable +peripatetic, his disciples scattered themselves abroad to propagate +the doctrines of their master, and tradition says, one party entered +the principal mouth of the Irrawaddy, where they traced its banks +to where the first rocks lift themselves abruptly above the flats +around. Here, on the summit of this laterite ledge, one hundred and +sixty feet above the river, they erected the standard of Buddhism, +which now lifts its spire to the heavens higher than the dome of St. +Paul's." +</p> +</div> + +<p>In its practical effects Buddhism is favorable to virtue; +and its adherents, so far as they follow it, are a quiet and +inoffensive people. They are a kind of Quakers, who follow +an inward light, and whose whole philosophy of life is one of +repression of natural desires. Their creed is a mixture of +mysticism and stoicism, which by gentle meditation subdues +the mind to "a calm and heavenly frame," a placid indifference +to good or ill, to joy or sorrow, to pleasure and pain. +It teaches that by subduing the desires—pride, envy, and +ambition—one brings himself into a state of tranquillity, in +which there is neither hope nor fear. It is easy to see +where such a creed is defective; that it does not bring out +the heroic virtues, as shown in active devotion to others' +good. This active philanthropy is born of Christianity. +There is a spiritual selfishness in dreaming life away in this +idle meditation. But so far as others are concerned, it bids +no man wrong his neighbor.</p> + +<p>Buddha's table of the law may be compared with that of +Moses. Instead of Ten Commandments, it has only Five, +which correspond very nearly to the latter half of the Decalogue. +Indeed three of them are precisely the same, viz.: +Do not kill; Do not steal; and Do not commit adultery; +and the fourth, Do not lie, includes, as a broader statement, +the Mosaic command not to bear false witness against one's +neighbor; but the last one of all, instead of being "not to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span> +covet," is, Do not become intoxicated. These commands are +all prohibitions, and enforce only the negative side of virtue. +They forbid injury to property and life and reputation, +and thus every injury to one's neighbor, and the last of all +forbids injury to one's self, while they do not urge active +benevolence to man nor piety towards God.</p> + +<p>These Five Commandments are the rule of life for all men. +But to those who aspire to a more purely religious life, there +are other and stricter rules. They are required to renounce +the world, to live apart, and practice rigid austerities, in +order to bring the body into subjection. Every day is to be +one of abstinence and self-denial. To them are given five +other commands, in addition to those prescribed to mankind +generally. They must take no solid food after noon (a fast +not only Friday, but every day of the week); they must +not visit dances, singing or theatrical representations; must +use no ornaments or perfumery in dress; must not sleep in +luxurious beds, and while living by alms, accept neither gold +nor silver. By this rigid self-discipline, they are expected to +be able to subdue their appetites and passions and overcome +the world.</p> + +<p>This monastic system is one point of resemblance between +Buddhism and Romanism. Both have orders of monks and +nuns, who take vows of celibacy and poverty, and live in +convents and monasteries. There is also a close resemblance +in their forms of worship. Both have their holy shrines, +and use images and altars, before which flowers are placed, +and lamps are always burning. Both chant and pray in an +unknown tongue.<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span></p> + +<p>This resemblance of the Buddhist creed and worship to +their own, the Jesuit missionaries have been quick to see, +and with their usual artfulness have tried to use it as an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span> +argument to smooth the way for the conversion of the +Asiatics by representing the change as a slight one. But +the Buddhist, not to be outdone in quickness, answers that +the difference is so slight that it is not worth making the +change. The only difference, they say, is "we worship a +man and you worship a woman!"</p> + +<p>But Christianity has had other representatives in Burmah +than the Jesuits. At an early day American missionaries, +as if they could not go far enough away from home, in their +zeal to carry the Gospel where it had not been preached before, +sought a field of labor in Southeastern Asia. More +than sixty years ago they landed on these shores. They +planted no colonies, waged no wars, raised no flag, and made +no annexation. The only flag they carried over them was +that of the Gospel of peace. And yet in the work they +wrought they have left a memorial which will long preserve +their sainted and heroic names. While in Rangoon I took +up again "The Life of Judson" by Dr. Wayland, and read it +with new interest on the very spot which had been the scene +of his labors. Nothing in the whole history of missions is +more thrilling than the story of his imprisonment. It was +during the second Burmese war. He was at that time at +Ava, the capital of Burmah, where he had been in favor till +now, when the king, enraged at the English, seized all that +he could lay hands upon, and threw them into prison. He +could not distinguish an American, who had the same features +and spoke the same language, and so Judson shared +the fate of the rest. One day his house was entered by an +officer and eight or ten men, one of whom he recognized +by his hideous tattooed face as the executioner, who seized +him in the midst of his family, threw him on the floor, drew +out the instrument of torture, the small cord, with which he +bound him, and hurried him to the death prison, where he +was chained, as were the other foreigners, each with three +pairs of fetters to a pole. He expected nothing but death, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span> +but the imprisonment dragged on for months, varied with +every device of horror and of cruelty. Often he was chained +to the vilest malefactors. Sometimes he was cast into an +inner prison, which was like the Black Hole of Calcutta, +where his limbs were confined with five pairs of fetters. So +loathsome was his prison, that he counted it the greatest +favor and indulgence, when, after a fever, he was allowed to +sleep in the cage of a dead lion! This lasted nearly two +years. Several times his keepers had orders (as they confessed +afterward) to assassinate him, but, restrained perhaps +by pity for his wife, they withheld their hand, thinking that +disease would soon do the work for them.</p> + +<p>During all that long and dreadful time his wife watched +over him with never-failing devotion. She could not sleep +in the prison, but every day she dragged herself two miles +through the crowded city, carrying food for her husband and +the other English prisoners. During that period a child was +born, whose first sight of its father was within prison walls. +Some time after even his heathen jailors took pity on him, +and allowed him to take a little air in the street outside of +the prison gate. And history does not present a more touching +scene than that of this man, when his wife was ill, carrying +his babe through the streets from door to door, asking +Burman mothers, in the sacred name of maternity, of that +instinct of motherhood which is universal throughout the +world, to give nourishment to this poor, emaciated, and dying +child.</p> + +<p>But at length a day of deliverance came. The English +army had taken Rangoon and was advancing up the Irrawaddy. +Then all was terror at Ava, and the tyrant that had +thrown Judson into a dungeon, sent to bring him out and +to beg him to go to the English camp to be his interpreter, +and to sue for terms of peace. He went and was received +with the honor due to his character and his sufferings. But +the heroine of the camp was that noble American woman, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span> +whose devotion had saved, not only the life of her husband, +but the lives of all the English prisoners. The commander-in-chief +received her as if she had been an empress, and at a +great dinner given to the Burmese ambassadors placed her at +his right hand, in the presence of the very men to whom she +had often been to beg for mercy, and had been often driven +brutally from their doors. The tables were turned, and they +were the ones to ask for mercy now. They sat uneasy, giving +restless glances at the missionary's wife, as if fearing lest +a sudden burst of womanly indignation should impel her to +demand the punishment of those who had treated her with +such cruelty. But they were quite safe. She would not +touch a hair of their heads. Too happy in the release of the +one she loved, her heart was overflowing with gratitude, and +she felt no desire but to live among this people, and to do +good to those from whom she had suffered so much. They +removed to Amherst, at the mouth of the Maulmain River, +and had built a pretty home, and were beginning to realize +their dream of missionary life, when she was taken ill, and, +broken by her former hardships, soon sank in death.</p> + +<p>Probably "The Life of Judson" has interested American +Christians in Burmah more than all the histories and geographical +descriptions put together. General histories have +never the interest of a personal narrative, and the picture of +Judson in a dungeon, wearing manacles on his limbs, exposed +to death in its most terrible forms, to be tortured or +to be crucified, and finally saved by the devotion of his wife, +has touched the hearts of the American people more than all +the learned histories of Eastern Asia that ever were written.</p> + +<p>And when I stood at a humble grave on Amherst Point, +looking out upon the sea, and read upon the stone the name +of <span class="smcap">Ann Hasseltine Judson</span>, and thought of that gentle +American wife, coming out from the peace and protection of +her New England home to face such dangers, I felt that I +had never bent over the dust of one more worthy of all the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span> +honors of womanhood and sainthood; tender and shrinking, +but whom love made strong and brave; who walked among +coarse and brutal men, armed only with her own native modesty +and dignity: who by the sick-bed or in a prison cast +light in a dark place by her sweet presence; and who united +all that is noble in woman's love and courage and devotion.</p> + +<p>Judson survived this first wife about a quarter of a century—a +period full of labor, and in its later years, full of precious +fruit. That was the golden autumn of his life. He that had +gone forth weeping, bearing precious seed, came again rejoicing, +bringing his sheaves with him. I wish the Church +in America could see what has been achieved by that well-spent +life. Most of his fellow-laborers have gone to their +rest, though Mr. and Mrs. Bennett at Rangoon, and Dr. and +Mrs. Haswell at Maulmain, still live to tell of the trials and +struggles of those early days.<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> And now appears the fruit of +all those toilsome years. The mission that was weak has +grown strong. In Rangoon there are a number of missionaries, +who have not only established churches and Christian +schools, but founded a College and a Theological Seminary. +They have a Printing Press, under the charge of the veteran +Mr. Bennett, who has been here forty-six years. In the interior +are churches in great numbers. The early missionaries +found a poor people—a sort of lower caste among the Burmese—the +Karens. It may almost be said that they caught +them in the woods and tamed them. They first reduced their +language to writing; they gave them books and schools, and +to-day there are twenty thousand of this people who are +members of their churches. In the interior there are many +Christian villages, with native churches and native pastors, +supported by the people themselves, whose deep poverty +abounds to their liberality in a way that recalls Apostolic +times.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span></p> + +<p>The field which has been the scene of such toils and sacrifices +properly belongs to the denomination which has given +such examples of Christian devotion. The Baptists were the +first to enter the country, led by an apostle. The Mission +in Burmah is the glory of the Baptist Church, as that of the +Sandwich Islands is of the American Board. They have a +sort of right to the land by reason of first occupancy—a +right made sacred by these early and heroic memories; and I +trust will be respected by other Christian bodies in the exercise +of that comity which ought to exist between Churches +as between States, in the possession of a field which they +have cultivated with so much zeal, wisdom, and success.</p> + +<p class="p2">It is not till one leaves Rangoon that he sees the beauty +of Burmah. The banks of the Irrawaddy, like those of the +Hoogly, are low and jungly; but as we glide from the river +into the sea, and turn southward, the shores begin to rise, +till after a few hours' sail we might be on the coast of Wales +or of Scotland. The next morning found us at anchor off the +mouth of the Salwen River. The steamers of the British +India Company stop at all the principal ports, and we were +now to pass up the river to Maulmain. But the Malda was +too large to cross the bar except at very high tide, for which +we should have to wait over a day. The prospect of resting +here under a tropical sun, and in full sight of the shore, was +not inviting, and we looked about for some way of escape. +Fortunately we had on board Miss Haswell, of the well-known +missionary family, who had gone up from Maulmain +to Rangoon to see some friends off for America, and was now +returning. With such an interpreter and guide, we determined +to go on shore, and hailing a pilot-boat, went down +the ship's ladder, and jumped on board. The captain thought +us very rash, as the sea was rough, and the boat rose and +plunged in waves; but the Malays are like seagulls on +the water, and raising their sail, made of bamboo poles, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> +and rush matting, we flew before the wind, and were soon +landed at Amherst Point. This was holy ground, for here +Judson had lived, and here his wife died and was buried. +Her grave is on the sea-shore, but a few rods from the water, +and we went straight to it. It is a low mound, with a plain +headstone, around which an American sea captain had placed +a wooden paling to guard the sacred spot. There she sleeps, +with only the murmur of the waves, as they come rippling up +the beach, to sing her requiem. But her name will not die, +and in all the world, where love and heroism are remembered, +what this woman hath done shall be told for a memorial of +her. Her husband is not here, for (as the readers of his life +will remember) his last years were spent at Maulmain, from +which he was taken, when very ill, on board a vessel, bound +for the Mauritius, in hope that a voyage might save him when +all other means had failed, and died at sea when but four +days out, and was committed to the deep in the Bay of Bengal. +One cannot but regret that he did not die on land, that +he might have been buried beside his wife in the soil of +Burmah; but it is something that he is not far away, and +the waters that roll over him kiss its beloved shores.</p> + +<p>Miss Haswell led the way up the beach to the little house +which Judson had built. It was unoccupied, but there was +an old bedstead on which the apostle had slept, and I +stretched myself upon it, feeling that I caught as much inspiration +lying there as when I lay down in the sarcophagus +of Cheops in the heart of the Great Pyramid. We found a +rude table too, which we drew out upon the veranda, and a +family of native Christians brought us rice and milk and +eggs, with which we made a breakfast in native style. The +family of Miss Haswell once occupied this mission house, +and it was quite enlivening to hear, as we sat there quietly +taking our rice and milk, how the tigers used to come around +and make themselves at home, snuffing about the doors, and +carrying off dogs from the veranda, and killing a buffalo in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> +the front yard. They are not quite so familiar now along +the coast, but in the interior one can hardly go through a +forest without coming on their tracks. Only last year Miss +Haswell, on her way to attend the meeting of an association, +camped in the woods. She found the men were getting +sleepy, and neglected the fire, and so she kept awake, and sat +up to throw on the wood. It was well, for in the night suddenly +all the cattle sprang up with every sign of terror, and +there came on the air that strong smell which none who have +perceived it can mistake, which shows that a tiger is near. +Doubtless he was peering at them through the covert, and +nothing but the blazing fire kept him away.</p> + +<p>After our repast, we took a ride in native style. A pair +of oxen was brought to the door, with a cart turned up at +both ends, in such a manner that those riding in it were +dumped into a heap; and thus well shaken together, we rode +down to the shore, where we had engaged a boat to take us +up the river. It was a long slender skiff, which, with its +covering of bamboo bent over it, was in shape not unlike a +gondola of Venice. The arch of its roof was of course not +very lofty; we could not stand up, but we could sit or lie +down, and here we stretched ourselves in glorious ease, and +as a pleasant breeze came in from the sea, our little bark +moved swiftly before it. The captain of our boat was a +venerable-looking native, like some of the Arabs we saw on +the Nile, with two boatmen for his "crew," stout fellows, +whose brawny limbs were not confined by excess of clothing. +In fact, they had on only a single garment, a kind of French +blouse, which, by way of variety, they took off and washed +in the river as we sailed along. However, they had another +clout for a change, which they drew over them with great +dexterity before they took off the first, so as not to offend us. +Altogether the scene was not unlike what some of my readers +may have witnessed on one of our Southern rivers; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span> +if we could only have had the rich voices of the negro boatmen, +singing</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +"Down on the Alabama,"</p> +</div> +<p>the illusion would have been complete. Thus in a dreamy +mood, and with a gentle motion, we glided up the beautiful +Salwen, between low banks covered with forests, a distance of +thirty miles, till at five o'clock we reached the lower end of +Maulmain, and went ashore, and rode two or three miles up +the river to Dr. Haswell's, where Miss H. claimed C—— for +her guest, while I was entertained at her brother's in the old +missionary compound, where Dr. Judson lived for so many +years, and which he left only to die. These American +friends, with their kind hospitalities, made us feel quite at +home in Burmah; and as if to bring still nearer Christian +England and America, we were taken the same evening to a +prayer-meeting at the house of an English officer who is in +command here, where they sang Sankey's hymns!</p> + +<p>Maulmain is a place of great natural beauty. Though on +the river, it rises from the water's edge in steep and wooded +banks, and has a background of hills. One can hardly find +a lovelier view in all the East than that from the hill behind +it, on which stands an old Buddhist monastery and pagoda. +Here the eye ranges over a distance of many miles. Several +rivers which flow together give the country the appearance +of being covered with water, out of which rise many +elevated points, like islands in a sea. In clear weather, after +the rains, one may see on the horizon the distant peaks of +the mountains in Siam. This was a favorite resort of Dr. +Judson, who, being a man of great physical as well as intellectual +vigor, was fond of walking, and loved to climb the +hills. Miss Haswell, who as a child remembered him, told +us how she once saw him here "playing tag" with his wife, +chasing her as she ran down the hill. This picture of the +old man delighted me—to think that not all his labors and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span> +sufferings could subdue that unconquerable spirit, but that +he retained even to old age the freshness of a boy, and was +as hearty in play as in preaching. This is the sort of muscular +Christians that are needed to face the hardships of a missionary +life—men who will not faint in the heat of the +tropics, nor falter at the prospect of imprisonment or death.</p> + +<p>While we stood here the Buddhist monks were climbing +slowly up the hill, and I could but think of the difference +between our intrepid missionary and these languid, not to +say lazy, devotees. We had a good chance to observe them, +and to remark their resemblance to similar orders in the +Church of Rome. The Buddhist monk, like his Romish +brother, shaves his head, eats no animal food (the command +of Buddha not to kill, is interpreted not to take life of any +kind), and lives only by the alms of the faithful. Seeing +them here, with their shaven heads and long robes, going +about the streets, stopping before the doors to receive their +daily tributes of rice, one is constantly reminded of the mendicant +friars of Italy. They live in monasteries, which are +generally situated, like this, on the tops of hills, retired +from the world, where they keep together for mutual instruction, +and to join in devotion. They do no work except to +cultivate the grounds of the temple, but give up their lives +to meditation and to prayer.</p> + +<p>It would be wrong to speak of such men but with proper +respect. They are quiet and inoffensive; some of them are +learned; still more are serious and devout. Says Dr. Williams: +"Their largest monasteries contain extensive libraries, +and a portion of the fraternity are well acquainted with letters, +though numbers of them are ignorant even of their +own books." "Their moral character, as a class, is on a +par with their countrymen, and many of them are respectable, +intelligent, and sober-minded persons, who seem to be +sincerely desirous of making themselves better, if possible, +by their religious observances." +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span></p> + +<p>But this life of a recluse, while favorable to study and +meditation, does not inspire active exertion. Indeed the +whole Buddhist philosophy of life seems to be comprised in +this, that man should dream away existence here on earth, +and then lapse into a dreamy eternity.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +"To be or not to be, that's the question;"</p> +</div> + +<p>and for them it seems better "not to be." Their heaven—their +Nirvana—is annihilation, yet not absolute non-existence, +but only absorption of their personality, so that their separate +being is swallowed up and lost in God. They will still be conscious, +but have no hope and no fear, no dread and no desire, +but only survey existence with the ineffable calm of the Infinite +One. This passive, emotionless state is expressed in +all the statues and images of Buddha.</p> + +<p>If that be heaven, it is not earth; and they who pass life +in a dream are not the men to revolutionize the world. This +whole monastery, full of monks, praying and chanting for generations, +cannot so stir the mind of Asia, or make its power +felt even in Burmah, as one heroic man like Judson.</p> + +<p>Miss Haswell belongs to a family of missionaries. Her +father and mother were companions of Judson, and the +children are in one way and another devoted to the same +work. She has a school for girls, which is said to be +the best in Burmah. The Chief Commissioner at Rangoon +spoke of it in the highest terms, and makes special mention +of it in his Report. She told us with great modesty, and +almost with a feeling of shame, of the struggle and mortification +with which she had literally "begged" the money +for it in America. But never did good seed scattered on the +waters bear richer fruit. If a deputation from all the Baptist +churches which contributed to that school could but pay +it a visit, and see what it is doing, it would never want for +funds hereafter.</p> + +<p>Burmah is a country which needs all good influences—moral +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span> +and religious. It needs also a strong government, just +laws rigidly enforced, to keep peace and order in the land. +For though the people are so gay and merry, there is a fearful +degree of crime. In Maulmain there is a prison, which +holds over a thousand prisoners, many of whom have been +guilty of the worst crimes. A few days since there was an +outbreak, and an attempt to escape. A number got out of +the gate, and were running till they were brought up by shots +from the military. Seven were killed and seven wounded. +I went through this prison one morning with the physician +as he made his rounds. As we entered a man was brought +up who had been guilty of some insubordination. He had +once attempted to kill the jailer. The Doctor inquired +briefly into the offence, and said, without further words: +"Give him fifteen cuts." Instantly the man was seized and +tied, arms extended, and legs fastened, so that he could not +move, and his back uncovered, and an attendant standing off, +so that he could give his arm full swing, gave him fifteen +cuts that made the flesh start up like whip-cord, and the +blood run. The man writhed with agony, but did not +scream. I suppose such severity is necessary, but it was a +very painful sight. In the hospital we found some of the +prisoners who had been concerned in the mutiny. The ringleader +had been shot in the leg, which had been amputated. +They had found that the ways of transgressors were hard.</p> + +<p>Continuing our walk, we went through the different workshops, +and saw the kinds of labor to which the men were +put, such as making chairs of bamboo, weaving cloth, beating +cocoanut husks to make stuff for mattresses, carving, making +furniture, blacksmithing, &c. The worst offenders were put +to grinding corn, as that was a species of labor in which they +had no tools which could be used as deadly weapons. The +men in this ward—perhaps a hundred in number—were desperate +characters. They were almost all highway robbers, +Dacoits, bands of whom have long been the terror of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span> +country. They all had irons on their ankles, and stood up +to their tasks, working with their hands. I was not sorry +to see "their feet made fast in the stocks," for in looking +into their savage faces, one could but feel that he would +rather see them in chains and behind iron bars, than meet +them alone in a forest.</p> + +<p>But I turn to a more agreeable spectacle. It is sometimes +more pleasant to look at animals than at men, certainly when +men make beasts of themselves, and when, on the other +hand, animals show an intelligence almost human. One of +the great industries of Burmah is the timber trade. The +teak wood, which is the chief timber cut and shipped, is very +heavy, and requires prodigious force to handle it; and as the +Burmese are not far enough advanced to use machinery for +the purpose, they employ elephants, and bravely do the noble +beasts perform their task. In the timber yards both at Rangoon +and at Maulmain, all the heavy work of drawing and +piling the logs is done by them. I have never seen any animals +showing such intelligence, and trained to such docility +and obedience. In the yard that we visited there were seven +elephants, five of which were at that moment at work. Their +wonderful strength came into play in moving huge pieces of +timber. I did not measure the logs, but should think that +many were at least twenty feet long and a foot square. Yet +a male elephant would stoop down, and run his tusks under +a log, and throw his trunk over it, and walk off with it as +lightly as a gentleman would balance his bamboo cane on the +tip of his finger. Placing it on the pile, he would measure +it with his eye, and if it projected too far at either end, +would walk up to it, and with a gentle push or pull, make +the pile even. If a still heavier log needed to be moved on +the ground to some part of the yard, the mahout, sitting on +the elephant's head, would tell him what to do, and the great +creature seemed to have a perfect understanding of his +master's will. He would put out his enormous foot, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span> +push it along; or he would bend his head, and crouching +half way to the ground, and doubling up his trunk in front, +throw his whole weight against it, and thus, like a ram, +would "butt" the log into its place; or if it needed to be +taken a greater distance, he would put a chain around it, +and drag it off behind him. The female elephant especially +was employed in drawing, as having no tusks, she could not +lift like her big brothers, but could only move by her power +of traction or attraction. Then using her trunk as deftly as +a lady would use her fingers, she would untie the knot or +unhitch the chain, and return to her master, perhaps putting +out her trunk to receive a banana as a reward for her good +conduct. It was a very pretty sight, and gave us a new idea +of the value of these noble creatures, and of the way in which +they can be trained for the service of man, since they can be +not only made subject to his will, but taught to understand +it, thus showing equal intelligence and docility.</p> + +<p>After a day or two thus pleasantly passed, we went on +board the Malda (which had finally got over the bar and +come up to Maulmain), and dropped down the river, and +were soon sailing along the coast, which grows more beautiful +as we steam southward. We pass a great number of +islands, which form the Mergui Archipelago, and just now +might be off the shores of Greece. Within these sheltered +waters is Tavoy, from which it is proposed to build a road +over the mountains to Bangkok in Siam. There has long +been a path through the dense forest, but one that could only +be traversed by elephants. Now it is proposed to have a +good road, the expense to be borne by the two kingdoms. Is +not this a sign of progress, of an era of peace and good will? +Formerly Burmah and Siam were always at war. Being +neighbors and rivals, they were "natural enemies," as much +as were France and England. But now the strong English +hand imposes peace, and the two countries seek a closer connection. +The road thus inaugurated will bind them together, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> +and prove not only an avenue of commerce but a +highway of civilization.</p> + +<p>At Penang we enter the Straits of Malacca, on one side of +which is the Malayan Peninsula, and on the other the island +of Sumatra, which is larger than all Great Britain, and +where just now, at this upper end, the Dutch have a war on +their hands. Penang is opposite Acheen, and the Malays, +who are engaged in such a desperate resistance to the Dutch, +often cross the Straits, and may be seen at any time in the +streets of the English settlement. Perhaps it is but natural +that the English should have a sympathy with these natives, +who are defending their country against invaders, though I +do not perceive that this makes them more ready to yield +the ground on their own side of the Straits, where just now, +at Perak, they have a little war of their own. To this war +in Acheen I may refer again, when I come to write of the +Dutch power in Java.</p> + +<p>Bayard Taylor celebrates Penang as "the most beautiful +island in the world," which is a great deal for one to say who +has travelled so far and seen so much. I could not be quite +so enthusiastic, and yet I do not wonder at any degree of +rapture in one who climbs the Peak of Penang, which commands +a view not only of the town and harbor below, but of +other islands and waters, as well as of mountains and valleys +in the interior, which are a part of Siam. Turning seaward, +and looking down, this little island of Penang appears as the +gem of the scene—a mass of the richest tropical vegetation, +set in the midst of tropical seas.</p> + +<p>We were now in the tropics indeed. We had been for +weeks, but we had a more "realizing sense" of it as we got +into the lower latitudes. The heat grew intense as we approached +the Equator. One after another we laid aside the +garments of the colder North, and put on the lightest and +thinnest costume, till we did not know but our only relief +would be that suggested by Sydney Smith, "to take off our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span> +flesh and sit in our bones." With double awnings spread +over the deck, and the motion of the ship stirring the air, +still the vertical sun was quite overpowering. We were +obliged to keep on deck day and night, although there was +ample room below. As there were but eight passengers in +the cabin, each had a state-room; but with all this space, and +portholes wide open, still it was impossible to keep cool. An +iron ship becomes so heated that the state-rooms are like +ovens. So we had to take refuge on deck. Every evening +the servants appeared, bringing our mattresses, which were +spread on the skylight above the cabin. This was very well +for the gentlemen of our company, but offered no relief of +coolness for our only lady passenger. But a couple of gallant +young Englishmen, who with us were making the tour +of the world, were determined that she should not be imprisoned +below, and they set up on deck a screen, in which +she was enclosed as in a tent; and not Cleopatra, when +floating in her gilded barge, reclined more royally than she, +thus lifted up into the cool night air. Then we all had our +reward. The glory of the night made up for the fervors of +the day. From our pillows we looked out upon the sea, and +as the hot day brought thunderstorms, the lightning playing +on the distant horizon lighted up the watery leagues around, +till it seemed as if we were</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"> +"Alone, alone, all, all alone,</p> +<p>Alone on the wide, wide sea,"</p> +</div> + +<p>floating on in darkness over an unfathomable abyss. At +other times the sea was luminous with the light which she +carries in her own bosom. These Southern seas are full of +those marine insects which shine like glow-worms in the +dark; and when the waters were calm and still, when there +was not a ripple on the bosom of the deep, we leaned over +the stern of the ship to watch the long track of light which +she left in the phosphorescent sea. But brighter than this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span> +watery illumination was the sky above, which was all aglow +with celestial fires. We had long become familiar with the +Southern Cross, which we first saw in Egypt on the Nile, +near the First Cataract. But then it was just above the +horizon. Now it shone in mid-heaven, while around it were +gathered the constellations of the Southern hemisphere. I +have seen the stars on the desert and on the sea, but never +anything before that quite equalled these nights on the +Equator.</p> + +<p>But our voyage was coming to an end. We had already +been twice as long on the Bay of Bengal as in crossing the +Atlantic. It was the last day of March when the captain +of the ship came to me, as I was standing on deck, and said: +"Do you see that low point of land, with the trees upon it, +coming down to the water? That is the most Southern +point of Asia." That great continent, which we saw first at +Constantinople, and had followed so far around the globe, +ended here. An hour afterward, as we rounded into Singapore, +a hand pointed Eastward, and a voice at my side said: +"Uncle, there's the Pacific!" She who spoke might perhaps +have said rather, "There are the China Seas," but they +are a part of the great Ocean which rolls its waters from Asia +to America.</p> + +<p>Singapore is on an island, at the very end of the peninsula, +so that it may be called truly "the jumping-off place." +On this point of land, but a degree and a half from the +Equator, England has planted one of those colonies by which +she keeps guard along the coasts, and over the waters, of +Southern Asia. The town, which has a population of nearly +a hundred thousand, is almost wholly Chinese, but it is the +English power which is seen in the harbor filled with ships, +and the fort mounted with guns; and English taste which +has laid out the streets and squares, and erected the public +buildings. This might be called the Island of Palms, which +grow here in great profusion—the tall cocoanut palm with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span> +its slender stem, the fan palm with its broad leaves, and many +other varieties which mantle the hillsides, forming a rich +background for the European bungalows that peer out from +under a mass of tropical foliage.</p> + +<p>Whoever goes around the world must needs pass by Singapore. +It is the one inevitable point in Asia, as San Francisco +is in America. One is sure to meet here travellers, +mostly English and American, passing to and fro, from India +to China, or from China to India, making the Grand Tour. +So common are they that they cease to inspire as much awe +as Marco Polo or Capt. Cook, and have even received the +nickname of "globe-trotters," and are looked upon as quite +ordinary individuals. Singapore is a good resting-point for +Americans—a convenient half-way house—as it is almost +exactly on the other side of the globe from New York. +Having "trotted" thus far, we may be allowed to rest, at +least over Sunday, before we take a new start, and sail away +into the Southern hemisphere. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XXIII.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">THE ISLAND OF JAVA.</p> + +<p>Most travellers who touch at Singapore sweep round that +point like a race-horse, eager to be on the "home stretch." +But in turning north, they turn away from a beauty of which +they do not dream. They know not what islands, embowered +in foliage, lie in those Southern seas—what visions +would reward them if they would but "those realms explore." +The Malayan Peninsula is a connecting link between +two great divisions of the globe; it is a bridge hundreds of +miles long—a real Giants' Causeway, reaching out from the +mainland of Asia towards the Island World beyond—a world +with an interest all its own, which, now that we were so near, +attracted us to its shores. Leaving our fellow-travellers to +go on to Siam or to China, we took the steamer of the Netherlands +India Company for Java. It was a little boat of but +250 tons, but it shot away like an arrow, and was soon flying +like a sea-bird among islands covered with palm groves. On +our right was the long coast of Sumatra. Towards evening +we entered the Straits of Rhio, and in the night crossed the +Equator. When as a child I turned over the globe, I found +this line indicated by a brass ring, and rather expected that +the ship would get a thump as she passed over it; but she +crossed without a shock, or even a jar; ocean melted into +ocean; the waters of the China and the Java seas flowed together, +and we were in the Southern hemisphere.</p> + +<p>The first thing on board which struck us strangely was that +we had lost our language. The steamer was Dutch, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> +officers spoke only Dutch. But on all these waters will be +found passing to and fro gentlemen of intelligence, holding +official positions here, but who have lived long in Europe, and +who speak English or French. At Rhio we were joined by +the Resident, the highest official of that island, and by the +Inspector of Schools from Batavia; and the next day, as +we entered the Straits of Banca, by the Resident of Palembang +in Sumatra—all of whom were very polite to us as +strangers. We saw them again in Java, and when we parted, +felt almost that they were not only acquaintances, but friends. +They were of course thoroughly informed about the new +world around us, and were ready to enlighten our ignorance. +We sat on deck at evening, and as they puffed their cigars +with the tranquillity of true Dutchmen, we listened to their +discourse about the islands and people of the Malayan Archipelago.</p> + +<p>This part of the world would delight Mr. Darwin by the +strange races it contains, some of which approach the animal +tribes. In the island of Rhio the Resident assured me there +were wild men who lived in trees, and had no language but +cries; and in Sumatra the Resident of Palembang said there +were men who lived in the forests, with whom not only the Europeans, +but even the Malays, could have no intercourse. He +himself had never seen one. Yet, strange to say, they have +a petty traffic with the outer world, yet not through the medium +of speech. They live in the woods, and live by the +chase. They hunt tigers, not with the gun, but with a weapon +called a sumpitan, which is a long tube, out of which they +blow arrows with such force, and that are so keen of point, +and touched with such deadly poison, that a wound is almost +immediately fatal. These tiger skins or elephant tusks +they bring for barter—not for sale—they never sell anything, +for money is about the most useless thing they could +have; they cannot eat it, or drink it, or wear it. But as +they have wants, they exchange; yet they themselves are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span> +never seen. They bring what they have to the edge of the +forest, and leave it there, and the Malays come and place +what <i>they</i> have to dispose of, and retire. If the offer is +satisfactory, when the Malays return they find what they +brought gone, and take what is left and depart. If not, they +add a few trifles more to tempt the eyes of these wild men of +the woods, and so at last the exchange is effected, yet all the +while the sellers keep themselves invisible. This mode of +barter argues great honesty on both sides.</p> + +<p>This island of Sumatra is a world in itself. The Resident +of Palembang has under him a country as large as the whole +of Java. The people of Palembang are Malays and Chinese, +thousands of whom live on rafts. In the interior of the +island there are different races, speaking a dozen different +languages or dialects. But with all its population, the +greater part of the country is still given up to forest and +jungle, the home of wild beasts—of the tiger and the rhinoceros. +Wild elephants range the forests in great numbers. +He had often seen them in herds of two or three hundred. +It seemed strange that they were not tamed, as in India and +Burmah. But such is not the habit of the people, who hunt +them for ivory, but never attempt to subdue them, or use +them as beasts of burden. Hence they become a great +nuisance, as they come about the villages and break into the +plantations; and it is only when a grand hunt is organized +for their destruction, that a neighborhood can be for a time +rid of the pest.</p> + +<p>But if these are uncomfortable neighbors, there are others +that are more so—the reptiles, which abound here as in India. +But familiarity breeds contempt or indifference. The +people are not afraid of them, and hardly notice them, but +speak of them in an easy sort of way, as if they were the +most harmless things in nature—poor innocent creatures, +which might almost be pets in the family, and allowed to run +about the house at their will. Soberly, there are certain domestic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> +snakes which are indulged with these liberties. Said +Mr. K.: "I was once visiting in Sumatra, and spending a +night at the house of a friend. I heard a noise overhead, +and asked, 'What is that?' 'Oh, nothing,' they said; 'it's +only the serpent.' 'What! do you keep a family snake?' +'Yes,' they said; it was a large black snake which frequented +the house, and as it did no mischief, and hunted the rats, +they let it roam about wherever it liked." Thinking this +rather a big story, with which our friend might practise on +the credulity of a stranger, I turned to the Resident of +Palembang, who confirmed it. He said this domestication +of serpents was not uncommon. There was a kind of boa +that was very useful as an exterminator of rats, and for this +purpose the good Dutch housekeepers allowed it to crawl +about or to lie coiled up in the pantry. Sometimes this interesting +member of the family was stretched out on the +veranda to bask in the sun—a pleasant object to any stranger +who might be invited to accept hospitality. I think I should +have an engagement elsewhere, however pressing the invitation. +I never could "abide" snakes. From the Old Serpent +down, they have been my aversion, and I beg to decline their +company, though they should be as insinuating as the one +that tempted Eve. But an English merchant in Java afterwards +assured me that "snakes were the best gardeners; that +they devoured the worms and insects and small animals; +and that for his part, he was rather pleased than otherwise +when he saw a big boa crawling among the vines or in the +rice-fields." I thought that the first instance of a serpent's +gardening was in Paradise, the effect of which was not encouraging, +but there is no disputing about tastes. He said +they frequently came around the houses, but did not often +enter them, except that they were very fond of music (the dear +creatures!); and sometimes in the evening, as doors and windows +were left open for coolness, if the music was very fine, a +head might be thrust in of a guest that had not been invited. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span></p> + +<p>But our conversation was not limited to this harrowing +topic, but ranged over many features of Sumatra—its scenery +and climate, soil and vegetation. It is indeed a magnificent +island. Over a thousand miles long, and with more square +miles than Great Britain and Ireland together, it is large +enough for a kingdom. In some parts the scenery is as grand +as that of Switzerland. Along the western coast is a range +of mountains like the Alps (some peaks are 15,000 feet +high), among which is set many an Alpine valley, with its +glistening lake. That coast is indented with bays, on one +of which is the Dutch capital, Padang. East of the mountains +the island spreads out into vast plains, watered by noble +rivers. The soil is very rich, yielding all the fruits of +the tropics in great abundance. The tobacco especially is of +a much finer quality than that of Java, and brings twice as +much in the market. This fertility will attract population +both from Asia and from Europe, and under a good government +this island may yet be the seat of an empire worthy of +its greatness.</p> + +<p>But just now the Dutch have a task to bring it into subjection. +They have an enemy in the North harder to subdue +than tigers and wild elephants. These are the terrible +Malays, against whom has been kept up for years the war in +Acheen—a war waged with such deadly and unrelenting +hate and fury, that it has taken on a character of ferocity. +Of the right or wrong of this savage contest, I cannot judge, +for I hear only one side of the story. I am told that the +Malays are a race of pirates, with whom it is impossible to +live in good neighborhood, and that there can be no peace +till they are subdued. At the same time, one cannot refuse +a degree of sympathy even to savages who defend their own +country, and who fight with such conspicuous bravery. To +this all the Dutch officers bore testimony, saying that they +fought "like devils." The Malays are very much like our +American Indians, both in features and in character—a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> +proud, high-spirited race, capable of any act of courage or +devotion, but full of that hot blood that resents an insult. +"If you have a Malay servant," I heard often in the East, +"you may scold him or send him away, but <i>never strike</i> him, +for that is an indignity which he feels more than a wound; +which he never forgets or forgives; but which, if he has an +opportunity, he will avenge with blood." Such a people, +when they come into battle, sacrifice their lives without a +moment's hesitation. They have a great advantage, as they +are in their own territory, and can choose their own time +and place of attack, or keep out of the way, leaving the +enemy to be worn out by the hot climate and by disease. Of +course if the Dutch could once bring them within range of +their guns, or entice them into a pitched battle, European +skill and discipline would be victorious. But the Malays are +too wary and active; they hide in the fastnesses of the hills, +and start up here and there in unexpected quarters, and after +a sudden dash, fly to the mountains. They have a powerful +ally in the pestilential climate, which brings on those deadly +fevers that kill more than perish in battle. Such a war +may drag on for years, during which the Dutch territory will +not extend much beyond the places occupied by troops, or +the ports defended by the guns of the fleet. If the Dutch +hold on with their proverbial tenacity, they may conquer in +the end, though at an immense cost in treasure and in life. +If the Malays are once subdued, and by a wise and lenient +policy converted to some degree of loyalty, they may prove, +like the Sikhs in India, the brave defenders of the power +against which they fought so well.</p> + +<p>With such conversation to lighten the hours, they did not +seem long, as we were running through the Java Sea. On +the third day from Singapore, we came among the Thousand +Islands, and in the afternoon descried on the horizon the +mountains of Java, and just at sunset were in the roads of +Batavia. There is no harbor, but an open roadstead; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span> +here a whole fleet of ships were riding at anchor—ships of +war and merchant ships from all parts of the world. It was +two or three miles from the quay, but as the evening drew +on, we could see lights along the shore; and at eight o'clock, +just as the gun was fired from the flagship of the Dutch Admiral, +we put off in a native boat, manned by a Malay crew. +It was a beautiful moonlight night, and we seemed to be +floating in a dream, as our swarthy boatmen bent to their +oars, and we glided silently over a tropical sea to this unknown +shore.</p> + +<p>At the Custom House a dark-skinned official, whose buttons +gave him a military air, received us with dignity, and +demanded if we had "pistolets," and being satisfied that we +were not attempting an armed invasion of the island, gave +but a glance at our trunks, and politely bowed us to a carriage +that was standing outside the gates, and away we +rattled through the streets of Batavia to the Hotel Nederland.</p> + +<p>The next morning at an early hour we were riding about +to "take our bearings" and adjust ourselves to the situation. +If we had not known where we were, but only that we +were in some distant part of the world, we could soon guess +that we were in a Dutch rather than in an English colony. +Here were the inevitable canals which the Dutch carry with +them to all parts of the earth. The city is intersected by +these watery streets, and the boats in them might be lying at +the quays of Rotterdam or Amsterdam. The city reminds us +a good deal of the Hague, in its broad streets lined with +trees, and its houses, which have a substantial Dutch look, as +if they were built for comfort and not for show. They are +low and large, spreading out over a great deal of surface, but +not towering ambitiously upwards. A pretty sight it was to +see these fine old mansions, standing back from the street, +with ample space around them, embowered in trees and +shrubbery, with lawns and gardens kept in perfect order; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span> +with all the doors and windows wide open, through which +we could see the breakfast tables spread, as if to invite even +strangers, such as we were, to enter and share their hospitality. +Before we left Java, we were guests in one of these +mansions, and found that Dutch hospitality was not merely +in name.</p> + +<p>Among the ornaments of the city are two large and handsome +public squares—the King's Plain and Waterloo Plain. +The latter name reminds us that the Dutch had a part in the +battle of Waterloo. With pardonable pride they are persuaded +that the contingent which they contributed to the +army of Wellington had no small part in deciding the issue +of that terrible day, and they thus commemorate <i>their</i> victory. +This plain is used as a parade-ground, and the Dutch cavalry +charge over it with ardor, inspired by such heroic memories.</p> + +<p>It may surprise some of my readers accustomed to our new +American cities, to learn how old is Batavia. About the time +that the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from Holland, another expedition +from the same country carried the Dutch flag to the +other side of the world, and Batavia was settled the year +before the landing on Plymouth Rock. Of course it was a +very small beginning of their power in the East, but slowly +the petty trading settlement grew into a colony, and its territory +was extended by degrees till, more than a hundred years +after, it took in the whole island. In the old palace on +Waterloo Plain, now used as a museum, are the portraits of +Dutch governors who have ruled here for two hundred and +fifty years.</p> + +<p>But the capital of Java—at least the residence of the Governor-General—is +not at Batavia, but at Buitenzorg, nearly +forty miles in the interior, to which one can go by railroad +in two hours. As we took our seats in the carriage we had +the good fortune to meet Mr. Fraser, an English merchant, +who has lived many years in Java, and is well known and +highly respected throughout the island, who gave us information +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span> +of the country over which we were passing. The +plains near the sea had at this time an appearance of great +beauty. They were laid out in rice fields which have a more +vivid color than fields of grain, and now shone with an emerald +green. It was the time of the gathering of the harvest, +and the fields were filled with reapers, men and women, +young men and maidens. But one hears not the click of +the reaper. I am told that the attempt to introduce a mowing +machine or a patent reaper would make a revolution in +the island. All the rice of Java is cut by hand, and not +even with the sickle, which is an instrument much too coarse +for this dainty work, but with a knife three or four inches +long, so that the spears are clipped as with a pair of scissors. +Taking a few blades gently, they cut them off, and when they +have a handful bind it in a tiny sheaf about as large as a +bunch of asparagus. When they have cut and bound up +five, one is laid aside for the landlord and four go to the cultivators.</p> + +<p>This slow progress might make a young American farmer +very impatient. Perhaps not, if he knew all the charms of +the rice field, which might make a country swain quite willing +to linger. Mr. Fraser explained that this season was +the time, and the rice field the scene, of the matrimonial +engagements made during the year! Ah, now it is all explained. +Who can wonder that the gentle reapers linger over +the rice blades while they are proposing or answering questions +on which their whole life may depend? No doubt in +merry England it has often happened that hay-making and +love-making have gone on in the fields together. And we +cannot wonder that such rural arts should be known in a +land warmed by a tropical sun.</p> + +<p>But the food of the natives is not found in the rice fields +alone; it is brought down from the top of the cocoanut palm, +and drawn up from the bottom of caves of the earth. "Do +you see yonder small mountain?" said Mr. F. "That is a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span> +famous hunting-ground for the edible birds' nests, which are +esteemed such a delicacy by the Chinese. The birds are +swallows and build their nests in caves, into which the hunters +are let down by long bamboo ropes, and drawn up laden +with spoil. So great has been the yield, and so highly prized, +that the product of that hill exported to China in one year +returned a profit of £4,000. Of late this has been much +reduced, owing to the diminished production, or that the +Chinese are not ready to pay so much for such dainty luxuries."</p> + +<p>At Buitenzorg the low land of the coast is exchanged for +the hills. We are at the foot of the range of mountains +which forms the backbone of the island. To give an idea of +the character of the scenery, let me sketch a picture from my +own door in the Bellevue Hotel. The rooms, as in all tropical +climates, open on a broad veranda. Here, stretched in one +of the easy chairs made of bamboo, we look out upon a scene +which might be in Switzerland, so many features has it which +are Alpine in their character. The hotel stands on a projecting +shelf of rock or spur of a hill, overlooking a deep +gorge, through which flows, or rather rushes, a foaming +mountain torrent, whose ceaseless murmurs come up from +below; while in front, only three or four miles distant, rises +the broad breast of a mountain, very much like the lower +summits or foothills of the Alps, which hang over many a +sequestered vale in Switzerland or in the Tyrol.</p> + +<p>But here the resemblance ends. For as we descend from +the broad outlines of the landscape to closer details, it changes +from the rugged features of an Alpine pass, and takes its +true tropical character. There are no snow-clad peaks, for +we are almost under the Equator. The scene might be in the +Andes rather than in the Alps. The mountain before us, the +Salak, is a volcano, though not now in action. As we look +down from our perch, the eye rests upon a forest such as is +never seen in the Alps. Here are no dark pines, such as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span> +clothe the sides of the vale of Chamouni. In the foreground, +on the river bank, at the foot of the hill, is a cluster of native +huts, half hidden by long feathery bamboos and broad-leaved +palms. The forest seems to be made up of palms of every +variety—the cocoanut palm, the sago palm, and the sugar +palm, with which are mingled the bread-fruit tree, and the +nutmeg, and the banana; and not least of all, the <i>cinchona</i>, +lately imported from South American forests, which yields +the famous Peruvian bark. The attempt to acclimatize this +shrub, so precious in medicine, has been completely successful, +so that the quinine of Java is said to be even better than +that of South America. In the middle distance are the rice +fields, with their intense green, and farther, on the side of +the mountain, are the coffee plantations, for which Java is so +famous.</p> + +<p>Buitenzorg has a Botanical Garden, the finest by far to be +found out of Europe, and the richest in the world in the +special department of tropical plants and trees. All that the +tropics pour from their bounteous stores; all those forms of +vegetable life created by the mighty rains and mightier sun +of the Equator—gigantic ferns, like trees, and innumerable +orchids (plants that live on air)—are here in countless profusion. +One of the glories of the Garden is an india-rubber +tree of great size, which spreads out its arms like an English +oak, but dropping shoots here and there (for it is a species +of banyan) which take root and spring up again, so that the +tree broadens its shade, and as the leaves are thick and tough +as leather, offers a shield against even the vertical sun. There +are hundreds of varieties of palms—African and South American—some +of enormous height and breadth, which, as we +walked under their shade, seemed almost worthy to stand on +the banks of the River of Life.</p> + +<p>Such a vast collection offers an attraction like the Garden +of Plants in Paris. I met here the Italian naturalist Beccari, +who was spending some weeks at Buitenzorg to make a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> +study of a garden in which he had the whole tropics in a +space of perhaps a hundred acres. He has spent the last +eight years of his life in the Malayan Archipelago, dividing +his time, except a few months in the Moluccas, between Borneo +and New Guinea. The latter island he considered richer +in its fauna and flora than any other equal spot on the surface +of the globe, with many species of plants and animals unknown +elsewhere. He had his own boat, and sailed along the +coast and up the rivers at his will. He penetrated into the +forest and the jungle, living among savages, and for the time +adopting their habits of life, not perhaps dressing in skins, +but sleeping in their huts or on the ground, and living on +their food and such game as he could get with his gun. He +laughed at the dangers. He was not afraid of savages or wild +beasts or reptiles. Indeed he lived in such close companionship +with the animal kingdom that he got to be in very intimate, +not to say amicable, relations; and to hear him talk of +his friends of the forest, one would think he would almost beg +pardon of a beast that he was obliged to shoot and stuff in +the interest of science. He complained only that he could +not find enough of them. Snakes he "doted on," and if he +espied a monster coiling round a tree, or hanging from the +branches, his heart leaped up as one who had found great +spoil, for he thought how its glistening scales would shine in +his collection. I was much entertained by his adventures. +He left us one morning in company with our host Carlo, who +is a famous hunter, on an expedition after the rhinoceros—a +royal game, which abounds in the woods of Java.</p> + +<p>The beauty of this island is not confined to one part of +it. As yet we have seen only Western Java, and but +little of that. But there is Middle Java and Eastern Java. +The island is very much like Cuba in shape—long and narrow, +being near seven hundred miles one way, and less than a +hundred the other. Thus it is a great breakwater dividing +the Java Sea from the Indian Ocean. To see its general +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> +configuration, one needs to sail along the coast to get a distant +view; and then, to appreciate the peculiar character of its +scenery, he should make excursions into the interior. The +Residents of Rhio and Palembang called to see us and made +out an itinéraire; and Mr. Levyssohn Norman, the Secretary +General, to whom I brought a letter from a Dutch +officer whom we met at Naples, gave me letters to the Residents +in Middle Java. Thus furnished we returned to +Batavia, and took the steamer for Samarang—two days' sail +to the eastward along the northern shore. As we put out +to sea a few miles, we get the general figure of the island. +The great feature in the view is the mountains, a few miles +from the coast, some of which are ten and twelve thousand +feet high, which make the background of the picture, whose +peculiar outline is derived from their volcanic character. +Java lies in what may be called a volcano belt, which is just +under the Equator, and reaches not only through Java, but +through the islands of Bali and Lombok to the Moluccas. +Instead of one long chain of equal elevation in every part, or +a succession of smooth, rounded domes, there is a number of +sharp peaks thrown up by internal fires. Thus the sky line +is changing every league. European travellers are familiar +with the cone-like shape of Vesuvius, overlooking the Bay +of Naples. Here is the same form, repeated nearly forty +times, as there are thirty-eight volcanoes in the island. +Around the Bay of Samarang are nine in one view! Some +of them are still active, and from time to time burst out in +fearful eruptions; but just now they are not in an angry +mood, but smoking peacefully, only a faint vapor, like a fleecy +cloud, curling up against the sky. All who have made the +ascent of Vesuvius, remember that its cone is a blackened +mass of ashes and scoriæ. But a volcano here is not left +to be such a picture of desolation. Nature, as if weary +of ruin, and wishing to hide the rents she has made, has +mantled its sides with the richest tropical vegetation. As +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span> +we stand on the deck of our ship, and look landward, the +mountains are seen to be covered near their base with forests +of palms; while along their breasts float belts of light cloud, +above which the peaks soar into the blue heavens.</p> + +<p>At the eastern end of the island, near Souraboya, there is a +volcano with the largest crater in the world, except that of +Kilaccea in the Sandwich Islands. It is three miles across, and +is filled with a sea of sand. Descending into this broad space, +and wading through the sand, as if on the desert, one comes +to a new crater in the centre, a thousand feet wide, which is +always smoking. This the natives regard with superstitious +dread, as a sign that the powers below are in a state of anger; +and once a year they go in crowds to the mountain, dragging +a bullock, which is thrown alive into the crater, with other +offerings, to appease the wrath of the demon, who is raging +and thundering below.</p> + +<p>Wednesday morning brought us to Samarang, the chief +port of Middle, as Batavia is of Western, and Sourabaya of +Eastern Java. As we drew up to the shore, the quay was +lined with soldiers, who were going off to the war in Acheen. +The regiments intended for that service are brought first to +Java, to get acclimated before they are exposed to what would +be fatal to fresh European troops. These were now in fine +condition, and made a brave sight, drawn up in rank, with +the band playing, and the people shouting and cheering. +This is the glittering side of war. But, poor fellows! they +have hard times before them, of which they do not dream. +It is not the enemy they need to fear, but the hot climate and +the jungle fever, which will be more deadly than the kris of +the Malay. These soldiers are not all Dutch; some are +French. On our return to Batavia, the steamer carried down +another detachment, in which I found a couple of French +zouaves (there may have been others), one of whom told me +he had been in the surrender at Sedan, and the other had +taken part in the siege of Paris. After their terms had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span> +expired in the French army, they enlisted in the Dutch service, +and embarked for the other side of the world, to fight +in a cause which is not their own. I fear they will never see +France again, but will leave their bones in the jungles of +Sumatra.</p> + +<p>But our thoughts are not of war, but of peace, as we ride +through the long Dutch town, so picturesquely situated between +the mountains and the sea, and take the railway for +the interior. We soon leave the lowlands of the coast, and +penetrate the forests, and wind among the hills. Our first +stop is at Solo, which is an Imperial residence. It is a curious +relic of the old native governments of Java, that though the +Dutch are complete masters, there are still left in the island +an Emperor and a Sultan, who are allowed to retain their +lofty titles, surrounded with an Imperial etiquette. The +Emperor of Solo lives in his "Kraton," which is what the +Seraglio is among the Turks, a large enclosure in which is +the palace. He has a guard of a few hundred men, who +gratify his vanity, and enable him to spend his money in +keeping a number of idle retainers; but there is a Dutch +Resident close at hand, without whose permission he cannot +leave the district, and hardly his own grounds; while in the +very centre of the town is a fort, with guns mounted, pointing +towards his palace, which it could soon blow about his ears. +Thus "protected," he is little better than a State prisoner. +But he keeps his title "during good behavior," and once a +year turns out in grand state, to make an official visit to the +Resident, who receives him with great distinction; and having +thus "marched up the hill," he "marches down again." We +had a letter to the Resident, and hoped to pay our respects +to his Majesty, but learned that it would require several days +to arrange an audience. It is a part of the Court dignity +which surrounds such a potentate, that he should not be easily +accessible, and we should be sorry to disturb the harmless +illusion. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span></p> + +<p>But if we did not see the "lion" of Solo, we saw the +tigers, which were perhaps quite as well worth seeing. The +Emperor, amid the diversions with which he occupies his +royal mind, likes to entertain his military and official visitors +with something better than a Spanish bull-fight, namely, a +tiger-fight with a bull or a buffalo, or with men, for which he +has a number of trained native spearmen. For these combats +his hunters trap tigers in the mountains; and in a building +made of heavy timbers fitted close together, with only +space between for light and air, were half a dozen of them in +reserve. They were magnificent beasts; not whelped in a +cage and half subdued by long captivity, like the sleek creatures +of our menageries and zoölogical gardens; but the real +kings of the forest, caught when full grown (some but a few +weeks before), and who roared as in their native wilds. It +was terrific to see the glare of their eyes, and to hear the +mutterings of their rage. One could not look at them, even +through their strong bars, without a shudder. A gentleman +of Java told me that he had once caught in the mountains a +couple of tigers in a pit, but that as he approached it, their +roaring was so terrific, as they bounded against the sides of +the pit, that it required all his courage to master a feeling of +indescribable terror.</p> + +<p>Adjoining the dominion of Solo is that of Jookja, where, +instead of an Emperor, is a Sultan, not quite so great a potentate +as the former, but who has his chateau and his military +guard, and goes through the same performance of playing +the king. The Dutch Resident has a very handsome +palace, with lofty halls, where on state occasions he receives +the Sultan with becoming dignity—a mark of deference made +all the more touching by the guns of the fort, which, from +the centre of the town, keep a friendly watch for the least +sign of rebellion.</p> + +<p>This part of Middle Java is very rich in sugar plantations. +One manufactory which we visited was said to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span> +yield a profit of $400,000 a year. Nor is this the product +of slave labor, like the sugar of Cuba. Yet it is not altogether +free labor. There is a peculiar system in Java by +which the government, which is the owner of the land, in +renting an estate to a planter, rents those who live on it with +the estate. It guarantees him sufficient labor to work his +plantation. The people are obliged to labor. This is exacted +partly as a due to the government, amounting to one or two +days in the week. For the rest of the time they are paid +small wages. But they cannot leave their employer at will. +There is no such absolute freedom as that which is said to +have ruined Jamaica, where the negro may throw down his +tools and quit work at the very moment when the planter is +saving his crop. The government compels him to labor, but +it also compels his master to pay him. The system works +well in Java. Laborers are kept busy, the lands are cultivated, +and the production is enormous—not only making +the planters rich, but yielding a large revenue to Holland.</p> + +<p>At Jookja the railroad ends. Further excursions into +the country must be by a private carriage. Some thirty +miles distant is an ancient ruin, which is in Java what the +Great Pyramid is in Egypt, with which it is often compared. +To reach this, we ordered a carriage for the next morning. +Probably the landlord thought he had a Milord Anglais for +his guest, who must make his progress through the island +with royal magnificence; for, when we rose very early for our +ride, we found in front of the door a huge carriage with <i>six +horses</i>! The horses of Java are small, but full of spirit, like +the Canadian ponies. On the box was a fat coachman, who +outweighed both of us inside. Behind us stood two fellows +of a lighter build, whose high office it was to urge our gallant +steeds by voice and lash to their utmost speed. They +were dressed in striped jackets, like circus-riders, and were +as agile as cats. Whenever the mighty chariot lagged a +little, they leaped to the ground, and running forward with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span> +extraordinary swiftness, shouted and lashed the horses till, +with their goadings and their cries, the beasts, driven to +madness, reared and plunged and raced forward so wildly, +that we almost expected to be dashed in pieces. Such is the +price of glory! What grandeur was this! When we were +in Egypt, riding about the streets of Cairo with two "syces" +(servants dressed in white, who run before a carriage to clear +the way), I felt like Joseph riding in Pharaoh's chariot. But +now I felt as if I were Pharaoh himself.</p> + +<p>Our route was through long avenues of trees, of palms +and bamboos. The roads, as everywhere in Java, are excellent, +smooth as a floor, solidly built, and well kept. To construct +such roads, and keep them in repair, must be a work +of great difficulty, as in the rainy season the floods come in +such force as would sweep away any but those which are +firmly bedded. These roads are said to be owing to a famous +Dutch governor, Marshal Dændels, who ruled here in the +early part of this century. According to tradition he was +a man of tremendous will, which he enforced with arbitrary +and despotic authority. He laid out a system of highways, +and assigned to certain native officers each his portion to +build. Knowing that things moved slowly in these Eastern +countries, and that the officers in charge might try to make +excuses for delay, he added a gentle admonition that he +should hold each man responsible; and by way of quickening +their sense of duty, he erected gibbets at convenient intervals +along the road, and if an official failed to "come to time," +he simply had him executed. The spectacle of a few of these +native gentry hanging by the roadside had such an enlivening +effect on the Javanese imagination, that the roads were built +as if by magic. Perhaps the system might be applied with +excellent effect to "contractors" in other parts of the +world!</p> + +<p>But on the best roads this speed could not be kept up for +a long time. The stages were short, the relays being but five +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span> +miles apart. Every three-quarters of an hour we changed +horses. The stations were built over the roads, something +in the style of an old-fashioned turnpike gate; so that we +drove under the shelter, and the horses, dripping with foam, +were slipped out of the carriage, and left to cool under the +shade of the trees, or rolled over in the dust, delighted to be +free.</p> + +<p>As we advanced, our route wound among the hills. On +our right was Merapé, one of the great mountains of Java—his +top smoking gently, while rice-fields came up to his foot. +This middle part of the island is called the Garden of Java, +and it might be called one of the gardens of the world. +Nowhere in Europe, not even in Lombardy nor in England, +have I seen a richer country. Every foot of ground is in a +high state of cultivation. Not only are the plains and valleys +covered with rice-fields, but the hills are terraced to admit +of carrying the culture far up their sides. Here, as in Western +Java, it was the time of the harvest, and the fields were +filled with joyous reapers. To this perfect tilling of the earth +it is due that this island is one of the most populous portions +of the globe. The country literally swarms with inhabitants, +as a hive swarms with bees; but so few are their wants, that +everybody seems to "live and be merry." We passed +through a number of villages which, though the dwellings +were of the rudest, yet had a pretty look, as they were embowered +in foliage of palms and bamboos. As the country +grew more hilly, our progress was not so swift. Sometimes +we went down a steep bank to cross a river on a boat, and +then it was not an easy task to draw up the carriage on the +opposite bank, and we had to call on Cæsar for help. Almost +a whole village would turn out. At one time I counted +eighteen men pushing and tugging at our wheels, of course +with no eye to the small coin that was scattered among +them when the top of the bank was reached. So great was +the load of dignity we bore! +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span></p> + +<p>At noon we reached the object of our journey in the +famous ruins of Borobodo. Sir Stamford Raffles says +that all the labor expended on the Pyramids of Egypt sinks +into insignificance when compared with that bestowed on +the grand architectural remains of Java; but after seeing +this, the greatest on the island, his estimate seems to me +very extravagant. This is much smaller than the Great Pyramid, +in the space of ground which it covers, and lower in +height, and altogether less imposing. But without making +comparisons, it is certainly a wonderful pile. It is a pyramid +in shape, some four hundred feet square, and nine stories +high, being ascended by a series of gigantic steps or terraces. +That it was built for Buddhist worship is evident from the +figures of Buddha which cover its sides. It is the monument +not only of an ancient religion, but of an extinct civilization, +of a mighty empire once throned on this island, +which has left remains like those of ancient Egypt. What a +population and what power must have been here ages ago, to +rear such a structure! One can imagine the people gathered +at great festivals in numbers such as now assemble at pilgrimages +in India. Doubtless this hill of stone was often +black with human beings (for as many could stand on its +sides as could be gathered in the Coliseum at Rome), while +on the open plain in front, stretching to a mountain in the +background, a nation might have encamped, like the Israelites +before Sinai, to receive the law. But the temple is in +ruins, and there is no gathering of the people for worship +any more. The religion of the island is changed. Buddhism +has passed away, and Islam has taken its place, to pass +away in its turn. It was Good Friday, in 1876, that I stood +on the top of this pyramid, and thought of Him who on this +day suffered for mankind, and whose religion is yet to possess +the world. When it has conquered Asia, it will cross +the sea, and take this beautiful island, from which it may +pass on to the mainland of the continent of Australia. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span></p> + +<p>In such musings we lingered for hours, wandering about +the ruins and enjoying the landscape, which is one of the +most beautiful we have seen in all our travels—the wide +sweep in the foreground reminding us of the view from +Stirling Castle in Scotland.</p> + +<p>But the carriage is waiting, and once more the driver +cracks his whip, his horses prance, and away we fly along +the roads, through the valleys, and over the hills. At evening +we reached Magellang, the centre of one of the districts +into which Java is divided, and a town of some importance. +It is a curious geographical fact that it stands exactly in the +centre of the island. One spot is called the Navel of Java. +The Javanese think a certain hill is the head of a great nail, +which is driven into the earth and holds the island firm in +its place. If this be so, it is strange that it does not keep it +more quiet. For if we may use the language of the brokers, +we might say with truth that in Java "real estate is active," +since it is well shaken up once or twice a year with earthquakes, +and is all the time smouldering with volcanoes.</p> + +<p>But however agitated underground, the country is very +beautiful above it. Here as in all the places where the +Dutch "most do congregate," there is a mixture of European +civilization with the easy and luxurious ways of the East. +Some of the villages are as pretty as any in our own New +England, and reminded us of those in the Connecticut valley, +being laid out with a broad open square or common in +the centre, which is shaded by magnificent trees, and surrounded +by beautiful residences, whose broad verandas and +open doors give a most inviting picture of domestic comfort +and generous hospitality. There is a club-house for the +officers, and music by the military band. The Residents +always live very handsomely. They are the great men in +every district. Each one has a spacious residence, with a +military guard, and a salary of six or eight thousand dollars +a year, with extras for the expense of entertaining or of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span> +travelling, and a liberal pension at the close of twenty years +of service.</p> + +<p>Magellang is marked with a white stone in our memories +of Java, as it was the scene of a novel experience. When +we drove into the town, we found the hotel full, which obliged +us to fall back upon our letter to the Resident. He was +absent, but his secretary at once took us in hand, and requested +the "Regent" (a native prince who holds office +under the Dutch government, and has special oversight of +the native population) to entertain us. He responded in +the most courteous manner, so that, instead of being lodged +at a hotel, we were received as guests in a princely residence. +His "palace" was in the Eastern style, of but one story +(as are most of the buildings in Java, on account of earthquakes), +but spread out over a large surface, with rows of +columns supporting its ample roof, presenting in front in its +open colonnade what might be regarded as a spacious hall of +audience; and furnishing in its deep recesses a cool retreat +from the heat of the tropical sun. A native guard pacing +before the door indicated the official character of the occupant. +The Regent received us with dignity, but with great +cordiality. He was attired in the rich costume of the East. +His feet were without stockings, but encased in richly embroidered +sandals. He could speak no English, and but a +few words of French—only Malay, Dutch, and Javanese. +But he sent for a gentleman to dine, who was of Spanish +descent, and who, though a native of Java, and had never +been out of it, yet spoke both French and English, and thus +we were able to converse.</p> + +<p>The Regent had a wife, and after a time she entered the +hall, and welcomed my niece with a cordiality almost like +that of two school-girls meeting. She was simply dressed, +in the lightest costume, with bare feet, but in gold-embroidered +slippers. Everything in her attire was very plain, +except that her ears were hung with diamonds that fairly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> +dazzled us with their brilliancy. She began talking with +great volubility, and seemed not quite to comprehend why it +was that we did not understand Malay or Javanese. However, +with the help of our interpreter, we got along, and were +soon in the most confidential relations. She had very vague +ideas of the part of the world we came from. We tried to +make her understand that the world was round, and that we +lived on the other side of the globe. We asked why the +Regent did not go abroad to see the world? But she signified +with a peculiar gesture, as if counting with her fingers, +that it took a great deal of money. She asked "if we were +rich," to which we replied modestly that we had enough for +our wants. As she talked of family matters, she informed us +that her lord had another wife. Of this she spoke without +the least reserve. It was quite natural that he should desire +this. She (his first wife) had been married to him over +twenty years, and was getting a little <i>passée</i>, and he needed +a young face to make the house bright and gay. Presently +the second wife entered, and we were presented to her. She +was very young—I should think not twenty years of age. +Evidently the elder occupied the first place in the household, +and the younger took the second. They seemed to stand in +a kind of sisterly relation to each other, without the slightest +feeling of jealousy between them. Both were very pretty, +after the Malayan type—that is, with mild, soft eyes, and +skins, not black, like Africans, but of a rich brown color. +They would have been even beautiful if they had had also, +what the Africans so often have, dazzling white teeth; but +this is prevented by the constant chewing of the betel-nut and +tobacco.</p> + +<p>At half-past eight o'clock we went to dinner. C—— had +the honor of sitting between the two wives, and enjoyed the +courtesy of both, who prepared fruit for her, and by many little +attentions, such as are understood in all parts of the world, +showed that they belonged to the true sisterhood of woman. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span> +The position of woman in Java is somewhat peculiar. The +people are Mohammedans, and yet the women are not secluded, +nor do they veil their faces; they receive strangers in their +houses and at their tables; thus they have much greater freedom +than their sisters in Turkey or Egypt. The Regent, +being a Mussulman, did not take wine, though he provided +it for his guests. After the dinner, coffee was served, of a +rich, delicious flavor—for Java is the land of coffee—followed +by the inevitable cigar. I do not smoke, but could not allow +my refusal to interfere with the habits of those whose guest +I was, and could but admire the ineffable satisfaction with +which the Regent and his friend puffed the fragrant weed. +While they were thus wreathed in clouds, and floating in a +perfect Nirvana of material enjoyment, the gentler sex were +not forgotten. The two wives took their pleasure in their +own fashion. A small box, like a tea-caddy, was brought on +the table, full of little silver cups and cases, containing leaves +of the betel-nut, and spices, cassia and gambier, a little lime, +and a cup of the finest tobacco. Out of these they prepared +a delicate morsel for their lips. With her own dainty fingers, +each rolled up a leaf of the betel-nut, enclosing in it several +kinds of spices, and filling it with a good pinch of tobacco, +which, our Spanish friend explained, was not so much for the +taste, as to make the morsel plump and round, large enough +to fill the mouth (or, as a wine-taster would say of his favorite +madeira or port, to give it sufficient <i>body</i>); and also, he +added, it was to clean the teeth, and to give an aromatic fragrance +to the breath! I repeat, as exactly as I can recall them, +his very words.</p> + +<p>Whether the precious compound had all these virtues, certainly +these courtly dames took it with infinite relish, and +rolled it as a sweet morsel under their tongues, and looked +on their lord with no jealousy of his enjoyment of his cigar.</p> + +<p>Here was a picture of conjugal felicity. The family was +evidently an affectionate and happy one. The Regent loved +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span> +both his wives, and they sat side by side without envy or uncharitableness, +happy in the sunshine of his face, and chewed +their betel-nut with a composure, an aspect of tranquil enjoyment, +which many in more civilized countries may admire, +but cannot equal.</p> + +<p>In the morning, when the family came together, I remarked +that the first wife, who then apparently saw her husband for +the first time, came forward, and bending low, kissed his +jewelled hand; and soon after the second wife entered, and +kissed the first wife's hand, thus observing that natural order +of precedence which is so beautiful in every well-regulated +family.</p> + +<p>I observed also with curious interest the relations of master +and servant in this Oriental household. The divisions are +very marked. The Regent, for example, is regarded by his +retainers with an awe as if he were a sacred person. No one +approaches him standing. The theory is, that no inferior +must ever be in a position or attitude where his head is +higher than his master's. If the Regent but looks at a man, +he drops as if shot with a bullet. If a servant wishes to +communicate with his master, he falls, not on his knees, but +on his haunches, and in this posture shuffles forward till he +comes behind his chair, and meekly whispers a word into his +ear. He receives his orders, and then shuffles back again. +In one way, the division of ranks in Java is more marked +even than that of castes in India. The Javanese language, +which is a branch of the Malay, has three separate forms +of speech—one, that used by a superior addressing an inferior; +second, that of an inferior addressing a superior; and +a third, that used between equals. Such divisions would +seem to cut off all relations between those of different rank. +And yet, with all this stooping and bowing, abject as it seems +to us, the relation of the master to his dependants is rather +patriarchal; and to these same servants the Regent will +speak, not only kindly, but familiarly, all the more so as the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span> +lines are so drawn that there is no danger that they should +ever presume on undue familiarity.</p> + +<p>In the morning the Regent took me out for a ramble. We +strolled along under the trees, admiring the beauty of the +country. After half an hour's walk, suddenly, like an apparition, +an open phaeton stood beside us, with two beautiful +ponies, into which the Regent invited me to step, and taking +his seat by my side, drove me about the town. We returned +for breakfast, and then he sent for his musicians to give us a +performance, who, beating on drums and other native instruments, +executed a plaintive kind of music. With such attentions +did this Javanese prince and his wives (none of whom +we had ever seen till a few hours before, and on whom we +had no claim whatever) win our hearts by their kindness, so +that, when the carriage came round to the door, we were sorry +to depart. The Regent pressed us to stay a month, or as +long as we would. We could not accept a longer hospitality; +but we shall remember that which we had. We keep his +photograph, with others which we like to look upon; and if +these words can reach the other side of the world, they will +tell him that his American friends have not forgotten, and +will not forget, the kind manner in which they were entertained +in the island of Java by the Regent of Magellang.</p> + +<p>The drive of to-day was hardly less interesting than that of +yesterday, although our pride had a fall. It was a great +come-down, after riding with six horses to be reduced to +four! But the mortification was relieved by adding now and +then, at the steep places, a pair of buffaloes. As we were +still in the hill country, we were all day among the coffee +plantations, which thrive best at a considerable elevation +above the sea. Other products of the island flourished +around us in rich abundance: the spices—aloes and cassia, +and nutmeg and pepper. And there was our old friend, the +peanut. They were gathering perhaps the very nuts that +were yet to ornament the stands of the apple-women of New +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span> +York, and to be a temptation to bootblacks and newsboys. +Amid such fields and forests, over mountain roads, and listening +to the roar of mountain streams, we came down to +Ambarrawa, a place of note in Java, as containing the +strongest fortress in the island. It is planted here right in +the heart of Middle Java, where, half a century ago, was a +formidable insurrection, which was quelled only after an obstinate +contest, lasting five years—from 1825 to 1830. Ambarrawa +is connected by railroad with Samarang. It is easy +to see that both the railroads which start from that point, +and which have thus a base on the sea (the one leading to +Solo and Jookja, the residences of the Emperor and the +Sultan, who might make trouble, and the other to the great +fortress of Ambarrawa), have been constructed with a military +as well as a commercial purpose.</p> + +<p>So the Dutch have had their wars in Java, as the English +have had in India; but having conquered, it must be said +that on the whole they have ruled wisely and well. The best +proof of this is the perfect tranquillity that reigns everywhere, +and that with no great display of armed force. What a contrast +in this respect between the two most important islands +in the East and West Indies—Java and Cuba! They are +about equal in the number of square miles. Both have been +settled by Europeans for nearly three centuries, and yet to-day +Cuba has less than two millions of inhabitants, and is in +a chronic state of insurrection; while Java has over fifteen +millions (or eight times as many), and is as quiet as Holland +itself. The whole story is told in one word—the one is +Dutch rule, and the other is Spanish rule.</p> + +<p>We spent our Easter in Samarang—a day which is not +forgotten in this part of the world, although Sunday is not +observed after the manner of Scotland or New England, but +rather of Continental Europe, with bands playing on the +public square, and all the European world abroad keeping +holiday. From Samarang, another two days' sail along the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span> +same northern coast, with the grand outline of mountains on +the horizon, brought us back to Batavia.</p> + +<p>Batavia was not the same to us on the second visit as on +the first; or rather it was a great deal more, for now we +knew the place, the streets were familiar, and we felt at +home—the more so as a Scotch gentleman, to whom we +brought a letter from Singapore, Mr. James Greig (of the +old house of Syme, Pitcairn & Co., so well known in the +East), took us in charge, and carried us off to one of those +large mansions which we had so much admired on our former +visit, set far back from the street, and surrounded with trees; +and constructed especially for this climate, with spacious +rooms, wide hall, high ceilings, and broad veranda, and all +the devices for mitigating the heat of the tropics. More +than all, this hospitable mansion was lighted up by the sweetest +feminine presence in one who, though of an old Dutch +family well known in Java, had been educated in Paris, and +spoke English and French, as well as Dutch and Malay, and +who gave us such a welcome as made us feel that we were +not strangers. Not only did these friends open their house +to us, but devoted themselves till our departure in going +about with us, and making our visit pleasant. I do not +know whether to call this Scotch or Dutch hospitality, but +it was certainly of the most delightful kind.</p> + +<p>As we had three or four days before the sailing of the +French steamer for Singapore, our friends planned an excursion +into the mountains of Western Java, for which we returned +to Buitenzorg, and engaged a couple of <i>cahars</i>, +carriages as light as if made of wicker-work, with the +small Javanese ponies, and thus mounted, began to climb the +hills. Our route was over the great post-road, which runs +through the island to Souraboya—a road which must have +been constructed with immense labor, as it passes over high +mountains, but which is as solidly built and as well kept as +Napoleon's great road over the Simplon Pass of the Alps. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> +Indeed it is very much the same, having a rocky bed for its +foundation, with a macadamized surface, over which the carriage +rolls smoothly. But it does not climb so steadily upward +as the Simplon or the Mont Cenis. The ascent is not +one long pull, like the ascent of the Alps, but by a succession +of hills, one beyond another, with many a deep valley between, +so that we go alternately up hill and down dale. The hills are +very steep, so that the post-carriage, which is as heavy and +lumbering as a French diligence, has to be drawn up by +buffaloes. Thus it climbs slowly height after height, and +when it has reached the summit, goes thundering down the +mountain, and rolls majestically along the road. But our +light carriages suited us much better than these ponderous +vehicles; and as our little ponies trotted swiftly along, +we were in a very gay mood, making the woods ring with +our merry talk and glee. Sometimes we got out to stretch +our limbs with a good walk up the hills, turning as we reached +the top to take in the landscape behind us, which spread out +broader and broader, as we rose higher and higher. At +every stage the view increased in extent and in majesty, till +the whole island,</p> + +<div class="poem"><p> +"From the centre all round to the sea,"</p> +</div> + +<p>was piled with mountains, which here, as in Middle Java, +showed their volcanic origin by their forms, now rising in +solitary cones, and now lying on the horizon in successive +ridges, like mighty billows tossed up on a sea of fire, that in +cooling had cracked in all fantastic shapes, which, after being +worn down by the storms of thousands of years, were mantled +thick with the verdure of forests. As in England the ivy creeps +over old walls, covering ruined castles and towers with its perpetual +green, so here the luxuriance of the tropics has overspread +the ruin wrought by destroying elements. The effect +is a mingled wildness and beauty in these mountain landscapes, +which often reminded us of Switzerland and the Tyrol. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span></p> + +<p>The enjoyment of this ride was increased by the character +of the day, which was not all sunshine, but one of perpetual +change. Clouds swept over the sky, casting shadows on the +sides of the mountains and into the deep valleys. Sometimes +the higher summits were wrapped so as to be hidden +from sight, and the rain fell heavily; then as the storm +drifted away, and the sun burst through the parted clouds, +the glorious heights shone in the sudden light like the Delectable +Mountains.</p> + +<p>The object of our journey was a mountain retreat four +thousand feet above the level of the sea—as high as the Righi +Kulm, but in no other respect like that mountain-top, which +from its height overlooks so many Swiss lakes and cantons. +It is rather like an Alpine valley, surrounded by mountains. +This is a favorite resort of the Dutch from Batavia. Here +the Governor-General has a little box, to which he retires, +from his grander residence at Buitenzorg, and here many +sick and wounded officers find a cool retreat and recover +strength for fresh campaigns. The place bears the musical +name of Sindanglaya, which one would think might have +been given with some reference to the music of murmuring +winds and waters which fill the air. The valley is full of +streams, of brooks and springs, that run among the hills. +Water, water everywhere! The rain pattering on the roof +all night long carried me back to the days of my childhood, +when I slept in a little cot under the eaves, and that sound +was music to my ear. The Scotch mist that envelopes the +mountains might make the traveller fancy himself in the +Highlands; and so he might, as he seeks out the little +"tarns" that have settled in the craters of extinct volcanoes, +where not only wild deer break through the tangled wood of +the leafy solitudes, but the tiger and the rhinoceros come to +drink. Streams run down the mountain-sides, and springs +ooze from mossy banks by the roadside, and temper the air +with their dripping coolness. What a place to rest! How +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span> +this perfect quiet must bring repose to the brave fellows from +Acheen, and how sweet must sound this music of mountain +streams to ears accustomed to the rude alarms of war!</p> + +<p>That we were in a new quarter of the world—far away, +not only from America and Europe, but even from Asia—we +were reminded by the line of telegraph which kept us +company over the mountains, and which here crosses the +island on its way to Australia! It goes down the coast to +Bangaewangi, where it dives into the sea only to come up on +the mainland of the great Southern Continent. Indeed we +were strongly advised to extend our journey around the world +to Australia, which we could have reached in much less time +than it had taken to come from Calcutta to Singapore. But +we were more interested to visit old countries and old nations +than to set foot on a virgin continent, and to see colonies and +cities, which, with all their growth, could only be a smaller +edition of what we have so abundantly in the new States of +America.</p> + +<p>We were now within a few miles of the Southern Ocean, +the greatest of all the oceans that wrap their watery mantle +around the globe. From the top of the Gédé, a mountain +which rose above us, one may look off upon an ocean broader +than the Pacific—a sea without a shore—whose waters roll +in an unbroken sweep to the Antarctic Pole.</p> + +<p>From all these seas and shores, and woods and waters, we +now turned away, and with renewed delight in the varied +landscapes, rode back over the mountains to Buitenzorg, and +came down by rail to Batavia.</p> + +<p>Before I depart from this pleasant land of Java, I must +say a word about the Dutch and their position in South-eastern +Asia. The Dutch have had possession of Java over +250 years—since 1623—without interruption, except from +1811 to 1816, when Napoleon had taken Holland; and as +England was using all her forces on land and sea to cripple +the French empire in different parts of the world, she sent a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> +fleet against Java. It yielded almost without opposition; +indeed many of the Dutch regarded the surrender as simply +placing the island under British protection, which saved it +from the French. For five years it had an English Governor, +Sir Stamford Raffles, who has written a large work on Java. +After the fall of Napoleon, England restored Java to the +Dutch, but kept Ceylon, Malacca, and the Cape of Good +Hope. Thus the Dutch have lost some of their possessions +in the East, and yet Holland is to-day the second colonial +power in the world, being inferior only to England. The +Dutch flag in the East waves not only over Java, but over +almost the whole of the Malayan Archipelago, which, with the +intervening waters, covers a portion of the earth's surface +larger than all Europe.</p> + +<p>There are some peculiar physical features in this part of +the world. The Malayan Archipelago lies midway between +Asia and Australia, belonging to neither, and yet belonging +to both. It is a very curious fact, brought out by Wallace, +whose great work on "The Malayan Archipelago" is altogether +the best on the subject, that this group of islands is in +itself divided by a very narrow space between the two continents, +which it at once separates and unites. Each has its +own distinct fauna and flora. The narrow Strait of Bali, only +fifteen miles wide, which separates the two small islands of +Bali and Lombok, separates two distinct animal and vegetable +kingdoms, which are as unlike as are those of the United +States and Brazil. One group belongs to Asia, the other to +Australia. Sumatra is full of tigers; in Borneo there is not +one. Australia has no carnivora—no beasts that prey on +flesh—but chiefly marsupials, such as kangaroos.</p> + +<p>There are a good many residents in the East who think +Holland, in the management of her dependencies, has shown +a better political economy than England has shown in India. +An English writer (a Mr. Money), in a volume entitled +"How to Govern a Colony," has brought some features of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span> +the Dutch policy to the notice of his countrymen. I will +mention but one as an illustration. Half a century ago Java +was very much run down. A native rebellion which lasted +five years had paralyzed the industry of the country. To +reanimate it, a couple of years after the rebellion had been +subdued, in 1832, the home government began a very liberal +system of stimulating production by making advances to +planters, and guaranteeing them labor to cultivate their +estates. The effect was marvellous. By that wise system of +helping those who had not means to help themselves, a new +life was at once infused into all parts of the island. Out of +that has grown the enormous production of coffee, sugar, and +tobacco. Now Java not only pays all the expenses of her +own government, (which India does not do, at least without +contracting very heavy loans,) but builds her own railroads, +and other roads and bridges, and supplies the drain of the +Acheen war, and remits every year millions to the Hague to +build railroads in Holland.</p> + +<p>Is it too much to believe that there is a great future in +store for South Eastern Asia? We talk about the future of +America. But ours is not the only continent that offers +vast unoccupied wastes to the habitation of man. Besides +Australia, there are these great islands nearer to Asia, +which, from the overflow of India and China, may yet have +a population that shall cultivate their waste places. I found +in Burmah a great number of Bengalees and Madrasees, who +had crossed the Bay of Bengal to seek a home in Farther India; +while the Chinese, who form the population of Singapore, +had crept up the coast. They are here in Java, in +every seaport and in every large town in the interior, and +there is every reason to suppose that there will be a yet +greater overflow of population in this direction. Sumatra +and Borneo are not yet inhabited and cultivated like Java, +but in their great extent they offer a magnificent seat for +future kingdoms or empires, which, Asiatic in population, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span> +may be governed by European laws, and moulded by European +civilization.</p> + +<p>One thing more before we cross the Equator—a word +about nature and life in the tropics. I came to Java partly +to see the tropical vegetation, of which we saw but little in +India, as we were there in winter, which is at once the cold +and the dry season, when vegetation withers, and the vast +plains are desolate and dreary. Nature then holds herself +in reserve, waiting till the rains come, when the earth will +bloom again. But as I could not wait for the change of seasons, +I must needs pass on to a land where the change had +already come. We marked the transition as we came down +the Bay of Bengal. There were signs of changing seasons +and a changing nature. We were getting into the rainy +belt. In the Straits of Malacca the air was hot and thunderous, +and we had frequent storms; the heavens were full +of rain, and the earth was fresh with the joy of a newly-opened +spring. But still we kept on till we crossed the +Equator. Here in Java the rainy season was just over. It +ends with the last of March, and we arrived at the beginning +of April. For months the windows of heaven had been +opened, the rains descended, and the floods came; and lo! +the land was like the garden of the Lord. Here we had at +last the tropical vegetation in its fullest glory. Nothing can +exceed the prodigality and luxuriance of nature when a +vertical sun beats down on fields and forests and jungles that +have been drenched for months in rain. Vegetation of every +kind springs up, as in the temperate zone it appears only +when forced in heated conservatories (as in the Duke of +Devonshire's gardens at Chatsworth), and the land waves +with these luxuriant growths. In the forest creeping plants +wind round the tall trunks, and vines hang in festoons from +tree to tree.</p> + +<p>But while the tropical forest presents such a wild luxuriance +of growth, I find no single trees of such stature as I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span> +have seen in other parts of the world. Except an occasional +broad-spreading banyan, I have seen nothing which, standing +alone, equals in its solitary majesty the English oak or the +American elm. Perhaps there is a difference in this respect +between countries in the same latitude in the Eastern and +Western hemispheres. An English gentleman whom we +found here in charge of a great sugar plantation, who had +spent some years in Rio Janeiro, told me that the trees of +Java did not compare in majesty with those of Brazil. Nor +is this superiority confined to South America. Probably +no trees now standing on the earth equal the Big Trees of +California. And besides these there are millions of lofty +pines on the sides of the Sierra Nevada, which I have seen +nowhere equalled unless it be in the mighty cedars which +line the great Tokaido of Japan. On the whole, I am a +little inclined to boast that trees attain their greatest height +and majesty in our Western hemisphere.</p> + +<p>But the glory of the tropics is in the universal life of +nature, spreading through all her realms, stirring even under +ground, and causing to spring forth new forms of vegetation, +which coming up, as it were, out of the darkness of the +grave, seek the sun and air, whereby all things live.</p> + +<p>Of course one cannot but consider what effect this marvellous +production must have upon man. Too often it overpowers +him, and makes him its slave, since he cannot be its +master. This is the terror of the Tropics, as of the Polar +regions, that nature is too strong for man to subdue her. +What can he do—poor, puny creature—against its terrible +forces; against the heat of a vertical sun, that while it +quickens the earth, often blasts the strength of man, subduing +his energy, if not destroying his life? What can man do +in the Arctic circle against the cold that locks up whole continents +in ice? Much as he boasts of his strength and of his +all-conquering will, he is but a child in the lap of nature, +tossed about by material forces as a leaf is blown by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span> +wind. The best region for human development and energy +is the temperate zone, where nature stimulates, but does not +overpower, the energies of man, where the winter's cold +does not benumb him and make him sink into torpor, but +only pricks him to exertion and makes him quicken his +steps.</p> + +<p>The effect of this fervid climate shows itself not only upon +natives, but upon Europeans. It induces a languor and indisposition +to effort. It has two of the hardest and toughest +races in the world to work upon, in the English in India and +the Dutch in Java, and yet it has its effect even upon them, +and would have a still greater were it not that this foreign +element is constantly changing, coming and going, whereby +there is all the time a fresh infusion of European life. Here +in Java the Dutch have been longer settled than the English +in India; they more often remain in the island, and the effect +of course is more marked from generation to generation. The +Dutchman is a placid, easy-going creature, even in his native +Holland, except when roused by some great crisis, like a +Spanish invasion, and then he fights with a courage which has +given him a proud name in history. But ordinarily he is of +a calm and even temper, and likes to sit quietly and survey +his broad acres, and smoke his pipe in blissful content with +himself and all the world beside. When he removes from +Holland to the other side of the world, he has not changed +his nature; he is a Dutchman still, only with his natural love +of ease increased by life in the tropics. It is amusing to see +how readily his Dutch nature falls in with the easy ways of +this Eastern world.</p> + +<p>If I were to analyze existence, or material enjoyment in this +part of the world, I should say that the two great elements +in one's life, or at least in his comfort, are sleep and smoke. +They smoke in Holland, and they have a better right to +smoke in Java; for here they but follow the course of nature. +Why should not man smoke, when even the earth itself respires +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span> +through smoke and flame? The mountains smoke, and +why not the Dutch? Only there is this difference: the +volcanoes sometimes have a period of rest, but the Dutch +never. Morning, noon, and night, before breakfast and after +dinner, smoke, smoke, smoke! It seems to be a Dutchman's +ideal of happiness. I have been told of some who dropped +to sleep with the cigar in their lips, and of one who required +his servants to put his pipe between his teeth while he was +yet sleeping, that he might wake up with the right taste in +his mouth. It seemed to me that this must work injury to +their health, but they think not. Perhaps there is something +in the phlegmatic Dutch temperament that can stand this +better than the more mercurial and excitable English or +American.</p> + +<p>And then how they do sleep! Sleep is an institution in +Java, and indeed everywhere in the tropics. The deep stillness +of the tropical noon seems to prescribe rest, for then +nature itself sinks into repose. Scarcely a leaf moves in the +forest—the birds cease their musical notes, and seek for rest +under the shade of motionless palms. The sleep of the Dutch +is like this stillness of nature. It is profound and absolute +repose. For certain hours of the day no man is visible. I +had a letter to the Resident of Solo, and went to call on him +at two o'clock. He lived in a grand Government House, or +palace; but an air of somnolence pervaded the place, as if it +were the Castle of Indolence. The very servant was asleep +on the marble pavement, where it was his duty to keep watch; +and when I sent in my letter, he came back making a very +significant gesture, leaning over his head to signify that his +master was asleep. At five o'clock I was more fortunate, but +even then he was dressed with a lightness of costume more +suitable for one who was about to enter his bath than to give +audience.</p> + +<p>There is a still graver question for the moralist to consider—the +effect of these same physical influences upon human +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span> +character. No observer of men in different parts of the +world can fail to see that different races have been modified +by climate, not only in color and features, but in temperament, +in disposition, and in character. A hot climate makes +hot blood. Burning passions do but reflect the torrid sun. +What the Spaniard is in Europe, the Malay is in Asia. +There is a deep philosophy in the question of Byron:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"> +"Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle</p> +<p class="i1">Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime,</p> +<p>Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,</p> +<p class="i1">Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?"</p> +</div> + +<p>But I must not wander into deep philosophy. I only say +that great as is the charm of life in the tropics, it is not +without alloy. In landing in Java it seemed as if we had +touched the shores of some enchanted island, as if we had +found the Garden of Paradise lying far off in these Southern +seas. We had come to the land of perpetual spring and perpetual +summer, where nature is always in bloom, and frost +and snow and hail have fled away to the bleak and wintry +North. But as we are obliged to go back to that North, we +wish to be reconciled to it. We find that one may have too +much even of Paradise. There is a monotony in perpetual +summer. The only change of seasons here is from the dry +season to the rainy season; and the only difference between +these, so far as we can see, is that in the dry season it +rains, and in the rainy season it pours. We have been here +in the dry season, and yet we have had frequent showers, +with occasional thunderstorms. If we should stay here a +year, we should weary of this unrelieved monotony of sun +and rain. We should long for some more marked change of +seasons, for the autumn leaves and the winter winds, and +the gradual coming on of spring, and all those insensible gradations +of nature which make the glory of the full round +year. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span></p> + +<p>And what a loss should we find in the absence of twilight. +Java, being almost under the Equator, the days and nights +are almost equal throughout the year; there are no short +days and no long days. Day and night come on suddenly—not +instantly, but in a few minutes the night breaks into the +full glare of day, and the day as quickly darkens into night. +How we should miss the long summer twilight, which in our +Northern latitudes lingers so softly and tenderly over the +quiet earth.</p> + +<p>Remembering these things, we are reconciled to our lot in +living in the temperate zone, and turn away even from the +soft and easy life of the tropics, to find a keener delight in +our rugged clime, and to welcome even the snow-drifts and +the short winter days, since they bring the long winter evenings, +and the roaring winter fires!</p> + +<p>We leave Java, therefore, not so much with regret that we +can no longer sit under the palm groves, and indulge in the +soft and easy life of the tropics, as that we part from friends. +Our last night in Batavia they took us to a representation +given by amateurs at the English Club, where it was very +pleasant to see so many English faces in this distant part +of the world, and to hear our own mother tongue. The next +morning they rode down with us to the quay, and came off +to the steamer, and did not leave us till it was ready to +move; and it was with a real sadness that we saw them over +the ship's side, and watched their fluttering signals as they +sailed back to the shore. These partings are the sore pain of +travel. But the friendships remain, and are delightful in +memory. A pleasure past is a pleasure still. Even now it +gives us a warm feeling at the heart to think of those kind +friends on the other side of the globe. +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XXIV.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">UP THE CHINA SEAS—HONG KONG AND CANTON.</p> + +<p>In Singapore, as in Batavia, the lines fell to us in pleasant +places. An English merchant, Mr. James Graham, carried +us off to his hospitable bungalow outside the town, where we +passed four days. It stood on a hill, from which we looked +off on one side to the harbor, where were riding the ships of +all nations, and on the other to an undulating country, with +here and there an English residence embowered in trees. +In this delightful retreat our hosts made us feel perfectly at +home. We talked of England and America; we romped +with the children; we played croquet on the lawn; we received +calls from the neighbors, and went out to "take tea" +in the good old-fashioned way. We attended service, the +Sunday before going to Java, in the Cathedral, and on our +return, in the Scotch church; so that around us, even at this +extremity of Asia, were the faces and voices, the happy domestic +life, and the religious worship, of dear old England.</p> + +<p>But just as we began to settle into this quiet life, the +steamer was signalled from Ceylon which was to take us to +China, and we had to part from our new friends.</p> + +<p>It had been in my plan to go from here to Siam. It is but +three days' sail from Singapore up the Gulf to Bangkok; but +it is not so easy to get on from there. Could we have been +sure of a speedy passage to Saigon, to connect with the French +steamer, we should not have hesitated; but without this, we +might be detained for a week or two, or be obliged to come +back to Singapore. Thus uncertain, we felt that it was safer +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span> +to take the steamer direct for Hong Kong, though it was a +sore disappointment to pass across the head of the Gulf of +Siam, knowing that we were so near the Land of the White +Elephant, and leave it unvisited.</p> + +<p>The China seas have a very bad name among sailors and +travellers, as they are often swept by terrible cyclones; but +we crossed at a favorable season, and escaped. The heat was +great, and passengers sat about on deck in their easy cane +chairs, as on the Red Sea; but beyond that, we experienced +not so much discomfort as on the Mediterranean. On the +sixth morning we saw in the distance an island, which, as +we drew nearer, rose up so steeply and so high that it appeared +almost like a mountain. This was the Peak of Hong +Kong—a signal-station from which men, with their glasses, +can look far out to sea, and as soon as one of the great steamers +is descried on the horizon, a flag is run up and a gun +fired to convey the news to the city below. Coming up behind +the island, we swept around its point, and saw before us +a large town, very picturesquely situated on the side of a hill, +rising street above street, and overlooking a wide bay shut +in by hills, so that it is sheltered from the storms that +vex the China seas. The harbor was full of foreign ships, +among which were many ships of war (as this is the rendezvous +of the British fleet in these waters), which were +firing salutes; among those flying the flags of all nations was +one modest representative of our country, of which we did +not need to be ashamed—the Kearsarge. We afterwards +went on board of her, and saw and stroked with affection, +mingled with pride, the big gun that sunk the Alabama.</p> + +<p>Hong Kong, like Singapore, is an English colony, but with +a Chinese population. You can hardly set foot on shore before +you are snapped up by a couple of lusty fellows, with +straw hats as large as umbrellas on their heads, and who, +though in bare feet, stand up as straight as grenadiers, and +as soon as you take your seat in a chair, lift the bamboo +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span> +poles to their shoulders, and walk off with you on the double-quick.</p> + +<p>No country which we see for the first time is exactly as we +supposed it to be. Somehow I had thought of China as a +vast plain like India; and behold! the first view reveals a +wild, mountainous coast. As we climb Victoria Peak above +Hong Kong, and look across to the mainland, we see only +barren hills—a prospect almost as desolate as that of the +Arabian shores on the Red Sea.</p> + +<p>But what wonders lie beyond that Great Wall of mountains +which guards this part of the coast of China! One +cannot be in sight of such a country without an eager impulse +to be in it, and after two or three days of rest we set +out for Canton, which is only eight hours distant. Our +boat was an American one, with an American captain, who +took us into the wheel-house, and pointed out every spot of +interest as we passed through the islands and entered the +Canton river. Forty miles south is the old Portuguese port +of Macao. At the mouth of the river are the Bogue Forts, +which played such a part in the English war of 1841, but +which were sadly battered, and now lie dismantled and ungarrisoned. +Going by the stately Second Bar Pagoda, we +next pass Whampoa, the limit to which foreign vessels could +come before the Treaty Ports were opened. As we ascend +the river, it is crowded with junks—strange craft, high at +both ends, armed with old rusty cannon, with which to beat +off the pirates that infest these seas, and ornamented at the +bow with huge round eyes, that stand out as if from the head +of some sea-monster, some terrible dragon, which keeps +watch over the deep. Amid such fantastic barks, with their +strange crews, we steamed up to Canton.</p> + +<p>At the landing, a son of Dr. Happer, the American missionary, +came on board with a letter from his father inviting +us to be his guests, and we accordingly took a native boat, +and were rowed up the river. Our oarsman was a woman, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span> +who, besides the trifle of rowing our boat up the stream, had +a baby strapped on her back! Perhaps the weight helped +her to keep her balance as she bent to the oar. But it was +certainly bringing things to a pretty fine point when human +muscles were thus economized. This boat, well called in +Chinese a <i>tan-ka</i> or egg-house, was the home of the family. +It sheltered under its little bamboo cover eight souls (as many +as Noah had in the Ark), who had no other habitation. +Here they ate and drank and slept; here perhaps children +were born and old men died. In Canton it is estimated that +a hundred and fifty thousand people thus live in boats, leading +a kind of amphibious existence.</p> + +<p>Above the landing is the island of Shameen, a mile long, +which is the foreign quarter, where are the Hongs, or Factories, +of the great tea-merchants, and where live the wealthy +foreign residents. Rounding this island, we drew up to the +quay, in front of Dr. Happer's door, where we found that +welcome which is never wanting under the roof of an American +missionary. Dr. Happer has lived here thirty-two years, +and was of course familiar with every part of Canton, and +was an invaluable guide in the explorations of the next three +or four days.</p> + +<p>When we were in Paris, we met Dr. Wells Williams, the +well-known missionary, who had spent over forty years in +China, twelve of them in Peking, of which he said, that +apart from its being the capital, it had little to interest a +stranger—at least not enough to repay the long journey to +reach it. He said it would take a month to go from Shanghai +to Tientsin, and then cross the country cramped up in +carts to Peking, and visit the Great Wall, and return to +Shanghai. Canton was not only much nearer, but far more +interesting, and the best representative of a Chinese city in +the Empire.</p> + +<p>The next morning we began our excursions, not with +horses and chariots, but with coolies and chairs. An English +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span> +gentleman and his wife, who had come with us from Singapore, +joined us, making, with a son of Dr. Happer and the +guide, a party of six, for whom eighteen bearers drew up +before the door, forming quite a procession as we filed through +the streets. The motion was not unpleasant, though they +swung us along at a good round pace, shouting to the people +to get out of the way, who forthwith parted right and left, +as if some high mandarin were coming. The streets were narrow +and densely crowded. Through such a mass it required +no small effort to force our way, which was effected only by +our bearers keeping up a constant cry, like that of the gondoliers +in Venice, when turning a corner in the canals—a +signal of warning to any approaching in the opposite direction. +I could but admire the good-nature of the people, +who yielded so readily. If we were thus to push through a +crowd in New York, and the policemen were to shout to the +"Bowery boys" to "get out of the way," we might receive +a "blessing" in reply that would not be at all agreeable. +But the Chinamen took it as a matter of course, and turned +aside respectfully to give us a passage, only staring mildly +with their almond eyes, to see what great personages were +these that came along looking so grand.</p> + +<p>Our way led through the longest street of the city, which +bears the sounding name of the Street of Benevolence and +Love. This is the Broadway of Canton, only it is not half +as wide as Broadway. It is very narrow, like some of the +old streets of Genoa, and paved, like them, with huge slabs +of stone. On either side it is lined with shops, into which +we had a good opportunity to look as we brushed past them, +for they stood wide open. They were of the smallest dimensions, +most of them consisting of a single room, even when +hung with beautiful embroideries. There may be little recesses +behind, hidden interiors where they live, though apparently +we saw the whole family. In many shops they were +taking their meals in full sight of the passers-by. There was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span> +no variety of courses; a bowl of rice in the centre of the +table was the universal dish (for rice is the staff of life in +Asia, as bread is in America), garnished perchance with some +"little pickle," in the shape of a bit of fish and soy, to serve +<i>as a sauce piquante</i> to stimulate the flagging appetite. But +apparently they needed no appetizer, for they plied their +chop-sticks with unfailing assiduity.</p> + +<p>Our first day's ride was probably ten or twelve miles, and +took us through such "heavenly streets" as we never knew +before, and did not expect to walk in till we entered the +gates of the New Jerusalem. Besides the Street of Benevolence +and Love, which might be considered the great highway +of the Celestial City, there were streets which bore the +enrapturing names of "Peace," "Bright Cloud," and "Longevity;" +of "Early-bestowed Blessings" and of "Everlasting +Love;" of "One Hundred Grandsons" and (more ambitious +still) of "One Thousand Grandsons;" of "Five Happinesses" +and of "Refreshing Breezes;" of "Accumulated +Blessings" and of "Ninefold Brightness." There was a +"Dragon street," and others devoted to "The Ascending +Dragon," "The Saluting Dragon," and "The Reposing +Dragon;" while other titles came probably a little nearer +the plain fact, such as "The Market of Golden Profits." +All the shops have little shrines near the door dedicated to +<i>Tsai Shin</i>, or the God of Wealth, to whom the shopkeepers +offer their prayers every day. I think I have heard of +prayers offered to that divinity in other countries, and no +one could doubt that these prayers at least were fervent and +sincere.</p> + +<p>But names do not always designate realities, and though +we passed through the street of a "Thousand Beatitudes" and +that of a "Thousandfold Peace," we saw sorrow and misery +enough before the day was done.</p> + +<p>One gets an idea of the extent of a city not only by traversing +its streets, but by ascending some high point in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span> +vicinity that overlooks it. The best point for such a bird's-eye +view is the Five-storied Pagoda, from which the eye +ranges over a distance of many miles, including the city and +the country around to the mountains in the distance, with +the broad river in front, and the suburb on the other side. +The appearance of Canton is very different from that of a +European city. It has no architectural magnificence. There +are some fine houses of the rich merchants, built of brick, +with spacious rooms and courts; but there are no great +palaces towering over the city—no domes like St. Paul's in +London, or St. Peter's in Rome, nor even like the domes +and minarets of Constantinople. The most imposing structure +in view is the new Roman Catholic Cathedral. Here +and there a solitary pagoda rises above the vast sea of human +dwellings, which are generally of but one, seldom two +stories in height, and built very much alike; for there is +the same monotony in the Chinese houses as in the figures +and costumes of the Chinese themselves. Nor is this level +surface relieved by any variety of color. The tiled roofs, +with their dead color, but increase the sombre impression of +the vast dull plain; yet beneath such a pall is a great city, +intersected by hundreds of streets, and occupied by a million +of human beings.</p> + +<p>The first impression of a Chinese city is of its myriad, +multitudinous life. There are populous cities in Europe, +and crowded streets; but here human beings <i>swarm</i>, like +birds in the air or fishes in the sea. The wonder is how +they all live; but that is a mystery which I could not solve +in London any more than here. There is one street a mile +long, which has in it nothing but shoemakers. The people +amused us very much by their strange appearance and dress, +in both which China differs wholly from the Orient. A +Chinaman is not at all like a Turk. He does not wear a +turban, nor even a long, flowing beard. His head is shaved +above and below—face, chin, and skull—and instead of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span> +patriarchal beard before him, he carries only a pigtail behind. +The women whom we met in the streets (at least those of +any position, for only the common work-women let their feet +grow) hobbled about on their little feet, which were like dolls' +feet—a sight that was half ludicrous and half painful.</p> + +<p>But if we were amused at the Chinese, I dare say they +were as much amused at us. The people of Canton ought +by this time to be familiar with white faces. But, strange to +say, wherever we went we attracted a degree of attention +which had never been accorded us before in any foreign city. +Boys ran after us, shouting as they ran. If the chairs were +set down in the street, as we stopped to see a sight, a crowd +gathered in a moment. There was no rudeness, but mere +curiosity. If we went into a temple, a throng collected +about the doors, and looked in at the windows, and opened +a passage for us as we came out, and followed us till we got +into our chairs and disappeared down the street. The ladies +of our party especially seemed to be objects of wonder. +They did not hobble on the points of their toes, but stood +erect, and walked with a firm step. Their free and independent +air apparently inspired respect. The children +seemed to hesitate between awe and terror. One little fellow +I remember, who dared to approach too near, and whom +my niece cast her eye upon, thought that he was done for, +and fled howling. I have no doubt all reported, when they +went home, that they had seen some strange specimens of +"foreign devils."</p> + +<p>But the Chinese are a highly civilized people. In some +things, indeed, they are mere children, compared with Europeans; +but in others they are in advance of us, especially those +arts which require great delicacy, such as the manufacture of +some kinds of jewelry, exquisite trinkets in gold and silver, +in which Canton rivals Delhi and Lucknow, and in the finest +work in ivory and in precious woods; also in those which +require a degree of patience to be found nowhere except +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span> +among Asiatics. For example, I saw a man carving an +elephant's tusk, which would take him a whole year! The +Chinese are also exquisite workers in bronze, as well as in +porcelain, in which they have such a conceded mastery that +specimens of "old China" ornament every collection in +Europe. Their silks are as rich and fine as any that are produced +from the looms of Lyons or Antwerp. This need not +surprise us, for we must remember the great antiquity of +China; that the Chinese were a highly civilized people when +our ancestors, the Britons, were barbarians. They had the +art of printing and the art of gunpowder long before they were +known in Europe. Chinese books are in some respects a +model for ours now, not only in cheapness, but in their extreme +lightness, being made of thin bamboo paper, so that a +book weighs in the hand hardly more than a newspaper.</p> + +<p>Of course every stranger must make the round of temples +and pagodas, of which there are enough to satisfy any number +of worshippers. There is a Temple of the Five Genii, +and one of the Five Hundred Arhans, or scholars of Buddha. +There is a Temple of Confucius, and a Temple of the Emperor, +where the mandarins go and pay to his Majesty and to +the Sage an homage of divine adoration. I climbed up into +his royal seat, and thought I was quite as fit an object of +worship as he! There is a Temple of Horrors, which outdoes +the "Chamber of Horrors" in Madame Tussaud's +famous exhibition of wax-works in London. It is a representation +of all the torments which are supposed to be endured +by the damned, and reminds one of those frightful +pictures painted in the Middle Ages in some Roman Catholic +countries, in which heretics are seen in the midst of flames, +tossed about by devils on pitchforks. But the Chinese soften +the impression. To restore the balance of mind, terrified by +these frightful representations, there is a Temple of Longevity, +in which there is a figure of Buddha, such as the ancient +Romans might have made of Bacchus or Silenus—a mountain +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span> +of flesh, with fat eyes, laughing mouth, and enormous +paunch. Even the four Kings of Heaven, that rule over the +four points of the compass—North, South, East, and West—have +much more of an earthly than a heavenly look. All +these figures are grotesque and hideous enough; but to their +credit be it said, they are not obscene, like the figures in the +temples of India. Here we made the same observation as in +Burmah, that Buddhism is a much cleaner and more decent +religion than Hindooism. This is to its honor. "Buddhism," +says Williams, "is the least revolting and impure of all +false religions." Its general character we have seen elsewhere. +Its precepts enjoin self-denial and practical benevolence. +It has no cruel or bloody rites, and nothing gross +in its worship. Of its priests, some are learned men, but the +mass are ignorant, yet sober and inoffensive. At least they +are not a scandal to their faith, as are the priests of some +forms of Christianity. That the Chinese are imbued with +religious ideas is indicated in the very names of the streets +already mentioned, whereby, though in a singular fashion, +they commemorate and glorify certain attributes of character. +The idea which seems most deep-rooted in their minds is +that of retribution according to conduct. The maxim most +frequent in their mouths is that good actions bring their own +reward, and bad actions their own punishment. This idea +was very pithily expressed by the famous hong-merchant, +Howqua, in reply to an American sea-captain, who asked +him his idea of future rewards and punishments, to which he +replied in pigeon-English: "A man do good, he go to Joss; +he no do good, very much bamboo catchee he!"</p> + +<p>But we will leave the temples with their grinning idols; as +we leave the restaurants, where lovers of dainty dishes are +regaled with dogs and cats; and the opium-shops, where the +Chinese loll and smoke till they are stupefied by the horrid +drug; for Canton has something more attractive. We found +a very curious study in the Examination Hall, illustrating, as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span> +it does, the Chinese manner of elevating men to office. We +hear much in our country of "civil service reform," which +some innocently suppose to be a new discovery in political +economy—an American invention. But the Chinese have +had it for a thousand years. Here appointments to office are +made as the result of a competitive examination; and although +there may be secret favoritism and bribery, yet the +theory is one of perfect equality. In this respect China is +the most absolute democracy in the world. There is no +hereditary rank or order of nobility; the lowest menial, if +he has native talent, may raise himself by study and perseverance +to be Prime Minister of the Empire.</p> + +<p>In the eastern quarter of Canton is an enclosure of many +acres, laid off in a manner which betokens some unusual purpose. +The ground is divided by a succession of long, low +buildings, not much better than horse-sheds around a New +England meeting-house of the olden time. They run in +parallel lines, like barracks for a camp, and are divided into +narrow compartments. Once in three years this vast camping-ground +presents an extraordinary spectacle, for then are +gathered in these courts, from all parts of the province, some +ten thousand candidates, all of whom have previously passed +a first examination, and received a degree, and now appear +to compete for the second. Some are young, and some +are old, for there is no limit put upon age. As the candidates +present themselves, each man is searched, to see that he +has no books, or helps of any kind, concealed upon his person, +and then put into a stall about three feet wide, just +large enough to turn around in, and as bare as a prisoner's +cell. There is a niche in the wall, in which a board can be +placed for him to sit upon, and another niche to support a +board that has to serve as breakfast-table and writing-table. +This is the furniture of his room. Here he is shut in from +all communication with the world, his food being passed to +him through the door, as to a prisoner. Certain themes are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span> +then submitted to him in writing, on which he is to furnish +written essays, intended generally, and perhaps always, to +determine his knowledge of the Chinese classics. It is sometimes +said that these are frivolous questions, the answers to +which afford no proof whatever of one's capacity for office; +but it should be remembered that these classics are the writings +of Confucius, which are the political ethics of the country, +the very foundation of the government, without knowing +which one is not qualified to take part in its administration.</p> + +<p>The candidate goes into his cell in the afternoon, and +spends the night there, which gives him time for reflection, +and all the next day and the next night, when he comes out, +and after a few days is put in again for another trial of the +same character; and this is repeated a third time; at the end +of which he is released from solitary confinement, and his +essays are submitted for examination. Of the ten thousand, +only seventy-five can obtain a degree—not one in a hundred! +The nine thousand and nine hundred must go back disappointed, +their only consolation being that after three years +they can try again. Even the successful ones do not thereby +get an office, but only the right to enter for a third competition, +which takes place at Peking, by which of course their +ranks are thinned still more. The few who get through this +threefold ordeal take a high place in the literary or learned +class, from which all appointments to the public service are +made. Here is the system of examination complete. No +trial can be imagined more severe, and it ought to give the +Chinese the best civil service in the world.</p> + +<p>May we not get a hint from this for our instruction +in America, where some of our best men are making +earnest efforts for civil service reform? If the candidates, +who flock to Washington at the beginning of each administration, +were to be put into cells, and fed on bread and water, +it might check the rage for office, and the number of applicants +might be diminished; and if they were required to pass +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span> +an examination, and to furnish written essays, showing at +least some degree of knowledge of political affairs, we might +have a more intelligent class of officials to fill consular posts +in different parts of the world.</p> + +<p>But, unfortunately, it might be answered that examinations, +be they ever so strict, do not change human nature, nor +make men just or humane; and that even the rigid system of +China does not restrain rulers from corruption, nor protect +the people from acts of oppression and cruelty.</p> + +<p>Three spots in Canton had for me the fascination of horror—the +court, the prison, and the execution ground. I had +heard terrible tales of the trial by torture—of men racked to +extort the secrets of crime, and of the punishments which +followed. These stories haunted me, and I hoped to find +some features which would relieve the impression of so much +horror. I wished to see for myself the administration of +justice—to witness a trial in a Chinese court. A few years +ago this would have been impossible; foreigners were excluded +from the courts. But now they are open, and all can +see who have the nerve to look on. Therefore, after we had +made a long circuit through the streets of Canton, I directed +the bearers to take us to the Yamun, the Hall of Justice. +Leaving our chairs in the street, we passed through a large +open court into a hall in the rear, where at that very moment +several trials were going on.</p> + +<p>The court-room was very plain. A couple of judges sat +behind tables, before whom a number of prisoners were +brought in. The mode of proceeding was very foreign to +American or European ideas. There was neither jury nor +witnesses. This simplified matters exceedingly. There is no +trial by jury in China. While we haggle about impanelling +juries and getting testimony, and thus trials drag on for +weeks, in China no such obstacle is allowed to impede the +rapid course of justice; and what is more, there are no lawyers +to perplex the case with their arguments, but the judge +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span> +has it all his own way. He is simply confronted with the +accused, and they have it all between them.</p> + +<p>While we stood here, a number of prisoners were brought +in; some were carried in baskets (as they are borne to execution), +and dumped on the stone pavement like so many +bushels of potatoes; others were led in with chains around +their necks. As each one's name was called, he came forward +and fell on his knees before the judge, and lifted up his +hands to beg for mercy. He was then told of the crime of +which he was accused, and given opportunity if he had anything +to say in his own defence. There was no apparent +harshness or cruelty towards him, except that he was presumed +to be guilty, unless he could prove his innocence; +contrary to the English maxim of law, that a man is to be +presumed innocent until he is proved guilty. In this, however, +the Chinese practice is not very different from that +which exists at this day in so enlightened a country as +France.</p> + +<p>For example, two men were accused of being concerned together +in a burglary. As they were from another prefecture, +where there is another dialect, they had to be examined +through an interpreter. The judge wished to find out who +were leagued with them, and therefore questioned them separately. +Each was brought in in a basket, chained and doubled +up, so that he sat helplessly. No witness was examined, +but the man himself was simply interrogated by the judge.</p> + +<p>In another case, two men were accused of robbery with +violence—a capital offence, but by the Chinese law no man +can be punished with death unless he confesses his crime; +hence every means is employed to lead a criminal to acknowledge +his guilt. Of course in a case of life and death he +will deny it as long as he can. But if he will not confess, +the court proceeds to take stringent measures to <i>make</i> him +confess, for which purpose these two men were now put to +the torture. The mode of torture was this: There were two +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span> +round pillars in the hall. Each man was on his knees, with +his feet chained behind him, so that he could not stir. He +was then placed with his back to one of these columns, and +small cords were fastened around his thumbs and great toes, +and drawn back tightly to the pillar behind. This soon produced +intense suffering. Their breasts heaved, the veins on +their foreheads stood out like whipcords, and every feature +betrayed the most excruciating agony. Every few minutes +an officer of the court asked if they were ready to confess, +and as often they answered, "No; never would they confess +that they had committed such a crime." They were told if +they did not confess, they would be subjected to still greater +torture. But they still held out, though every moment +seemed an hour of pain.</p> + +<p>While these poor wretches were thus writhing in agony, I +turned to the judge to see how he bore the spectacle of such +suffering. He sat at his table quite unmoved; yet he did +not seem like a brutal man, but like a man of education, +such as one might see on the bench in England or America. +He seemed to look upon it as in the ordinary course of proceedings, +and a necessary step in the conviction of a criminal. +He used no bravado, and offered no taunt or insult. But +the cries of the sufferers did not move him, nor prevent his +taking his accustomed ease. He sat fanning himself and +smoking his pipe, as if he said he could stand it as long as +they could. Of course he knew that, as their heads were at +stake, they would deny their guilt till compelled to yield; +but he seemed to look upon it as simply a question of endurance, +in which, if he kept on long enough, there could be +but one issue.</p> + +<p>But still the men did not give in, and I looked at them +with amazement mingled with horror, to see what human +nature could endure. The sight was too painful to witness +more than a few moments, and I rushed away, leaving the +men still hanging to the pillars of torture. I confess I felt a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span> +relief when I went back the next day, to hear that they had +not yielded, but held out unflinchingly to the last.</p> + +<p>Horrible as this seems, I have heard good men—men of +humanity—argue in favor of torture, at least "when applied +in a mild way." They affirm that in China there can be no +administration of justice without it. In a country where +testimony is absolutely worthless—where as many men can +be hired to swear falsely for ten cents apiece as you have +money to buy—there is no possible way of arriving at the +truth but by <i>extorting</i> it. No doubt it is a rough process, +but it secures the result. As it happened, the English gentleman +who accompanied us was a magistrate in India, and +he confirmed the statement as to the difficulty, and in many +cases the impossibility, of getting at the truth, because of the +unfathomable deceit of the natives. Many cases came before +him in which he was sure a witness was lying, but he was +helpless to prove it, when a little gentle application of the +thumbscrew, or even a good whipping, would have brought +out the truth, which, for want of it, could not be discovered.</p> + +<p>To the objection that such methods may coerce the innocent +as well as the guilty—that the pain may be so great +that innocent men will confess crimes that they never committed, +rather than suffer tortures worse than death—the +answer is, that as guilt makes men cowards, the guilty +will give up, while the innocent hold out. But this is +simply trusting to the trial by lot. It is the old ordeal by +fire. A better answer is, that the court has beforehand +strong presumptive evidence of the crime, and that a prisoner +is not put to the torture until it has been well ascertained +by testimony obtained elsewhere that he is a great offender. +When it is thus determined that he is a robber or a murderer, +who ought not to live, then this last step is taken to +compel him to acknowledge his guilt, and the justice of his +condemnation. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">381</a></span></p> + +<p>But there are cases in which a man may be wrongfully accused; +an enemy may bribe a witness to make a complaint +against him, upon which he is arrested and cast into +prison. Then, unless he can bring some powerful influence +to rescue him, his case is hopeless. He denies his guilt, and +is put to the rack for an offence of which he is wholly innocent. +Such cases, no doubt, occur; and yet men who have +lived here many years, such as Dr. Happer and Archdeacon +Gray, tell me that they do not believe there is a country in +the world where, on the whole, justice is more impartially +administered than in China.</p> + +<p>I was so painfully interested in this matter, that I went +back to the Yamun the next day in company with Dr. Happer, +to watch the proceedings further. As before, a number +of prisoners were brought in, with chains around their necks, +each of whom, when called, fell down on his knees before the +judge and begged for mercy. They were not answered +harshly or roughly, but listened to with patience and attention. +Several whose cases were not capital, at once confessed +their offence, and took the punishment. One young +fellow, a mere overgrown boy of perhaps eighteen, was +brought up, charged with disobedience to parents. He confessed +his fault, and blubbered piteously for mercy, and was +let off for this time with rather a mild punishment, which +was to wear a chain with a heavy stone attached, which he +was to drag about after him in the street before the prison, +where he was exposed to the scorn of the people. The +judge, however, warned him that if he repeated the disobedience, +and was arrested again, he would be liable to be punished +with death! Such is the rigor with which the laws +of China enforce obedience to parents.</p> + +<p>A man accused of theft confessed it, and was sentenced to +wear the <i>cangue</i>—a board about three feet square—around +his neck for a certain time, perhaps several weeks, on which +his name was painted in large characters, with the crime of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span> +which he was guilty, that all who saw him might know that +he was a thief!</p> + +<p>These were petty cases, such as might be disposed of in +any police court. But now appeared a greater offender. A +man was led in with a chain around his neck, who had the +reputation of being a noted malefactor. He was charged +with both robbery and murder. The case had been pending +a long time. The crime, or crimes, had been committed four +years ago. The man had been brought up repeatedly, but as +no amount of pressure could make him confess, he could not +be executed. He was now to have another hearing. He +knelt down on the hard stone floor, and heard the accusation, +which he denied as he had done before, and loudly protested +his innocence. The judge, who was a man of middle age, +with a fine intellectual countenance, was in no haste to condemn, +but listened patiently. He was in a mild, persuasive +mood, perhaps the more so because he was refreshing himself +as a Chinaman likes to do. As he sat listening, he took +several small cups of tea. A boy in attendance brought him +also his pipe, filled with tobacco, which he put in his mouth, +and took two or three puffs, when he handed it back; and +the boy cleaned it, filled it, and lighted it again. With such +support to his physical weakness, who could not listen +patiently to a man who was on his knees before him pleading +for his life? But the case was a very bad one. It had +been referred back to the village in which the man was +born, and the "elders," who form the local government in +every petty commune in China, had inquired into the facts, +and reported that he was a notorious offender, accused of no +less than seven crimes—five robberies, one murder, and one +maiming. This was a pretty strong indictment. But the +man protested that he had been made the victim of a conspiracy +to destroy him. The judge replied that it might be +that he should be wrongfully accused by one enemy, but it +was hardly possible that a hundred people of his native village +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span> +should combine to accuse him falsely. Their written +report was read by the clerk, who then held it up before the +man, that he might see it in white and black. Still he +denied as before, and the judge, instead of putting him to +the torture, simply remanded him to prison for further examination. +In all these cases there was no eagerness to convict +or to sentence the accused. They were listened to with +patience, and apparently all proper force was allowed to what +they had to say in their own defence.</p> + +<p>This relieves a good deal the apparent severity of the +Chinese code. It does not condemn without hearing. But, +on the other hand, it does not cover up with fine phrases or +foolish sentiment the terrible reality of crime. It believes +in crime as an awful fact in human society, and in punishment +as a repressive force that must be applied to keep +society from destruction.</p> + +<p>Next to the Yamun is the prison, in which are confined +those charged with capital offences. We were admitted by +paying a small fee to the keepers, and were at once surrounded +by forty or fifty wretched objects, some of whom +had been subjected to torture, and who held up their limbs +which had been racked, and showed their bodies all covered +with wounds, as an appeal to pity. We gave them some +money to buy tobacco, as that is the solace which they crave +next to opium, and hurried away.</p> + +<p>But there is a place more terrible than the prison; it is +the execution-ground. Outside the walls of Canton, between +the city gate and the river, is a spot which may well +be called Golgotha, the place of a skull. It is simply a dirty +vacant lot, partly covered with earthenware pots and pans, a +few rods long, on one side of which is a dead wall; but +within this narrow space has been shed more blood than on +any other spot of the earth's surface. Here those sentenced +to death are beheaded. Every few days a gloomy procession +files into the lane, and the condemned are ranged against the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">384</a></span> +wall on their knees, when an assistant pulls up their pinioned +arms from behind, which forces their heads forward, and the +executioner coming to one after another, cleaves the neck with +a blow. A number of skulls were scattered about—of those +whose bodies had been removed, but whose heads were left +unburied. In the lane is the house of the executioner—a +thick, short-set man, in a greasy frock, looking like a +butcher fresh from the shambles. Though a coarse, ugly +fellow, he did not look, as one might suppose, like a monster +of cruelty, but was simply a dull, stolid creature, who undertook +this as he would any other kind of business, and cut off +human heads with as little feeling as he would those of +so many sheep. He picks up a little money by exhibiting +himself and his weapon of death. He brought out his sword +to show it to us. It was short and heavy, like a butcher's +cleaver. I took it in my hand, and felt of the blade. It +was dull, and rusted with stains of blood. He apologized +for its appearance, but explained that it had not been used +recently, and added that whenever it was needed for service, +he sharpened it. I asked him how many heads he had cut +off. He did not know—had not kept count—but supposed +some hundreds. Sometimes there were "two or three tens"—that +is, twenty or thirty—at once. Rev. Mr. Preston +told me he had seen forty cut off in one morning. Dr. +Williams had such a horror of blood that he could never be +present at an execution, but he one day saw nearly two +hundred headless trunks lying here, with their heads, which +had just been severed from the bodies, scattered over the +ground. Mr. Preston had seen heads piled up six feet high. +It ought to be said, however, that in ordinary times no +criminal convicted of a capital offence can be executed anywhere +in the province (which is a district of nearly eighty +thousand square miles, with twenty millions of inhabitants) +except in Canton, and with the cognizance of the governor.</p> + +<p>The carnival of blood was during the Taiping rebellion in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">385</a></span> +1855. That rebellion invaded this province; it had possession +of Whampoa, and even endangered Canton. When it +was suppressed, it was stamped out in blood. There were +executions by wholesale. All who had taken part in it were +sentenced to death, and as the insurgents were numbered by +tens of thousands, the work went on for days and weeks and +months. The stream of blood never ceased to flow. The +rebels were brought up the river in boat-loads. The magistrates +in the villages of the province were supposed to have +made an examination. It was enough that they were found +with arms in their hands. There were no prisons which +could hold such an army, and the only way to deal with them +was to execute them. Accordingly every day a detachment +was marched out to the execution ground, where forty or +fifty men would be standing with coffins, to receive and carry +off the bodies. They were taken out of the city by a certain +gate, and here Dr. Williams engaged a man to count them as +they passed, and thus he kept the fearful roll of the dead; +and comparing it with the published lists he found the number +executed in fourteen months to be eighty-one thousand! +An Aceldama indeed! It is not, then, too much to say that +taking the years together, within this narrow ground blood +enough has been shed to float the Great Eastern.</p> + +<p>But decapitation is a simple business compared with +that which the executioner has sometimes to perform. I +observed standing against the wall some half a dozen rude +crosses, made of bamboo, which reminded me that death is +sometimes inflicted by crucifixion. This mode of punishment +is reserved for the worst malefactors. They are not +nailed to the cross to die a lingering death, but lashed to +it by ropes, and then slowly strangled or cut to pieces. +The executioner explained coolly how he first cut out an eye, +or sliced off a piece of the cheek or the breast, and so proceeded +deliberately, till with one tremendous stroke the body +was cleft in twain. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">386</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus Chinese law illustrates its idea of punishment, which +is to inflict it with tremendous rigor. It not only holds to +capital punishment, but sometimes makes a man in dying +suffer a thousand deaths. A gentleman at Fuhchau told me +that he had seen a criminal starved to death. A man who +had robbed a woman, using violence, was put into a cage in +a public place, with his head out of a hole, exposed to the +sun, and his body extended, and there left to die by inches. +The foreign community were horror-struck; the consuls +protested against it, but in vain. He lingered four days +before death came to put an end to his agony. There were +about twenty so punished at Canton in 1843, for incendiarism.</p> + +<p>We shudder at these harrowing tales of "man's inhumanity +to man." But we must not take the pictures of these +terrible scenes, as if they were things which stare in the +eyes of all beholders, or which give the fairest impression +of Chinese law; as if this were a country in which there +is nothing but suffering and crime. On the contrary, it is +pre-eminently a land of peace and order. The Chinese are a +law-abiding people. Because a few hundred bad men are +found in a city of a million inhabitants, and punished with +severity, we must not suppose that this is a lawless community. +Those who would charge this, may at least be called +on to point out a better-governed city in Europe.</p> + +<p>This fearful Draconian code can at least claim that it is +successful in suppressing crime. The law is a terror to evil-doers. +The proof of this is that order is so well preserved. +This great city of Canton is as quiet, and life and property +are as safe, as in London or New York. Yet it is done with +no display of force. There is no obtrusion of the police or +the military, as in Paris or Vienna. The gates of the city +are shut at night, and the Tartar soldiers make their rounds; +but the armed hand is not always held up before the public +eye. The Chinese Government has learned to make its authority +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">387</a></span> +respected without the constant display of military +power.</p> + +<p>The Chinese are the most industrious people on the face +of the earth, for only by constant and universal industry can +a population of four hundred millions live. When such +masses of human beings are crowded together, the struggle +for existence is so great, that it is only by keeping the +millions of hands busy that food can be obtained for the +millions of mouths. The same necessity enforces peace with +each other, and therefore from necessity, as well as from +moral considerations, this has been the policy of China from +the beginning. Its whole political economy, taught long +since by Confucius, is contained in two words—Industry and +Peace. By an adherence to these simple principles, the Empire +has held together for thousands of years, while every +other nation has gone to pieces. China has never been an +aggressive nation, given to wars of conquest. It has indeed +attempted to subdue the tribes of Central Asia, and holds a +weak sway over Turkistan and Thibet; while Corea and Loochoo +and Annam still acknowledge a kind of fealty, now +long since repudiated by Burmah and Siam. But in almost +all cases it has "stooped to conquer," and been satisfied with +a sort of tribute, instead of attempting roughly to enforce +its authority, which would lead to perpetual wars. Thus has +China followed the lesson of Confucius, furnishing the most +stupendous example on the face of the earth of the advantage +to nations of industry and peace.</p> + +<p>The reason for this general respect and obedience to law +may be found in another fact, which is to the immortal honor +of the Chinese. It is the respect and obedience to parents. +In China the family is the foundation of the state; and the +very first law of society, as well as of religion, is: "Honor +thy father and mother." In no country in the world is this +law so universally obeyed. The preservation of China amid +the wreck of other kingdoms is largely due to its respect to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">388</a></span> +the Fifth Commandment, which has proved literally "a commandment +with promise;"—the promise, "that thy days may +be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee," +having been fulfilled in the preservation of this country from +age to age.</p> + +<p>As a consequence of this respect to parents, which imposes +an authority over children, and binds them together, the +family feeling in China is very strong. This, however noble +in itself, has some evil effects, as it often separates the people +of a town or village by feuds and divisions, which are as +distinct, and as jealous and hostile, as the old Highland clans +in Scotland. This interferes with the administration of justice. +If a crime is committed, all of one's clan are in league +to screen and protect the offender, while the rival clan is as +eager to pursue and destroy him. Woe to the man who is +accused, and who has no friend! But the disposition to +stand by each other manifests itself in many acts of mutual +helpfulness, of devotion and personal sacrifice.</p> + +<p>Carrying out the same idea, the nation is only a larger +family, and the government a patriarchal despotism. There +is no representative government, no Congress or Parliament; +and yet there is a kind of local government, like that of our +New England towns. Every village is governed by "elders," +who are responsible for its police, who look after rascals, and +who also aid in assessing the taxes for the local and general +governments. By this union of a great central power with +local administration of local affairs, the government has managed +to hold together hundreds of millions of human beings, +and make its authority respected over a large part of Asia.</p> + +<p>This family feeling moulds even the religion of China, +which takes the form of a worship of ancestors. Those who +have given them existence are not lost when they have ceased +to breathe. They are still the links of being by which, and +through which, the present living world came from the hand +of the Creator, and are to be reverenced with a devotion next +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">389</a></span> +to that felt for the Author of being himself. Their memory +is still cherished. Every household has its objects of devotion; +every dwelling has its shrine sacred to the memory of +the dead; and no temple or pagoda is more truly holy ground +than the cemeteries, often laid out on hill-sides, where reposes +the dust of former generations. To these they make frequent +pilgrimages. Every year the Emperor of China goes +in state to visit the tombs of his ancestors. The poor emigrant +who leaves for America or Australia, gives a part of +his earnings, so that, in case of death, his body shall be brought +back to China to sleep in the soil that contains the dust of +his ancestors. Thus the living are joined to the dead; and +those who have vanished from the earth, from the silent hills +where they sleep, still rule the most populous kingdom of +the world.</p> + +<p>One cannot leave China without a word in regard to its +relations with other countries. In this respect a great +change has taken place within this generation. The old exclusiveness +is broken down. This has come by war, and war +which had not always a justifiable origin, however good may +have been its effects. The opium war in 1841 is not a thing +to be remembered by England with pride. The cause of that +war was an attempt by the Chinese government in 1839 to +prevent the English importation of opium. Never did a +government make a more determined effort to remove a +terrible curse that was destroying its population. Seeing the +evil in all its enormity, it roused itself like a strong man to +shake it off. It imposed heavy penalties on the use of opium, +even going so far as to put some to death. But what could it +do so long as foreigners were selling opium in Canton, right +before its eyes? It resolved to break up the trade, to stop the +importation. As a last resort, it drew a cordon around the +factories of the foreign merchants, and brought them to +terms by a truly Eastern strategy. It did not attack them, +nor touch a hair of their heads; but it assumed that it had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">390</a></span> +at least the right to exercise its authority over its own people, +by forbidding them to have any intercourse with foreigners. +Immediately every Chinese servant left them. No man +could be had, for love or money, to render them any service, +or even to sell them food. Thus they were virtually prisoners. +This state of siege lasted about six weeks. At the +end of that time the British merchants surrendered all the +opium, at the order of their consular chief, Charles Elliot, for +him to hand it over to the Chinese; it amounted to 20,283 +chests (nearly three million pounds in weight), mostly on +board ship at the time. The Chinese received it at the +mouth of the river, near the Bogue Forts, and there destroyed +it, by throwing it overboard, as our fathers destroyed the +tea in Boston harbor. To make sure work of it, lest it +should be recovered and used, they broke open the chests +and mixed it thoroughly with salt water. As it dissolved in +the sea, it killed great quantities of fish, but that opium at +least never killed any Chinamen.</p> + +<p>This brought on war. Much has been said of other +causes, but no one familiar with affairs in the East doubts +that the controlling motive was a desire to force upon China +the trade in opium which is one chief source of the revenue +of India.</p> + +<p>The war lasted two years, and ended in a complete victory +for the foreigners. The Bogue Forts were bombarded, and +foreign ships forced their way up the river. Canton was +ransomed just as it was to have been attacked, but Amoy, +Ningpo, Shanghai, and Chinkiang were assaulted and captured. +The war was finally terminated in 1842 by a treaty, +by the terms of which China paid to England six millions of +dollars for the opium which had been destroyed, and opened +five ports to foreign trade. This, though a gain to European +and Indian commerce, was a heavy blow to Canton, which, +instead of being the only open port, was but one of five. +The trade, which before had been concentrated here, now +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">391</a></span> +spread along the coast to Amoy, Fuhchau, Ningpo, and +Shanghai.</p> + +<p>But the Ruler of Nations brings good out of evil. Wrong +as was the motive of the opium war, it cannot be doubted +that sooner or later war must have come from the attitude +of China toward European nations. For ages it had maintained +a policy of exclusiveness. The rest of the world were +"outside barbarians." It repelled their advances, not only +with firmness, but almost with insult. While keeping this +attitude of resistance, as foreign commerce was continually +knocking at its doors, a collision was inevitable. Recognizing +this, we cannot but regret that it should have occurred +for a cause in which China was in the right, and England in +the wrong.</p> + +<p>In the wars of England and France with China, Europe +has fought with Asia, and has gotten the victory. Will it +be content with what it has gained, or will it press still +further, and force China to the wall? This is the question +which I heard asked everywhere in Eastern Asia. The +English merchants find their interests thwarted by the obstinate +conservatism of the Chinese, and would be glad of an +opportunity for a naval or military demonstration—an occasion +which the Chinese are very careful not to give. There +is an English fleet at Hong Kong, a few hours' sail from +Canton. The admiral who was to take command came out +with us on the steamer from Singapore. He was a gallant +seaman, and seemed like a man who would not willingly do +injustice; and yet I think his English blood would rise at +the prospect of glory, if he were to receive an order from +London to transfer his fleet to the Canton River, and lay it +abreast of the city, or to force his way up the Pei-ho. The +English merchants would hail such an appearance in these +waters. Not content with the fifteen ports which they have +now, they want the whole of China opened to trade. But +the Chinese think they have got enough of it, and to any +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">392</a></span> +further invasion oppose a quiet but steady resistance. The +English are impatient. They want to force an entrance, and +to introduce not only the goods of Manchester, but all the +modern improvements—to have railroads all over China, as +in India, and steamers on all the rivers; and they think it +very unreasonable that the Chinese object. But there is +another side to this question. Such changes would disturb +the whole internal commerce of China. They would throw +out of employment, not thousands nor tens of thousands, but +millions, who would perish in such an economical and industrial +revolution as surely as by the waters of a deluge. An +English missionary at Canton told me that it would not be +possible to make any sudden changes, such as would be involved +in the general introduction of railroads, or of labor-saving +machines in place of the labor of human hands, without +inflicting immense suffering. There are millions of +people who now keep their heads just above water, and that +by standing on their toes and stretching their necks, who +would be drowned if it should rise an inch higher. The +least agitation of the waters, and they would be submerged. +Can we wonder that they hesitate to be sacrificed, and beg +their government to move slowly?</p> + +<p>America has had no part in the wars with China, although +it is said that in the attack on the forts at the mouth of the +Pei-ho, when the English ships were hard pressed, American +sailors went on board of one of them, and volunteered to +serve at the guns, whether from pure love of the excitement +of battle, or because they felt, as Commodore Tatnall expressed +it, that "blood was thicker than water," is not recorded.<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> +American sailors and soldiers will never be wanting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span> +in any cause which concerns their country's interest and +honor. But hitherto it has been our good fortune to come +into no armed collision with the Chinese, and hence the American +name is in favor along the coast. Our country is represented, +not so much by ships of war as by merchants and +missionaries. The latter, though few in number, by their +wisdom as well as zeal, have done much to conciliate favor +and command respect. They are not meddlers nor mischief-makers. +They do not belong to the nation that has forced +opium upon China, though often obliged to hear the taunt +that is hurled against the whole of the English-speaking race. +In their own quiet spheres, they have labored to diffuse +knowledge and to exhibit practical Christianity. They have +opened schools and hospitals, as well as churches. In Canton, +a generation ago, Dr. Peter Parker opened a hospital, which +is still continued, and which receives about nine hundred +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">394</a></span> +every year into its wards, besides some fifteen thousand who +are treated at the doors. For twenty years it was in charge +of Dr. Kerr, who nearly wore himself out in his duties; and +is now succeeded by Dr. Carrow, a young physician who left +a good practice in Jersey City to devote himself to this work. +Hundreds undergo operation for the stone—a disease quite +common in the South, but which Chinese surgery is incompetent +to treat—and who are here rescued from a lingering +death. That is the way American Christianity should be +represented in China. In Calcutta I saw the great opium +ships bound for Hong Kong. Let England have a monopoly +of that trade, but let America come to China with healing +in one hand and the Gospel in the other.</p> + +<p>Nor is this all which American missionaries have done. +They have rendered a service—not yet noticed as it should +be—to literature, and in preparing the way for the intercourse +of China with other nations. An American missionary, Dr. +Martin, is President of the University at Peking, established +by the government. Dr. S. Wells Williams, in the more +than forty years of his residence in China, has prepared a +Chinese-English Dictionary, which I heard spoken of everywhere +in the East as the best in existence. In other ways +his knowledge of the language and the people has been of +service both to China and to America, during his twenty-one +years' connection with the Legation. And if American +diplomacy has succeeded in gaining many substantial advantages +for our country, while it has skilfully avoided wounding +the susceptibilities of the Chinese, the success is due in +no small degree to this modest American missionary.</p> + +<p>De Quincey said if he were to live in China, he should go +mad. No wonder. The free English spirit could not be so +confined. There is something in this enormous population, +weighed down with the conservatism of ages, that oppresses +the intellect. It is a forced stagnation. China is a boundless +and a motionless ocean. Its own people may not feel it, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">395</a></span> +but one accustomed to the free life of Europe looks upon it +as a vast Dead Sea, in whose leaden waters nothing can live.</p> + +<p>But even this Dead Sea is beginning to stir with life. +There is a heaving, as when the Polar Ocean breaks up, and +the liberated waves sweep far and wide—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +"Swinging low with sullen roar."</p> +</div> +<p>Such is the sound which is beginning to be heard on all the +shores of Asia. Since foreigners have begun to come into +China, the Chinese go abroad more than ever before. There +is developed a new spirit of emigration. Not only do they +come to California, but go to Australia, and to all the islands +of Southern Asia. They are the most enterprising as well as +the most industrious of emigrants. They have an extraordinary +aptitude for commerce. They are in the East what +the Jews are in other parts of the world—the money-changers, +the mercantile class, the petty traders; and wherever they +come, they are sure to "pick up" and to "go ahead." Who +can put bounds to such a race, that not content with a quarter +of Asia, overflows so much of the remaining parts of the +Eastern hemisphere?</p> + +<p>On our Pacific Coast the Chinese have appeared as yet only +as laborers and servants, or as attempting the humblest industries. +Their reception has not been such as we can regard +with satisfaction and pride. Poor John Chinaman! Patient +toiler on the railroad or in the mine, yet doomed to be kicked +about in the land whose prosperity he has done so much to +promote. There is something very touching in his love for +his native country—a love so strong that he desires even in +death to be carried back to be buried in the land which gave +him birth. Some return living, only to tell of a treatment +in strange contrast with that which our countrymen have received +in China, as well as in violation of the solemn obligations +of treaties. We cannot think of this cruel persecution +but with indignation at our country's shame. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">396</a></span></p> + +<p>No one can visit China without becoming interested in the +country and its people. There is much that is good in the +Chinese, in their patient industry, and in their strong domestic +feeling. Who can but respect a people that honor +their fathers and mothers in a way to furnish an example to +the whole Christian world? who indeed exaggerate their +reverence to such a degree that they even worship their ancestors? +The mass of the people are miserably poor, but +they do not murmur at their lot. They take it patiently, and +even cheerfully; for they see in it a mixture of dark and +bright. In their own beautiful and poetical saying: "The +moon shines bright amid the firs." May it not only shine +through the gloom of deep forests, but rise higher and higher, +till it casts a flood of light over the whole Eastern sky! +</p> + +<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER XXV.</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">397</a></span></p> +<p class="ch_summ">THREE WEEKS IN JAPAN.</p> + +<p>We left Hong Kong on the 15th of May, just one year +from the day that we sailed from New York on our journey +around the world. As we completed these twelve months, +we embarked on our twelfth voyage. After being so long +on foreign ships—English and French and Dutch: Austrian +Lloyds and Messageries Maritimes—it was pleasant to be at +last on one that bore the flag of our country, and bore it so +proudly as "The City of Peking." As we stepped on her +deck, and looked up at the stars above us, we felt that we +were almost on the soil of our country. As we were now +approaching America, though still over six thousand miles +away, and nearly ten thousand from New York, we thought +it was time to telegraph that we were coming, but found that +"the longest way round was the nearest way home." The +direct cable across the Bay of Bengal, from Penang to Madras, +was broken, and the message had to go by Siberia. It +seemed indeed a long, long way, but the lightning regards +neither space nor time. Swift as thought the message flew +up the coast of China to Siberia, and then across the whole +breadth of two continents, Asia and Europe, and dived under +the Atlantic, to come up on the shores of America.</p> + +<p>The harbor of Hong Kong was gay with ships decorated +with flags, and the British fleet was still firing salutes, which +seemed to be its daily pastime, as the City of Peking began +to move. With a grand sweep she circled round the bay, +and then running swiftly into a winding passage among +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">398</a></span> +islands, through which is the entrance to the harbor, steamed +out on the broad Pacific.</p> + +<p>We had intended to go to Shanghai, and through the Inland +Sea of Japan, but we sacrificed even such a pleasure +(or rather left it till the next time) to take advantage of this +noble ship, that was bound direct for Yokohama. Our course +took us through the Channel of Formosa, in full sight of the +island, which has had an unenviable notoriety from the treatment +of the crews of ships wrecked on its inhospitable coast. +Leaving it far behind, in six days we were running along the +shores of Japan, and might have seen the snowy head of +Fusiyama, had it not been wrapped in clouds. The next +morning we left behind the long roll of the Pacific, and +entered the Bay of Yedo—a gulf fifty miles deep, whose +clear, sparkling waters shone in the sunlight. Fishing-boats +were skimming the tranquil surface. The Japanese are born +to the sea. All around the coast they live upon it, and are +said to derive from it one-third of their subsistence. The +shores, sloping from the water's edge, are sprinkled with +Japanese villages. Some thirty miles from the sea we pass +Mississippi Bay, so called from the flag-ship of Commodore +Perry, which lay here with his fleet while he was conducting +the negotiations for the opening of Japan; the headland +above it bears the name of Treaty Point. Rounding this +point, we see before us in the distance a forest of shipping, +and soon cast anchor in the harbor of Yokohama.</p> + +<p>Yokohama has a pleasant look from the sea, an impression +increased as we are taken off in a boat, and landed on the +quay—a sea wall, which keeps out the waves, and furnishes +a broad terrace for the front of the town. Here is a wide +street called "The Bund," on which stand the principal +hotels. From our rooms we look out directly on the harbor. +Among the steamers from foreign ports, are a number of +ships of war, among which is the Tennessee, the flagship of +our Asiatic squadron, bearing the broad pennant of Admiral +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">399</a></span> +Reynolds, whom we had known in America, and indeed had +bidden good-by at our own door, as we stepped into the carriage +to drive to the steamer. We parted, hoping to meet in +Asia, a wish which was now fulfilled. He was very courteous +to us during our stay, sending his boat to bring us on +board, and coming often with his excellent wife to see us on +shore. It gave us a pleasant feeling of nearness to home, to +have a great ship full of our countrymen close at hand.</p> + +<p>In the rear of the town the hill which overlooks the harbor, +bears the foreign name of "The Bluff." Here is quite +an American colony, including several missionary families, +in which we became very much at home before we left Japan.</p> + +<p>Yokohama has an American newness and freshness. It is +only a few years since it has come into existence as a place +of any importance. It was only a small fishing village until +the opening of Japan, since which it has become the chief +port of foreign commerce. It is laid out in convenient +streets, which are well paved, and kept clean, and altogether +the place has a brisk and lively air, as of some new and +thriving town in our own country.</p> + +<p>But just at this moment we are not so much interested to +see American improvements as to see the natives on their own +soil. Here they are in all their glory—pure-blooded Asiatics—and +yet of a type that is not Mongolian or Malayan or +Indian. The Jap is neither a "mild Hindoo" nor a "heathen +Chinee." His hair is shaved from his head in a fashion quite +his own, making a sort of triangle on the crown; and no long +pigtail decorates his person behind. We recognize him at +once, for never was a human creature so exactly like his portrait. +We see every day the very same figures that we have +seen all our lives on tea-cups and saucers, and fans and +boxes. Our first acquaintance with them was as charioteers, +in which they take the place, not of drivers, but of horses; +for the <i>jin-riki-sha</i> (literally, a carriage drawn by man power) +has no other "team" harnessed to it. The vehicle is exactly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">400</a></span> +like a baby carriage, only made for "children of a larger +growth." It is simply an enlarged perambulator, on two +wheels, drawn by a coolie; and when one takes his seat in it, +he cannot help feeling at first as if he were a big baby, whom +his nurse had tucked up and was taking out for an airing. +But one need not be afraid of it, lest he break down the +carriage, or tire out the steed that draws it. No matter how +great your excellency may be, the stout fellow will take up +the thills, standing where the pony or the donkey ought to +be, and trot off with you at a good pace, making about four +miles an hour. At first the impression was irresistibly ludicrous, +and we laughed at ourselves to see what a ridiculous +figure we cut. Indeed we did not quite recover our sobriety +during the three weeks that we were in Japan. But after all +it is a very convenient way of getting about, and one at least +is satisfied that his horses will not run away, though he must +not be too sure of that, for I sometimes felt, especially when +going down hill, that they had got loose, and would land me +with a broken head at the bottom.</p> + +<p>But Yokohama is only the gate of Yedo (or Tokio, as it is +the fashion to call it now, but I keep to the old style as more +familiar), of which we had read even in our school geographies +as one of the most populous cities of Asia. The access +is very easy, for it is only eighteen miles distant, and there is +a railroad, so that it is but an hour's ride. While on our +way that morning, we had our first sight of Fusiyama. +Though seventy miles distant, its dome of snow rose on the +horizon sharp and clear, like the Jungfrau at Interlachen.</p> + +<p>Arrived at Yedo, the station was surrounded by <i>jinrikishas</i>, +whose masters were kept in better order than the cabmen of +New York. Wishing to appear in the capital with proper +dignity, we took two men instead of one, so that each had a +full team; and fine young bloods they were, full of spirit, +that fairly danced with us along the street, in such gay fashion +that my clerical garb was hardly sufficient to preserve my +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">401</a></span> +clerical character. We first trotted off to the American +Minister's, Mr. Bingham's, who received us with all courtesy, +and sent for the interpreter of the Legation, Rev. Mr. +Thompson, an American missionary, who kindly offered to +be our guide about the city, and gave up the day to us. With +such a cicerone, we started on our rounds. He took us first +to what is called the Summer Palace, though it is not a palace +at all, but only a park, to which the Mikado comes once +in a while to take his royal pleasure. There are a few rest-houses +scattered about, where one, whether king or commoner, +might find repose; or strolling under the shade of trees, +and looking off upon the tranquil sea. Next we rode to the +Tombs of the Tycoons, where, under gilded shrines, beneath +temples and pagodas, sleep the royal dead. The grounds are +large and the temples exquisitely finished, with the fine lacquer +work for which the Japanese are famous; so that we had to +take off our shoes, and step very softly over the polished +floors. Riding on through endless streets, our friend took us +to a hill, ascended by a long flight of steps, on the top of +which, in an open space, stood a temple, an arbor, and a tea-house. +This point commands an extensive view of Yedo. +It is a city of magnificent distances, spreading out for miles +on every side; and yet, except for its extent, it is not at all +imposing, for it is, like Canton, a mere wilderness of houses, +relieved by no architectural magnificence—not a single lofty +tower or dome rising above the dead level. But, unlike +Canton, the city has very broad streets, sometimes crossed +by a river or a canal, spanned by high, arched bridges. The +principal business street is much wider than Broadway, but +it has not a shop along its whole extent that would make any +show even in "The Bowery." The houses are built only one +story high, because of earthquakes which are frequent in +Japan, caused, as the people believe, by a huge fish which +lies under the island, and that shakes it whenever he tosses +his head or lashes his tail. The houses are of such slight +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">402</a></span> +construction that they burn like tinder; and it is not surprising +that the city is often swept by destructive fires. But +if the whole place were thus swept away, or if it were shaken +to pieces by an earthquake in the night, the people would +pick themselves up in the morning and restore their dwellings, +with not much more difficulty than soldiers, whose +tents had been blown down by the wind, would find in pitching +them again and making another camp. Some of the +government buildings are of more stately proportions, and +there are open grounds in certain quarters of the city, adorned +with magnificent trees, like the ancient oaks which cast their +shadows on the smooth-shaven lawns of England, and give +to English parks such an air of dignity and repose.</p> + +<p>The Castle of the late Tycoon, which may be said to be the +heart of the city, around which it clusters, is more of a fortress +than a palace. There is an immense enclosure surrounded by +a deep moat (whose sides are very pretty, banked with rich +green turf), and with picturesque old towers standing at intervals +along the walls. In the rear of the grounds of the old Castle +is the much less ambitious residence of the Mikado, where +he is duly guarded, though he does not now, as formerly, +keep himself invisible, as if he were a divinity descended from +the skies, who in mysterious seclusion ruled the affairs of men.</p> + +<p>By this time we were a little weary of sight-seeing, and +drew up at a Japanese tea-house, to take our tiffin. The +place was as neat as a pin, and the little maids came out to +receive us, and bowed themselves to the ground, touching +the earth with their foreheads, in token of the great honor +that had come to their house—homage that we received with +becoming dignity, and went on our way rejoicing.</p> + +<p>The pleasantest sights that we saw to-day were two which +showed the awakened intelligence and spirit of progress +among the people. These were the Government College, +with two hundred students, manned in part by American +professors (where we found our countryman Dr. Veeder +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">403</a></span> +in his lecture-room, performing experiments); and an old +Temple of Confucius which has been turned into a library +and reading-room. Here was a large collection of books and +periodicals, many from foreign countries, over which a number +of persons were quietly but studiously engaged. The +enclosure was filled with grand old trees, and had the air of +an academic grove, whose silent shades were devoted to study +and learning.</p> + +<p>After this first visit to the capital, we took a week for an +excursion into the interior, which gave us a sight of the +country and of Japanese life. This we could not have made +with any satisfaction but for our friends the missionaries. +They kindly sketched the outlines of a trip to the base of +Fusiyama, seventy miles from Yedo. It was very tempting, +but what could we do without guides or interpreters? We +should be lost like babes in the wood. It occurred to us +that such a journey might do <i>them</i> good. Dr. Brown and +Dr. Hepburn, the oldest missionaries in Japan, had been +closely confined for months in translating the Scriptures, and +needed some relief. A little country air would give them +new life; so we invited them to be our guests, and we would +make a week of it. We finally prevailed upon them to "come +apart and rest awhile," not in a "desert," but in woodland +shades, among the mountains and by the sea. Their wives +came with them, without whom their presence would have +given us but half the pleasure it did. Thus encompassed and +fortified with the best of companions, with a couple of English +friends, we made a party of eight, which, with the usual +impedimenta of provisions and a cook, and extra shawls and +blankets, required eleven <i>jinrikishas</i>, with two men harnessed +to each, making altogether quite a grand cavalcade, +as we sallied forth from Yokohama on a Monday noon in +"high feather." To our staid missionary friends it was an +old story; but to us, strangers in the land, it was highly exciting +to be thus starting off into the interior of Japan. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">404</a></span> +country around Yokohama is hilly and broken. Our way +wound through a succession of valleys rich with fields of +rice and barley, while along the roads shrubberies, which at +home are cultivated with great care, grew in wild profusion—the +wisteria, the honeysuckle, and the eglantine. The succession +of hill and valley gave to the country a variety and +beauty which, with the high state of cultivation, reminded +us of Java. As we mounted the hills we had glimpses of +the sea, for we were skirting along the Bay of Yedo. After +a few miles we came to an enchanting spot, which bears the +ambitious title of the Plains of Heaven, yet which is not +heaven, and is not even a plain—but a rolling country, in +which hill and valley are mingled together, with the purple +mountains as a background on one side and the blue waters +on the other.</p> + +<p>As we rode along, I thought how significant was the simple +fact of such an excursion as this in a country, where a few +years ago no foreigner's life was safe. On this very road, +less than ten years since, an Englishman was cut down for +no other crime than that of being a foreigner, and getting in +the way of the high daimio who was passing. And now we +jogged along as quietly, and with as little apprehension, as +if we were riding through the villages of New England.</p> + +<p>On our way lies a town which once bore a great name, Kamakura, +where nine centuries ago lived the great Yoritomo, the +Napoleon of his day, the founder of the military rule in the +person of the Shogun (or Tycoon, a title but lately assumed), +as distinguished from that of the Mikado. Here he made +his capital, which was afterwards removed, and about three +hundred years since fixed in Yedo; and Kamakura is left, +like other decayed capitals, to live on the recollections of +its former greatness. But no change can take away its +natural beauty, in its sheltered valley near the sea.</p> + +<p>A mile beyond, we came to the colossal image of Dai-Buts, +or Great Buddha. It is of bronze, and though in a sitting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">405</a></span> +posture, is forty-four feet high. The hands are crossed upon +the knees. We crawled up into his lap, and five of us sat +side by side on his thumbs. We even went inside, and +climbed up into his head, and proved by inspection that +these idols, however colossal and imposing without, are +empty within. There are no brains within their brazen +skulls. The expression of the face is the same as in all +statues of Buddha: that of repose—passive, motionless—as +of one who had passed through the struggles of life, and attained +to Nirvana, the state of perfect calm, which is the +perfection of heavenly beatitude.</p> + +<p>It was now getting towards sunset, and we had still five +or six miles to go before we reached our resting-place for the +night. As this was the last stage in the journey, our fleet +coursers seemed resolved to show us what they could do. +They had cast off all their garments, except a cloth around +their loins, and straw sandals on their feet, so that they were +stripped like Roman gladiators, and they put forth a speed +as if racing in the arena. A connoisseur would admire their +splendid physique. Their bodies were tattooed, like South +Sea Islanders, which set out in bolder relief, as in savage +warriors, their muscular development—their broad chests +and brawny limbs. With no stricture of garments to bind +them, their limbs were left free for motion. It was a study +to see how they held themselves erect. With heads and +chests thrown back, they balanced themselves perfectly. The +weight of the carriage seemed nothing to them; they had +only to keep in motion, and it followed. Thus we came +rushing into the streets of Fujisawa, and drew up before the +tea-house, where lodgings had been ordered for the night. +The whole family turned out to meet us, the women falling +on their knees, and bowing their heads till they touched the +floor, in homage to the greatness of their guests.</p> + +<p>And now came our first experience of a Japanese tea-house. +If the <i>jin-riki-sha</i> is like a baby carriage, the tea-house +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">406</a></span> +is like a baby house. It is small, built entirely of +wood with sliding partitions, which can be drawn, like +screens, to enclose any open space, and make it into a room. +These partitions are of paper, so that of course the "chambers" +are not very private. The same material is used for +windows, and answers very well, as it softens the light, like +ground glass. The house has always a veranda, so that the +rooms are protected from the sun by the overhanging roof. +The bedrooms are very small, but scrupulously clean, and +covered with wadded matting, on which we lie down to +sleep.</p> + +<p>At Fujisawa is a temple, which is visited by the Mikado +once or twice in the year. We were shown through his +private rooms, and one or two of us even stretched ourselves +upon his bed, which, however, was not a very daring feat, as +it was merely a strip of matting raised like a low divan or +ottoman, a few inches above the floor. The temples are not +imposing structures, and have no beauty except that of position. +They generally stand on a hill, and are approached by +an avenue or a long flight of steps, and the grounds are set +out with trees, which are left to grow till they sometimes +attain a majestic height and breadth. In front of this temple +stands a tree, which we recognized by its foliage as the +<i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>—a specimen of which we had in +America on our own lawn, but there it was a shrub brought +from the nursery, while here it was like a cedar of Lebanon. +It was said to be a thousand years old. Standing here, it +was regarded as a sacred tree, and we looked up to it with +more reverence than to the sombre temple behind, or the +sleepy old bonzes who were sauntering idly about the +grounds.</p> + +<p>The next morning, as we started on our journey, we came +upon the Tokaido, the royal road of Japan, built hundreds +of years ago from Yedo to Kioto, to connect the political +with the spiritual capital—the residence of the Tycoon with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">407</a></span> +that of the Mikado. It is the highway along which the +daimios came in state to pay their homage to the Tycoon at +Yedo, as of old subject-princes came to Rome. It is constructed +with a good deal of skill in engineering, which is shown in +carrying it over mountains, and in the building of bridges. +Portions of the road are paved with blocks of stone like the +Appian Way. But that which gives it a glory and majesty +all its own, is its bordering of gigantic cedars—the <i>Cryptomeria +Japonica</i>—which attain an enormous height, with +gnarled and knotted limbs that have wrestled with the +storms of centuries.</p> + +<p>As we advance, the road comes out upon the sea, for we +have crossed the peninsula which divides the Bay of Yedo +from the Pacific, and are now on the shores of the ocean +itself. How beautiful it seemed that day! It was the last +of May, and the atmosphere was full of the warmth of +early summer. The coast is broken by headlands shooting +out into the deep, which enclose bays, where the soft, warm +sunshine lingers as on the shores of the Mediterranean, and +the waters of the mighty Pacific come gently rippling up the +beach. So twixt sea and land, sunshine and shade, we sped +gaily along to Odawara—another place which was once the +residence of a powerful chief, whose castle is still there, +though in ruins; its stones, if questioned of the past, might +tell a tale like that of one of the castles on the Rhine. These +old castles are the monuments of the same form of government, +for the Feudal System existed in Japan as in Germany. +The kingdom was divided into provinces, ruled by great daimios, +who were like the barons of the Middle Ages, each with +his armed retainers, who might be called upon to support +the central government, yet who sometimes made war upon it. +This Feudal System is now completely destroyed. As we +were riding over the Tokaido, I pictured to myself the great +pageants that had swept along so proudly in the days gone +by. What would those old barons have thought if they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">408</a></span> +could have seen in the future an irruption of invaders from +beyond the sea, and that even this king's highway should +one day be trodden by the feet of outside barbarians?</p> + +<p>At Odawara we dismissed our men, (who, as soon as they +received their money, started off for Yokohama,) as we had to +try another mode of transportation; for though we still kept +the Tokaido, it ascends the mountains so steeply that it is +impassable for anything on wheels, and we had to exchange +the <i>jinrikisha</i> for the <i>kago</i>—a kind of basket made of bamboo, +in which a man is doubled up and packed like a bundle, +and so carried on men's shoulders. It would not answer +badly if he had neither head nor legs. But his head is +always knocking against the ridge-pole, and his legs have to be +twisted under him, or "tied up in a bow-knot." This is the +way in which criminals are carried to execution in China; +but for one who has any further use for his limbs, it is not +altogether agreeable. I lay passive for awhile, feeling as if I +had been packed and salted down in a pork-barrel. Then I +began to wriggle, and thrust out my head on one side and the +other, and at last had to confess, like the Irishman who was +offered the privilege of working his passage on a canal-boat +and was set to leading a horse, that "if it were not for the +honor of the thing, I had as lief walk." So I crawled out +and unrolled myself, to see if my limbs were still there, for +they were so benumbed that I was hardly conscious of their +existence, and then straightening myself out, and taking a +long bamboo reed, which is light and strong, lithe and springy, +for an alpenstock, I started off with my companions. We all +soon recovered our spirits, and</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"> +"Walked in glory and in joy</p> +<p>Along the mountain side,"</p> +</div> + +<p>till at nightfall we halted in the village of Hakoné, a mountain +retreat much resorted to by foreigners from Yedo and +Yokohama. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">409</a></span></p> + +<p>Here we might have been in the Highlands of Scotland, +for we were in the heart of mountains, and on the border of +a lake. To make the resemblance more perfect, a Scotch +mist hung over the hills, and rain pattered on the roof all +night long, and half the next day. But at noon the clouds +broke, and we started on our journey. Dr. and Mrs. Brown +and Mrs. Hepburn kept to their baskets, and were borne a +long way round, while the rest of us were rowed across +the lake, a beautiful sheet of water, nestled among the hills, +like Loch Katrine. One of these hills is tunnelled for two +miles, to carry the water under it to irrigate the rice +fields of some twenty villages. Landing on the other side of +the lake, we had before us a distance of eight or ten miles. +Our coolies stood ready to carry us, but all preferred the +freedom of their unfettered limbs. The mountain is volcanic, +and on the summit is a large space made desolate by frequent +eruptions, out of which issues smoke laden with the fumes of +sulphur, and hot springs throw off jets of steam, and boil and +bubble, and hiss with a loud noise, as if all the furies were +pent up below, and spitting out their rage through the +fissures of the rocks. The side of the mountain is scarred +and torn, and yellow with sulphur, like the sides of Vesuvius. +The natives call the place Hell. It was rather an +abrupt transition, after crossing the Plains of Heaven a day +or two before, to come down so soon to the sides of the pit.</p> + +<p>Towards evening we came down into the village of Miya-no-shita +(what musical names these Japanese have!), where +our friends were waiting for us, and over a warm cup of tea +talked over the events of the day. This is a favorite resort, +for its situation among the mountains, with lovely walks on +every side, and for its hot springs. Water is brought into +the hotel in pipes of bamboo, so hot that one is able to bear +it only after slowly dipping his feet into it, and thus sliding in +by degrees, when the sensation is as of being scalded alive. +But it takes the soreness out of one's limbs weary with a long +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">410</a></span> +day's tramp; and after being steamed and boiled, we stretched +ourselves on the clean mats of the tea-house, and slept the +sleep of innocence and peace.</p> + +<p>One cannot go anywhere in Japan without receiving a +visit from the people, who, being of a thrifty turn, seize the +occasion of a stranger's presence to drive a little trade. The +skill of the Japanese is quite marvellous in certain directions: +They make everything <i>in petto</i>, in miniature—the smallest +earthenware; the tiniest cups and saucers. In these mountain +villages they work, like the Swiss, in wooden-ware, and +make exquisite and dainty little boxes and bureaus, as if +for dolls, yet with complete sets of drawers, which could not +but take the fancy of one who had little people at home waiting +for presents. Besides the temptation of such trinkets, +who could resist the insinuating manner of the women who +brought them? The Japanese women are not pretty. They +might be, were it not for their odious fashions. We have +seen faces that would be quite handsome if left in their +native, unadorned beauty. But fashion rules the world in +Japan as in Paris. As soon as a woman is married her eyebrows +are shaved off, and her teeth blackened, so that she +cannot open her mouth without showing a row of ebony instead +of ivory, which disfigures faces that would be otherwise +quite winning. It says a good deal for their address, that +with such a feature to repel, they can still be attractive. +This is owing wholly to their manners. The Japanese men +and women are a light-hearted race, and captivate by their +gayety and friendliness. The women were always in a merry +mood. As soon as they entered the room, before even a +word was spoken, they began to giggle, as if our appearance +were very funny, or as if this were the quickest way to be on +good terms with us. The effect was irresistible. I defy the +soberest man to resist it, for as soon as your visitor laughs, +you begin to laugh from sympathy; and when you have got +into a hearty laugh together, you are already acquainted, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">411</a></span> +in friendly relations, and the work of buying and selling goes +on easily. They took us captive in a few minutes. We +purchased sparingly, thinking of our long journey; but our +English friends bought right and left, till the next day they +had to load two pack-horses with boxes to be carried over +the mountains to Yokohama.</p> + +<p>The next day was to bring the consummation of our journey, +for then we were to go up into a mountain and see the +glory of the Lord. A few miles distant is the summit of +Otometoge, from which one obtains a view of Fusiyama, +looking full in his awful face. We started with misgivings, +for it had been raining, and the clouds still hung low upon +the mountains. Our way led through hamlets clustered together +in a narrow pass, like Alpine villages. As we wound +up the ascent, we often stopped to look back at the valley below, +from which rose the murmur of rushing waters, while +the sides of the mountains were clothed with forests. These +rich landscapes gave such enchantment to the scene as repaid +us for all our weariness. At two o'clock we reached the +top, and rushed to the brow to catch the vision of Fusiyama, +but only to be disappointed. The mountain was there, but +clouds covered his hoary head. In vain we watched and +waited; still the monarch hid his face. Clouds were round +about the throne. The lower ranges stood in full outline, but +the heaven-piercing dome, or pyramid of snow, was wrapped +in its misty shroud. That for which we had travelled seventy +miles, we could not see at last.</p> + +<p>Is it not often so in life? The moments that we have +looked forward to with highest expectations, are disappointing +when they come. We cross the seas, and journey far, to +reach some mount of vision, when lo! the sight that was to +reward us is hidden from our eyes; while our highest raptures +come to us unsought, perhaps in visions of the night.</p> + +<p>But our toilsome climb was not unrewarded. Below us +lay a broad, deep valley, to which the rice fields gave a vivid +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">412</a></span> +green, dotted with houses and villages, which were scattered +over the middle distance, and even around the base of Fusiyama +himself. Drinking in the full loveliness of the scene, +we turned to descend, and after a three hours' march, footsore +and weary, entered our Alpine village of Miya-no-shita.</p> + +<p>The next morning we set out to return. Had the day +shone bright and clear, we should have been tempted to renew +our ascent of the day before. But as the clouds were +still over the sky, we reluctantly turned away. Taking another +route from that by which we came, we descended a deep +valley, and winding around the heights which we had crossed +before, at eleven o'clock reëntered Odawara.</p> + +<p>And now we had done with our marching and our kagos, +and once more took to our chariots, which drew up to the +door—the men not exactly saddled and bridled, but stripped +for the race, with no burden added to the burden of the flesh +which they had to carry. A crowd collected to see us depart, +and looked on admiringly as we went dashing through the +long street of Odawara, and out upon the Tokaido. Our +way, as before, led by the sea, which was in no tempestuous +mood, but calm and tranquil, as if conscious that the summer +was born. The day was not too warm, for the clouds that were +flying over the sky shielded us from the direct rays of the +sun; yet as we looked out now and then, the giant trees cast +their shadows across our path. An American poet sings:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p> +"What is so rare as a day in June?"</p> +</div> +<p>Surely nothing could be <i>more</i> rare or fair; but even the +sky and the soft Summer air seemed more full of exquisite +sensations to the strangers who were that day rolling along +the shores of the Pacific, under the mighty cedars of the +Tokaido.</p> + +<p>Once more I was surprised and delighted at the agility and +swiftness of the men who drew our <i>jin-riki-shas</i>. As we had +but twenty-three miles to go in the afternoon, we took it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">413</a></span> +easily, and gave them first only a gentle trot of five miles to +get their limbs a little supple, and then stopped for tiffin. +Some of the men had on a loose jacket when we started, besides +the girdle about the loins. This they took off and +wrung out, for they were dripping with sweat, and wiped +their brawny chests and limbs, and then took their chopsticks +and applied themselves to their rice, while we went upstairs +in the tea-house, and had our soup and other dishes served +to us, sitting on the floor like Turks, and then stretched ourselves +on the mats, weary with our morning's walk, and even +with the motion of riding. While we were trying to get a +little rest our men talked and laughed in the court below as +if it were child's play to take us over the road. As we resumed +our places and turned out of the yard, I had the curiosity +to "time" their speed. I had a couple of athletic fellows, +who thought me a mere feather in weight, and made +me spin like a top as they bowled along. They started off at +an easy trot, which they kept up, without breaking, mile +after mile. I did not need to crack the whip, but at the +word, away they flew through villages and over the open +country, never stopping, but when they came to slightly rising +ground, rushing up like mettlesome horses, and down at +full speed. Thus they kept on, and never drew rein till they +came to the bank of a river, which had to be crossed in a +boat. I took out my watch. It was an hour and a quarter, +and they had come seven miles and a half! This was doing +pretty well. Of course they could not keep this up all day; +yet they will go thirty miles from sunrise to sunset, and even +forty, if spurred to it by a little extra pay. Sometimes, indeed, +they go even at a still greater speed for a short distance. +The first evening, as we came into Fujisawa, I do not doubt +that the last fifteen minutes they were going at a speed of ten +miles an hour, for they came in on a run. This is magnificent, +but I cannot think it very healthful exercise. As gymnasts +and prize-fighters grow old and die before their time, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">414</a></span> +so with these human racehorses. Dr. Hepburn says it exhausts +them very early; that they break down with disease +of the heart or lungs. They are very liable to rheumatism. +This is partly owing to their carelessness. They get heated, +and then expose their naked bodies to drafts of cold air, +which of course stiffens their limbs, so that an old runner becomes +like a foundered horse. But even with all care, the +fatigue is very exhausting, and often brings on diseases which +take them off in their prime. Yet you cannot restrain their +speed, any more than that of colts that have never been broken. +I often tried to check them, but they "champed at the +bit," and after a few vain remonstrances I had to give it up, +and "let them slide."</p> + +<p>We did not stop at Fujisawa, where we had slept before, +for it is a large and noisy town, but pushed on three miles +farther, across a sandy beach to Enoshima, a little fishing +village, which stands on a point of land jutting out into the +sea, so that at high tide it is an island, and at low tide a +peninsula. Indeed, it is not much more than a projecting +rock of a few hundred acres, rising high out of the waters, +and covered thickly with groves of trees, among which are +several Buddhist temples. As we strolled along the top of +the cliffs at sunset, there were a dozen points of view where +we could sit under the shade of trees a hundred feet above +the waves, as on the cliffs of the Isle of Wight, saying with +Tennyson:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"> +"Break, break, break,</p> +<p>At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!"</p> +</div> + +<p>The next morning we rambled over the hills again, for it +was a spot where one could but linger. The bay was alive +with boats, as</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>"The fishers went sailing out into the West."</p> +</div> + +<p>On the shore were divers, who plunged from the rocks into +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">415</a></span> +deep water, to bring up shells and coral for us, and a sort of +sponge peculiar to this country, with spicules like threads +of spun glass. Under the cliff is a long cave, hollowed out by +the waves, with an arch overhead like a vaulted roof. Thus +under ground or above ground we wandered hour after hour.</p> + +<p>But all things pleasant must have an end. The week was +gone; it was Saturday noon: and so reluctantly leaving +both the mountains and the sea, and taking to our chariots +once more, we struck into the Tokaido, and in four hours +were rolling along the Bund at Yokohama.</p> + +<p>Three days after we made a second visit to Yedo, to visit +an American gentleman who held a position in the Foreign +Office, and spent a night at his pretty Japanese house in the +Government grounds. Here being, as it were, in the interior +of the State Department, we got some European news; +among which was the startling intelligence of a revolution in +Turkey, and that Abdul Aziz had been deposed!</p> + +<p>In our second excursion about the city, as we had long +distances to traverse, we took two prancing bucks to each +jinrikisha, who ran us such a rig through the streets of Yedo +as made us think of John Gilpin when he rode to London +town. The fellows were like wild colts, so full of life that +they had to kick it off at the heels. Sometimes one pulled +in front while the other pushed behind, but more often they +went tandem, the one in advance drawing by a cord over his +shoulder. The leader was so full of spring that he fairly +bounded over the ground, and if we came to a little elevation, +or arched bridge, he sprang into the air like a catamount, +while his fellow behind, though a little more stiff, as a "wheel +horse" ought to be, bore himself proudly, tossing up his head, +and throwing out his chest, and never lagged for an instant. +C—— was delighted, nothing could go too fast for her; but +whether it was fear for my character or for my head, I had +serious apprehension that I should be "smashed" like Chinese +crockery, and poked my steeds in the rear with my umbrella +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">416</a></span> +to signify that I was entirely satisfied with their performances, +and that they need not go any faster!</p> + +<p>While in Yedo we attended a meeting of missionaries, +English, Scotch, and American, in a distant part of the city, +and in the evening paid a visit to Prof. Verbeck, who has +been here so long that he is an authority on all Japanese +matters. It was eight o'clock when we set out to return to +our friends in the Foreign Office, and we bade our men take +us through the main streets, that we might have a view of +Yedo by night. The distance was some three miles, the +greater part through the principal street. It was near the +time of the full moon, but fortunately she was hidden to-night +by clouds, for even her soft radiance could not give +such animation and picturesqueness to the scene as the lights +of the city itself. The broad street for two miles was in a +flare of gas-light, like one of the great streets of Paris. The +shops were open and lighted; added to which were hundreds +(perhaps thousands) of <i>jin-riki-shas</i>, each with its Chinese +lantern, glancing two and fro, like so many fireflies on a summer +night, making a scene such as one reads of in the Arabian +Nights, but as I had never witnessed before.</p> + +<p>But that which is of most interest to a stranger in Japan, +is not Yedo or Fusiyama, but the sudden revolution which +has taken place in its relations with other countries, and in +its internal condition. This is one of the most remarkable +events in history, which, in a few years, has changed a whole +nation, so that from being the most isolated, the most exclusive, +and the most rigidly conservative, even in Asia, it has +become the most active and enterprising; the most open to +foreign influences; the most hospitable to foreign ideas, and the +most ready to introduce foreign improvements. This change +has taken Japan out of the ranks of the non-progressive +nations, to place it, if not in the van of modern improvement, +at least not very far in the rear. It has taken it out +of the stagnant life of Asia, to infuse into its veins the life +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">417</a></span> +of Europe and America. In a word, it has, as it were, unmoored +Japan from the coast of Asia, and towed it across the +Pacific, to place it alongside of the New World, to have the +same course of life and progress.</p> + +<p>It is a singular fact, which, as it has united our two +nations in the past, ought to unite us in the future, that the +opening of Japan came from America. It would have come +in time from the natural growth of the commerce of the +world, but the immediate occasion was the settlement of +California. The first emigration, consequent on the discovery +of gold, was in 1849; the treaty with Japan in 1854. As soon +as there sprang up an American Empire on our Western coast, +there sprang up also an American commerce on the Pacific. +Up to that time, except the whalers from New Bedford that +went round Cape Horn, to cast their harpoons in the North +Pacific, or an occasional vessel to the Sandwich Islands, or that +brought a cargo of tea from China, there were few American +ships in the Pacific. But now it was ploughed by fleets of +ships, and by great lines of steamers. The Western coast of +America faced the Eastern coast of Asia, and there must be commerce +between them. Japan lay in the path to China, and it +was inevitable that there must be peaceful intercourse, or +there would be armed collision. The time had come when the +policy of rigid exclusion could not be permitted any longer. +Of course Japan had the right which belongs to any independent +power, to regulate its commerce with foreign nations. +But there were certain rights which belonged to all nations, +and which might be claimed in the interest of humanity. If +an American ship, in crossing the Pacific on its way to China, +were shipwrecked on the shores of Japan, the sailors who +escaped the perils of the sea had the right to food and shelter—not +to be regarded as trespassers or held as prisoners. +Yet there had been instances in which such crews had been +treated as captives, and shut up in prison. In one instance +they were exhibited in cages. If they had fallen among +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">418</a></span> +Barbary pirates, they could not have been treated with +greater severity. This state of things must come to an end; +and in gently forcing the issue, our government led the way. +As English ships had broken down the wall of China, so did +an American fleet open the door of Japan, simply by an attitude +of firmness and justice; by demanding nothing but +what was right, and supporting it by an imposing display of +force. Thus Japan was opened to the commerce of America, +and through it of the world, without shedding a drop of +blood.</p> + +<p>The result has been almost beyond belief. A quarter of +a century ago no foreign ship could anchor in these waters. +And now here, in sight of the spot where lay the fleet +of Commodore Perry, I see a harbor full of foreign ships. +It struck me strangely, as I sat at our windows in the +Grand Hotel, and looked out upon the tranquil bay. There +lay the Tennessee, not with guns run out and matches +lighted, but in her peaceful dress, with flags flying, not only +from her mast-head, but from all her yards and rigging. +There were also several English ships of war, with Admiral +Ryder in command, from whose flag-ship, as from the Tennessee, +we heard the morning and evening gun, and the bands +playing. The scene was most beautiful by moonlight, when +the ships lay motionless, and the tall masts cast their shadows +on the water, and all was silent, as in so many sleeping +camps, save the bells which struck the hours, and marked the +successive watches all night long. It seemed as if the angel +of peace rested on the moonlit waters, and that nations +would not learn war any more.</p> + +<p>The barrier once broken down, foreign commerce began to +enter the waters of Japan. American ships appeared at the +open ports. As if to give them welcome, lighthouses were built +at exposed points on the coast, so that they might approach +without danger. A foreign settlement sprung up at Yokohama. +By and by young men went abroad to see the world, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">419</a></span> +or to be educated in Europe or America, and came back with +reports of the wealth and power of foreign nations. Soon a +spirit of imitation took possession of Young Japan. These +students affected even the fashions of foreign countries, and +appeared in the streets of Yedo in coat and pantaloons, instead +of the old Japanese dress; and ate no longer with chopsticks, +but with knives and forks. Thus manners and customs changed, +to be followed by a change in laws and in the government +itself. Till now Japan had had a double-headed government, +with two sovereigns and two capitals. But now there was a +revolution in the country, the Tycoon was overthrown, and +the Mikado, laying aside his seclusion and his invisibility, +came from Kioto to Yedo, and assumed the temporal power, +and showed himself to his people. The feudal system was +abolished, and the proud daimios—who, with their clans of +armed retainers, the <i>samourai</i>, or two-sworded men, were +independent princes—were stripped of their estates, which +sometimes were as large as German principalities, and forced +to disband their retainers, and reduced to the place of pensioners +of the government. The army and navy were reconstructed +on European models. Instead of the old Japanese +war-junks, well-armed frigates were seen in the Bay of Yedo—a +force which has enabled Japan to take a very decided +tone in dealing with China, in the matter of the island of Formosa; +and made its power respected along the coast of Eastern +Asia. We saw an embassy from Corea passing through +the streets of Yokohama, on its way to Yedo, to pay homage +to the Mikado, and enter into peaceful relations with Japan. +A new postal system has been introduced, modelled on our +own. In Yokohama one sees over a large building the sign +"The Japanese Imperial Post-Office," and the postman goes +his rounds, delivering his letters and papers as in England +and America. There is no opposition to the construction of +railroads, as in China. Steamers ply around the coast and +through the Inland Sea; and telegraphs extend from one end +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">420</a></span> +of the Empire to the other; and crossing the sea, connect +Japan with the coast of Asia, and with all parts of the world. +Better than all, the government has adopted a general system +of national education, at the head of which is our own Prof. +Murray; it has established schools and colleges, and introduced +teachers from Europe and America. In Yedo I was +taken by Prof. McCartee to see a large and noble institution +for the education of girls, established under the patronage of +the Empress. These are signs of progress that cannot be +paralleled in any other nation in the world.</p> + +<p>With such an advance in less than one generation, what +may we not hope in the generation to come? In her efforts +at progress, Japan deserves the sympathy and support of the +whole civilized world. Having responded to the demand for +commercial intercourse, she has a just claim to be placed on +the footing of the most favored nations. Especially is she +entitled to expect friendship from our country. As it fell to +America to be the instrument of opening Japan, it ought to +be our pride to show her that the new path into which we +led her, is a path of peace and prosperity. Japan is our nearest +neighbor on the west, as Ireland is on the east; and among +nations, as among individuals, neighbors ought to be friends. +It seemed a good token that the American Union Church in +Yokohama should stand on the very spot where Commodore +Perry made his treaty with Japan—the beginning, let us hope, +of immeasurable good to both nations. As India is a part of +the British Empire, and may look to England to secure for +her the benefits of modern civilization, so the duty of stretching +out a hand across the seas to Japan, may fairly be laid on +the American church and the American people.</p> + +<p>Our visit was coming to an end. A day or two we spent +in the shops, buying photographs and bronzes, and in paying +farewell visits to the missionaries, who had shown us so much +kindness. The "parting cup" of tea we took at Dr. Hepburn's, +and from his windows had a full view of Fusiyama, that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">421</a></span> +looked out upon us once more in all his glory. We were to +embark that evening, to sail at daylight. Mr. John Ballagh +and several ladies of "The Home," who had made us +welcome in their pleasant circle, "accompanied us to the +ship." We had a long row across the bay just as the moon +was rising, covering the waters with silver, and making the +great ships look like mighty shadows as they stood up +against the sky. "On such a night" we took our farewell +of Asia.</p> + +<p>The next morning very early we were sailing down the bay +of Yedo, and were soon out on the Pacific. But the coast +remained long in sight, and we sat on deck watching the +receding shores of a country which in three weeks had +become so familiar and so dear; and when at last it sunk +beneath the waters, we left our "benediction" on that beautiful +island set in the Northern Seas.</p> + +<p>We did not steer straight for San Francisco, although it is +in nearly the same latitude as Yokohama, but turned north, +following what navigators call a Great Circle, on the principle +that as they get high up on the globe, the degrees of +longitude are shorter, and thus they can "cut across" at the +high latitudes. "It is nearer to go around the hill than to +go over it." We took a prodigious sweep, following the <i>Kuroshiwo</i>, +or Black Current, the Gulf Stream of the Pacific, which +flows up the coast of Asia, and down the coast of America. +We bore away to the north till we were off the coast of Kamschatka, +and within a day's sail of Petropaulovski, before we +turned East. Our ship was "The Oceanic," of the famous +White Star line, which, if not so magnificent as "The City +of Peking," was quite as swift a sailer, cleaving the waters +like a sea-bird. In truth, the albatrosses that came about +the ship for days from the Aleutian Islands, now soaring in +air, and now skimming the waters, did not float along more +easily or more gracefully.</p> + +<p>As we crossed the 180th degree of longitude, just half the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">422</a></span> +way around the world from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, +we "gained a day," or rather, recovered one that we +had lost. As we had started eastward, we lost a few minutes +each day, and had to set our watches every noon. We were +constantly changing our meridian, so that no day ended +where it began, and we never had a day of full twenty-four +hours, but always a few minutes, like sands, had +crumbled away. By the time we reached England, five +hours had thus dropped into the sea; and when we had compassed +the globe, we had parted, inch by inch, moment by +moment, with a whole day. It seemed as if this were so +much blotted out from the sum of our being—gone in the +vast and wandering air—lost in the eternities, from which +nothing is ever recovered. But these lost moments and +hours were all gathered up in the chambers of the East, and +now in mid-ocean, one morning brought us a day not in the +calendar, to be added to the full year. Two days bore the +same date, the 18th of June, and as this fell on a Sunday, +two holy days came together—one the Sabbath of Asia, +the other of America. It seemed fit that this added day +should be a sacred one, for it was something taken, as it +were, from another portion of time to be added to our lives—a +day which came to us fresh from its ocean baptism, with +not a tear of sorrow or a thought of sin to stain its purity; +and we kept a double Sabbath in the midst of the sea.</p> + +<p>Seventeen days on the Pacific, with nothing to break the +boundless monotony! In all that breadth of ocean which +separates Asia and America, we saw not a single sail on the +horizon; and no land, not even an island, till we came in +sight of those shores which are dearer to us than any other +in all the round world.</p> + +<p>Here, in sight of land, this story ends. There is no need +to tell of crossing the continent, which completed our circuit +of the globe, but only to add in a word the lesson and the +moral of this long journey. Going around the world is an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">423</a></span> +education. It is not a mere pastime; it is often a great +fatigue; but it is a means of gaining knowledge which can +only be obtained by observation. Charles V. used to say +that "the more languages a man knew, he was so many more +times a man." Each new form of human speech introduced +him into a new world of thought and life. So in some degree +is it in traversing other continents, and mingling with other +races. However great America may be, it is "something" +to add to it a knowledge of Europe and Asia. Unless one be +encased in pride, or given over to "invincible ignorance," it +will teach him modesty. He will boast less of his own country, +though perhaps he will love it more. He will see the +greatness of other nations, and the virtues of other people. +Even the turbaned Orientals may teach us a lesson in dignity +and courtesy—a lesson of repose, the want of which is a defect +in our national character. In every race there is something +good—some touch of gentleness that makes the whole +world kin. Those that are most strange and far from us, +as we approach them, show qualities that win our love and +command our respect.</p> + +<p>In all these wanderings, I have met no rudeness in word +or act from Turks or Arabs, Hindoos or Malays, Chinese +or Japanese; but have often received kindness from strangers. +The one law that obtains in all nations is the law of kindness. +Have I not a right to say that to know men is to love them, +not to hate them nor despise them?</p> + +<p>He who hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell +on the earth, hath not forgotten any of His children. There +is a beauty in every country and in every clime. Each zone +of the earth is belted with its peculiar vegetation; and there +is a beauty alike in the pines on Norwegian hills, and the +palms on African deserts. So with the diversities of the +human race. Man inhabits all climes, and though he changes +color with the sun, and has many varieties of form and feature, +yet the race is the same; all have the same attributes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">424</a></span> +of humanity, and under a white or black skin beats the same +human heart. In writing of peoples far remote, my wish +has been to bring them nearer, and to bind them to us by +closer bonds of sympathy. If these pictures of Asia make +it a little more real, and inspire the feeling of a common +nature with the dusky races that live on the other side of the +globe, and so infuse a larger knowledge and a gentler charity, +then a traveller's tale may serve as a kind of lay sermon, +teaching peace and good will to men.</p> + +<h3 class="p6">FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> That we may not do injustice, we add the excuse which is given, +which is, that such attendance of the police is necessary to prevent +a general mélée and bloodshed. It seems that these fakirs, holy as +they are, belong to different sects, between which there are deadly +feuds, and if left to themselves unrestrained, when brought into +close contact in a procession, they might tear each other in pieces. +But this would be no great loss to the world.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Mr. Talboys Wheeler.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> There are many parallels between Louis XIV. and Aurungzebe. +They were contemporaries—and both had long reigns, the former a +little over, and the latter a little less than, half a century. They +were the most splendid sovereigns of their time—one in Europe, and +the other in Asia, and with both the extravagance and prodigality of +the monarchs prepared the way for revolution after their deaths.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> This is given as an average distance in an air line. The nearest +peak, Boonderpunch (Monkey's Tail), is forty-five miles as the crow +flies, though by the nearest accessible route, it is a hundred and +forty! Nunda Davee is a hundred and ten in an air line, but by the +paths over the mountains, must be over two hundred.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A very fascinating book, especially to Alpine tourists, or those +fond of climbing mountains. The title, "The Abode of Snow," is a +translation of the word Himalaya. The writer is a son of the late +Dr. Wilson, of Bombay. Taking a new field, he has produced a +story of travel and adventure, which will be apt to tempt others to +follow him.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "Narrative of Mr. Shepherd." He owed his escape to the fact +that before the surrender of the garrison he had made an attempt +to pass through the rebel lines and carry word to Allahabad to hasten +the march of troops to its relief, and had been taken and thrown +into prison, and was there at the time of the massacre.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> As the historian of the mutiny has frequent occasion to speak of +the treachery of the Sepoys, it should not be forgotten that to this +there were splendid exceptions; that some were "found faithful +among the faithless." Even in the regiments that mutinied there +were some who were not carried away by the general madness; and, +when the little remnant of English soldiers retreated into the Residency, +these loyal natives went with them, and shared all the dangers +and hardships of the siege. Even after it was begun, they were +exposed to every temptation to seduce them from their allegiance; +for as the lines of the besiegers drew closer to the Residency and +hemmed it in on every side, the assailants were so near that they +could talk with those within over the palisades of the intrenchments, +and the Sepoys appealed to their late fellow-soldiers by +threats, and taunts, and promises; by pride of race and of caste; by +their love of country and of their religion, to betray the garrison. +But not a man deserted his post. Hundreds were killed in the siege, +and their blood mingled with that of their English companions-in-arms. +History does not record a more noble instance of fidelity.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> There are not many Americans in Calcutta, and as they are few, +we are the more concerned that they should be respectable, and not +dishonor our national character. Sometimes I am told we have had +representatives of whom we had no reason to be proud. We are now +most fortunate in our Consul, General Litchfield, a gentleman of excellent +character, who is very obliging to his countrymen, and commands +in a high degree the respect of the English community. +There is here also an American pastor, Dr. Thorburn, who is very +popular, and whose people are building him a new church while he +is absent on a visit to his own country; and what attracts a stranger +still more, an excellent family of American ladies, engaged in the +Zenana Mission, which is designed to reach Hindoo women, who, as +they live in strict seclusion, can never hear of Christianity except +through those of their own sex. This hospitable "Home" was +made ours for a part of the time that we were in Calcutta, for which, +and for all the kindness of these excellent ladies, we hold it in grateful +remembrance.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> This book furnishes a good illustration of the incidental service +which missionaries—aside from the religious work they do—render +to the cause of geography, of science, and of literature. They are +the most indefatigable explorers, and the most faithful and authentic +narrators of what they see. Its full title is: "<span class="smcap">Burmah</span>: its People +and Natural Productions; or Notes on the Natives, Fauna, Flora, +and Minerals, of Tenasserim, Pegu, and Burmah; With systematic +catalogues of the known Mammals, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, +Mollusks, Crustaceans, Anellides, Radiates, Plants, and Minerals, with +vernacular names." In his preface the writer says:</p> + +<p class="footnote">"No pretensions are made in this work to completeness. It is not +a book composed in the luxury of literary leisure, but a collection of +Notes [What is here so modestly called Notes, is an octavo of over +900 pages] which I have been making during the twenty years of my +residence in this country, in the corners of my time that would otherwise +have been wasted. Often to forget my weariness when travelling, +when it has been necessary to bivouac in the jungles; while the +Karens have been seeking fuel for their night-fires, or angling for +their suppers in the stream; I have occupied myself with analyzing +the flowers that were blooming around my couch; or examining the +fish that were caught; or an occasional reptile, insect, or bird, that +attracted my attention. With such occupations I have brightened +many a solitary hour; and often has the most unpromising situation +proved fruitful in interest; for 'the barren heath, with its mosses, +lichens, and insects, its stunted shrubs and pale flowers, becomes a +paradise under the eye of observation; and to the genuine thinker +the sandy beach and the arid wild are full of wonders.'"</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Dr. S. Wells Williams, who was familiar with Buddhism during +his forty years residence in China, says ("Middle Kingdom," Vol. +II., p. 257):</p> + +<p class="footnote">"The numerous points of similarity between the rites of the Buddhists +and those of the Romish Church, early attracted attention, ... +such as the vow of celibacy in both sexes, the object of their seclusion, +the loss of hair, taking a new name and looking after the care of +the convent. There are many grounds for supposing that their favorite +goddess Kwanyin, i. e., the Hearer of Cries, called also Holy +Mother, Queen of Heaven, is only another form of Our Lady. The +monastic habit, holy water, counting rosaries to assist in prayer, the +ordinances of celibacy and fasting, and reciting masses for the dead, +worship of relics, and canonization of saints, are alike features of +both sects. Both burn candles and incense, and bells are much used +in their temples: both teach a purgatory, from which the soul can +be delivered by prayers, and use a dead language for their liturgy, +and their priests pretend to miracles. These striking resemblances +led the Romish missionaries to suppose that some of them had been +derived from the Romanists or Syrians who entered China before the +twelfth century; others referred them to St. Thomas, but Prémare +ascribes them to the devil, who had thus imitated holy mother +church in order to scandalize and oppose its rights. But as Davis +observes: 'To those who admit that most of the Romish ceremonies +are borrowed directly from Paganism, there is less difficulty in accounting +for the resemblance.'"</p> + +<p class="footnote">The following scene in a Buddhist temple described by an eye-witness, +answers to what is often seen in Romish churches:</p> + +<p class="footnote">"There stood fourteen priests, seven on each side of the altar, +erect, motionless, with clasped hands and downcast eyes, their shaven +heads and flowing gray robes adding to their solemn appearance. The +low and measured tones of the slowly moving chant they were singing +might have awakened solemn emotions, and called away the +thoughts from worldly objects. Three priests kept time with the +music, one beating an immense drum, another a large iron vessel, +and a third a wooden bell. After chanting, they kneeled upon low +stools, and bowed before the colossal image of Buddha, at the same +time striking their heads upon the ground. Then rising and facing +each other, they began slowly chanting some sentences, and rapidly +increasing the music and their utterance until both were at the climax +of rapidity, they diminished in the same way until they had returned +to the original measure.... The whole service forcibly +reminded me of scenes in Romish chapels."</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Dr. Haswell died a few months after we left Burmah.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> As this incident has excited a great deal of interest, I am happy +to give it as it occurred from an eye-witness. One who was on board +of Commodore Tatnall's ship writes:</p> + +<p class="footnote">"I was present at the battle in the Pei-ho in 1859, and know all +the particulars. Admiral Hope having been wounded, was urged to +bring up the marines before sunset, and sent his aid down to take +them off the three junks, where they were waiting at the mouth of +the river. The aid came on board the "Toeywan" to see Commodore +Tatnall, tell him the progress of the battle, and what he had +been sent down for, adding that, as the tide was running out, it +would be hard work getting up again. As he went on, Tatnall began +to get restless, and turning to me (I sat next), said: 'Blood is thicker +than water; I don't care if they do take away my commission.' +Then turning to his own flag-lieutenant at the other end of the table, +he said aloud: 'Get up steam;' and everything was ready for a start +in double-quick time. When all was prepared, the launches, full of +marines, were towed into action by the "Toeywan"; and casting +them off, the Commodore left in his barge to go on board the British +flag-ship, to see the wounded Admiral. On the way his barge was +hit, his coxswain killed, and the rest just managed to get on board +the "Lee" before their boat sunk, owing their lives probably to +his presence of mind. It was only the men in this boat's crew who +helped to work the British guns. I suppose Tatnall never meant his +words to be repeated, but Hope's aid overheard them, and thus immortalized +them."</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of From Egypt to Japan, by Henry M. 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Field + +Release Date: April 18, 2012 [EBook #39474] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + + + + _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ + + FROM THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY + TO THE GOLDEN HORN. + + THE FIRST VOLUME OF + DR. FIELD'S TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD. + + 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, uniform with this volume, $2.00. + _Sent postpaid, on receipt of price, by the Publishers_, + + SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO., + 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. + + + + + FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN. + + BY HENRY M. FIELD, D.D. + + NEW YORK: + SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. + 1877. + + + + + COPYRIGHT BY + SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. + 1877. + + TROW'S + PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING CO., + _205-213 East 12th St._, + NEW YORK. + + + + + To My Brothers, + DAVID DUDLEY, STEPHEN J., AND CYRUS W. FIELD, + ALL THAT ARE LEFT OF A LARGE FAMILY, + This Volume is Dedicated, + IN TOKEN OF THE LOVE OF A LIFETIME, WHICH + WILL GROW STRONGER TO THE END. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. CROSSING THE MEDITERRANEAN--ALEXANDRIA--CAIRO--THE + PYRAMIDS, 1 + + II. ON THE NILE, 15 + + III. THE TEMPLES OF EGYPT--DID MOSES GET HIS LAW FROM + THE EGYPTIANS? 28 + + IV. THE EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE, 37 + + V. THE RELIGION OF THE PROPHET, 45 + + VI. MODERN EGYPT AND THE KHEDIVE, 62 + + VII. MIDNIGHT IN THE HEART OF THE GREAT PYRAMID, 80 + + VIII. LEAVING EGYPT--THE DESERT, 96 + + IX. ON THE RED SEA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN, 106 + + X. BOMBAY--FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA, 115 + + XI. TRAVELLING IN INDIA--ALLAHABAD--THE MELA, 131 + + XII. AGRA--VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES--PALACE OF THE + GREAT MOGUL--THE TAJ, 148 + + XIII. DELHI--A MOHAMMEDAN FESTIVAL--SCENES IN THE + MUTINY, 162 + + XIV. FROM DELHI TO LAHORE, 172 + + XV. A WEEK IN THE HIMALAYAS, 182 + + XVI. THE TRAGEDY OF CAWNPORE, 210 + + XVII. THE STORY OF LUCKNOW, 222 + + XVIII. THE ENGLISH RULE IN INDIA, 236 + + XIX. MISSIONS IN INDIA--DO MISSIONARIES DO ANY GOOD? 249 + + XX. BENARES, THE HOLY CITY OF THE HINDOOS, 265 + + XXI. CALCUTTA--FAREWELL TO INDIA, 280 + + XXII. BURMAH--THE MALAYAN PENINSULA--SINGAPORE, 292 + + XXIII. THE ISLAND OF JAVA, 326 + + XXIV. UP THE CHINA SEAS--HONG KONG AND CANTON, 365 + + XXV. THREE WEEKS IN JAPAN, 397 + + + + +_This volume is complete in itself, though it is the Second Part of a +Journey Round the World, of which the First Part was published a year +ago, with the title "From the Lakes of Killarney to the Golden Horn." +The volumes are uniform in style and naturally go together, though +either is complete without the other._ + + + + +FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +CROSSING THE MEDITERRANEAN--ALEXANDRIA--CAIRO--THE PYRAMIDS. + + +On the Bosphorus there are birds which the Turks call "lost souls," as +they are never at rest. They are always on the wing, like stormy +petrels, flying swift and low, just skimming the waters, yet darting +like arrows, as if seeking for something which they could not find on +land or sea. This spirit of unrest sometimes enters into other +wanderers than those of the air. One feels it strongly as he comes to +the end of one continent, and "casts off" for another; as he leaves +the firm, familiar ground, and sails away to the distant and the +unknown. + +So felt a couple of travellers who had left America to go around the +world, and after six months in Europe, were now to push on to the +farthest East. It was an autumn afternoon near the close of the year +1875, that they left Constantinople, and sailed down the Marmora, and +through the Dardanelles, between the Castles of Europe and Asia, whose +very names suggested the continents that they were leaving behind, and +set their faces towards Africa. + +They could not go to Palestine. An alarm of cholera in Damascus had +caused a _cordon sanitaire_ to be drawn along the Syrian coast; and +though they might get in, they could not so easily get away; or would +be detained ten days in a Lazaretto before they could pass into +Egypt; and so they were obliged at the last moment to turn from the +Holy Land, and sail direct for Alexandria; touching, however, at +Mitylene and Scio; and passing a day at Smyrna and at Syra. With these +detentions the voyage took nearly a week, almost as long as to cross +the Atlantic. + +But it was not without its compensations. There was a motley company +in the cabin, made up of all nations and all religions: English and +Americans, French and Germans and Russians, Greeks and Turks, +Christians and Mohammedans. There was a grand old Turk, who was going +out to be a judge in Mecca, and was travelling with his harem, eight +women, who were carefully screened from the observation of profane +eyes. And there were other Mussulmans of rank, gentlemen in manners +and education, who would be addressed as Effendis or Beys, or perhaps +as Pashas, who did not hesitate to spread their small Persian carpets +in the cabin or on the deck at any hour, and kneel and prostrate +themselves, and say their prayers. + +Besides these, the whole forward part of the ship was packed with +pilgrims (there were four hundred of them) going to Mecca: Turks in +white turbans and baggy trousers; and Circassians in long overcoats, +made of undressed sheepskins, with tall, shaggy hats, like the +bear-skin shakos of Scotch grenadiers. Some of them had their belts +stuck thick with knives and pistols, as if they expected to have to +fight their way to the tomb of the Prophet. Altogether they were not +an attractive set, and yet one could not view, without a certain +respect, a body of men animated by a strong religious feeling which +impelled them to undertake this long pilgrimage; it requires three +months to go and return. Nor could one listen quite unmoved as at +different hours of the day, at sunrise, or midday, or sunset, the +muezzin climbed to the upper deck, and in a wailing voice called the +hour of prayer, and the true believers, standing up, rank on rank, +turned their faces towards Mecca, and reverently bowed themselves and +worshipped. + +On the afternoon of the sixth day we came in sight of a low-lying +coast, with not a hill or elevation of any kind rising above the +dreary waste, the sea of waters breaking on a sea of sand. The sun +sinking in the west showed the lighthouse at Alexandria, but as the +channel is narrow and intricate, ships are not allowed to enter after +sunset; and so we lay outside all night, but as soon as the morning +broke, steamed up and entered the harbor. Here was the same scene as +at Constantinople--a crowd of boats around the ship, and boatmen +shouting and yelling, jumping over one another in their eagerness to +be first, climbing on board, and rushing on every unfortunate +traveller as if they would tear him to pieces. But they are not so +terrible as they appear, and so it always comes to pass, that whether +"on boards or broken pieces of the ship," all come safe to land. + +In spite of this wild uproar, it was not without a strange feeling of +interest that we first set foot in Africa. A few days before we had +touched the soil of Asia, on the other side of the Bosphorus--the +oldest of the continents, the cradle of the human race. And now we +were in Africa--in Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs, out of which Moses +led the Israelites; the land of the Pyramids, the greatest monuments +of ancient civilization. + +As soon as one comes on shore, he perceives that he is in a different +country. The climate is different, the aspects of nature are +different, the people are different, the very animals are different. +Caravans of camels are moving slowly through the streets, and outside +of the city, coming up to its very walls, as if threatening to +overwhelm it, is the "great and terrible" desert, a vast and billowy +plain, whose ever-drifting sands would speedily bury all the works of +man, if they were not kept back from destruction by the waters of the +Nile, which is at once the creator and preserver of Egypt. + +Alexandria, although founded by Alexander the Great, whose name it +bears, and therefore more than two thousand years old--and although in +its monuments, Cleopatra's Needle and Pompey's Pillar, it carries back +the mind to the last of the Ptolemies, the proud daughter of kings, +and to her Roman lovers and conquerors--has yet in many parts quite a +modern aspect, and is almost a new city. It has felt, more than most +places in the East, the influence of European civilization. Commerce +is returning to its ancient seats along the Mediterranean, and the +harbor of Alexandria is filled with a forest of ships, that reminds +one of New York or Liverpool. + +But as it becomes more European, it is less Oriental; and though more +prosperous, is less picturesque than other parts of Egypt; and so, +after a couple of days, we left for Cairo, and now for the first time +struck the Nile, which reminds an American traveller of the Missouri, +or the lower Mississippi. It is the same broad stream of turbid, +yellow waters, flowing between low banks. This is the Great River +which takes its rise in the heart of Africa, beyond the equator, at a +point so remote that, though the Valley of the Nile was four thousand +years ago the seat of the greatest empire of antiquity, yet to this +day the source of the river is the problem of geographers. Formerly it +was a three days' journey from Alexandria to Cairo, but the railroad +shortens it to a ride of four hours, in which we crossed both branches +of the Nile. Just at noon we came in sight of the Pyramids, and in +half an hour were driving through the streets of the capital of Egypt. + +We like Cairo, after two or three weeks, much better than +Constantinople. It has another climate and atmosphere; and is +altogether a gayer and brighter city. The new quarter occupied by +foreigners is as handsomely built as any European city. The streets +are wide and well paved, like the new streets and boulevards of Paris. +We are at the "Grand New Hotel," fronting on the Ezbekieh gardens, a +large square, filled with trees, with kiosks for music, and other +entertainments. Our windows open on a broad balcony, from which we can +hear the band playing every afternoon, while around us is the city, +with its domes and minarets and palm trees. + +The great charm of Egypt is the climate. It is truly the Land of the +Sun. We landed on the first day of December, but we cannot realize +that this is winter. The papers tell us that it is very cold in New +York, and that the Hudson river is frozen over; but here every thing +is in bloom, as in mid-summer, and I wear a straw hat to protect me +from the heat of the sun. But it is not merely the warmth, but the +exquisite purity of the atmosphere, that makes it so delicious. The +great deserts on both sides drink up every drop of moisture, and every +particle of miasm that is exhaled from the decaying vegetation of the +Valley of the Nile, and send back into these streets the very air of +Paradise. + +Having thus the skies of Italy, and a much more balmy air, it is not +strange that Egypt attracts travellers from France, and England, and +America. It is becoming more and more a resort not only for invalids, +but for that wealthy class who float about the world to find the place +where they can pass existence with the most of languid ease. Many come +here to escape the European winters, and to enjoy the delicious +climate, and they are from so many countries, that Cairo has become a +cosmopolitan city. As it is on the road to India, it is continually +visited by English officers and civilians, going or returning. Of late +years it has become a resort also for Americans. A number of our army +officers have taken service under the Khedive, who rendezvous chiefly +at this New Hotel, so that with the travellers of the same country, we +can talk across the table of American affairs, as if we were at +Newport or Saratoga. Owing to the influx of so many foreigners, this +Hotel and "Shepheard's" seem like small colonies of Europeans. +Hearing only English, or French, or German, one might believe himself +at one of the great hotels in Switzerland, or on the Rhine. A stranger +who wishes to pass a winter in Cairo, need not die of ennui for want +of the society of his countrymen. + +Besides these officers in the army, the only Americans here in +official positions, are the Consul General Beardsley, and Judge +Batcheller, who was appointed by our Government to represent the +United States in the Mixed Court lately established in Egypt. Both +these gentlemen are very courteous to their countrymen, while giving +full attention to their duties. As we have sometimes had abroad +consuls and ministers of whom we could not be proud, it is something +to be able to say, that those here now in official position are men of +whom we need not be ashamed as representatives of our country. + +Another household which should not be overlooked, since it gives an +American a home feeling in Cairo, is that of the American Mission. +This has been here some years, and so won the favor of the government, +that the former Viceroy gave it a site for its schools, which proved +so valuable that the present Khedive has recently bought it back, by +giving a new site and L7000 into the bargain. The new location is one +of the best in Cairo, near the Ezbekieh square, and here with the +proceeds of the sale, and other funds contributed for the object, the +Mission is erecting one of the finest buildings for such purposes in +the East, where their chapel and schools, in which there are now some +five hundred children, will be under one roof. + +This Mission School some years ago was the scene of a romantic +incident. An Indian prince, then living in England, was on his way to +India, with the body of his mother, who had died far from her country, +but with the prejudices of a Hindoo strong in death, wished her body +to be taken back to the land of her birth. While passing through +Cairo, he paid a visit to the American Mission, and was struck with +the face of a young pupil in the girls' school, and after due inquiry +proposed to the missionaries to take her as his wife. They gave their +consent, and on his return they were married, and he took her with him +to England. This was the Maharajah Dhuleep Sing, a son of old Runjeet +Sing, the Lion of Lahore, who raised up a race of warriors, that after +his death fought England, and whose country, the Punjaub, the English +annexed to their Indian dominions; and here, as in other cases, +removed a pretender out of the way by settling a large pension on the +heir to the throne. Thus the Maharajah came into the possession of a +large revenue from the British government, amounting, I am told, to +some L30,000 a year. Having been from his childhood under English +pupilage, he has been brought up as a Christian, and finds it to his +taste to reside in England, where he is able to live in splendor, and +is a great favorite at court. His choice of a wife proved a most happy +one, as the modest young pupil of Cairo introduced into his English +home, with the natural grace of her race, for she is partly of Arab +descent, the culture and refinement learned in a Mission school. Nor +does he forget what he owes to the care of those who watched over her +in her childhood, but sends a thousand pounds every year to the school +in grateful acknowledgment of the best possible gift it could make to +him, that of a noble Christian wife. + +Besides this foreign society, there is also a resident society which, +to those who can be introduced to it, is very attractive. The +government of the Khedive has brought into his service some men who +would be distinguished in any European court or capital. The most +remarkable of these is Nubar Pasha, long the Minister of Foreign +Affairs. + +Judge Batcheller kindly took me to the house of the old statesman, who +received us cordially. On hearing that I was on my way around the +world, he exclaimed, "Ah, you Americans! You are true Bedouins!" I +asked him what was the best guide-book to Egypt? He answered +instantly, "The Bible." It was delightful to see his enthusiasm for +Egypt, although he is not an Egyptian. He is not an Arab, nor a Turk, +nor even a Mussulman; but an Armenian by birth and by religion. His +uncle, Nubar Pasha, came over with Mehemet Ali, whose prime minister +he was for forty years; and his nephew, who inherits his name, +inherits also the traditions of that great reign. Though born on the +other side of the Mediterranean, he is in heart an Egyptian. He loves +the country of his adoption, and all his thoughts and his political +ambition are for its greatness and prosperity. He has lived here so +long that he sometimes speaks of himself playfully as "one of the +antiquities of Egypt." "Of the first dynasty?" we ask. "Yes, of the +time of Menes." I do not believe he could exist anywhere else. He +loves not only the climate, but even the scenery of Egypt, which is +more charming to his eyes than the hills and vales of Scotland or the +mountains of Switzerland. "But you must admit," I said, "that it has a +great monotony." "No," he replied, "in Lombardy there is monotony; but +Egypt is immensity, infinity, eternity. The features of the landscape +may be the same, but the eye never wearies." Surely _his_ eye never +does, for it is touched with a poetic vision; he sees more than meets +the common eye; every passing cloud changes the lights and shadows; +and to him there is more of beauty in the sunset flashing through the +palm groves, as the leaves are gently stirred by the evening wind, +than in all the luxuriance of tropical forests. Even if we did not +quite share his enthusiasm, we could not but be charmed by the +pictures which were floating before his mind's eye, and by the +eloquence of his description. As he loves the country, so he loves the +people of Egypt. Poor and helpless as they are, they have won upon his +affection; he says "they are but children;" but if they have the +weakness of children, they have also their simplicity and +trustfulness; and I could see that his great ambition was to break up +that system of forced labor which crushes them to the earth, and to +secure to them at least some degree of liberty and of justice. + +With all its newness and freshness this city retains its Oriental +character. Indeed Grand Cairo is said to be the most Oriental of +cities except Damascus. It has four hundred thousand inhabitants, and +in its ancient portions has all the peculiar features of the East. Not +only is the city different from Constantinople, but the people are +different; they are another race, and speak another language. Turks +and Arabs are as different as Englishmen and Frenchmen. + +We are entertained every time that we go out of doors, with the +animated and picturesque life of the streets. There are all races and +all costumes, and all modes of locomotion. There are fine horses and +carriages. I feel like Joseph riding in Pharaoh's chariot, when we +take a carriage to ride out to Shoobra, one of the palaces of the +Khedive, with syces dressed in white running before to herald our +royal progress, and shout to the people to get out of our way. But one +who prefers a more Oriental mode of riding, can mount a camel, or +stoop to a donkey, for the latter are the smallest creatures that ever +walked under the legs of a man, and if the rider be very tall, he will +need to hold up his feet to keep them from dangling on the ground. Yet +they are hardy little creatures, and have a peculiar amble which they +keep up all day. They are very useful for riding, especially in some +parts of the city where the streets are too narrow to allow a carriage +to pass. + +The donkey-men are very sharp, like their tribe in all parts of the +world. The Arabs have a great deal of natural wit, which might almost +entitle them to be called the Irish of the East. They have picked up a +few words of English, and it is amusing to hear them say, with a most +peculiar accent, "All right," "Very good," "Go ahead." They seem to +know everybody, and soon find out who are their best customers. I +cannot go down the steps without a dozen rushing toward me, calling +out "Doctor, want a donkey?" One of them took me on my weak side the +first day by saying that the name of his animal was "Yankee Doodle," +and so I have patronized that donkey ever since, and a tough little +beast he is, scudding away with me on his back at a great rate. His +owner, a fine looking Arab, dressed in a loose blue gown and snowy +turban, runs barefooted behind him, to prick him up, if he lags in his +speed, or if perchance he goes too fast, to seize him by the tail, and +check his impetuosity. We present a ludicrous spectacle when thus +mounted, setting out for the bazaars, where our experience of +Constantinople is repeated. + +Of course the greatest sight around Cairo is the Pyramids. It is an +event in one's life to see these grandest monuments of antiquity. The +excursion is now very easy. They are eight miles from Cairo, and it +was formerly a hard day's journey to go there and back, as one could +only ride on a donkey or a camel, and had to cross the river in boats; +and the country was often inundated, so that one had to go miles +around. But the Khedive, who does everything here, has changed all +that. He has built an iron bridge over the Nile, and a broad road, +raised above the height of the annual inundations, so as never to be +overflowed, and lined with trees, the rapid-growing acacia, so that +one may drive through a shaded avenue the whole way. A shower which +had fallen the night before we went (a very rare thing in Egypt at +this season) had laid the dust and cooled the air, so that the day was +perfect, and we drove in a carriage in an hour and a half from our +hotel to the foot of the Pyramids. The two largest of these are in +sight as soon as one crosses the Nile, but though six miles distant +they seem quite near. Yet at first, and even when close to them, they +hardly impress the beholder with their real greatness. This is owing +to their pyramidal form, which, rising before the eye like the slope +of a hill, does not strike the senses or the imagination as much as +smaller masses which rise perpendicularly. One can hardly realize that +the Pyramid of Cheops is the largest structure in the world--the +largest probably ever reared by human hands. But as it slopes to the +top, it does not present its full proportions to the eye, nor impress +one so much as some of the Greek temples with their perpendicular +columns, or the Gothic churches with their lofty arches, and still +loftier towers, soaring to heaven. Yet the Great Pyramid is higher +than them all, higher even than the spire of the Cathedral at +Strasburg; while in the surface of ground covered, the most spacious +of them, even St. Peter's at Rome, seems small in comparison. It +covers eleven acres, a space nearly as large as the Washington Parade +Ground in New York; and is said by Herodotus to have taken a hundred +thousand men twenty years to build it. Pliny agrees in the length of +time, but says the number of workmen employed was over three hundred +thousand! + +But mere figures do not give the best impression of height; the only +way to judge of the Great Pyramid is to see it and to ascend it. One +can go to the top by steps, but as these steps are blocks of stone, +many of which are four feet high, it is not quite like walking up +stairs. One could hardly get up at all but with the help of the Arabs, +who swarm on the ground, and make a living by selling their services. +Four of them set upon me, seizing me by the hands, and dragging me +forward, and with pulling and pushing and "boosting," urged on by my +own impatience--for I would not let them rest a moment--in ten minutes +we were at the top, which they thought a great achievement, and rubbed +down my legs, as a groom rubs down a horse after a race, and clapped +me on the back, and shouted "All right," "Very good." I felt a little +pride in being the first of our party on the top, and the last to +leave it. + +These Arab guides are at once very troublesome and very necessary. One +cannot get along without them, and yet they are so importunate in +their demands for backsheesh that they become a nuisance. They are +nominally under the orders of a Sheik, who charges two English +shillings for every traveller who is assisted to the top, but that +does not relieve one from constant appeals going up and down. I found +it the easiest way to get rid of them to give somewhat freely, and +thus paid three or four times the prescribed charge before I got to +the bottom. No doubt I gave far too much, for they immediately quoted +me to the rest of the party, and held me up as a shining example. I am +afraid I demoralized the whole tribe, for some friends who went the +next day were told of an American who had been there the day before, +who had given "beautiful backsheesh." The cunning fellows, finding I +was an easy subject, followed me from one place to another, and gave +me no peace even when wandering among the tombs, or when taking our +lunch in the Temple of the Sphinx, but at every step clamored for +more; and when I had given them a dozen times, an impudent rascal came +up even to the carriage, as we were ready to drive away, and said that +two or three shillings more would "make all serene!"--a phrase which +he had caught from some strolling American, and which he turns to good +account. + +But one would gladly give any sum to get rid of petty annoyances, and +to be able to look around him undisturbed. Here we are at last on the +very summit of the Great Pyramid, and begin to realize its immensity. +Below us men look like mice creeping about, and the tops of trees in +the long avenue show no larger than hot-house plants. The eye ranges +over the valley of the Nile for many miles--a carpet of the richest +green, amid which groups of palms rise like islands in a sea. To the +east beyond the Nile is Cairo, its domes and minarets standing out +against the background of the Mokattam hills, while to the west +stretches far away the Libyan desert. + +Overlooking this broad landscape, one can trace distinctly the line of +the overflow of the Nile. Wherever the waters come, there is greenness +and fertility; at the point where they cease, there is barrenness and +desolation. It is a perpetual struggle between the waters and the +sands, like that which is always going on in human history between +barbarism and civilization. + +In the Pyramids the two things which impress us most are their vast +size and their age. As we stand on the top, and look down the long +flight of steps which leads to the valley below, we find that we are +on the crest of a mountain of stone. Some idea of the enormous mass +imbedded in the Great Pyramid may be gathered from the fact, +ascertained by a careful computation (estimating its weight at seven +millions of tons, and considering it a solid mass, its chambers and +passages being as far as discovered but 1/2000th of the whole), that +these blocks of stone, placed end to end, would make a wall a foot and +a half broad, and ten feet high around England, a distance of 883 +miles--a wall that would shut in the island up to the Scottish border. + +And the Pyramids are not only the greatest, but the oldest monuments +of the human race, the most venerable structures ever reared by the +hand of man. They are far older than any of the monuments of Roman or +Grecian antiquity. They were a marvel and a mystery then as much as +they are to-day. How _much_ older cannot be said with certainty. +Authorities are not fully agreed, but the general belief among the +later chronologists is that the Great Pyramid was built about two +thousand one hundred and seventy years before the time of Christ, and +the next in size a century later. Thus both have been standing about +four thousand years. Napoleon was right therefore when he said to his +soldiers before the battle fought with the Mamelukes under the shadow +of the Pyramids, "From those heights forty centuries behold you." This +disposes of the idea which some have entertained, that they were built +by the children of Israel when they were in Egypt; for according to +this they were erected two hundred years before even the time of +Abraham. Jacob saw them when he came down into Egypt to buy corn; and +Joseph showed them to his brethren. The subject Hebrews looked up to +them in the days of their bondage. Moses saw them when he was brought +up in the court of Pharaoh, and they disappeared from the view of the +Israelites only when they fled to the Red Sea. They had been standing +a thousand years when Homer sang of the siege of Troy; and here came +Herodotus the father of history, four hundred years before Christ, and +gazed with wonder, and wrote about them as the most venerable +monuments of antiquity, with the same curious interest as Rawlinson +does to-day. So they have been standing century after century, while +the generations of men have been flowing past, like the waters of the +Nile. + +We visited the Great Pyramid again on our return from Upper Egypt, and +explored the interior, but reserve the description to another chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ON THE NILE. + + +At last we are on the Nile, floating as in a dream, in the finest +climate in the world, amid the monuments and memories of thousands of +years. Anything more delightful than this climate for winter cannot be +imagined. The weather is always the same. The sky is always blue, and +we are bathed in a soft, delicious atmosphere. In short, we seem to +have come, like the Lotus-eaters, to "a land where it is always +afternoon." In such an air and such a mood, we left Cairo to make the +voyage to which we had been looking forward as an event in our lives. + +To travellers who desire to visit Egypt, and to see its principal +monuments, without taking more time than they have at command, it is a +great advantage that there is now a line of steamers on the Nile. The +boats belong to the Khedive, but are managed by Cook & Son, of London, +the well-known conductors of excursions in Europe and the East. They +leave Cairo every fortnight, and make the trip to the First Cataract +and back in twenty days, thus comprising the chief objects of interest +within a limited time. Formerly there was no way to go up the Nile +except by chartering a boat, with a captain and crew for the voyage. +This mode of travel had many charms. The kind of boat--called a +_dahabeeah_--was well fitted for the purpose, with a cabin large +enough for a single family, or a very small party, and an upper deck +covered with awnings; and as it spread its three-cornered lateen sail +to the wind, it presented a pretty and picturesque object, and the +traveller floated along at his own sweet will. This had only the +drawback of taking a whole winter. But to leisurely tourists, who like +to do everything thoroughly, and so take but one country in a year; or +learned Egyptologists, who wish, in the intervals of seeing monuments, +to make a special study of the history of Egypt; or invalids, who +desire only to escape the damps and fogs of Britain, or the bitter +cold of the Northern States of America--nothing can be imagined more +delightful. There is a class of overworked men for whom no medicine +could be prescribed more effectual than a winter idled away in this +soothing, blissful rest. Nowhere in the world can one obtain more of +the _dolce far niente_, than thus floating slowly and dreamily on the +Nile. But for those of us who are wandering over all the earth, +crossing all the lands and seas in the round world, this slow voyaging +will not answer. + +Nor is it necessary. One can see Egypt--not of course minutely, but +sufficiently to get a general impression of the country--in a much +less time. It must be remembered that this is not like other countries +which lie four-square, presenting an almost equal length and breadth, +but in shape is a mere line upon the map, being a hundred times as +long as it is broad. To be exact, Egypt from the apex of the +Delta--that is from Cairo--to the First Cataract, nearly six hundred +miles, is all enclosed in a valley, which, on an average, is only six +miles wide, the whole of which may be seen from the deck of a steamer, +while excursions are made from day to day to the temples and ruins. It +is a mistake to suppose that one sees more of these ruins on a boat +because he is so much longer about it, when the extra time consumed is +not spent at Denderah or Thebes, but floating lazily along with a +light wind, or if the wind be adverse, tied up to a bank to await a +change. In a steamer the whole excursion is well divided, ample time +being allowed to visit every point of interest, as at Thebes, where +the boat stops three days. As soon as one point is done, it moves on +to another. In this way no time is lost, and one can see as much in +three weeks as in a dahabeeah in three months. + +Our boat carried twenty-seven passengers, of whom more than half were +Americans, forming a most agreeable company. All on deck, we watched +with interest the receding shores, as we sailed past the island of +Rhoda, where, according to tradition, the infant Moses was found in +the bulrushes; and where the Nilometer, a pillar planted in the water +ages ago, still marks the annual risings and fallings of the great +river of Egypt. The Pyramids stood out clear against the western sky. +That evening we enjoyed the first of a series of glorious sunsets on +the Nile. Our first sail was very short--only to Sakkara, a few miles +above Cairo, where we lay to for the night, the boat being tied up to +the bank, in the style of a steamer on the Mississippi. + +Early the next morning our whole company hastened ashore, where a +large array of donkeys was waiting to receive us. These had been sent +up from Cairo the night before. My faithful attendant was there with +"Yankee Doodle," and claimed me as his special charge. We were soon +mounted and pricking over what we should call "bottom lands" in the +valleys of our Western rivers, the wide plain being relieved only by +the palm groves, and rode through an Arab village, where we were +pursued by a rabble rout of ragged children. The dogs barked, the +donkeys brayed, and the children ran. Followed by such a retinue, we +approached the Pyramids of Sakkara, which stand on the same plateau as +those of Ghizeh, and are supposed to be even older in date. Though +none of them are equal to the Great Pyramid, they belong to the same +order of Cyclopean architecture, and are the mighty monuments of an +age when there were giants in the earth. + +There is a greater wonder still in the Tombs of the Sacred Bulls, +which were long buried beneath the sands of the desert, but have been +brought to light by a modern explorer, but which I will not describe +here, as I shall speak of them again in illustration of the religious +ideas of the Egyptians. + +Near the Pyramids of Sakkara is the site of Memphis, the capital of +ancient Egypt, of whose magnificence we have the most authentic +historic accounts, but of which hardly a trace remains. We galloped +our donkeys a long distance that we might pass over the spot where it +stood, but found only great mounds of earth, with here and there a few +scattered blocks of granite, turned up from the soil, to tell of the +massive structures that are buried beneath. The chief relic of its +former glory is a statue of Rameses the Great, one of the most famous +of the long line of the Pharaohs--a statue which was grand enough to +be worthy of a god--being some fifty feet high, but which now lies +stretched upon the earth, with its face downward, all its fine +proportions completely buried in a little pond--or rather puddle--of +dirty water! At certain seasons of the year, when the Nile subsides, +the features are exposed, and one may look upon a countenance "whose +bend once did awe the world;" but at present, seeing only the back, +and that broken, it has no appearance or shape of anything, and might +be a king, or queen, or crocodile. What a bitter satire is it on all +human pride, that this mighty king and conqueror, the Napoleon of his +day--who made nations tremble--now lies prone on the earth, his +imperial front buried in the slime and ooze of the Nile! That solitary +stone is all that is left of a city of temples and palaces, which are +here entombed, and where now groves of palms wave their tasselled +plumes, like weeping willows over the sepulchre of departed greatness. + +Our next excursion was to the remains of a very remote antiquity on +the other side of the Nile--the Rock-Tombs of Beni-Hassan--immense +caverns cut in the side of a mountain, in which were buried the great +ones of Egypt four thousand years ago. Many of them are inscribed with +hieroglyphics, and decorated with frescoes and bas-reliefs, in which +we recognize not only the appearance of the ancient Egyptians, but +even of the animals which were familiar in that day, such as the lion, +the jackal, and the gazelle, and more frequently the beasts of +burden--bulls and donkeys; but in none do we discover the horse, nor, +what is perhaps even more remarkable in a country surrounded by +deserts--the camel. + +In the King's tomb, or sepulchral chamber, a room some forty feet +square, hollowed out of the solid rock, the vaulted roof is supported +by Doric pillars, which shows that the Greeks obtained many of their +ideas of architecture in Egypt, as well as of philosophy and religion. + +As we continue our course up the river, we observe more closely the +features of the valley of the Nile. It is very narrow and is abruptly +bounded by barren and ragged mountains. Between these barriers the +river winds like a serpent from side to side, now to the east, and now +to the west, but inclining more to the range of Eastern or Arabian +hills, leaving the greater breadth of fertility on the western bank. +Here is the larger number of villages; here is the railroad which the +Khedive has built along the valley, beside which runs the long line of +telegraph poles, that sign of civilization, keeping pace with the iron +track, and passing beyond it, carrying the electric cord to the upper +Nile, to Nubia and Soudan. The Khedive, with that enterprise which +marks his administration, has endeavored to turn the marvellous +fertility of this valley to the most profitable uses. He has +encouraged the culture of cotton, which became very extensive during +our civil war, and is still perhaps the chief industry of the country. +Next to this is the growth of the sugar-cane: he has expended millions +in the erection of great manufactories of sugar, whose large white +walls and tall chimneys are the most conspicuous objects at many +points along the Nile. + +Now, as thousands of years ago, the great business of the people is +_irrigation_. The river does everything. It fertilizes the land; it +yields the crops. The only thing is to bring the water to the land at +the seasons when the river does not overflow. This is done by a very +simple and rude apparatus, somewhat like an old-fashioned well-sweep, +by which a bucket is lowered into the river, and as it is swung up the +water is turned into a trench which conducts it over the land. This is +the _shadoof_, the same which was used in the time of Moses. There is +another method by which a wheel is turned by an ox, lifting up a +series of buckets attached to a chain, but this is too elaborate and +expensive for the greater part of the poor people who are the tillers +of the soil. + +We pass a great number of villages, but, larger and smaller, all +present the same general features. At a distance they have rather a +pretty effect, as they are generally embowered in palm trees, out of +which sometimes peers the white minaret of a mosque. But a nearer +approach destroys all the picturesqueness. The houses are built of +unburnt brick, dried in the sun. They are mere huts of mud--as +wretched habitations as an Irish hovel or an Indian wigwam. The floor +is the earth, where all sexes and ages sit on the ground, while in an +enclosure scarcely separate from the family, sheep and goats, and dogs +and asses and camels, lie down together. + +The only pretty feature of an Arab village is the _doves_. Where these +Africans got their fondness for birds, I know not, but their mud +houses are surmounted--and one might almost say _castellated_--with +dove-cotes, which of course are literally "pigeon-holed," and stuck +round with branches, to seem like trees, and these rude aviaries are +alive with wings all day long. It was a pretty and indeed a touching +sight to see these beautiful creatures, cooing and fluttering above, +presenting such a contrast, in their airy flights and bright plumage, +to the dark and sad human creatures below. + +But if the houses of the people are so mean and poor, their clothing +is still worse, consisting generally of but one garment, a kind of +sack of coarse stuff. The men working at the _shadoof_ on the river +brink have only a strip of cloth around their loins. The women have a +little more _dress_ than the men, though generally barefoot and +bareheaded--while carrying heavy jars of water on their heads. The +children have the merest shred of a garment, a clout of rags, in such +tatters that you wonder how it can hold together, while many are +absolutely naked. + +This utter destitution would entail immense suffering, and perhaps +cause the whole race to die out, but for the climate, which is so mild +that it takes away in a great degree the need of shelter and raiment, +which in other countries are necessary to human existence. + +This extreme poverty is aggravated by one disease, which is almost +universal. The bright sun, glaring on the white sands, produces an +inflammation of the eyes, which being neglected, often ends in +blindness. I have seen more men in Egypt with one eye, or with none, +than in all Europe. + +It might be supposed that a people, thus reduced by poverty and +smitten by disease, would be crushed out of all semblance of humanity. +And yet this Arab race is one which has a strong tenacity of life. +Most travellers judge them harshly, because they are disgusted by the +unceasing cry for _backsheesh_, which is the first word that a +stranger hears as he lands in Egypt, and the last as he leaves it. But +even this (although it is certainly a nuisance and a pest) might be +regarded with more merciful judgment, if it were considered that it is +only the outward sign of an internal disease; that general beggary +means general poverty and general misery. + +Leaving this noisy crowd, which gathers about us in every village that +we enter, it is easy to find different specimens of Arab character, +which engage our interest and compel our respect. One cannot look at +these men without admiring their physique. They remind me much of our +American Indians. Like them, they are indolent, unless goaded to work +by necessity, and find nothing so pleasant as to sit idly in the sun. +But when they stand up they have an attitude as erect as any Indian +chief, and a natural dignity, which is the badge of their race. Many a +man who has but a single garment to cover him, will wrap it about him +as proudly as any Spanish cavalier would toss his cloak over his +shoulders, and stalk away with a bold, free stride, as if, in spite of +centuries of humiliation, he were still the untamed lord of the +desert. Their old men are most venerable in appearance. With their +long beards, white turbans, and flowing garments, they might stand for +the picture of Old Testament patriarchs. The women too (who do not +cover their faces as much as those in lower Egypt), though coarsely +and meanly dressed, yet as they walk with their water-jars on their +heads, stand more erect than the fashionable ladies of our cities. I +see them every day coming to fill their "pitchers" precisely as +Rebecca and Rachel came three thousand years ago, and if I should +approach one, saying, Give me to drink, (which I might well do, for +the water of the Nile--though containing so much sediment, that it +needs to be filtered--is as soft and sweet as that of our own Croton), +she would let down her jar from her head just as Rebecca let down her +jar for the servant of Abraham, when he came to ask her in marriage +for his master's son Isaac. + +The children too, though often naked, and if clothed at all, always in +rags, yet have fine olive complexions, and dazzling teeth, and those +bright eyes which are the sign of a degree of native intelligence. + +Nor can I refuse to say a word for the poor donkey-boy. Many years ago +a Scotchman in the Cape Colony, South Africa, who was accustomed to +make long journeys in the bush, wrote a little poem, depicting the +joys of that solitary life, which began, + + "Afar in the desert I love to ride, + With the silent bush-boy by my side." + +The donkey-boy is never silent, he is always singing or calling to his +donkey, urging him forward with stick and voice; yet who could wish a +more patient or faithful attendant, who, though on foot, trots by your +side from morning to night, the slave of your caprice, taking meekly +all your rebukes, perhaps undeserved, and content at last with a +pittance for his service? + +So have I had a little girl as a water-carrier, running close to my +saddle all day long, keeping up with the donkey's pace, and carrying a +small jar of water on her head, to wash my hands and face, or assuage +my thirst, thankful at last for a few piastres as her reward. + +We reached Assiout, the capital of Upper Egypt, early Sunday morning, +and laid up for the day. While our boat's company were preparing to go +on shore to see the town, I mounted a donkey and started off to find +the American Mission, which is at work among the Copts, who claim to +be the descendants of the ancient Egyptians. I arrived at the chapel +in time to hear a sermon and an address to the Sunday-school. As the +services were in Arabic, I could not understand what was said, but I +could perceive at once the earnestness of the speakers, and the close +attention of the hearers. After the sermon there was a baptism. The +congregation was a very respectable one both in numbers and +appearance. There were perhaps two hundred present, all decently, +although some were very poorly clad, and presented a striking contrast +to the ragged and dirty people around them. In the quiet and orderly +worship, and the songs that were sung, which were Arabic words to +American tunes, there was much to make one think of home. There was +nothing to distinguish the congregation except the Oriental turbans +and dress, and the fact that the women sat apart from the men, +separated by a screen, which shows that the seclusion of women is not +confined to the Mohammedans. It is an Oriental custom, and is observed +by the Copts as well as the Moslems. I am told that even among +Christian families here, it is not considered quite "the thing" for +women to go abroad and show impertinent curiosity, and that ladies of +good position, who are as intelligent as most Orientals, have never +seen the Nile, but two miles distant! Such is the power of fashion +even in Africa. In the church are several men of wealth, who give +freely of their means, as well as use their influence, for its +support. The Copts are nominal Christians, although, like most of the +Christian sects of the East, they are very ignorant and very +superstitious. But they have not the fanatical hatred to Christianity +of the Mussulmans. They acknowledge the authority of the Bible, and +are thus more open to argument and persuasion. Besides this +congregation, the mission has some dozen schools in the surrounding +country. In the town itself, besides the schools for the poorest +children, it has a boarding-school for those of a better class, an +academy which is the beginning of a college, and half a dozen young +men are preparing for the ministry. The field is a very hopeful one, +and I was assured that the success of the mission was limited only by +the means at its disposal. + +After visiting the schools, Rev. Mr. Strang accompanied me through the +town. It has over twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and is the point +of departure for the caravans which cross the Great Desert to Darfour +and the far interior of Africa, returning laden with ivory and ostrich +feathers, as in the days of King Solomon. We saw in an open square, or +market-place, some hundred camels, that, as they lay wearily on the +earth, looked as if they might have made the long journey over the +trackless sands. Laborers were at work, with no respect for the day, +for Friday is the Mohammedan Sabbath; and my friend pointed out, where +a number of workmen were building a house, the "taskmaster" sitting on +the top of the wall to overlook them, as in the days of the Bible. As +we returned by an old portal in the city walls, we found a number of +long-bearded and venerable men, who were "sitting in the gate" as +"elders" to administer justice. The city gate is the place of honor +and of justice now, as it was thousands of years ago. + +In the mountain behind the town are a great number of tombs, like +those of Beni-Hassan, vast chambers hewn out of the rock ages ago for +burial places. We walked along by these silent memorials of the mighty +dead, to the summit, from which is one of the most beautiful views of +the valley of the Nile. Below the plain is spread out for many miles, +well watered like the garden of the Lord, the emerald green coming up +to the very foot of the barren hills. But there it ceases instantly, +giving place to the desert. + +These contrasts suggest some comparisons between the scenery and the +climate of Egypt, and our own country. Whoever breathes this balmy +air, and looks up to this cloudless sky, must feel that the Lord of +all the earth has been bountiful to Egypt. As we read of the winter +storms now raging over half of Europe, we bless the more kindly skies +that are over us now. But after a few weeks of this dreamy, languid +life, one begins to feel the want of something else to stir his blood. +He finds that nature in Egypt, like the works of man, like the temples +and the pyramids, is a sublime monotony. The landscapes are all the +same. There are four or five grand features, the river, the valley, +the hills that enclose it, and beyond the boundless desert, and over +all the burning sun and sky. These are the elements that enter into +every landscape. There is no change, no variety. Look where you will, +there is no vision in the distance of lofty peaks dark with pines, or +white with snow, no torrents leaping down the mountain side (the +_silence_ of Egypt is one of the things that most oppress me), no +brooks that run among the hills, no winding paths along their banks +that invite the stranger to lose himself in their shade. I see indeed +hills on either horizon, but they are barren and desolate. On all +this double range, for six hundred miles, there is not a single green +thing--not a tree, not a shrub, not a blade of grass, not even a rock +covered with moss, only a waste of sand and stone. If you climbed +those hills yonder across the valley you would look off upon a +boundless plain of sand that stretches to the Red Sea; while behind +where we stand is the Libyan Desert, which is only an arm of the Great +Sahara, that crosses almost the whole of the continent. In all this +waste the valley of the Nile is the one narrow strip of fertility. And +even this is parched and burnt up to the very water's edge. Hence the +monotony of vegetation. There is not a forest in all Egypt, only the +palm groves, which are planted like garden flowers, but no tangled +wild wood, no lofty elms, no broad-spreading oaks that cast their +grateful shadow on the burning plains. All that variety of nature, +with which in other lands she beguiles the weary heart of man, is +wanting here. It is indeed the land of the sun, and in that is at once +its attraction and its terror, as the fiery orb beats down upon it, +withering man and beast, and turning the earth into a desert. + +Seeing this monotony of nature, and feeling this monotony of life, one +begins to pine after awhile, for a return to the scenes more varied, +though more wild and rugged, of his own more northern clime. We hear +much of the beauty of a "cloudless sky." It is indeed a relief for a +few weeks to those who escape from wintry storms, from bitter winds +and blinding snow. But who would have sunshine _forever_? The light +and warmth are better when softened and subdued by clouds that +intercept the overpowering rays. But here the clouds are few, and they +do not "return after the rain," for there _is_ no rain. In Lower Egypt +there is what may be called a rainy season. In the Delta, as the +clouds roll up from the Mediterranean, there is sometimes a sound of +abundance of rain. But in Upper Egypt it may be said that it never +rains. In Assiout it has rained but three times in ten years! Of +course the heat is sometimes fearful. Now it is mid-winter, and the +air is comparatively cool and bracing, but in midsummer it reaches 110 +and 112 degrees in the shade! For days and nights together the heat is +so intense that not a leaf stirs in the palm groves. Not only is there +not a drop of rain--there is not a breath of air. This it is to have a +"cloudless sky"! Gladly then would our friend exchange for half the +year the climate of Egypt for that of America. How refreshing it would +be to him to see, just for once, great masses of black clouds +gathering over the Arabian Hills, to see the lightnings flash as he +has seen them in his native Ohio, and to hear the thunder-peals +rolling across the valley from mountain to mountain, and at last dying +away on the Libyan desert. + +Think of this, ye who shiver in your winter storms at home, and sigh +for Egypt. Take it all in all, would you make the exchange? + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE TEMPLES OF EGYPT--DID MOSES GET HIS LAW FROM THE EGYPTIANS? + + +In the distribution of the monuments of Egypt, it is a curious fact +that the Pyramids are found almost wholly in Lower Egypt, and the +great Temples in Upper Egypt. It was not till we had been a week on +the Nile, that we had our first sight of the latter at Denderah. We +have since spent three days at Thebes, the great centre of historical +interest, and have made a regular campaign of sight-seeing, starting +on excursions every morning, and thus have explored the ruins on both +sides of the river--for Thebes, like many other great cities--like +London and Paris--was built on two sides of a river, but one much +greater than the Thames or the Seine, yet not so great but that it was +spanned by a bridge (at least this is inferred from some ancient +sculptures and inscriptions), over which poured a population such as +pours over London Bridge to-day. The site seems made for a great +capital, for here the mountains retire from the river, sweeping round +in a circuit of some fifty miles, leaving a broad plain to be filled +with human habitations. Here four thousand years ago was built a city +greater than that on the banks of the Tigris or the Euphrates, than +Nineveh or Babylon. Here was the centre of power and dominion for two +continents--not only for Africa, but for Asia--to which flocked the +multitudinous nations of Assyria and Arabia and Persia and the +farthest East, as well as the tribes of Ethiopia--as two thousand +years later all the peoples of the earth flocked to Rome. It is easy, +from historical records and monumental inscriptions, to form some +idea of the glory of this capital of the ancient world. We can imagine +the tumult and the roar of this more ancient Rome, when the chariots +of mighty kings, and the tread of armies returning victorious from +distant wars, thundered through her hundred gates. + +Then did the kings of Egypt rear temples and palaces and statues and +obelisks worthy of all that greatness. Then were built the most +gigantic temples ever raised by the hand of man--as much surpassing in +vastness and grandeur those reared centuries afterward by the Greeks, +as the latter surpass anything by the moderns. The temples of +Thebes--including Luxor and Karnac, which are parts of one city--are +as much grander than the Parthenon, as the Parthenon is grander than +the Madeleine at Paris, which is a feeble attempt to copy it. + +We have now been a week--beginning with Denderah--studying these +ruins, and may give certain general impressions. We do not attempt any +detailed description, which must necessarily be inadequate, since +neither words nor figures convey an idea of them, any more than they +do of the Alps. What would be thought of an avenue nearly two miles +long, lined with over twelve hundred colossal sphinxes? Yet such was +the avenue from Luxor to Karnac--an approach worthy to lead to the +temple of the gods. What can we say of a forest of columns, each +twelve feet in diameter, stretching out in long colonnades; of the +massive walls covered with bas-reliefs; and obelisks in single shafts +of granite, of such height and weight that it is the wonder of modern +engineering how they could be cut from the side of the hills, and be +brought a hundred and forty miles, and erected on their firm bases. + +But this temple--or rather cluster of temples and palaces--was not, +like the temple of Solomon, finished in a single reign. Karnac was not +the work of one man, or of one generation. It was twenty-five hundred +years in building, successive kings and dynasties adding to the mighty +whole, which was to represent all the glory of Egypt. + +The general impression of these temples--and the same is true of the +Egyptian statues and sculptures--is one of grandeur rather than +beauty. They seek to overpower the senses by mere size. Sometimes they +overdo the matter. Thus in the temples at Karnac the columns seem to +me too large and too much crowded for the best effect. Ordinary trees +may be planted in a dense grove, but great, broad-spreading oaks or +elms require space around them; and if these columns were a little +more _spaced_--to use a printer's word--the architectural effect would +be still grander. So in the Egyptian sculpture, everything is +colossal. In the granite lions and sphinxes there is always an aspect +of power in repose which is very impressive, and strikes one with awe. +But in any lighter work, such as frescoes and bas-reliefs, there is a +total absence of delicacy and grace. Nothing can be more stiff. They +sometimes have a rude force of drawing, but beauty they have none. +That was born in Greece. All the sculptures on all the temples of +Egypt are not worth--except as historical monuments--the friezes of +the Parthenon. + +One thing else has struck me much as to the plan of these temples, +viz.: that we see in them the types and models of much that has been +reproduced in various forms of ecclesiastical architecture. One has +but to observe with some care the construction of these vast +basilicas, to see how many features of Jewish, and even of Christian +and Moslem architecture, have been adopted from still older temples +and an earlier religion. Thus in the temple at Edfoo there is first +the vast enclosure surrounding the whole, and then within the walls an +outer court open to the sky, corresponding to the Court of the +Gentiles in the Temple at Jerusalem, to the Court of the Fountains +leading to the Mosques, and the cloister surrounding the approaches to +old abbeys and cathedrals. One might find a still closer resemblance +in forms of worship, in the vestments of priests, in the altars, and +in the burning of incense, etc., a parallel which scholars have often +traced. + +And now of all this magnificence and glory of the ancient capital of +Egypt, what remains? Only these vast ruins of temples and palaces. The +"plain of Thebes" is still here, but deserted and silent. A few +columns and statues rise above the plain to mark where the city stood, +but the city itself is gone as much as the people who inhabited it +four thousand years ago. A few miserable mud huts are built against +the walls of mighty temples, and the ploughman drives his team over +the dust of the city of a hundred gates. I saw a fellah ploughing with +a cow and a camel yoked together, and a couple of half-naked Arabs +raising water with their _shadoof_ between the Memnon (the statue +which was said to sing when its stony lips were touched by the rising +of the sun) and its brother statue--the two great Colossi, between +which ran the Royal street to Luxor. Was there ever a more complete +and utter desolation? In the temple called the Rameseum once stood the +largest statue that ever was known--that of Rameses the Great (the +same who had a statue at Memphis, for he erected monuments to himself +everywhere), cut out of a single block of granite brought from the +First Cataract, and weighing nearly nine hundred tons! On this was +inscribed, as Herodotus writes, who saw it twenty-three hundred years +ago: "I am the king of kings: if any man wish to know how great I am, +and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works!" What a comment on +the emptiness of human ambition, that this colossal statue, which was +to last to the end of the world, was long ago pulled down by a later +conqueror, Cambyses, the Persian, and now lies on its back, with its +nose knocked off, and eyes put out, and all its glory in the dust! + +In studying the figures and the inscriptions on the walls of temples, +there are many things which throw light on the manners and customs of +the ancient Egyptians. Here is a scene of hunting, or of fishing, or +of feasting. Here are the different trades, which show the skill of +the people in the mechanic arts, and many scenes which give us an +insight into their domestic life. These have been the subjects of two +learned and most interesting works by Wilkinson, which open the very +interior of ancient Egypt to our modern eyes. They show a very high +degree of civilization--of skill in all the useful arts, a skill fully +equal in many things, and in some greatly superior, to that of our own +day. Wendell Phillips, in his famous lecture on "The Lost Arts," finds +many of his illustrations in ancient Egypt. I could not but think that +this furnished a very effective answer to those advocates of +evolution, who hold that mankind sprung from animals, and have +gradually developed to their present state. How much progress have the +Egyptians made in four thousand years? Here the race has gone +backward, so that there is certainly no inherent tendency in our +nature to advance. + +But I was less interested in studying the domestic life of the ancient +Egyptians, than their religious ideas. Herodotus says that the +Egyptians were a very religious people, excelling all others in the +honors paid to their gods; and this we can well believe, seeing the +temples that they reared for their worship. But what were the gods +they adored, and what sort of worship did they render, and how did all +this act on the life and character of the people? Here we obtain a +less exalted estimate of the ancient Egyptians. The remains which they +have left, while they illustrate the greatness of the empire, which +four thousand years ago had its seat in the valley of the Nile, do not +give a high idea of its Religion. The land was wholly given to +idolatry. The Egyptians had as many gods as the Greeks and Romans, +only baser and lower, indicating baser and lower ideas. They made +gods, not only of the sun, moon, and stars, but of beasts and birds +and reptiles--of the apis and the ibis--of the serpent and the +crocodile. + +At Sakkara we visited one of the most stupendous mausoleums that we +have seen in Egypt--one which Herodotus described, but which for +centuries was so buried by the sands of the desert that its very site +was not known until brought to light by the researches of Mariette +Bey, who has done so much to restore the monuments of ancient Egypt. +The approach to it was by an avenue of sphinxes, which led to a vast +subterranean gallery--twenty feet wide and high--and leading two +thousand feet, more than a third of a mile, under the earth. This +long, vaulted passage is hewn in the solid rock--out of which open on +either side a series of chambers or recesses, like side chapels--each +containing a sarcophagus, 15 x 8 feet. These tombs, hollowed out of +the solid granite, are so huge and massive that we wonder how they +ever could have been got there. Yet these great sarcophagi--fit for +the burial places of a long line of kings--were not for the Pharaohs +or the Ptolemies, but for the Sacred Bulls! Thirty of these sarcophagi +have been found, and on the walls are tablets which record the birth, +and death, and burial of each one of these sacred beasts. These were +the gods of Egypt, mother of the arts, and civilizer of the earth! +This great repository of dead divinities is a colossal monument, at +once of the architectural skill of the ancient Egyptians, and of their +degrading superstition. + +This single fact is enough to answer those who would imply, if they do +not quite dare to assert, that the inspiration of the Books of Moses +was derived from the Egyptians. It is a favorite theory of certain +writers that Moses, being brought up in Egypt, here obtained both the +Law and the Religion which he gave to the Israelites. No doubt he did +learn much from a country that was at that time the most civilized in +the world. He was brought up in a court, and enjoyed every advantage +of a royal education. He was "learned in all the wisdom of the +Egyptians." And it detracts not at all from his inspiration, to +suppose that he may have been instructed to embody in his new and +better code whatever was excellent in the older system, and had been +approved by the experience of centuries. The ceremonial laws--such as +those of purification--may have been adopted from the Egyptians. But +these are the mere fringes of the garment of the great Lawgiver. As +soon as we open the Hebrew Scriptures, we find traces of a wisdom such +as the Egyptians never knew. The very first sentence--"In the +beginning God created the heavens and the earth"--scatters the fables +of Isis and Osiris, and substitutes for the troop of heathen deities +the worship of One Living and True God. This single declaration marks +a stupendous advance in the religious faith and worship of mankind. + +The same first principle appears as the corner-stone of the law given +on Mount Sinai: "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the +land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other +gods before me." + +The second law of the first table breaks in pieces the images of the +gods of the Egyptians: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven +image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, nor in +the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth." This was spoken +to a people that had just come out of a country where they worshipped +beasts and birds and reptiles, and where the walls of the temples were +covered with the images of all kinds of foul and creeping things. + +In this age of the world, and among civilized nations, we cannot +understand the passion for idolatry. Yet it is one of the most +universal and ineradicable instincts of a half barbarous people. They +see tokens of an unseen power in the forces of nature, in clouds and +winds, in lightning and tempest, and they torment themselves with all +imaginable terrors, from which they seek relief and protection in +bowing down to gods of wood and stone. + +The Israelites coming out of Egypt, were out of the house of bondage +in one sense, but they were in it in another. They were continually +relapsing into idolatry. The golden calf of Aaron was but an imitation +of the sacred bulls of Egypt. Often they pined for the products of the +fertile valley of the Nile. With nothing but the burning sands beneath +their feet, they might well long for the shade of the palm tree and +for its delicious fruit, and they said, Why hath this man Moses +brought us up to die in this wilderness? It required forty years of +wandering, and that a whole generation should leave their bones to +whiten the sands of the desert, before their children could be wholly +alienated from the worship of false gods. So not only with the +Israelites, but with all nations of men, ages of fiery discipline have +been necessary to bring back the race to this first article of our +faith: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and +earth." + +We might follow the comparison through all the tables of the law, to +show how absurd is the pretence that what Moses taught to the +Israelites he first learned from the Egyptians. Tell us, ye learned +antiquaries, where on all these temples, and in all the records which +they have left us, is there any trace of the Ten Commandments? + +And yet Egypt is connected very intimately, in history at least, with +the birth of our religion. No other country, except Palestine, figures +so largely in the Bible. Abraham went down into Egypt. Here came the +sons of Jacob to buy corn, and found Joseph ruling in the house of +Pharaoh. And hither centuries later fled the virgin mother with her +child from the wrath of Herod, fulfilling the prediction, "Out of +Egypt have I called my son." + +But Religion--the Divine wisdom which at once instructs and saves +mankind--came not from the valley of the Nile. Abraham and Jacob and +Moses saw the Pyramids standing just as we see them now, but they did +not point them to the true God. That knowledge came from a higher +source. "History," says Bunsen, "was born on that night when Moses, +with the law of God in his heart, led the people of Israel out of +Egypt." And not History only, but Religion then came to a new birth, +that was to be the herald of new and better hopes, and of a higher +civilization than was known to the ancient world. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + + +The valley of the Nile is one vast sepulchre. Tombs and temples! +Temples and tombs! This is the sum of the monuments which ancient +Egypt has left us. Probably no equal portion of the earth's surface +was ever so populous, at once with the living and the dead. It is but +a narrow strip of territory--a line of green between two deserts; and +yet on this mere _ribbon_ of Africa lived the millions that made one +of the most populous and powerful of ancient empires. They were fed by +the marvellous fertility of the Nile valley, till they stood upon it +almost as thick as the ranks of corn that waved around them: and here, +when life was ended, they found a resting-place in the bosom of the +earth that nourished them, on which they slept as children on a +mother's breast. This strip of earth, long and narrow like a grave, +has been the sepulchre of nations. Here the myriads of Egypt's ancient +reigns--from the time of Menes--through the long line of the Pharaohs +and Ptolemies--the generations that built the Pyramids and those that +came after--laid themselves down to sleep in the great valley. Thus +the very dust of Egypt was made up of the dust of ancient Egyptians. + +But this was only the lot of the common people, to mingle their dust +with common clay--their tomb the common earth, their end to be exhaled +into the common air, or to reappear in other natural forms, living in +plants, blooming in flowers, or in broad-leaved palms, casting a +shadow on the earth from which they sprung. But for her great ones, +more enduring monuments were reared to guard their dust and perpetuate +their names. No people, ancient or modern, ever lavished so much on +these sacred and pious memorials. They expended more on the tombs of +the dead than on the houses of the living, for they reasoned that the +latter were but temporary dwellings, while the former were everlasting +habitations. The kings of Egypt cared more for great tombs than great +palaces, and they reared such mausoleums as the earth never saw +before. The Pyramids were their tombs, and the mountains were hollowed +into royal sepulchres. The rock tombs of Beni-Hassan are cut in the +side of the hills. The barren mountain that looks off upon the great +Libyan desert, is honeycombed with vast and silent halls of the dead. +At Thebes the traveller, ascending from the Nile, winds his way among +hills of sand into a valley of desolation. The summits around are not +covered with pines like our own darkly wooded hills, nor do even the +rocks gather moss--but all is bare and desolate. The desert has +overflowed the earth like a sea, and not a shrub nor a blade of grass +has survived the universal deluge. Yet here where not a living thing +can be found, has been discovered underground the most remarkable +series of tombs which exists. A whole mountain is pierced with deep +excavations. Passages open into its rocky sides, running many hundred +feet into the bowels of the earth, and branching off into recesses +like side chapels. These Halls of Death are like kings' palaces, with +stately chambers broad and high, whose sides and ceilings are covered +with hieroglyphics and illustrative symbols. + +A fact so remarkable as this, that the architecture of a great empire +which has built the most colossal structures in the world, has this +tomblike character, must have a meaning. The Egyptians were a very +religious people. They were not a gay and thoughtless race, like some +of their Asiatic and European neighbors. There is something grave even +in their faces, as seen in ancient statues and monuments. Their very +architecture had this heavy and solemn character. These colossal +temples, these silent sphinxes, seem oppressed with some great mystery +which they cannot reveal. These tombs show that the Egyptian mind was +full of the idea of death, and of another life. The Egyptians were not +Atheists, nor Sadducees. They believed devoutly in God, and in a life +to come. + +How strongly the idea of another life had taken hold of the Egyptian +mind is evident from the symbols in their religion. The symbol most +frequently employed is that of the _scarabaeus_--or beetle--the image +of which appears everywhere, which by analogy teaches that life, in +passing through death, may be born to a new life. The beetle lays its +eggs in the slime of the Nile; it buries them in mud, which it works +into a ball, and rolls over and over, back to the edge of the desert, +and buries in sand. There its work is ended: nature does the rest. Out +of this grave comes in time a resurrection, and life is born of death. +The ostrich eggs hung up in mosques, have the same symbolical meaning. +The ostrich buries its eggs in the sand, and nature, that kind mother +which watches over all life, gives them being. Thus is conveyed the +same idea as in the analogy of the chrysalis and the butterfly. + +Studying the religious faith of the Egyptians a little more closely, +we see that they believed not only in the immortality of the soul, but +in the resurrection of the body. The doctrine taught by Paul, was long +before taught by the priests of Egypt. Their tombs were not merely +memorials of those who had ceased to live, but resting-places for the +bodies of those whose spirits were absent but would some day return. +For this, bodies were embalmed with religious care; they were buried +in tombs hewn out of the solid rock, laid away in Pyramids, or in +caverns hollowed out of the heart of the mountains. There, embedded in +the eternal rocks, locked up with the bars of the everlasting hills, +it seemed that their remains would rest secure till the morning of +the resurrection day. + +Further, they believed not only in immortality and in resurrection, +but also in retribution. The soul that was to pass into another life, +was to go into it to be judged. There it was to be called to account +for the deeds done in the body. Even the funeral rites indicated how +strong was the belief of a judgment to come for all who departed this +life. After the bodies were embalmed, they were borne in solemn +procession to the Nile (most of the tombs being on the western bank), +or to a sacred lake, across which they were to be ferried. (Did not +this suggest to later Roman mythologists the river Styx, and the +boatman Charon who conveyed departed souls to the gloomy shades of +Pluto?) As the funeral procession arrived at the borders of the lake, +it paused till certain questions were answered, on which it depended +whether the dead might receive burial: or should be condemned to +wander in darkness three thousand years. If it passed this ordeal, it +moved forward, not to its everlasting repose, but to the Hall of +Judgment, where Osiris sits upon his throne as the judge of all +mankind. This scene is constantly represented in sculptures, in +bas-reliefs, and in frescoes on the walls of tombs. In one of them a +condemned wretch is driven away in the shape of a pig! (Was it here +that Pythagoras, who studied in Egypt, obtained his doctrine of the +transmigration of souls?) Before Osiris is the scribe, the recording +angel, who keeps a faithful record of the deeds done in the body. A +long line of judges--forty-two in number--sit arrayed as the final +arbiters of his fate--each with his question, on the answer to which +may depend the destiny of the departed soul. + +The "Book of the Dead" (copies of which are still found wrapped up +with mummies: several are in the British Museum) gives the answers to +be made to these searching questions, and also the prayers to be +offered, and the hymns that are to be sung, as the soul enters the +gloomy shades of the under-world. + +In this Egyptian doctrine of a future life there are Christian ideas. +Some indeed will say that Egypt gave rather than received; that she +was the mother of all learning and all wisdom in the ancient world; +that the Greeks obtained their philosophy from her (for Plato as well +as Pythagoras studied in Egypt); that the Eleusinian mysteries came +from Africa; that Moses here found what he taught the Hebrews; and +that even the Christian mysteries and the Christian faith came from +the banks of the Nile. + +There is certainly much food for reflection in this reappearance of +certain religious ideas in different countries and under different +forms. But there is a contrast as well as a resemblance. While the +Hebrews learned so much from the Egyptians, it is very remarkable that +they did _not_ imbibe that strong faith in the reality of the +invisible world, which lies at the foundation of religion. One would +suppose that the Israelites, coming out of Egypt, would be full of +these thoughts, and of the hopes and fears of a life to come. Yet in +all the books of Moses, rarely, if ever, are these motives addressed +to the Hebrews. The German critics argue from this that the Hebrews +did not believe in another life. The late Dr. Edward Robinson, the +distinguished Hebrew scholar, said that he could not find that +doctrine in the Old Testament. Without admitting such an extreme view, +it is certainly remarkable that that idea is much less prominent in +the Old Testament than in the New. It is not Moses, but Christ who has +brought life and immortality to light. + +But the Egyptian doctrine of a future life, while very curious and +interesting as a study of ancient belief, is utterly unsatisfying. The +ideas are detached and fragmentary, and wholly without evidence or +authority; they are merely the crude fancies of mythology, and not the +precise teachings of Revelation. And so in all the tombs and temples +of Egypt there is nothing which can relieve the doubts of a troubled +mind, or the sorrows of a heavy heart. + +I have had some sober thoughts while floating on the bosom of the +Nile. We cannot but see the world through our own eyes and through our +moods of mind. To those who have left their dead beyond the sea, +foreign travel has many sad and lonely hours. The world seems cold and +empty, and even the most religious mind is apt to be haunted with +gloomy thoughts. This is not a mood of mind peculiar to atheists and +unbelievers. Many devout men, in seasons of mental depression, are +tortured with doubts whether, after all, their religious faith is not +a delusion and a dream. + +And so many dark and bitter questionings come to me here in this land +of sepulchres. I have come to Egypt to learn something of the wisdom +of the Egyptians. Tell me then, ye tombs and temples and pyramids, +about God; tell me about the life to come! But the Pyramids speak not; +and the Sphinx still looks towards the East, to watch for the rising +sun, but is voiceless and mute. This valley of the Nile speaks of +nothing but death. From end to end its rock-ribbed hills are filled +with tombs. Yet what do they all teach the anxious and troubled heart +of man? Nothing! All these hills are silent. Not a sound, or even an +echo, comes from these dark sepulchres. No voice of hope issues out of +the caverns hollowed in the bosom of the hills. The hard granite of +the tombs itself is not more deaf to the cry of human anguish, or the +voice of supplication. + +I turn from the monuments of man to nature. I stand on the bank of the +Great River, and ask if it brings not some secret out of the heart of +Africa? Tell me, ye night winds, blowing from African deserts; tell +me, ye stars shining in the African heaven (this sky of Egypt is so +pure and clear that the stars seem higher and more distant from this +lower world), what light can ye throw on this great mystery of death? +And the stars twinkle, but speak not, and the palm trees quiver in +the night wind, but give no answer; and the great Nile flows on +silently to the sea, as life flows on to eternity. Nature is dumb; the +great secret is not revealed. + +For the revelation of that secret we turn not to Egypt, but to +Jerusalem. While the Egyptians groped darkly after the truth, how do +these dim shadows, these poor emblems and analogies, set forth by +contrast the clearer and better truth of revelation! All that is +written on the tombs of Egypt; all that is carved in stone, or written +in hieroglyphics on ancient sarcophagi; all that is built in temples +and pyramids; is not worth that one saying of our Lord, "I am the +Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in me, though he were +dead, yet shall he live." + +We spent Christmas day at Thebes, where a number of English boats had +drawn up to the landing to keep the day, so dear to the hearts of +Englishmen throughout the world. On Christmas eve they were decorated +with palm branches, and at night were lighted up with Chinese +lanterns, while row-boats were floating about, the Arab boatmen +singing their wild, plaintive melodies. + +Christmas brought a scene, if not so picturesque, yet far more sweet +and tender. It had been our good fortune to meet there Rev. Dr. Potter +of New York, the rector of Grace Church. He was going up the Nile with +Miss Wolfe, of Madison square. They were on two dahabeeahs, but kept +company, and anchored every night together. On Christmas day there was +a service on board Miss Wolfe's boat, which was attended by all the +English parties. It was held on the upper deck, which was spread with +carpets and covered with an awning on the top and sides to protect us +from the sun. Whether it was the strange scene, occurring in a distant +part of the world, or sad memories which were recalled by these +anniversary days, seldom has a service touched me more. It was very +sweet to hear the old, old prayers--some of them almost as old as +Christianity itself--to which we had so often listened in other +lands, and to join with the little company in the Christmas hymn: + + "Hark! the herald angels sing, + Glory to the new-born King; + Peace on earth and mercy mild; + God and man are reconciled." + +Dr. Potter read the service in his clear, rich voice, following it +with a sermon which was quite extempore and brief, but so simple and +so appropriate to the day that it went to every heart. And when at the +close was celebrated the communion, we all felt how pleasant it was in +such a place, so far from home, in a country surrounded by the ruins +of the temples of old idolatries, to join in the worship of Him who on +this day was born to be the Light and the Hope of the world. Better is +this than all that Egypt can teach us about a life to come. + +And so we turn from these great temples and tombs, which only mock our +hopes, to Him who has passed through the grave, and lighted the way +for us to follow Him. Let scholars dispute the first intent of the +words, yet nothing in the Old Testament or the New, more distinctly +expresses what I rest upon than this: "I know that my Redeemer liveth +and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though +worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE RELIGION OF THE PROPHET. + + +In a review of the faiths of Egypt, one cannot overlook that which has +ruled in the land for more than a thousand years, and still rules, not +only in Egypt, but over a large part of Asia and Africa. We arrived in +Cairo a few days too late to witness the departure of the pilgrims for +Mecca. Once in the year there is a gathering of the faithful for a +journey which is the event of their lives. The spectacle is one of the +most picturesque in the East, as a long procession, mounted on camels, +many of which are richly caparisoned, files through the streets of the +city, amid the admiring gaze of the whole population, and takes the +way of the desert. Slowly it moves Eastward to the Red Sea, and +passing around it, turns South to the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. + +A caravan of pilgrims crossing the desert to visit the birthplace of +the prophet, is a proof that religious enthusiasm still lives even in +this unbelieving age. Perhaps the Moslem spirit is not so bigoted here +as at Constantinople. The Turk, with his heavy stolid nature, is a +more obstinate religionist than the Arab. And yet Mohammed was not a +Turk; he was an Arab, and the faith which he taught still fires the +heart of his race. + +In one view Cairo may be considered the capital of Islam, as it is the +seat of the great University, from which its priests go forth to all +parts of the Mohammedan world. This University is nine hundred years +old--older than Oxford, and still flourishes with as much vigor as in +the palmy days of the Arabian conquest. A visit to it is the most +interesting sight in Cairo. There I saw collected together--not one +hundred or two hundred students, such as are found in our Theological +Seminaries in America--but ten thousand! As one expressed it, "there +were two acres of turbans," assembled in a vast inclosure, with no +floor but a pavement, and with a roof over it, supported by four +hundred columns, and at the foot of every column a teacher, surrounded +by pupils, who sat at his feet precisely as Paul sat at the feet of +Gamaliel. As we entered there rose a hum of thousands of voices, +reciting the Koran. These students are not only from Egypt, but from +all parts of Africa, from Morocco to Zanzibar. They come from far up +the Nile, from Nubia and Soudan; and from Darfour beyond the Great +Desert, and from the western coast of Africa. Asia too is largely +represented in students both from Western Asia, from Turkey, Arabia, +and Persia; and from Central Asia, from Khiva and Bokhara, and +Turkistan and Afghanistan, and the borders of China. They come without +staff or scrip. There is no endowment to support them; no Students' +Fund or Education Board. They live on the charities of the faithful, +and when their studies are ended, those who are to be missionaries on +this continent mount their camels, and joining a caravan, cross the +Desert, and are lost in the far interior of Africa. + +This strange sight has set me a-thinking, and the more I think, the +more the wonder grows. A religion that supports great universities +from generation to generation; and that sends forth caravans, that are +like armies, on long pilgrimages, is not dead; it is full of life, and +can bring into the field tremendous forces to uphold its empire in the +East. What is the secret of its power, by which it lives on from +century to century, and seems as if it could not but by annihilating +die? There is no question of more interest to the historical student; +and no one which it is more necessary to understand in order to form +some just idea of the great Eastern War which is already looming above +the horizon. A full recognition of that which is good in Islam, and of +that which gives it power, would prevent many mistakes in forecasting +the future, although it might abate the sanguine confidence of our +missionary friends in the speedy triumph of Christianity over its +hereditary foe. + +First of all, we must recognize the fact of its existence as one of +the great religions of the world. The number of its adherents is +variously estimated at from a hundred and fifty to a hundred and +eighty millions. It holds but a corner of Europe, but extends its +empire over a large part of Asia and Africa. The whole of Africa which +is not Pagan, is Moslem. In Asia Islam disputes the sway of Hindooism +in India, where the Queen has more Moslem subjects than the Sultan +himself, and of Buddhism in the islands of the Malayan Archipelago. +Over so large a part of the earth's surface is extended the wide +dominion of the Prophet. His followers number one-tenth, perhaps +one-eighth, or even one-sixth part of the human race. + +Nor is this dominion a merely nominal thing. On the contrary, the true +believers are strong believers. It may well be doubted, whether among +the nations nominally Christian the mass of the people really believe +with half the firmness and the fervor of Mussulmans. The Moslems are +as sincere, and in their way as devout, as the adherents of any +religion on the face of the globe. No one can enter the mosque of St. +Sophia, and see the worshippers turning their faces towards Mecca, not +only kneeling but prostrating themselves, touching the pavement with +their foreheads, and repeating, in a low, mournful tone, passages from +the Koran, without feeling that these men really believe. Those +prostrate forms, those wailing voices, are not the signs of hypocrisy, +but of a faith that, however mistaken, is at least sincere. In their +own minds they are in the presence of the Highest, and offer worship +to the unseen God. Indeed they are more than believers, they are +zealots, carrying their faith to fanaticism. A body so vast in number, +composed of such fierce religionists, is certainly a great power in +the political and military, as well as religious, forces, that are yet +to contend for the mastery of the Eastern world. + +Nor is this power inactive in spreading its faith; it is full of +missionary zeal. Max Mueller divides all the religions of the world +into proselytizing and non-proselytizing. Mohammedanism belongs to the +former class as much as Christianity. The days are past when the +followers of the Prophet swept over large parts of Asia and Africa, +converting tribes and nations by the sword. And yet even at the +present day it keeps up a Propaganda as vigorous as that of the +Catholics at Rome. Its university here is training ten thousand young +apostles. Moslem missionaries preach the Koran, and make proselytes, +in all parts of India. But the chief field of their labors is in +Africa, where they have penetrated far into the interior, and +converted numerous tribes to the faith. It is difficult to obtain +accurate statistics in regard to the spread of Islam in Africa. +Livingstone thought the reports greatly exaggerated. That is quite +possible, and yet, making every allowance, there can be no doubt that +it has obtained a success much greater than that of Christian +missions. + +A religion which has such a foundation on the solid earth, holding +nations and empires in its wide dominion; and which has such a +history, stretching over twelve centuries; is a subject worthy the +closest attention of scholars. Its history is not unlike that of +Christianity itself, in the feebleness of its beginning and the +greatness of its results. It started in an obscure corner of the +world--in the deserts of Arabia--and rapidly conquered the East, +overrunning all the adjacent parts of Asia and Africa, and extending +along the Mediterranean to the Straits of Gibraltar, and thence +crossed into Spain, where it maintained itself for eight hundred +years against all the power of Europe to expel it. Such conquests +show a prodigious vitality--a vitality not yet exhausted, as it still +holds the half of Asia and Africa. A faith which commands the +allegiance of so large a part of mankind must have some elements of +truth to give it such tremendous power. Perhaps we can find the key in +the character of its Founder, and in the faith which he taught. + +A great deal has been written about the life of Mohammed, but even yet +his character is imperfectly understood. Perhaps we cannot fully +understand it, for there are in it contradictions which perplex the +most patient and candid student. By many he is dismissed at once as a +vulgar impostor, a sort of Joe Smith, who invented monstrous lies, and +by stoutly sticking to them got others to believe in them, and as soon +as he rallied a few followers about him, compelled neighboring tribes +to accept his faith by the unsparing use of the sword. + +This is an easy way to get rid of a difficult historical question, but +unfortunately it does not explain the facts. It is by that sort of +cheap reasoning that Gibbon undertakes to explain the rapid spread of +Christianity. But if Mohammed had been a cunning impostor, his first +claim would have been to work miracles, which on the contrary he never +claimed at all, but distinctly repudiated. Nor was he a greedy +mercenary; he was a poor man; his followers relate with pride how he +mended his own clothes, and even pegged his own shoes. But he combined +every element of the visionary and the enthusiast. He had that vivid +imagination that conceives strongly of things invisible to the natural +sense, to which "things that are not become as things that are," and +that ardent temperament that kindles at the sight of these unseen +realities. Perhaps this temperament was connected with his bodily +constitution; from his youth he was subject to epileptic fits, and his +revelations were accompanied with convulsions. Such things are found +in other religions. They are quite common in the history of devout +and passionate Romanists. Nor are they unknown even among Protestants, +who profess to be more sober and rational. Among the Methodists, at +camp-meetings, a very frequent effect of religious emotion has been +that strong men were so prostrated that they fell to the ground and +became as dead, and when they recovered, retained impressions never to +be effaced, as if they had seen things which it was not lawful to +utter. The revelations of Mohammed were all accompanied by these +"physical manifestations." Sometimes the angel spoke to him as one man +to another; at other times something within his bosom sounded like a +bell, which he said "rent him in pieces." At such times he fell to the +ground and foamed at the mouth, or his eyes turned red, and he +streamed with perspiration, and roared like a camel, in his struggle +to give utterance to the revelation of God. This does not look like +imposture, but like insanity. The constitution of such a man is a +psychological study. + +This natural ardor was inflamed by long seclusion. From his youth he +loved solitude. Like the old prophets, he withdrew from the world to +be alone with God. Like Elijah, he hid himself in a cave. Every year, +during the month of Ramadan, he retired to a cave in Mount Hera, three +miles from Mecca, to give himself up to religious contemplation; and +there, it is said, amid spasmodic convulsions, he had his first +vision, in which the angel Gabriel appeared to him. + +This explanation of a mind half disordered, subject to dreams and +visions and fanatical illusions, is much more rational than that of +supposing in him an artful design to impose a new religion on his +countrymen. Like other enthusiasts, he became the victim of his own +illusions. His imagination so wrought upon him that he came to accept +his visions as Divine revelations. In this he was not playing a part; +he was not the conscious hypocrite. No doubt he believed himself what +he wished others to believe. Indeed he made them believe, by the very +sincerity and intensity of his own convictions. + +Mohammedanism may be considered as a system of theology, and as a +system of morality. The former seems to have been derived largely from +Judaism. Mohammed belonged to the tribe of the Koreishites, who +claimed to be descended from Abraham through Ishmael. His family were +the keepers of the Caaba, or holy place of Mecca, where is the black +stone which was brought from heaven, and the spring Zemzem, which +sprang up in the desert to save the life of Hagar and her child. Thus +he was familiar from his earliest years with the traditions of the +patriarchs. + +When a boy of fourteen he made a journey with his uncle into Syria, +where he may have learned more of the ancient faith. Much is said of +his becoming acquainted with a Nestorian bishop or monk, from whom he +is supposed to have learned something of Christianity. But he could +not have learned _much_, for his views of it were always extremely +vague. It is doubtful whether he ever saw the New Testament, or had +any knowledge of it other than that derived from some apocryphal +books. There is no trace in the Koran of the sublime doctrines of the +Gospel, or even of its moral precepts. Although Mohammed professed +great reverence for Jesus, whom with Moses he considers the greatest +of prophets next to himself, yet his ideas of the Religion which He +taught were of the most indefinite kind. + +But one thing he did learn, which was common to Judaism and +Christianity--that there is but one God. The Monotheism of the Hebrews +took the stronger hold of him, from its contrast to the worship around +him, which had degenerated into gross idolatry. The tribes of Arabia +had become as base idolaters as the Canaanites. Even the holy Caaba +was filled with idols, and the mission of the prophet--as he regarded +it--was to restore the worship of the One Living and True God. His +first burst of prophetic fire and prophetic wrath was a fierce +explosion against idolatry, and it was a moment of triumph when he was +able to walk through the Caaba, and see the idols dashed in pieces. + +Here then is the first and last truth of Islam, the existence of one +God. The whole is comprehended in this one saying, "God is God, and +Mohammed is his prophet." + +With the homage due to God, is the respect due to His revealed will. +Moslems claim for the Koran what many Christians do not claim for the +Bible--a literal and verbal inspiration. Every word is Divine. + +And not only is the unity of God the cardinal truth, but it is vital +to salvation. In this respect Islam is a Religion. It is not a mere +philosophy, the acceptance or rejection of which is a matter of +indifference. It is not merely a system of good morals--it is a Divine +code for the government of mankind, whose acceptance is a matter of +life and death--of salvation or damnation. + +The doctrine of _retribution_ is held by the Moslems in its most rigid +form--more rigid indeed than in the Christian system: for there is no +atonement for sin. The judgment is inexorable; it is absolute and +eternal. Before their eyes ever stands the Day of Judgment--the Dies +Irae--when all men shall appear before God to receive their doom. + +But in that last day, when unbelievers shall be destroyed, the +followers of the prophet shall be saved. They can go to the tribunal +of their Maker without trembling. One day riding outside the walls of +Constantinople, we approached a cemetery just as a funeral procession +drew near, bearing the form of the dead. We stopped to witness the +scene. The mourners gathered around the place where the body was laid, +and then the ulema approached the grave, and began _an address to the +dead_, telling her (it was a woman) not to be afraid when the angel +came to call her to judgment, but to appear before the bar of the +Almighty, and answer without fear, for that no follower of the prophet +should perish. + +The religious observances of the Moslems are very strict. As God is +the sole object of worship, so the great act of Religion is communion +with Him. Five times a day the voice of the muezzin calls them to +prayer. The frequent ablutions were perhaps derived from the Jewish +law. Fasting is imposed with a severity almost unknown in the +Christian world. The most rigid Catholics hardly observe the forty +days of Lent as the Moslems do the month of Ramadan. Almsgiving is not +only recommended, but required. Every true believer is commanded to +give one-tenth of his income to charity. + +As to the moral results of Mohammedanism, it produces some excellent +effects. It inculcates the strictest temperance. The Koran prohibits +the use of wine, even though wine is one of the chief products of the +East. In this virtue of total abstinence the Moslems are an example to +Christians. + +So in point of integrity; the honesty of the Turk is a proverb in the +East, compared with the lying of Christians. Perhaps this comes in +part not only from his religion, but from the fact that he belongs to +the conquering race. Tyrants and masters do not need to deceive, while +falsehood and deceit are the protection of slaves. Subject races, +which have no defence before the law, or from cruel masters, seek it +in subterfuge and deception. But this claim of integrity may be pushed +too far. However it may be in Asia Minor, among simple-minded Turks, +who have not been "spoiled by coming in contact with Christians," +those who have to do with Turks in the bazaars of Constantinople, are +compelled to confess, that if they do not tell lies, they tell very +big truths. However, as between the Turk and the Greek, in point of +honesty, it is quite possible that those who know them both would give +the preeminence to the former. + +Whatever the weakness of Mohammedanism, it does not show itself in +_that sort_ of vices. His very pride makes the Mussulman scorn these +meaner sins. His religion, as it lifts him up with self-esteem, +produces an effect on his outward bearing. He has an air of +independence which is unmistakable. I think I never saw a Mussulman +that was afraid to look me in the face. He has none of the sneaking +servility that we see in some races. This is a natural consequence of +his creed, according to which God is so great that no man is great in +his sight. Islam is at once a theocracy and a democracy. God is sole +Lawgiver and King, before whom all men stand on the same level. Hence +men of all nations and races fraternize together. In Constantinople +blacks and whites, the men of Circassia and the men of Ethiopia, walk +arm in arm, and stand on the level of absolute equality. + +This democratic spirit is carried everywhere. There is no caste in +Islam, not even in India, where it is at perpetual war with the castes +of Hindooism. So as it spreads in the interior of Africa, it raises +the native tribes to a degree of manliness and self-respect which they +had not known before. It "levels up" the African race. Our +missionaries in Liberia, who come in contact with certain Moslem +tribes from the interior, such as the Mandingoes, will testify that +they are greatly superior to those farther South, on the Gold Coast, +the Ashantees and the people of Dahomey, who have filled the world +with horror by their human sacrifices. All this disappears before the +advance of Islam. It breaks in pieces the idols; it destroys devil +worship and fetichism and witchcraft, and puts an end to human +sacrifices. Thus it renders a service to humanity and civilization. + +So far Islam is a pretty good religion--not so good indeed as +Christianity, but better than any form of Paganism. It has many +elements of truth, derived chiefly from Judaism. So far as Mohammed +followed Moses--so far as the Koran followed the Old Testament--they +uttered only the truth, and truth which was fundamental. The unity of +God is the foundation of religion. It is not only a truth, but the +greatest of truths, the first condition of any right religious +worship. In declaring this, Mohammed only proclaimed to the Arabs what +Moses had proclaimed to the Hebrews: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God +is one Lord." But he repeated it with great vehemence and effect, +wielding it as a battle-axe to break in pieces the idols of the +heathen. And so far--as against idolatry--Islam has served a great +purpose in history. But there its utility ends. It teaches indeed that +there is but one God. But what a God is that which it presents to our +worship! "This God is not our God." The Mohammedan idea of God is very +different from the Christian idea of a Father in heaven. It is the +idea of the Awful, the Invisible--grand indeed, yet cold and distant +and far away, like the stars on the desert, or in the Arctic night, +"wildly, spiritually bright," shining with a glittering splendor, but +lofty and inaccessible, beyond the cries of human agony or despair. +This view of God is so limited and partial as to produce the effect of +positive error. In a just religious system there must be included the +two ideas of God and man; and these in their proper relation to each +other. Exclusive contemplation of either leads astray. When man +fastens on the idea of one God, he plants himself on a rock. But he +must not bow himself upon the rock, and clasp it so as to forget his +own separate individuality, lest the mighty stone roll over upon him +and crush him. This the Mussulman does. He dwells so on the idea of +God, that his own existence is not only lost sight of, but +annihilated. The mind, subdued in awe, is at length overpowered by +what it beholds. Man is nothing in that awful presence, as his life is +but a point in the Divine eternity. + +It cannot be denied that the idea of God, and God alone, may produce +some grand effects on human character. It inspires courage. If God be +for us, who can be against us? That God _is_ for him, the Mussulman +never doubts; and this confidence inspires him in danger, and on the +field of battle, so that he fights with desperation. But if the +fortune of war be against him, who so well as the devout Mussulman +knows how to suffer and to die? He murmurs not; but bows his head, +saying "God is great," and submits to his fate. Thus his creed carried +out to its logical consequence ends in fatalism. He believes so +absolutely in God, that the decrees of the Almighty become a fixed +fate, which the will of man is impotent to resist. All this comes from +an imperfect idea of God. Here Islam is defective, just where +Christianity is complete. + +There is nothing in Mohammedanism that brings God down to earth, +within the range of human sympathy or even of human conception. There +is no incarnation, no Son of God coming to dwell among men, hungry and +weary, bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows, suffering in the +garden, and dying on the cross. + +The Mussulman does not feel his need of such help. In his prayers +there is no acknowledgment of sin, no feeling of penitence, no +confession of unworthiness. He knows not how poor and weak he is, with +a religion in which there is no Saviour and Redeemer, no Lamb of God +that taketh away the sin of the world, no Holy Spirit to help our +infirmities, to strengthen our weaknesses. + +So with Moslem morality; if we scan it closely, we find it wanting in +many virtues. Some writers give the most elevated ideas of it. Says +Chambers' Cyclopaedia: "Aside from the domestic relations, the ethics +of the Mohammedan religion are of the highest order. Pride, calumny, +revenge, avarice, prodigality, and debauchery, are condemned +throughout the Koran; while trust in God, submission to His will, +patience, modesty, forbearance, love of peace, sincerity, frugality, +benevolence, liberality, are everywhere insisted upon." + +This is very high praise. But mark the exception: "Aside from the +domestic relations." That exception takes out of the system a whole +class of virtues, and puts a class of vices in their place. Here is +the great crime of Islam against humanity--its treatment of woman. We +will not charge against it more than belongs to it. The seclusion of +woman is not a Mohammedan custom so much as an Oriental one, and one +of a very ancient date. When Abraham sent a servant to find a wife for +Isaac, and he returned bringing Rebekah, as the caravan drew near +home, and Isaac went out to meditate at eventide, as soon as Rebekah +saw him in the distance, she lighted off from her camel and "veiled +herself." Polygamy too existed before Mohammed: it existed among the +patriarchs. It is claimed that Mohammed repressed it, limiting a man +to four wives, although he far exceeded the number himself. Gibbon, +who never misses an opportunity of making a point against the Bible, +says: "If we remember the seven hundred wives and three hundred +concubines of the wise Solomon, we shall applaud the modesty of the +Arabian who espoused no more than seventeen or fifteen wives." But +this pretence of self-restraint is a mockery. It is notorious that +Mohammed was a man of the grossest licentiousness; and the horrible +and disgusting thing about it is that he grew more wicked as he grew +older; and while trying to put restraint upon others put none upon +himself. He punished licentiousness with a hundred stripes, and +adultery with death, and yet he was a man of unbounded profligacy, and +to make it worse, pleaded a Divine revelation to justify it! + +This example of the prophet has had its influence on all the +generations of his followers. It has trailed the slime of the serpent +over them all. Any one who has been in a Mohammedan country must have +felt that the position of woman is a degradation. One cannot see them +gliding through the streets of Cairo or Constantinople, with their +faces veiled as if it were a shame to look on them, and passing +swiftly as if indeed it were a sin for them to be seen abroad, +without a feeling of pity and indignation. + +And in what a position are such women at home, if it can be called a +home, where there is no family, no true domestic life! The wife of a +Mohammedan--the mother of his children--is little better than a slave. +She is never presented to his friends--indeed you could not offer a +greater insult to a Turk than to ask after his wife! Of course there +is no such thing as society where women are not allowed to appear. +Such a society as that of London or Paris, composed of men eminent in +government, in science and literature--a society refined and elevated +by the presence of women of such education and manners and knowledge +of the world as to be the fit companions of such men--could not +possibly exist in Constantinople. + +But the degradation of woman is not the only crime to be charged to +Islam. In fit companionship with it is cruelty. Mohammed had many +virtues, but he had no mercy. He was implacable toward his enemies. He +massacred his prisoners, not from hard necessity, but with a fierce +delight. Fanaticism extinguished natural compassion, and he put his +enemies to death with savage joy. In this his followers have "bettered +his instructions." The Turks are cruel, perhaps partly by nature, but +partly also because any tender sympathies of nature are kept down by a +fiery zeal. Their religion does not make them merciful. When a people +have become possessed with the idea that they are the people of God, +and that others are outcasts, they become insensible to the sufferings +of those outside of the consecrated pale. + +In the Greek Revolution the people of Scio joined in the rebellion. A +Turkish army landed on the island, and in two months put 23,000 of the +inhabitants to the sword, without distinction of age or sex; 47,000 +were sold into slavery, and 5,000 escaped to Greece. In four months +the Christian population was reduced from 104,000 to 2,000. + +What the Turks are in Europe and Asia, the Arabs are in Africa. The +spread of Mohammedanism is a partial civilization of some heathen +tribes. But, alas, the poor natives come in contact with +"civilization" and "religion" in another way--in the Arab +slave-hunters, who, though they are Mohammedans, and devoutly pray +toward Mecca, are the most merciless of human beings. One cannot read +the pages of Livingstone without a shudder at the barbarities +practised on defenceless natives, which have spread terror and +desolation over a large part of the interior of Africa. + +These cruel memories rise up to spoil the poetry and romance which +some modern writers have thrown about the religion of the prophet. +They disturb my musings, when awed or touched by some features of +Moslem faith; when I listen to the worship in St. Sophia, or witness +the departure of pilgrims for Mecca. Whatever Oriental pomp or +splendor may still survive in its ancient worship, at its heart the +system is cold, and hard, and cruel; it does not acknowledge the +brotherhood of man, but exalts the followers of the prophet into a +caste, who can look down on the rest of mankind with ineffable scorn. +Outside of that pale, man is not a brother, but an enemy--an enemy not +to be won by love, but to be conquered and subdued, to be made a +convert or a slave. Not only does the Koran not bid mercy to be shown +to unbelievers, but it offers them, as the only alternatives, +conversion, or slavery, or death. + +Needs it any argument to show how impossible is good government under +a creed in which there is no recognition of justice and equality? I +think it is Macaulay who says that the worst Christian government is +better than the best Mohammedan government. Wherever that religion +exists, there follow inevitably despotism and slavery, by which it +crushes man, as by its polygamy and organized licentiousness, it +degrades and crushes woman. Polygamy, despotism, and slavery form the +trinity of woes which Mohammedanism has caused to weigh for ages, +like a nightmare, on the whole Eastern world. Such a system is as +incompatible with civilization as with Christianity, and sooner or +later must pass away, unless the human race is to come to a +standstill, or to go backward. + +But when and how? I am not sanguine of any speedy change. Such changes +come slowly. We expect too much and too soon. In an age of progress we +think that all forms of ignorance and superstition must disappear +before the advance of civilization. But the _vis inertiae_ opposes a +steady resistance. It has been well said, "We are told that knowledge +is power, but who has considered the power of ignorance?" How long it +lives and how hard it dies! We hear much of the "waning crescent," but +it wanes very slowly, and it sometimes seems as if the earth itself +would grow old and perish before that waning orb would disappear from +the heavens. Christian Missions make no more impression upon Islam +than the winds of the desert upon the cliffs of Mount Sinai. + +I do not look for any great change in the Mohammedan world, except in +the train of political changes. That religion is so bound up with +political power, that until that is destroyed, or terribly shaken, +there is little hope of a general turning to a better faith. War and +Revolution are the fiery chariots that must go before the Gospel, to +herald its coming and prepare its way. Material forces may open the +door to moral influences; the doctrines of human freedom and of human +brotherhood may be preached on battle plains as well as in Christian +temples. When the hard iron crust of Islam is broken up, and the +elements begin to melt with fervent heat, the Eastern world may be +moulded into new forms. Then will the Oriental mind be brought into an +impressible state, in which argument and persuasion can act upon it; +and it may yield to the combined influence of civilization and +Christianity. The change will be slow. It will take years; it may +take centuries. But sooner or later the fountains of the great deep +will be broken up. That cold, relentless system must pass away before +the light and warmth of that milder faith which recognizes at once the +brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. + +In that coming age there may be other pilgrimages and processions +going up out of Egypt. "The dromedaries shall come from far." But +then, if a caravan of pilgrims issues from Cairo, to cross the desert, +to seek the birthplace of the founder of its religion, it will not +turn South to Mecca, but North to Bethlehem, asking with the Magi of +old, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his +star in the East, and are come to worship him." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MODERN EGYPT AND THE KHEDIVE. + + +Egypt is a country with a long past, as we found in going up the Nile; +may we not hope, also, with a not inglorious future? For ages it was +sunk so low that it seemed to be lost from the view of the world. No +contrast in history could be greater than that between its ancient +glory and its modern degradation. Its revival dates from about the +beginning of the present century, and, strange to say, from the +invasion of Egypt by Napoleon, which incidentally brought to the +surface a man whose rise from obscurity, and whose subsequent career, +were only less remarkable than his own. When Napoleon landed in Egypt +at the head of a French army of invasion, among the forces gathered to +oppose him was a young Albanian, who had crossed over from Greece at +the head of three hundred men. This was Mehemet Ali, who soon +attracted such attention by his daring and ability, that a few years +after the French had been driven out, as the country was still in a +distracted state, which required a man of vigor and capacity, he was +made Pasha of Egypt--a position which he retained from that time +(1806) until his death in 1850. Here he had new dangers, which he +faced with the same intrepidity. That which first made his name known +to the world as a synonym of resolute courage and implacable revenge, +was the massacre of the Mamelukes. These had long been the real +masters of Egypt--a terror to every successive government, as were the +Janissaries to the Sultan in Constantinople. Mehemet Ali had been but +five years in power, when, finding that he was becoming too strong +for them, they plotted to destroy him. He learned of the conspiracy +just in time, and at once determined to "fight fire with fire;" and, +inviting them to the Citadel of Cairo for some public occasion, +suddenly shut the gates, and manning the walls with his troops, shot +them down in cold blood. Only one man escaped by leaping his horse +from the wall. This savage butchery raised a cry of horror throughout +Europe, and Mehemet Ali was regarded as a monster of treachery and of +cruelty. It is impossible to justify such a deed by any rules of +civilized warfare. But this, it is said, was not civilized warfare; it +was simply a plot of assassination on one side, forestalled by +assassination on the other. I do not justify such reasoning. And yet I +could not but listen with interest to Nubar Pasha (the most eloquent +talker, as well as the most enlightened statesman, of Egypt), as he +defended the conduct of his hero. He, indeed, has a hereditary +allegiance to Mehemet Ali, which he derived from his uncle, the prime +minister. Said he: "The rule of the Mamelukes was anarchy of the worst +kind; it was death to Egypt, and IT IS RIGHT TO KILL DEATH." The +reasoning is not very different from that by which Mr. Froude +justifies Cromwell's putting the garrison of Drogheda to the sword. +Certainly in both cases, in Egypt as in Ireland, the end was peace. +From that moment the terror of Mehemet Ali's name held the whole land +in awe; and from one end of the valley of the Nile to the other, there +was perfect security. "Every tree planted in Egypt," said Nubar Pasha, +"is due to him; for till then the people in the country did not dare +to plant a tree, for the Mamelukes or the wandering Bedouins came and +pitched their tents under its shade, and then robbed the village." But +now every wandering tribe that hovered on the borders of the desert, +was struck with fear and dread, and did not dare to provoke a power +which knew no mercy. Hence the plantations of palms which have sprung +up around the Arab villages, and the beautiful avenues of trees which +have been planted along the roads. + +It is not strange that such a man soon became too powerful, not only +for the Mamelukes, but for Turkey. The Sultan did not like it that one +of his subjects had "grown so great," and tried more than once to +remove him. But the servant had become stronger than his master, and +would not be removed. He raised a large army, to which he gave the +benefit of European discipline, and in the latter part of his life +invaded Syria, and swept northward to Damascus and Aleppo, and was +only prevented from marching to Constantinople by the intervention of +foreign powers. It seems a pity now that France and England +interfered. The Eastern question might have been nearer a solution +to-day, if the last blow to the Grand Turk had been given by a Moslem +power. But at least this was secured, that the rule of Egypt was +confirmed in the family of Mehemet Ali, and the Viceroy of Egypt +became as fixed and irremovable as the Sultan himself. + +Mehemet Ali died in 1850, and was succeeded by his son Ibrahim Pasha, +who inherited much of his father's vigor. Ismail Pasha, the present +Khedive, is the son of Ibrahim Pasha, and grandson of Mehemet Ali. +Thus he has the blood of warriors in his veins, with which he has +inherited much of their proud spirit and indomitable will. + +No ruler in the East at the present moment attracts more of the +attention of Europe. I am sorry to go away from Cairo without seeing +him. I have had two opportunities of being presented, though not by +any seeking or suggestion of my own. But friends who were in official +positions had arranged it, and the time was fixed twice, but in both +cases I had to leave on the day appointed, once to go up the Nile, and +the other to embark at Suez. I cannot give therefore a personal +description of the man, but can speak of him only from the reports of +others, among whom are some who see him often and know him well. The +Khedive has many American officers in his service, some of them in +high commands (General Stone is at the head of the army), and these +are necessarily brought into intimate relations with him. These +officers I find without exception very enthusiastic in their +admiration. This is quite natural. They are brought into relations +with him of the most pleasant kind. He wants an army, and they +organize it for him. They discipline his troops; if need be, they +fight his battles. As they minister to his desire for power, and for +military display, he gives them a generous support. And so both +parties are equally pleased with each other. + +But making full allowance for all these prepossessions in his favor, +there are certain things in which not only they, but all who know the +present ruler of Egypt, agree, and which therefore may be accepted +without question, which show that he has a natural force of mind and +character which would be remarkable in any man, and in one of his +position are still more extraordinary. Though living in a palace, and +surrounded by luxury, he does not pass his time in idleness, but gives +himself no rest, hardly taking time for food and sleep. I am told that +he is "the hardest-worked man in Egypt." He rises very early, and sees +his Ministers before breakfast, and supervises personally every +department of the Government to such extent indeed as to leave little +for others to do, so that his Ministers are merely his secretaries. He +is the government. Louis XIV. could not more truly say, "I am the +State," than can the Khedive of Egypt, so completely does he absorb +all its powers. + +Such activity seems almost incredible in an Oriental. It would be in a +Turk. But Ismail Pasha boasts that "he has not a drop of Turkish blood +in his veins." It is easy to see in his restless and active mind the +spirit of that fierce old soldier, Mehemet Ali, though softened and +disciplined by an European education. + +This may be a proof of great mental energy, but it is not necessarily +of the highest wisdom. The men who accomplish most in the world, are +those who use their brains chiefly to plan, and who know how to choose +fit instruments to carry out their plans, and do not spend their +strength on petty details which might be done quite as well, or even +better, by others. + +The admirers of the Khedive point justly to what he has done for +Egypt. Since he came into power, the Suez Canal has been completed, +and is now the highway for the commerce of Europe with India; great +harbors have been made or improved at Alexandria, at Port Said, and at +Suez; canals for irrigation have been dug here and there, to carry +over the country the fertilizing waters of the Nile; and railroads +have been cut across the Delta in every direction, and one is already +advanced more than two hundred miles up the Nile. These are certainly +great public works, which justly entitle the Khedive to be regarded as +one of the most enlightened of modern rulers. + +But while recognizing all this, there are other things which I see +here in Egypt which qualify my admiration. I cannot praise without +reserve and many abatements. The Khedive has attempted too much, and +in his restless activity has undertaken such vast enterprises that he +has brought his country to the verge of bankruptcy. Egypt, like +Turkey, is in a very bad way. She has not indeed yet gone to the +length of repudiation. From this she has been saved for the moment by +the sale of shares of the Suez Canal to England for four millions +sterling. But this is only a temporary relief, it is not a permanent +cure for what is a deep-seated disease. The financial troubles of +Egypt are caused by the restless ambition of the Khedive to accomplish +in a few years the work of a century; and to carry out in an +impoverished country vast public works, which would task the resources +of the richest country in Europe. The Khedive has the reputation +abroad of being a great ruler, and he certainly shows an energy that +is extraordinary. But it is not always a well regulated energy. He +does too much. He is a man of magnificent designs, and projects public +works with the grandeur of a Napoleon. This would be very well if his +means were at all equal to his ambition. But his designs are so vast +that they would require the capital of France or Great Britain, while +Egypt is a very poor country. It has always of course the natural +productiveness of the valley of the Nile, but beyond that it has +nothing; it has no accumulated wealth, no great capitalists, no large +private fortunes, no rich middle class, from which to draw an imperial +revenue. With all that can be wrung from the miserable fellahs, taxed +to the utmost limit of endurance, still the expenses outrun enormously +the income. + +It is true that Egypt has much more to show for her money than Turkey. +If she has gone deeply in debt, and contracted heavy foreign loans, +she can at least point to great public works for the permanent good of +Egypt; although in the construction of some of these she has +anticipated, if not the wants of the country, at least its resources +for many years to come. + +For example, at the First Cataract, I found men at work upon a +railroad that is designed to extend to Khartoum, the capital of +Soudan, and the point of junction of the Blue and the White Nile! In +the latter part of its course to this point, it is to cross the +desert; as it must still farther, if carried eastward, as projected, +to Massowah on the Red Sea! These are gigantic projects, but about as +necessary to the present commerce of Egypt as would be a railway to +the very heart of Africa. + +But all the money has not gone in this way. The Khedive has had the +ambition to make of Egypt a great African Empire, by adding to it vast +regions in the interior. For this he has sent repeated expeditions up +the Nile, and is in a continual conflict with his barbarous +neighbors, and has at last got into a serious war with Abyssinia. + +But even this is not all. Not satisfied with managing the affairs of +government, the Khedive, with that restless spirit which characterizes +him, is deeply involved in all sorts of private enterprises. He is a +speculator on a gigantic scale, going into every sort of mercantile +adventure. He is a great real estate operator. He owns whole squares +in the new parts of Cairo and Alexandria, on which he is constantly +building houses, besides buying houses built by others. He builds +hotels and opera houses, and runs steamboats and railroads, like a +royal Jim Fisk. The steamer on which we crossed the Mediterranean from +Constantinople to Alexandria, belonged to the Khedive, and the +railroad that brought us to Cairo, and the hotel in which we were +lodged, and the steamer in which we went up the Nile. + +Nor is he limited in his enterprises to steamers and railroads. He is +a great cotton and sugar planter. He owns a large part of the land in +Egypt, on which he has any number of plantations. His immense sugar +factories, on which he has expended millions of pounds, may be seen +all along the valley of the Nile; and he exports cotton by the +shipload from the port of Alexandria. + +A man who is thus "up to his eyes" in speculation, who tries to do +everything himself, must do many things badly, or at least +imperfectly. He cannot possibly supervise every detail of +administration, and his agents have not the stimulus of a personal +interest to make the most of their opportunity. I asked very often, +when up the Nile, if these great sugar factories which I saw _paid_, +and was uniformly answered "No;" but that they _would_ pay in private +hands, if managed by those who had a personal stake in saving every +needless expense, and increasing every possible source of income. But +the Khedive is cheated on every side, and in a hundred ways. And even +if there were not actual fraud, the system is one which necessarily +involves immense waste and loss. Here in Cairo I find it the universal +opinion that almost all the Khedive's speculations have been gigantic +failures, and that they are at the bottom of the trouble which now +threatens the country. + +Such is the present financial condition of the Khedive and of Egypt. I +couple the two together; although an attempt is made to distinguish +them, and we hear that although Egypt is nearly bankrupt, yet that the +Khedive is personally "the richest man in the world!" But the accounts +are so mixed that it is very difficult to separate them. There is no +doubt that the Khedive has immense possessions in his hands; but he +is, at the same time, to use a commercial phrase, enormously +"extended;" he is loaded with debt, and has to borrow money at ruinous +rates; and if his estate were suddenly wound up, and a "receiver" +appointed to administer upon it, it is extremely doubtful what would +be the "assets" left. + +Such an administrator has appeared. Mr. Cave has just come out from +England, to try and straighten out the Khedive's affairs. But he has a +great task before him. Wise heads here doubt whether his mission will +come to anything, whether indeed he will be allowed to get at the +"bottom facts," or to make anything more than a superficial +examination, as the basis of a "whitewashing report" which may bolster +up Egyptian credit in Paris and London. + +But if he does come to know "the truth and the whole truth," then I +predict that he will either abandon the case in despair, or he will +have to recommend to the Khedive, as the only salvation for him, a +more sweeping and radical reform than the latter has yet dreamed of. +It requires some degree of moral courage to talk to a sovereign as to +a private individual; to speak to him as if he were a prodigal son who +had wasted his substance in riotous living; to tell him to moderate +his desires, and restrain his ambition, and to live a quiet and sober +life; and to "live within his means." But this he must do, or it is +easy to see where this brilliant financiering will end. + +If Mr. Cave can persuade the Khedive to restrain his extravagance; to +stop building palaces (he has now more than he can possibly use); and +to give up, once for all, as the follies of his youth, his grand +schemes of annexing the whole interior of Africa, as he has already +annexed Nubia and Soudan; and to "back out" as gracefully as he can +(although it is a very awkward business), of his war with Abyssinia; +and then to follow up the good course he has begun with his Suez Canal +shares, by selling all his stock in every commercial company (for one +man must not try to absorb all the industry of a kingdom); if he can +persuade him to sell all the railways in Egypt; and to sell every +steamship on the Mediterranean, except such as may be needed for the +use of the government; and every boat on the Nile except a yacht or +two for his private pleasure; to sell all his hotels and theatres; his +sugar factories and cotton plantations; and abandoning all his private +speculations, to be content with being simply the ruler of Egypt, and +attending to the affairs of government, which are quite enough to +occupy the thoughts of "a mind capacious of such things;" then he may +succeed in righting up the ship. Otherwise I fear the Khedive will +follow the fate of his master the Sultan. + +But impending bankruptcy is not the worst feature in Egypt. There is +something more rotten in the State than bad financial management. It +is the want of justice established by law, which shall protect the +rights of the people. At present, liberty there is none; the +government is an absolute despotism, as much as it was three thousand +years ago. The system under which the Israelites groaned, and for +which God brought the plagues upon Egypt, is in full force to-day. The +Khedive has obtained great credit abroad by the expeditions of Sir +Samuel Baker and others up the Nile, which were said to be designed to +break up the slave trade. But what signifies destroying slavery in +the interior of Africa, when a system still more intolerable exists in +Egypt itself? It is not called slavery; it is simply _forced labor_, +which, being interpreted, means that when the Khedive wants ten +thousand men to dig a canal or build a railroad, he sends into the +requisite number of villages, and "conscripts" them _en masse_, just +as he conscripts his soldiers (taking them away from their little +farms, perhaps, at the very moment when their labor is most needed), +and sets them to work for himself, under taskmasters, driving them to +work under the goad of the lash, or, if need be, at the point of the +bayonet. For this labor, thus cruelly exacted, they receive absolutely +nothing--neither pay _nor food_. A man who has constructed some of the +greatest works of Modern Egypt, said to me, as we were riding over the +Delta, "I built this railroad. I had under me twenty thousand men--all +forced labor. In return for their labor, I gave them--_water_!" "But +surely you paid them wages?" "No." "But at least you gave them food?" +"No." "But how did they live?" "The women worked on the land, and +brought them bread and rice." "But suppose they failed to bring food, +what became of the workmen?" "They starved." And not only were they +forced to work without pay and without food, but were often required +to furnish their own tools. Surely this is making bricks without +straw, as much as the Israelites did. Such a system of labor, however +grand the public works it may construct, can hardly excite the +admiration of a lover of free institutions. + +On all who escape this forced labor, the _taxation_ is fearful. The +hand of the government is as heavy upon them as in the ancient days. +To one who was telling me of this--and no man knows Egypt better--I +said, "Why, the government takes half of all that the country yields." +"Half?" he answered, "_It takes all._" To the miserable fellahs who +till the soil it leaves only their mud hovels, the rags that scarcely +hide their nakedness, and the few herbs and fruits that but just keep +soul and body together. Every acre of ground in Egypt is taxed, and +every palm tree in the valley of the Nile. What would our American +farmers say to a tax of twelve dollars an acre on their land, and of +from twenty-five to fifty cents on every apple tree in their orchards? +Yet this enormous burden falls, not on the rich farmers of New +England, or New York, or Ohio, but on the miserable fellahs of Egypt, +who are far more destitute than the negroes of the South. Yet in the +midst of all this poverty and wretchedness, in these miserable Arab +villages the tax gatherer appears regularly, and the tax, though it be +the price of blood, is remorselessly exacted. If anybody refuses, or +is unable to pay, no words are wasted on him, he is immediately +bastinadoed till his cries avail--not with the officers of the law, +who know no mercy, but with his neighbors, who yielding up their last +penny, compel the executioner to let go his hold. + +Such is the Egyptian Government as it presses on the people. While its +hand is so heavy in ruinous taxations, the administration of justice +is pretty much as it was in the time of the Pharaohs. It has been in +the hands of a set of native officials, who sometimes executed a rude +kind of justice on the old principle of strict retaliation, "an eye +for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," but commonly paid no regard to +the merits of a case, but decided it entirely by other considerations. +In matters where the Government was concerned, no private individual +had any chance whatever. The Khedive was the source of all authority +and power, a central divinity, of whom every official in the country +was an emanation, before whom no law or justice could stand. In other +matters judges decided according to their own pleasure--their like or +dislike of one or the other of the parties--or more often according to +their interest, for they were notoriously open to bribes. Thus in the +whole land of Egypt justice there was none. In every Arab village the +sheik was a petty tyrant, who could bastinado the miserable fellahs at +his will. + +This rough kind of government answered its purpose--or at least there +was no one who dared to question it--so long as they had only their +own people to rule over. But when foreigners came to settle in Egypt, +they were not willing to be subjected to this Oriental justice. Hence +arose a system of Consular Courts, by which every question which +concerned a foreigner was argued and decided before a mixed tribunal, +composed of the Consul of the country and a native judge. This seemed +very fair, but in fact it only made confusion worse confounded. For +naturally the Consul sided with his own countryman (if he did not, he +would be considered almost a traitor), his foreign prejudices came +into play; and so what was purely a question of law, became a +political question. It was not merely a litigation about property +between A and B, but a matter of diplomatic skill between France (or +any other foreign power) and Egypt; and as France was the stronger, +she was the more likely to succeed. Hence the foreigner had great +advantages over the native in these Consular Courts, and if in +addition the native judge was open to a bribe, and the foreigner was +willing to give it, the native suitor, however wronged, was completely +at his mercy. + +Such was the state of things until quite recently. But here at least +there has been a reform in the introduction of a new judicial system, +which is the greatest step forward that has been taken within half a +century. + +The man who was the first to see what was the radical vice of the +country, the effectual hindrance to its prosperity, was Nubar Pasha. +He had the sagacity to see that the first want of Egypt was not more +railroads and steamboats, but simple justice--the protection of law. +How clearly he saw the evil, was indicated by a remark which I once +heard him make. He said: "The idea of justice does not exist in the +Oriental mind. We have governors and judges, who sit to hear causes, +and who decide them after the Oriental fashion--that is, they will +decide in favor of a friend against an enemy, or more commonly in +favor of the man who can pay the largest bribe; but to sit patiently +and listen to evidence, and then decide according to abstract justice, +is something not only foreign to their customs, but of which they have +absolutely no idea--they cannot conceive of it." He saw that a feeling +of insecurity was at the bottom of the want of confidence at home and +abroad; and that to "establish justice" was the first thing both to +encourage native industry, and to invite the capital of France and +England to expend itself in the valley of the Nile. To accomplish this +has been his single aim for many years. He has set himself to do away +with the old Oriental system complicated by the Consular Courts, and +to introduce the simple administration of justice, by which there +should be one law for natives and foreigners, for the rich and the +poor, for the powerful and the weak. + +To inaugurate such a policy, which was a virtual revolution, the +initiative must be taken by Egypt. But how could the Khedive propose a +change which was a virtual surrender of his own absolute power? He +could no longer be absolute _within the courts_: and to give up this +no Oriental despot would consent, for it was parting with the dearest +token of his power over the lives and fortunes of his subjects. But +the Khedive was made to see, that, if he surrendered something, he +gained much more; that it was an immense advantage to himself and his +country to be brought within the pale of European civilization; and +that this could not be until it was placed under the protection of +European law. + +But Egypt was not the only power to be consulted. The change could +only be made by treaty with other countries, and Egypt was not an +independent State, and had no right to enter into negotiations with +foreign powers without the consent of the Porte. To obtain this +involved long and tedious delays at Constantinople. And last of all, +the foreign States themselves had to be persuaded into it, for of +course the change involved the surrender of their consular +jurisdiction; and all were jealous lest it should be giving up the +rights of their citizens. To persuade them to the contrary was a slow +business. Each government considered how it would affect its own +subjects. France especially, which had had great advantages under the +old Consular Courts, was the last to give its consent to the new +system. It was only a few days before the New Year, at which it was to +be inaugurated, that the National Assembly, after a debate lasting +nearly a week, finally adopted the measure by a majority of three to +one, and thus the great judicial reform, on which the wisest statesman +of Egypt had so long fixed his heart, was consummated. + +The change, in a word, is this. The old Consular Courts are abolished, +and in their place are constituted three courts--one at Cairo, one at +Alexandria, and one at Ismailia--each composed of seven judges, of +whom a majority are nominated by the foreign powers which have most to +do with Egypt: France, England, Germany, Austria, Russia, and the +United States. In the selection of judges, as there are three benches +to be filled, several are taken from the smaller states of Europe. +There is also a higher Court of Appeal constituted in the same way. + +The judges to fill these important positions have already been named +by the different governments, and so far as the _personnel_ of the new +courts is concerned, leave nothing to be desired. They are all men of +reputation in their own countries, as having the requisite legal +knowledge and ability, and as men of character, who will administer +the law in the interest of justice, and that alone. The United States +is represented by Judge Barringer at Alexandria, and Judge Batcheller +at Cairo--both of whom will render excellent service to Egypt, and do +honor to their own country. + +The law which these courts are to administer, is not Moslem law (until +now the supreme law of Egypt was the Koran, as it still is in Turkey), +nor any kind of Oriental law--but European law. Guided by the same +intelligence which framed the new judicial system, Egypt has adopted +the Code Napoleon. The French language will be used in the courts for +the European judges, and the Arabic for the native. + +In administering this law, these courts are supreme; they cannot be +touched by the Government, or their decisions annulled; for _they are +constituted by treaty_, and any attempt to interfere with them would +at once be resented by all the foreign powers as a violation of a +solemn compact, and bring down upon Egypt the protest and indignation +of the whole civilized world. + +The change involved in the introduction of such a system can hardly be +realized by Europeans or Americans. It is the first attempt to +inaugurate a reign of law in Egypt, or perhaps in any Oriental +country. It is a breakwater equally against the despotism of the +central power, and the meddlesomeness of foreign governments, acting +through the Consular Courts. For the first time the Khedive is himself +put under law, and has some check to his power over the lives and +property of his subjects. Indeed we may say that it is the first time +in the history of Egypt that there has been one law for ruler and +people--for the Khedive and the fellah, for the native-born and for +the stranger within their gates. + +The completion of such a system, after so much labor, has naturally +been regarded with great satisfaction by those who have been working +for it, and its inauguration on the first of the year was an occasion +of congratulation. On that day the new judges were inducted into +office, and after taking their official oaths they were all +entertained at the house of Judge Batcheller, where was present also +Mr. Washburne, our Minister at Paris, and where speeches were made in +English, French, German, and Arabic, and the warmest wishes expressed +both by the foreign and native judges, that a system devised with so +much care for the good of Egypt, might be completely successful. Of +course it will take time for the people to get accustomed to the new +state of things. They are so unused to any form of justice that at +first they hardly know what it means, and will be suspicious of it, as +if it were some new device of oppression. They have to be educated to +justice, as to everything else. By and bye they will get some new +ideas into their heads, and we may see a real administration of +justice in the valley of the Nile. That it may realize the hopes of +the great man by whom it has been devised, and "establish justice" in +a country in which justice has been hitherto unknown, will be the wish +of every American. + +This new judicial system is the one bright spot in the state of Egypt, +where there is so much that is dark. It is the one step of real +progress to be set over against all the waste and extravagance, the +oppression and tyranny. Aside from that I cannot indulge in any +rose-colored views. I cannot go into ecstasies of admiration over a +government which has had absolute control of the country for so many +years, and has brought it to the verge of ruin. + +And yet these failures and disasters, great as they are, do not abate +my interest in Egypt, nor in that remarkable man who has at present +its destinies in his hands. I would not ask too much, nor set up an +unreasonable standard. I am not so foolish as to suppose that Egypt +can be a constitutional monarchy like England; or a republic like +America. This would be carrying republicanism to absurdity. I am not +such an enthusiast for republican institutions, as to believe that +they are the best for all peoples, whatever their degree of +intelligence. They would be unsuited to Egypt. The people are not fit +for them. They are not only very poor, but very ignorant. There is no +middle class in Egypt in which to find the materials of free +institutions. Republican as I am, I believe that _the best possible +government for Egypt is an enlightened despotism_; and my complaint +against the government of the Khedive is, not that he concentrates all +power in himself, but that he does not use it wisely--that his +government unites, with many features of a civilized state, some of +the very worst features of Oriental tyranny. + +But with all that is dark in the present state of this country, and +sad in the condition of its people, I believe that Egypt has a great +future before it; that it is to rise to a new life, and become a +prosperous State of the modern world. The Nile valley has a great part +yet to play in the future civilization of Africa, as an avenue of +access to the interior--to those central highlands where are the Great +Lakes, which are the long-sought sources of the Nile; and from which +travellers and explorers, merchants and missionaries, may descend on +the one hand to the Niger, and to the Western Coast; or, on the other, +to those vast regions which own the rule of the Sultan of Zanzibar. I +watch with interest every Expedition up the Nile, if so be it is an +advance, not of conquest, but of peaceful commerce and civilization. + +Perhaps the Khedive will rise to the height of the emergency, and +bring his country out of all its difficulties, and set it on a new +career of prosperity. He has great qualities, great capacity and +marvellous energy. Has he also the gift of political wisdom? + +Never had a ruler such an opportunity. He has a part to act--if he +knows how to act it well--which will give him a name in history +greater than any of the old kings of Egypt, since to him it is given +to reconstruct a kingdom, and to lead the way for the regeneration of +a continent. If only he can see that his true interest lies, not in +war, but in peace, not in conquering all the tribes of Africa, and +annexing their territory, but in developing the resources of his own +country, and in peaceful commerce with his less civilized neighbors, +he will place himself at the head of a continent, and by the powerful +influence of his example, and of his own prosperous State, become not +only the Restorer of Egypt, but the Civilizer of Africa. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MIDNIGHT IN THE HEART OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. + + +Our last night in Cairo we spent in riding out to Ghizeh by moonlight, +and exploring the interior of the Great Pyramid. We had already been +there by day, and climbed to the top, but did not then go inside. +There is no access but by a single narrow passage, four feet wide and +high, which slopes at a descending angle, so that one must stoop very +low while he slides down an inclined plane, as if he were descending +into a mine by a very small shaft. There is not much pleasure in +crouching and creeping along such a passage, with a crowd of Arab +guides before and behind, lighting the darkness with their torches, +and making the rocky cavern hideous with their yells. These creatures +fasten on the traveller, pulling and pushing, smoking in his face, and +raising such a dust that he cannot see, and is almost choked, and +keeping up such a noise that he cannot hear, and can hardly think. One +likes a little quiet and silence, a little chance for meditation, when +he penetrates the sepulchre of kings, where a Pharaoh was laid down to +rest four thousand years ago. So I left these interior researches, on +our first visit to the Pyramid, to the younger members of our party, +and contented myself with clambering up its sides, and looking off +upon the desert and the valley of the Nile, with Cairo in the +distance. + +But on our trip up the Nile, I read the work of Piazzi Smyth, the +Astronomer Royal of Scotland, "Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid," +and had my curiosity excited to see again a structure which was not +only the oldest and greatest in the world, but in which he thought to +have discovered the proofs of a divine revelation. Dr. Grant of Cairo, +who had made a study of the subject, and had spent many nights in the +heart of the Pyramid, taking accurate measurements, kindly offered to +accompany us; and so we made up a party of those who had come down the +Nile--an Episcopal clergyman from New England, a Colonel from the +United States Army, a lady from Cambridge, Mass., and a German lady +and her daughter who had been with us for more than two months, and my +niece and myself. It was to be our last excursion together, as we were +to part on the morrow, and should probably never all meet again. + +At half-past eight o'clock we drove away from the Ezbekieh square in +Cairo. It was one of those lovely nights found only in Egypt. The +moon, approaching the full, cast a soft light on everything--on the +Nile, as we crossed the long iron bridge, and on the palms, waving +gently in the night wind. We rode along under the avenue of trees +planted by old Mehemet Ali, keeping up an animated conversation, and +getting a great deal of information about Egypt. It was two hours +before we reached the Pyramid. Of course the Arabs, who had seen the +carriages approaching along the road, and who like vultures, discern +their prey from a great distance, were soon around us, offering their +services. But Dr. Grant, whose experience had taught him whom to seek, +sent for the head man, whom he knew, who had accompanied him in his +explorations, and bade him seek out a sufficient number of trusty +guides for our party, and keep off the rest. + +While the sheik was seeking for his retainers, we strolled away to the +Sphinx, which looked more strange and weird than ever in the +moonlight. How many centuries has he sat there, crouching on the +desert, and looking towards the rising sun. The body is that of a +recumbent lion. The back only is seen, as the giant limbs, which are +stretched out sixty feet in front, are wholly covered by the sand. +But the mighty head still lifts its unchanged brow above the waste, +looking towards the East, to see the sun rise, as it has every morning +for four thousand years. + +On our return to the Pyramid, Dr. Grant pointed out the "corner +sockets" of the original structure, showing how much larger it was +when first built, and as it stood in the time of the Pharaohs. It is +well known that it has been mutilated by the successive rulers of +Egypt, who have stripped off its outer layers of granite to build +palaces and mosques in Cairo. This process of spoliation, continued +for centuries, has reduced the size of the Pyramid _two acres_, so +that now it covers but eleven acres of ground, whereas originally it +covered thirteen. Outside of all this was a pavement of granite, +extending forty feet from the base, which surrounded the whole. + +By the time we had returned, the sheik was on hand with his swarthy +guides around him, and we prepared to enter the Pyramid. It was not +_intended_ to be entered. If it had been so designed--as it is the +largest building in the world--it would have had a lofty gateway in +keeping with its enormous proportions, like the temples of Upper +Egypt. But it is not a temple, nor a place for assembly or for +worship, nor even a lofty, vaulted place of burial, like the tombs of +the Medici in Florence, or other royal mausoleums. Except the King's +and Queen's chambers (which are called chambers by courtesy, not being +large enough for ordinary bedrooms in a royal palace, but more like a +hermit's rocky cell), the whole Pyramid is one mass of stone, as solid +as the cliff of El Capitan in the Yo Semite valley. The only entrance +is by the narrow passage already described; and even this was walled +up so as to be concealed. If it were intended for a tomb, whoever +built it sealed it up, that its secret might remain forever inviolate; +and that the dead might slumber undisturbed until the Judgment day. It +was only by accident that an entrance was discovered. About a +thousand years ago a Mohammedan ruler, conceiving the idea that the +Pyramid had been built as a storehouse for the treasures of the kings +of Egypt, undertook to break into it, and worked for months to pierce +the granite sides, but was about to give it up in despair, when the +accidental falling of a stone led to the discovery of the passage by +which one now gains access to the interior. + +In getting into the Pyramid one must stoop to conquer. But this +stooping is nothing to the bodily prostrations he has to undergo to +get into some passages of the temples and underground tombs. Often one +has not only to crouch, but to crawl. Near the Pyramid are some tombs, +the mouths of which are so choked up with sand that one has actually +to forego all use of hands and knees. I threw myself in despair on the +ground, and told the guides to drag me in by the heels. As one lies +prone on the earth, he cannot help feeling that this horizontal +posture is rather ridiculous for one who is in the pursuit of +knowledge. I could not but think to what a low estate I had fallen. +Sometimes one feels indeed, as he is thus compelled to "lick the +dust," as if the curse of the serpent were pronounced upon him, "On +thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy +life." + +We had trusted to the man in authority to protect us from the horde of +Arabs; but nothing could keep back the irrepressible camp-followers, +who flocked after us, and when we got into the King's chamber, we +found we had twenty-four! With such a bodyguard, each carrying a +lighted candle, we took up our forward march, or rather our forward +_stoop_, for no man can stand upright in this low passage. Thus +bending one after another, like a flock of sheep, we vanished from the +moonlight. Dr. Grant led the way, and, full of the wonders of the +construction of the Pyramid, he called to me, as he disappeared down +its throat, to look back and see how that long tube--longer and larger +than any telescope that ever was made--pointed towards the North +Star. But stars and moon were soon eclipsed, and we were lost in the +darkness of this labyrinth. The descent is easy, indeed it is too +easy, for the sides of the passage are of polished limestone, smooth +as glass, and the floor affords but a slight hold for the feet, so +that as we bent forward, we found it difficult to keep our balance, +and might have fallen from top to bottom if we had not had the strong +arms of our guides to hold us up. With such a pair of crutches to lean +upon, we slid down the smooth worn pavement till we came to a huge +boulder, a granite portcullis, which blocked our way, around which a +passage had been cut. Creeping around this, pulled and hauled by the +Arabs, who lifted us over the dangerous places, we were shouldered on +to another point of rock, and now began our ascent along a passage as +slippery as that before. Here again we should have made poor progress +alone, with our boots which slipped at every moment on the smooth +stones, but for the Arabs, whose bare feet gave them a better hold, +and who held us fast. + +And now we are on a level and move along a very low passage, crouching +almost on our hands and knees, till we raise our heads and stand in +the Queen's Chamber--so called for no reason that we know but that it +is smaller than the King's. + +Returning from this, we find ourselves at the foot of the Grand +Gallery, or, as it might be called, Grand Staircase (as in its lofty +proportions it is not unlike one of the great staircases in the old +palaces of Genoa and Venice), which ascends into the heart of the +Pyramid. This is a magnificent hall, 157 feet long, 28 feet high, and +7 feet wide. But the ascent as before is over smooth and polished +limestone, to climb which is like climbing a cone of ice. We could not +have got on at all but for the nimble Arabs, whose bare feet enabled +them to cling to the slippery stone like cats, and who, grasping us in +their naked arms, dragged us forward by main force. The ladies shrank +from this kind of assistance, as they were sometimes almost embraced +by these swarthy creatures. But there was no help for it. This kind of +bodily exercise, passive and active, soon brought on an excessive +heat. We were almost stifled. Our faces grew red; I tore off my cravat +to keep from choking. Still, like a true American, I was willing to +endure anything if only I got ahead, and felt rewarded when we reached +the top of the Grand Gallery, and instead of looking _up_, looked +_down_. + +From this height we creep along another passage till we reach the +object of our climbing, in the lofty apartment called the King's +Chamber. This is the heart of the Great Pyramid--the central point for +which apparently it was built, and where, if anywhere, its secret is +to be found. At one end lies the sarcophagus (if such it was; if the +Pyramid was designed to be a tomb) in which the great Cheops was +buried. It is now tenantless, except by such fancies as travellers +choose to fill it withal. I know not what sudden freak of fancy took +me just then, perhaps I thought, How would it seem to be a king even +in his tomb? and instantly I threw myself down at full length within +the sarcophagus, and lay extended, head thrown back, and hands folded +on my breast, lying still, as great Cheops may have lain, when they +laid him in his royal house of death. It was a soft bed of dust, +which, as I sank in it, left upon my whole outward man a _marked_ +impression. It seemed very like ordinary dust, settled from the clouds +raised by the Arabs in their daily entrances to show the chamber to +visitors. But it was much more poetical to suppose that it was the +mouldering dust of Cheops himself, in which case even the mass that +clung to my hair might be considered as an anointing from the historic +past. From this I was able to relieve myself, after I reached home +that night, by a plentiful application of soap and water; but alas, my +gray travelling suit bore the scars of battle, the "dust of conflict," +much longer, and it was not till we left Suez that a waiter of the +ship took the garment in hand, and by a vigorous beating exorcised the +stains of Egypt, so that Pharaoh and his host--or his dust--were +literally cast into the Red Sea. + +And now we were all in the King's Chamber, our party of eight, with +three times the number of Arabs. The latter were at first quite noisy, +after their usual fashion, but Dr. Grant, who speaks Arabic, hushed +them with a peremptory command, and they instantly subsided, and +crouched down by the wall, and sat silent, watching our movements. One +of the party had brought with him some magnesium wire, which he now +lighted, and which threw a strong glare on the sides and on the +ceiling of the room, which, whether or not intended for the sepulchre +of kings, is of massive solidity--faced round with red granite, and +crossed above with enormous blocks of the same rich dark stone. With +his subject thus illuminated, Dr. Grant pointed out with great +clearness those features of the King's Chamber which have given it a +scientific interest. The sarcophagus, which is an oblong chest of red +granite, in his opinion, as in that of Piazzi Smyth, is not a +sarcophagus at all; indeed it looks quite as much like a huge bath-tub +as a place of burial for one of the Pharaohs. He called my attention +to the fact that it could not have been introduced into the Pyramid by +any of the known passages. It must, therefore, have been built in it. +It is also a singular fact that it has no cover, as a sarcophagus +always has. No mummy was ever found in it so far as we have any +historic record. Piazzi Smyth, in his book, which is full of curious +scientific lore, argues that it was not intended for a tomb, but for a +fixed standard of measures, such as was given to Moses by Divine +command. It is certainly a remarkable coincidence, if nothing more, +that it is of the exact size of the Ark of the Covenant. But without +giving too much importance to real or supposed analogies and +correspondences, we must acknowledge that there are many points in +the King's Chamber which make it a subject of curious study and of +scientific interest; and which seem to show that it was constructed +with reference to certain mathematical proportions, and had a design +beyond that of being a mere place of burial. + +After we had had this scientific discussion, we prepared for a +discussion of a different kind--that of the lunch which we had brought +with us. A night's ride sharpens the appetite. As the only place where +we could sit was the sarcophagus itself, we took our places in it, +sitting upon its granite sides. An Arab who knew what we should want, +had brought a pitcher of water, which, as the heat was oppressive, was +most grateful to our lips, and not less acceptable to remove the dust +from our eyes and hands. Thus refreshed, we relished our oranges and +cakes, and the tiny cups of Turkish coffee. + +To add to the weirdness of the scene, the Arabs asked if we would like +to see them perform one of their native dances? Having our assent, +they formed in a circle, and began moving their bodies back and forth, +keeping time with a strange chant, which was not very musical in +sound, as the dance was not graceful in motion. It was quickly over, +when, of course, the hat was passed instantly for a contribution. + +The Colonel proposed the health of Cheops! Poor old Cheops! What would +he have said to see such a party disturbing the place of his rest at +such an hour as this? I looked at my watch; it was midnight--an hour +when the dead are thought to stir uneasily in their graves. Might he +not have risen in wrath out of his sarcophagus to see these frivolous +moderns thus making merry in the place of his sepulture? But this +midnight feast was not altogether gay, for some of us thought how we +should be "far away on the morrow." For weeks and months we had been +travelling together, but this excursion was to be our last. We were +taking our parting feast--a fact which gave it a touch of sadness, as +the place and the hour gave it a peculiar interest. + +And now we prepared to descend. I lingered in the chamber to the last, +waiting till all had gone--till even the last attendant had crawled +out and was heard shouting afar off--that I might for a moment, at +least, be alone in the silence and the darkness in the heart of the +Pyramid; and then, crouching as before, followed slowly the lights +that were becoming dimmer and dimmer along the low and narrow passage. +Arrived at the top of the Grand Gallery, I waited with a couple of +Arabs till all our party descended, and then lighting a magnesium +wire, threw a sudden and brilliant light over the lofty walls. + +It was one o'clock when we emerged from our tomb to the air and the +moonlight, and found our carriages waiting for us. The moon was +setting in the West as we rode back under the long avenue of trees, +and across the sacred Nile. It was three o'clock when we reached our +hotel, and bade each other good-night and good-bye. Early in the +morning two of us were to leave for India on our way around the world, +and others were to turn their faces towards the Holy Land and Italy. +But however scattered over Europe and America, none of us will ever +forget our Midnight in the Heart of the Great Pyramid. + +In recalling this memory of Egypt, my object is not merely to furnish +a poetical and romantic description, but to invite the attention of +the most sober readers to what may well be a study and an instruction. +This Pyramid was the greatest of the Seven Wonders of the World in the +time of the Greeks, and it is the only one now standing on the earth. +May it not be that it contains some wisdom of the ancients that is +worthy the attention of the boastful moderns; some secret and sacred +lore which the science of the present day may well study to reveal? It +may be (as Piazzi Smyth argues in his learned book) that we who are +now upon the earth have "an inheritance in the Great Pyramid;" that +it was built not merely to swell the pride of the Pharaohs, and to be +the wonder of the Egyptians; but for our instruction, on whom the ends +of the world are come. Without giving our adhesion in advance to any +theory, there are certain facts, clearly apparent, which give to this +structure more than a monumental interest. For thousands of years it +had been supposed to have been built for a royal tomb--for that and +that only. So perhaps it was--and perhaps not. At any rate a very +slight observation will show that it was built also for other +purposes. For example: + +Observe its geographical position. It stands at the apex of the Delta +of the Nile, and Piazzi Smyth claims, in the centre of the habitable +globe! He has a map in which its point is fixed _in_ Africa, yet +between Europe and Asia, and which shows that it stands in the exact +centre of the land surface of the whole world. This, if it be an +accident, is certainly a singular one. + +Then it is exactly on the thirtieth parallel of latitude, and it +stands four-square, its four sides facing exactly the four points of +compass--North, South, East, and West. Now the chances are a million +to one that this could not occur by accident. There is no need to +argue such a matter. It was certainly done by design, and shows that +the old Egyptians knew how to draw a meridian line, and to take the +points of compass, as accurately as the astronomers of the present +day. + +Equally evident is it that they were able to measure the solar year as +exactly as modern astronomers. Taking the sacred cubit as the unit of +measure there are in each side of the Pyramid just 3651/4 cubits, which +gives not only the number of days in the year, but the six hours over! + +That it was built for astronomical purposes, seems probable from its +very structure. Professor Proctor argues that it was erected for +purposes of astrology! Never was there such an observatory in the +world. Its pinnacle is the loftiest ever placed in the air by human +hands. It seems as if the Pyramid were built like the tower of Babel, +that its top might "touch heaven." From that great height one has +almost a perfect horizon, looking off upon the level valley of the +Nile. It is said that it could not have been ascended because its +sides were covered with polished stone. But may there not have been a +secret passage to the top? It is hard to believe that such an +elevation was not made use of by a people so much given to the study +of the stars as were the ancient Egyptians. In some way we would +believe that the priests and astrologers of Egypt were able to climb +to that point, where they might sit all night long looking at the +constellations through that clear and cloudless sky; watching Orion +and the Pleiades, as they rose over the Mokattam hills on the other +side of the Nile, and set behind the hills of the Libyan desert. + +There is another very curious fact in the Pyramid, that the passage by +which it is entered points directly to the North Star, and yet not to +the North Star that now is, but to Alpha Draconis, which was the North +Star four thousand years ago. This is one way in which the age of the +Pyramid is determined, for it is found by the most exact calculations +that 2170 years before Christ, a man placed at the bottom of that +passage, as at the bottom of a well, and looking upward through that +shaft, as if he were looking through the great telescope of Lord +Rosse, would fix his eye exactly on the North Star--the pole around +which was revolving the whole celestial sphere. As is well known, this +central point of the heavens changes in the lapse of ages, but that +star will come around to the same point in 25,800 years more, when, if +the Pyramid be still standing, the observers of that remote period can +again look upward and see Alpha Draconis on his throne, and mark how +the stars "return again" to their places in the everlasting +revolutions of the heavens. + +As to the measurement of _time_, all who have visited astronomical +observatories know the extreme and almost infinite pains taken to +obtain an even temperature for clocks. The slightest increase of +temperature may elongate the pendulum, and so affect the duration of a +second, and this, though it be in a degree so infinitesimal as to be +almost inappreciable, yet becomes important to the accuracy of +computations, when a unit has to be multiplied by hundreds of +millions, as it is in calculating the distances of the heavenly +bodies. To obviate this difficulty, astronomical clocks are sometimes +placed in apartments under ground, closed in with thick walls (where +even the door is rarely opened, but the observations are made through +a glass window), so that it cannot be affected by the variations of +temperature of the outer world. But here, in the heart of this +mountain of stone, the temperature is preserved at an absolute +equilibrium, so that there is no expansion by heat and no contraction +by cold. What are all the observatories of Greenwich, and Paris and +Pulkowa, to such a rock-built citadel as the Great Pyramid? + +But not only was the Pyramid designed to stand right in its position +towards the earth and the heavenly bodies; but also, and perhaps +chiefly (so argues Prof. Smyth) was it designed for metrological (not +met_eo_rological) purposes--to furnish an exact standard of weights +and measures. The unit of lineal measure used in the Pyramid he finds +to correspond not to the English _foot_, nor to the French _metre_, +but to the Hebrew _sacred cubit_. This is certainly a curious +coincidence, but may it not prove simply that the latter was derived +from the former? Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, +and may have brought from the Valley of the Nile weights and measures, +as well as customs and laws. + +But this cubit itself, wherever it came from, has some very remarkable +correspondences. French and English mathematicians and astronomers +have had great difficulty to fix upon an exact standard of lineal +measure. Their method has been to take some length which had an exact +relation to one of the unchangeable spaces or distances of the globe +itself. Thus the English inch is one five hundred millionth part of +the axis of the earth. But Prof. Smyth finds in the Great Pyramid a +still better standard of measure. The cubit contains twenty-five of +what he calls "Pyramid inches," and fifty of these are just equal to +one ten-millionth part of the earth's axis of rotation! He finds in +the Pyramid a greater wonder still in a measure for determining the +distance of the earth from the sun, which is the unit for calculating +the distances of the heavenly bodies! That which scientific +expeditions have been sent into all parts of the earth within the last +two years to determine by more accurate observations of the transit of +Venus, is more exactly told in the Great Pyramid erected four thousand +years ago! + +It is a very fascinating study to follow this learned professor in his +elaborate calculations. He seems to think the whole of the exact +sciences contained in the Great Pyramid. The vacant chest of red +granite in the King's Chamber, over which Egyptologists have puzzled +so much, is to him as the very ark of the Lord. That which has been +supposed to be a sarcophagus, with no other interest than as having +once held a royal mummy, he holds not to be the tomb of Cheops, or of +any of the kings of Egypt, but a sacred coffer intended to serve as a +standard of weights and measures for all time to come. He thinks it +accomplishes perfectly the arithmetical feat of squaring the +circle!--the height being to the circumference of the base, as the +radius is to the circumference of a circle. + +But the Great Pyramid has, to Professor Smyth, more than a +scientific--it has a religious interest. He is a Scotchman, and not +only a man of science, but one who believes, with all the energy of +his Scotch nature, in a Divine revelation; and as might be supposed, +he connects this monument of scientific learning with One who is the +source of all wisdom and knowledge. However great may have been the +wisdom of the Egyptians, he does not believe that they had a knowledge +of geodesy and astronomy greater than the most learned scientific men +of our day. He has another explanation, that the Great Pyramid was +built by the guidance of Him who led the Israelites out of Egypt, and +who, as he shone upon their path in the desert, now shines by this +lighthouse and signal tower upon the blindness and ignorance of the +world. He believes that the Pyramid was constructed by Divine +inspiration just as much as the Jewish Tabernacle; that as Moses was +commanded to fashion everything according to the pattern showed to him +in the Mount, so some ancient King of Egypt, working under Divine +inspiration, builded better than he knew, and wrought into enduring +stone, truths which he did not perhaps himself understand, but which +were to be revealed in the last time, and to testify to a later +generation the manifold wisdom of God. As to its age he places it +somewhere between the time of Noah and the calling of Abraham. Dr. +Grant even thinks it was built before the death of Noah! But mankind +could hardly have multiplied in the earth in the lifetime of even the +oldest of the patriarchs, so as to be capable of building such +monuments. The theory is that it was not built by an Egyptian +architect. There is a tradition mentioned in Herodotus of a shepherd +who came from a distant country, from the East, who had much to do +with the building of the Pyramid, and was regarded as a heavenly +visitant and director. Prof. Smyth thinks it probable, that this +visitor was Melchisedek! He even gives the Pyramid a prophetic +character, and thinks that the different passages and chambers are +designed to be symbolical of the different economies through which God +educates the race. The entrance at first _descends_. That may +represent the gradual decadence of mankind to the time of the Flood, +or to the exodus of the Israelites. Then the passage begins to +_ascend_, but slowly and painfully, which represents the Jewish +Dispensation, when men were struggling towards the light. After a +hundred and twenty-seven feet of this stooping and creeping upward, +there is a sudden enlargement, and the low passage rises up into the +Grand Gallery, just as the Mosaic economy, after groping through many +centuries, at last bursts into the full glory of the Christian +Dispensation. + +Believing in its inspired character, he finds in every part of this +wonderful structure signs and symbols. Taking it as an emblem of +Christian truth, where is the chief corner-stone? Not at the base, but +at the top--the apex! At the bottom, there are four stones which are +equal--no one of which is above another--the _chief_ corner-stone +therefore must be the capstone! + +It will be perceived that this is a very original and very sweeping +theory; that it overturns all our ideas of the Great Pyramid; that it +not only turns Cheops out of it, but turns Science and Revelation +together into it. We may well hesitate before accepting it in its full +extent, and yet we must acknowledge our indebtedness to Prof. Smyth. +He has certainly given a new interest to this hoary monument of the +past. Scientific men who reject his theory are still deeply interested +in the facts which he brings to light, which they recognize as very +extraordinary, and which show a degree of scientific knowledge which +not only they did not believe to exist among the Egyptians, but which +hardly exists in our day. + +So much as this we may freely concede, that the Pyramid has a +scientific value, if not a sacred character; that it is full of the +wisdom of the Egyptians, if not of the inspiration of the Almighty; +and that it is a storehouse of ancient knowledge, even if it be not +the very Ark of the Covenant, in which the holiest mysteries are +enshrined! + +Leaving out what may be considered fanciful in the speculations of +the Scotch astronomer, there is yet much in the facts he presents +worthy the consideration of the man of science, as well as the devout +attention of the student of the Bible, and which, if duly weighed, +will at once enlarge our knowledge and strengthen our faith. + +Such are the lessons that we derive from even our slight acquaintance +with the Great Pyramid; and so, as we looked back that night, and saw +it standing there in the moonlight, its cold gray summit, its "chief +corner-stone," pointing upwards to the clear unclouded firmament, it +seemed to point to something above the firmament--to turn our eyes and +thoughts to Heaven and to God. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +LEAVING EGYPT--THE DESERT. + + +We left Cairo the next morning. Our departure from Egypt was not +exactly like that of the Israelites, though we came through the land +of Goshen, and by the way of the Red Sea. We did not flee away at +night, nor hear the rush of horses and chariots behind us. Indeed we +were very reluctant to flee at all; we did not like to go away, for in +those five or six weeks we had grown very fond of the country, to +which the society of agreeable travelling companions lent an +additional charm. + +But the world was all before us, and necessity bade us depart. It was +the 6th of January, the beginning of the feast of Bairam, the +Mohammedan Passover. The guns of the Citadel ushered in the day, +observed by all devout Mussulmans, which commemorates the sacrifice by +Abraham--not of Isaac, but of _Ishmael_, for the Arabs, who are +descendants of Ishmael, have no idea of his being set aside by the +other son of the Father of the Faithful. On this day every family +sacrifices the paschal lamb (which explains the flocks of sheep which +we had seen for several days in the streets of the city), and +sprinkles its blood upon the lintels and doorposts of their houses, +that the angel of death may pass them by. The day is one of general +rejoicing and festivity. The Khedive gives a grand reception to all +the foreign representatives at his palace of Gezireh, at which I had +been invited to be present. But from this promised pleasure I had to +tear myself away, to reach the steamer at Suez on which we were to +embark the next day for India. But if we missed the Khedive, we had at +least a compensation, for as we were at the station, who should appear +but Nubar Pasha! He had just resigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, +which took a load off his shoulders, and felt like a boy out of +school, and was now going off to a farm which he has a few miles from +Cairo, to have a holiday. He immediately came to us and took a seat in +the same carriage, and we sat together for an hour, listening to his +delightful conversation, as he talked of Egypt with a patriot's love +and a poet's enthusiasm. There is no man who more earnestly wishes its +prosperity, and it would be well for the Khedive if he were always +guided by such advisers. At the station his servants met him with one +of those beautiful white donkeys, so much prized in the East, and as +he rode away waving his hand to us, we felt that we were parting from +one of the wisest and wittiest men whom it had been our good fortune +to meet in all our travels. + +At Zagazig, the railroad from Cairo unites with that from Alexandria. +Here we stopped to dine, and while waiting, a special train arrived +with Mr. Cave, who has come out from London to try and put some order +into the financial affairs of Egypt. If he succeeds, he will deserve +to be ranked very high as a financier. He was going on to Ismailia to +meet M. de Lesseps, that they might go through the Suez Canal +together. + +And now we leave behind us the rich land of Goshen, where Joseph +placed his father Jacob and his brethren, with their flocks and herds; +we leave the fertile meadows and the palm groves. We are on the track +of the Israelites; we have passed Rameses, the first station in their +march, and entered the desert, that "great and terrible wilderness" in +which they wandered forty years. We enter it, not on camels or horses, +but drawn by a steed of fire. A railway in the desert! This is +progress indeed. There is something very imposing to the imagination +in the idea of an iron track laid in the pathless sands, over which +long trains move swifter than "the swift dromedaries," and carrying +burdens greater than the longest caravans. These are the highways of +civilization, which may yet carry it into the heart of Africa. Here, +too, are the great ships, passing through the Suez Canal, whose tall +masts are outlined against the horizon, as they move slowly from sea +to sea. + +And now we are approaching the border line between Asia and Africa. It +is an invisible line; no snow-capped mountains divide the mighty +continents which were the seats of the most ancient civilization; no +sea flows between them: the Red Sea terminates over seventy miles from +the Mediterranean; even the Suez Canal does not divide Asia and +Africa, for it is wholly in Egypt. Nothing marks where Africa ends and +Asia begins, but a line in the desert, covered by drifting sands. And +yet there is something which strangely touches the imagination, as we +move forward in the twilight, with the sun behind us, setting over +Africa, and before us the black night coming on over the whole +continent of Asia. + +So would I take leave of Africa--in the Night and in the Desert. Byron +closes his Childe Harold with an apostrophe to the Ocean, his Pilgrim +ending his wanderings on the shore. The Desert is like the Sea: it +fills the horizon, and shuts out the sight of "busy cities far away," +leaving one on the boundless plain, as on the Ocean--alone with the +Night. Perhaps I may be indulged in some quiet musings here, before we +embark on the Red Sea, and seek a new world in India. + +But what can one say of the desert? The subject seems as barren as its +own sands. _Life_ in the desert? There is _no_ life; it is the very +realm of death, where not a blade of grass grows, nor even an insect's +wing flutters over the mighty desolation; the only objects in motion, +the clouds that flit across the sky, and cast their shadows on the +barren waste below; and the only sign that man has ever passed over +it, the bleaching bones that mark the track of caravans. + +But as we look, behold "a wind cometh out of the North," and stirring +the loose sand, whirls it into a column, which moves swiftly towards +us like a ghost, as if it said: "I am the spirit of the desert; man, +wherefore comest thou here? Pass on. If thou invadest long my realm of +solitude and silence, I will make thy grave." We shall not linger, but +only "tarry for a night," to question a little the mystery that lies +hidden beneath these drifting sands. + +We look again, and we see shadowy forms coming out of the +whirlwind--great actors in history, as well as figures of the +imagination. The horizon is filled with moving caravans and marching +armies. Ancient conquerors pass this way for centuries from Asia into +Africa, and back again, the wave of conquest flowing and reflowing +from the valley of the Tigris to the valley of the Nile. As we leave +the Land of Goshen, we hear behind us the tramp of the Israelites +beginning their march; and as the night closes in, we see in another +quarter of the horizon the wise men of the East coming from Arabia, +following their guiding star, which leads them to Bethlehem, where +Christ was born. + +And so the desert which was "dead" becomes "alive;" a whole living +world starts up from the sands, and glides into view, appearing +suddenly like Arab horsemen, and then vanishing as if it had not been, +and leaving no trace in the sands any more than is left by a wreck +that sinks in the ocean. But like the sea, it has its passing life, +which has a deep human interest. And not only is there a life of the +desert, but a literature which is the expression of that life--a +history and a poetry, which take their color from these peculiar forms +of nature--and even a music of the desert, sung by the camel-drivers, +to the slow movement of the caravan, its plaintive cadence keeping +time to the tinkling of the bells. + +It has been one of the problems of physical geographers: What was the +_use_ of deserts in the economy of nature? A large part of Africa is +covered by deserts. The Libyan Desert reaches to the Sahara, which +stretches across the continent. All this seems an utterly waste +portion of the earth's surface. The same question has been raised in +regard to the sea: Why is it that three-fourths of the globe are +covered by water? Perhaps the same answer may be given in both cases. +These vast spaces may be the generators and purifiers of the air we +breathe--the renovators of our globe's atmosphere. + +And the desert has its beauty as well as its utility. It is not all a +dead level, a boundless monotony, but is billowy like the sea, with +great waves of sand cast up by the wandering winds. The color, of +course, is always the same, for there is no green thing to relieve the +yellow sand. But nature sometimes produces great effects with few +materials. This monotony of color is touched with beauty by the glow +of sunset, as the light of day fades over the wide expanse. Sunrise +and sunset on the desert have all the simple but grand effects of +sunrise and sunset on the ocean. What painter that has visited Egypt +has not tried to put on canvas that after-glow on the Nile, which is +alike his wonder and his despair? Egypt is one of the favorite +countries sought by European artists, who seek to catch that +marvellous color which is the effect of its atmosphere. They find many +a subject in the desert. With the accessories of life, few as they +are, it presents many a scene to attract a painter's eye, and +furnishes full scope to his genius. A great artist finds ample +material in its bare and naked outlines, relieved by a few solitary +figures--the Arab and his tent, or the camel and his rider. Perhaps +the scene is simply a few palm trees beside a spring, under whose +shade a traveller has laid him down to rest from the noon-tide heat, +and beside him are camels feeding! But here is already a picture. With +what effect does Gerome give the Prayer in the Desert, with the camel +kneeling on the sands, and his rider kneeling beside him, with his +face turned towards Mecca; or Death in the Desert, where the poor +beast, weary and broken, is abandoned to die, yet murmurs not, but has +a look of patience and resignation that is most pathetic, as the +vultures are seen hovering in the air, ready to descend on their prey! + +A _habitat_ so peculiar as the desert must produce a life as peculiar. +It is of necessity a lonely life. The dweller in tents is a solitary +man, without any fixed ties, or local habitation. Whoever lives on the +desert must live alone, or with few companions, for there is nothing +to support existence. It must be also a nomadic life. If the Arab +camps, with his flocks and herds, in some green spot beside a spring, +yet it is only for a few days, for in that time his sheep and cattle +have consumed the scanty herbage, and he must move on to some new +resting-place. Thus the life of the desert is a life always in motion. +The desert has no settled population, no towns or villages, where men +are born, and grow up, and live and die. Its only "inhabitants" are +"strangers and pilgrims," that come alone or in caravans, and pitch +their tents, and tarry for a night, and are gone. + +Such a life induces peculiar habits, and breeds a peculiar class of +virtues and vices. Nomadic tribes are almost always robbers, for they +have to fight for existence, and it is a desperate struggle. But, on +the other hand, their solitary life as well as the command of the +prophet, has taught them the virtue of hospitality. Living alone, they +feel at times the sore need of the presence of their kind, and welcome +the companionship even of strangers. An Arab sheik may live by preying +on travellers, but if a wanderer on the desert approaches his tent and +asks shelter and protection, he gives it freely. Even though the old +chief be a robber, the stranger sleeps in peace and safety, and his +entertainer is rewarded by the comfort of seeing a human face and +hearing a human voice. + +To traverse spaces so vast and so desolate would not be possible were +it not for that faithful beast of burden which nature has provided. +Horses may be used by the Bedouins on their marauding expeditions, but +they keep near the borders of the desert, where they can make a dash +and fly; but on the long journey across the Great Sahara, by which the +outer world communicates with the interior of Africa, no beast could +live but the camel, which is truly the ship of the desert. Paley might +find an argument for design in the peculiar structure of the camel for +its purpose; in its stomach, that can carry water for days, and its +foot, which is not small like that of the horse, but broad, to keep +the huge animal from sinking in the sands. It serves as a snow-shoe, +and bears up both the beast and his rider. Then it is not hard like a +horse's hoof, that rings so sharp on the pavement, but soft almost +like a lion's paw. And tall as the creature is, he moves with a +swinging gait, that is not unpleasant to one accustomed to it, and as +he comes down on his soft foot, the Arab mother sits at ease, and her +child is lulled to rest almost as if rocked in a cradle. + +Thus moving on in these slow and endless marches, what so natural as +that the camel-riders should beguile their solitude with song? The +lonely heart relieves itself by pouring its loves and its sorrows into +the air; and hence come those Arabian melodies, so wild and plaintive +and tender, which constitute the music of the desert. Some years since +a symphony was produced in Paris, called "The Desert," which created a +great sensation, deriving its peculiar charm from its unlikeness to +European music. It awakened, as it were, a new sense in those who had +been listening all their lives to French and German operas. It seemed +to tell--as music only tells--the story of the life of the desert. In +listening one could almost see the boundless plain, broken only by the +caravan, moving slowly across the waste. He could almost "feel the +silence" of that vast solitude, and then faintly in the distance was +heard the tinkling of the camel-bells, and the song of the desert rose +upon the evening air, as softly as if cloistered nuns were singing +their vesper hymns. The novel conception took the fancy of the +pleasure seekers of Paris, always eager for a new sensation. The +symphony made the fame of the composer, Felicien David, who was +thought to have shown a very original genius in the composition of +melodies, such as Europe had not heard before. The secret was not +discovered until some French travellers in the East, crossing the +desert, heard the camel-drivers singing and at once recognized the +airs that had so taken the enthusiasm of Paris. They were the songs of +the Arabs. The music was born on the desert, and produced such an +effect precisely because it was the outburst of a passionate nature +brooding in solitude. + +Music and poetry go together: the life that produces the one produces +the other also. And as there is a music of the desert, so there is a +poetry of the desert. Indeed the desert may be almost said to have +been the birthplace of poetry. The Book of Job, the oldest poem in the +world, older than Homer, and grander than any uninspired composition, +was probably written in Arabia, and is full of the imagery of the +desert. + +But while the mind carols lightly in poetry and music, its deeper +musings take the form of Religion. It is easy to see how the life of +the desert must act upon a thoughtful and "naturally religious" mind. +The absence of outward objects throws it back upon itself; and it +broods over the great mystery of existence. Coleridge's Ancient +Mariner, when he was + + "Alone on the wide, wide sea," + +found that + + "So lonely 'twas that God himself + Scarce seemed there to be." + +But in the desert one may say there is nothing but God. If there is +little of earth, there is much of heaven. The glory of the desert is +at night, when the full moon rises out of the level plain, as out of +the sea, and walks the unclouded firmament. And when she retires, then +all the heavenly host come forth. The atmosphere is of such exquisite +purity, that the stars shine with all their splendor. No vapor rises +from the earth, no exhalation obscures the firmament, which seems all +aglow with the celestial fires. It was such a sight that kindled the +mind of Job, as he looked up from the Arabian deserts three thousand +years ago, and saw Orion and the Pleiades keeping their endless march; +and as led him to sing of the time "when the morning stars sang +together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." + +Is it strange that God should choose such a vast and silent temple as +this for the education of those whom He would set apart for his own +service? Here the Israelites were led apart to receive the law from +the immediate presence of God. The desert was their school, the place +of their national education. It separated them from their own history. +It drew a long track between them and the bitter past. It was a fit +introduction to their new life and their new religion, as to their new +country. + +In such solitudes God has had the most direct communion with the +individual soul. It was in the desert that Moses hid himself in a +cleft of the rock while the Lord passed by; that the Lord answered Job +out of the whirlwind; and from it that John the Baptist came forth, as +the voice of one crying in the wilderness. + +So in later ages holy men who wished to shun the temptations of +cities, that they might lead lives of meditation and prayer, fled to +the desert, that they might forget the world and live for God alone. +This was one of the favorite retreats of Monasticism in the early +Christian centuries. The tombs of the Thebaid were filled with monks. +Convents were built on the cliffs of Mount Sinai that remain to this +day. + +We do not feel the need of such seclusion and separation from the +world, but this passing over the desert sets the mind at work and +supplies a theme for religious meditation. Is not life a desert, +where, as on the sea, all paths are lost, and the traveller can only +keep his course by observations on the stars? And are we not all +pilgrims? Do we not all belong to that slow moving caravan, that +marches steadily across the waste and disappears in the horizon? Can +we not help some poor wanderer who may be lonely and friendless, or +who may have faltered by the way; or guide another, if it be only to +go before him, and leave our footprints in the sands, that + + "A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, + Seeing may take heart again?" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ON THE RED SEA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN. + + +Suez lies between the desert and the sea, and is the point of +departure both for ships and caravans. But the great canal to which it +gives its name, has not returned the favor by giving it prosperity. +Indeed the country through which it passes derives little benefit from +its construction. Before it was opened, Egypt was on the overland +route to India, from which it derived a large revenue. All passengers +had to disembark at Alexandria and cross by railroad to Suez; while +freight had to be unshipped at the one city and reshipped at the +other, and thus pay tribute to both. Now ships pass directly from the +Mediterranean into the canal, and from the canal into the Red Sea, so +that the Englishman who embarks at Southampton, need not set his foot +on the soil of Egypt. Thus it is not Egypt but England that profits by +the opening of the Suez Canal; while Egypt really suffers by the +completion of a work which is of immense benefit to the commerce of +the world. + +Though the Suez Canal is an achievement of modern times, yet the idea +is not modern, nor indeed the first execution. It was projected from +almost the earliest period of history, and was begun under the +Pharaohs, and was at one time completed, though not, as now, solely +for the passage of ships, but also as a defence, a gigantic moat, +which might serve as a barrier against invasions from Asia. + +There is nothing in Suez to detain a traveller, and with the morning +we were sailing out in one of the native boats, before a light wind, +to the great ship lying in the harbor, which was to take us to India. +We had, indeed, a foretaste, or rather fore_sight_, of what we were +soon to look upon in the farthest East, as we saw some huge elephants +moving along the quay; but these were not familiar inhabitants, but +had just been disembarked from a ship arrived only the day before from +Bombay--a present from the Viceroy of India to the Viceroy of Egypt. + +Once on board ship I was as in mine own country, for now, for the +first time in many months, did I hear constantly the English language. +We had been so long in Europe, and heard French, German, Italian, +Greek and Turkish; and Arabic in Egypt; that at first I started to +hear my own mother tongue. I could not at once get accustomed to it, +but called to the waiter "garcon," and was much surprised that he +answered in English. But it was very pleasant to come back to the +speech of my childhood. Henceforth English will carry me around the +globe. It is the language of the sea, and of "the ends of the earth;" +and it seems almost as if the good time were coming when the whole +earth should be of one language and of one speech. + +And now we are on the Red Sea, one of the historical seas of the +world. Not far below the town of Suez is supposed to be the spot where +the Israelites were hemmed in between the mountains and the sea; where +Moses bade the waves divide, and the fleeing host rushed in between +the uplifted walls, feeling that, if they perished, the waters were +more merciful than their oppressors; while behind them came the +chariots of their pursuers. + +It was long before we lost sight of Egypt. On our right was the +Egyptian coast, still in view, though growing dimmer on the horizon; +and as we sat on deck at evening the gorgeous sunsets flamed over +those shores, as they did on the Nile, as if reluctant to leave the +scene of so much glory. + +On the other side of the sea stretched the Peninsula of Sinai, with +its range of rugged mountains, among which the eye sought the awful +summit from which God gave the law. + +This eastern side of the Red Sea has been the birthplace of religions. +Half way down the coast is Jhidda, the port of Mecca. Thus Islam was +born not far from the birthplace of Judaism, of which in many features +it is a close imitation. + +I have asked many times, What gave the name to the Red Sea? Certainly +it is not the color of the water, which is blue as the sea anywhere. +It is said that there is a phosphorescent glow, given by a marine +insect, which at night causes the waters to sparkle with a faint red +light. Others say it is from the shores, which being the borders of +the desert, have its general sandy red, or yellow, appearance. I +remember years ago, when sailing along the southern coast of Wales, a +gentleman, pointing to some red-banked hills, said they reminded him +of the shores of the Red Sea. + +But whether they have given it its name or not, these surrounding +deserts have undoubtedly given it its extreme heat, from which it has +become famous as "the hottest place in the world." The wind blowing +off from these burning sands, scorches like a sirocco; nor is the heat +much tempered by the coolness of the sea--for indeed the water itself +becomes heated to such a degree as to be a serious impediment to the +rapid condensation of steam. + +We began to feel the heat immediately after leaving Suez. The very +next day officers of the ship appeared in white linen pantaloons, +which seemed to me a little out of season; but I soon found that they +were wiser than I, especially as the heat increased from day to day as +we got more into the tropics. Then, to confess the truth, they +sometimes appeared on deck in the early morning in the most neglige +attire. At first I was a little shocked to see, not only officers of +the ship, but officers of the army, of high rank, coming on deck after +their baths barefoot; but I soon came to understand how they should be +eager, when they were almost burning with fever, to be relieved of +even the slightest addition to weight or warmth. In the cabin, +_punkas_, long screens, were hung over the tables, and kept swinging +all day long. The deck was hung with double awnings to keep off the +sun; and here the "old Indians" who had made this voyage before, and +knew how to take their comfort in the hot climate, were generally +stretched out in their reclining bamboo-chairs, with a cigar in one +hand and a novel in the other. + +The common work of the ship was done by Lascars, from India, as they +can stand the heat much better than English sailors. They are docile +and obedient, and under the training of English officers make +excellent seamen. + +But we must not complain, for they tell us our voyage has been a very +cool one. The thermometer has never been above 88 degrees, which +however, considering that this is _midwinter_, is doing pretty well! + +If such be the heat in January, what must it be in July? Then it is +fairly blistering; the thermometer rises to 110 and 112 degrees in the +shade; men stripped of clothing to barely a garment to cover them, are +panting with the heat; driven from the deck, they retreat to the lower +part of the ship, to find a place to breathe; sometimes in despair, +the captain tells me, they turn the ship about, and steam a few miles +in the opposite direction, to get a breath of air; and yet, with all +precautions, he adds that it is not an infrequent thing, that +passengers overpowered sink under a sunstroke or apoplexy. + +Such heat would make the voyage to India one of real suffering, and of +serious exposure, were it not for the admirable ships in which it can +be made. But these of the Peninsular and Oriental company are about as +perfect as anything that swims the seas. We were fortunate in hitting +upon the largest and best of the fleet, the Peshawur. Accustomed as we +have been of late to the smaller steamers on the Mediterranean, she +seems of enormous bulk, and is of great strength as well as size; and +being intended for hot climates, is constructed especially for +coolness and ventilation. The state-rooms are much larger than in most +sea-going steamers, and though intended for three persons, as the ship +was not crowded (there were berths for 170 passengers, while we had +but 34, just one-fifth the full complement) we had each a whole +state-room to ourselves. There were bath-rooms in ample supply, and we +took our baths every morning as regularly as on land. + +On the Peshawur, as on all English ships, the order and discipline +were admirable. Every man knew his place, and attended to his duty. +Everything was done silently, and yet so regularly that one felt that +there was a sharp eye in every corner of the ship; that there was a +vigilant watch night and day, and this gave us such a sense of safety, +that we lay down and rose up with a feeling of perfect security. + +Besides, the officers, from the captain down, not only took good care +for the safety of our lives, but did everything for our comfort. They +tried to make us feel at home, and were never so well pleased as when +they saw us all pleasantly occupied; some enjoying games, and others +listening to music, when some amateur was playing on the piano, at +times accompanied by a dozen manly and womanly voices. Music at sea +helps greatly to beguile the tedium of a voyage. Often the piano was +brought on deck, at which an extemporized choir practised the hymns +for public service; among which there was one that always recurred, +and that none can forget: + + "Eternal Father, strong to save, + Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, + Who bid'st the mighty ocean deep + Its own appointed limits keep: + Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee + For those in peril on the sea." + +And when the Sunday morning came and the same prayers were read which +they had been accustomed to hear in England, many who listened felt +that, whatever oceans they might cross, here was a tie that bound them +to their island home, and to the religion of their fathers. + +On the morning of the sixth day we passed the island of Perim, which +guards the Gates of the Red Sea, and during the day passed many +islands, and were in full sight of the Arabian coast, and at the +evening touched at Aden. Here the heat reaches the superlative. In +going down the Red Sea, one may use all degrees of comparison--hot, +hotter, hottest--and the last is Aden. It is a barren point of rock +and sand, within twelve degrees of the Equator, and the town is +actually in the crater of an extinct volcano, into which the sun beats +down with the heat of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. But the British +Government holds it, as it commands the entrance to the Red Sea, and +has fortified it, and keeps a garrison here. However it mercifully +sends few English soldiers to such a spot, but supplies the place +chiefly with native regiments from India. All the officers hold the +place in horror, counting it a very purgatory, from which it is +Paradise to be transferred to India. + +But from this point the great oppression of the heat ceased. Rounding +this rock of Aden, we no longer bore southward (which would have taken +us along the Eastern coast of Africa, to the island of Zanzibar, the +point of departure for Livingstone to explore the interior, and of +Stanley to find him), but turned to the East, and soon met the +Northeast monsoon, which, blowing in our faces, kept us comparatively +cool all the way across the Indian Ocean. + +And now our thoughts began to be busy with the strange land which we +were soon to see, a land to which most of those on board belonged, and +of which they were always ready to converse. Strangers to each other, +we soon became acquainted, and exchanged our experiences of travel. +Beside me at the table sat a barrister from Bombay, and next to him +three merchants of that city, who, leaving their families in England, +were returning to pursue their fortunes in India. One had been a +member of the Governor's Council, and all were familiar with the +politics and the business of that great Empire. There was also a +missionary of the Free Church of Scotland, who, after ten years' +service, had been allowed a year and a half to recruit in the mother +country, and was now returning to his field of labor in Bombay, with +whom I had many long talks about the religions of India and the +prospects of missions. There was a fine old gentleman who had made his +fortune in Australia, to which he was returning with his family after +a visit to England. + +The military element, of course, was very prominent. A large +proportion of the passengers were connected in some way with the army, +officers returning to their regiments, or officers' wives returning to +their husbands. Of course those who live long in India, have many +experiences to relate; and it was somewhat exciting to hear one +describe the particulars of a tiger hunt--how the game of all kind was +driven in from a circuit of miles around by beaters, and by elephants +trained for the work; how the deer and lesser animals fled frightened +by, while the hunter, bent on royal game, disdained such feeble prey, +and every man reserved his fire, sitting in his howdah on the back of +an elephant till at last a magnificent Bengal tiger sprang into view, +and as the balls rained on his sides, with a tremendous bound he fell +at the feet of the hunters; or to hear a Major who had been in India +during the Mutiny, describe the blowing away of the Sepoys from the +mouths of cannon; with what fierce pride, like Indian warriors at the +stake, they shrank not from the trial, but even when not bound, stood +unmoved before the guns, till they were blown to pieces, their legs +and arms and mangled breasts scattered wide over the field. + +There was a surgeon in the Bengal Staff Corps, Dr. Bellew, who had +travelled extensively in the interior of Asia, attached to several +missions of the Government, and had published a volume, entitled "From +the Indus to the Tigris." He gave me some of his experiences in +Afghanistan, among the men of Cabul, and in Persia. Three years since +he was attached to the mission of Sir Douglas Forsyth to Kashgar and +Yarkund. This was a secret embassy of the government to Yakoob Beg, +the Tartar chief, who by his courage as a soldier had established his +power in those distant regions of Central Asia. In carrying out this +mission, the party crossed the Himalayas at a height far greater than +the top of Mont Blanc. Our fellow traveller gave us some fearful +pictures of the desolation of those snowy wastes, as well as some +entertaining ones of the strange manners of some parts of High Asia. +He passed through Little Thibet, where prevails the singular custom of +polyandry--instead of one man having many wives, one woman may have +many husbands, although they cannot be of different families. She can +marry half a dozen brothers at once, but must not extend her household +into another family. He was now bound for Nepaul, under the shadow of +the Himalayas, being ordered to report at once to the Maharajah, who +is preparing to receive the Prince of Wales, and to entertain him with +the grandest tiger hunt ever known in India. + +With such variety of company, and such talk to enliven the hours, as +we sat on deck at twilight, or by moonlight--for we had the full moon +on the Indian Ocean--the days did not seem long, and we were almost +taken by surprise as we approached the end of our voyage. + +On the afternoon of the twelfth day from Suez we were nearing our +destined port, and eyes and glasses were turned in that direction; but +it was not till the sun was setting that his light shone full on the +Ghauts, the range of mountains that line the western coast of +India--steps, as their name implies, to the high table-land of the +interior. Presently as the darkness deepened, the revolving light of +the lighthouse shot across the deep; signal guns from the city +announced the arrival of the mail from England; rows of lamps shining +for miles round the bay lighted up the waters and the encircling +shore; and, there was India! + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BOMBAY--FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA. + + +Never did travellers open their eyes with more of wonder and curiosity +than we, as we awoke the next morning and went on deck and turned to +the unaccustomed shore. The sun had risen over the Ghauts, and now +cast his light on the islands, covered with cocoanut palms, and on the +forest of shipping that lay on the tranquil waters. Here were ships +from all parts of the world, not only from the Mediterranean and from +England, but from every part of Asia and Africa, and from Australia. A +few weeks before had been witnessed here a brilliant sight at the +landing of the Prince of Wales. A long arched way of trellis work, +still hung with faded wreaths, marked the spot where the future +Emperor of India first set foot upon its soil. Our ship, which had +anchored off the mouth of the harbor, now steamed up to her moorings, +a tug took us off to the Mazagon Bunder, the landing place of the +Peninsular and Oriental Company, where we mounted a long flight of +granite steps to the quay--and were in India. + +Passing through the Custom House gates, we were greeted not by the +donkey-boys of Egypt, but by a crowd of barefooted and barelegged +Hindoos, clad in snowy white, and with mountainous turbans on their +heads, who were ambitious of the honor of driving us into the city. +The native carriage (or _gharri_, as it is called) is not a handsome +equipage. It is a mere box, oblong in shape, set on wheels, having +latticed windows like a palanquin, to admit the air and shut out the +sun. Mounting into such a "State carriage," our solemn Hindoo gave +rein to his steed, and we trotted off into Bombay. As our destination +was Watson's Hotel, in the English quarter at the extreme end of the +city, we traversed almost its whole extent. The streets seemed +endless. On and on we rode for miles, till we were able to realize +that we were in the second city in the British empire--larger than any +in Great Britain except London--larger than Liverpool or Glasgow, or +Manchester or Birmingham. + +Of course the population is chiefly native, and this it is which +excites my constant wonder. As I ride about I ask myself, Am I on the +earth, or in the moon? Surely this must be some other planet than the +one that I have known before. I see men as trees walking, but they are +not of any familiar form or speech. Perhaps it is because we are on +the other side of the world, and everything is turned topsy-turvy, and +men are walking on their heads. We may have to adopt the Darwinian +theory of the origin of man; for these seem to be of another species, +to belong to another department of the animal kingdom. That old Hindoo +that I see yonder, sitting against the wall, with his legs curled up +under him, seems more like a chimpanzee than a man. He has a way of +sitting on his _heels_ (a posture which would be impossible for a +European, but which he will keep for hours), which is more like an +animal than a human creature. + +Truly we have never been in such a state of bewilderment since we +began our travels, as since we landed in Bombay. Constantinople seemed +strange, and Egypt stranger still; but India is strangest of all. The +streets are swarming with life, as a hive swarms with bees. The +bazaars are like so many ant-hills, but the creatures that go in and +out are not like any race that we have seen before. They are not white +like Europeans, nor black like Africans, nor red like our American +Indians; but are pure Asiatics, of a dark-brown color, the effect of +which is the greater, as they are generally clad in the garments which +nature gives them. The laboring class go half naked, or more than +half. It is only the house-servants that wear anything that can be +called a costume. The coolies, or common laborers, have only a strip +of cloth around their loins, which they wear for decency, for in this +climate they scarcely need any garment for warmth. One thing which is +never omitted is the turban, or in its place a thick blanket, to +shield the head from the direct rays of the sun. But there is nothing +to hide the swarthy breast or limbs. Those of a better condition, who +do put on clothing, show the Oriental fondness for gorgeous apparel by +having the richest silk turbans and flowing robes. The women find a +way to show their feminine vanity, being tricked out in many colors, +dark red, crimson and scarlet, with yellow and orange and green and +blue--the mingling of which produces a strange effect as one rides +through the bazaars and crowded streets, which gleam with all the +colors of the rainbow. The effect of this tawdry finery is heightened +by the gewgaws which depend from different parts of their persons. +Earrings are not sufficiently conspicuous for a Hindoo damsel, who has +a ring of gold and pearl hung in her nose; which is considered a great +addition to female beauty. Heavy bracelets of silver also adorn her +wrists and ankles. Almost every woman who shows herself in the street, +though of the lowest condition, and barefoot, still gratifies her +pride by huge silver anklets clasping her naked feet. + +But these Asiatic faces, strange as they are, would not be +unattractive but for artificial disfigurements--if men did not chew +the betel nut, which turns the lips to a brilliant red, and did not +have their foreheads striped with coarse pigments, which are the +badges of their different castes! + +Imagine a whole city crowded with dark skinned men and women thus +dressed--or not dressed--half naked on the one hand, or bedizened like +harlequins on the other, walking about, or perchance riding in little +carriages _drawn by oxen_--a small breed that trot off almost as fast +as the donkeys we had in Cairo--and one may have some idea of the +picturesque appearance of the streets of Bombay. + +We are becoming accustomed to the manners and customs of this eastern +world. We never sit down to dinner but with the punka swinging over +us, and the "punka-walla," the coolie who swings it, is a recognized +institution. In the hot months it is kept swinging all night, and +Europeans sleep under it. These things strike us strangely at first, +but we soon get used to these tropical devices, and in fact rather +like them. In a few days we have become quite Oriental. To confess the +truth, there are some things here in the East that are not at all +disagreeable to the natural man, especially the devices for coolness +and comfort, and the extreme deference to Europeans, which we begin to +accept as naturally belonging to us. + +At first I was surprised and amused at the manners of the people. It +was a new sensation to be in this Asiatic atmosphere, to be surrounded +and waited upon by soft-footed Hindoos, who glided about noiselessly +like cats, watching every look, eager to anticipate every wish before +they heard the word of command. I was never the object of such +reverence before. Every one addressed me as "Sahib." I did not know at +first what this meant, but took it for granted that it was a title of +respect--an impression confirmed by the deferential manner of the +attendants. I could not walk through the corridor of the hotel without +a dozen servants rising to their feet, who remained standing till I +had passed. I was a little taken aback when a turbaned Oriental, in +flowing robe, approached me with an air of profound reverence, bending +low, as if he would prostrate himself at my feet. If he desired to +present a petition to my august majesty (which was, probably, that I +would buy a cashmere shawl), he bowed himself almost to the ground, +and reached down his hand very low, and then raising it, touched his +forehead, as if he would take up the dust of the earth and cast it on +his head, in token that he was unworthy to enter into such an awful +presence. I never knew before how great a being I was. There is +nothing like going far away from home, to the other side of the world, +among Hindoos or Hottentots, to be fully appreciated. + +After a little experience, one learns to accept these Hindoo salaams +and obeisances. Now, when I walk down the passages of the hotel, and +snowy turbans rise on either side in token of homage, I bow in +acknowledgment, though very slightly, so as not to concede a particle +of my dignity, or encourage any familiarity. When I open my door in +the morning, I find half a dozen coolies in the passage, who have +curled up on mats and slept there all night, as Napoleon's Mameluke +slept before his master's door. It gives one a sense of dignity and +importance to be thus served and guarded and defended! I suspect all +of us have a little (or a good deal) of the Asiatic in our +composition, and could easily play the pasha and drop into these soft +Eastern ways, and find it not unpleasant to recline on a divan, and be +waited on by dusky slaves! + +We find that we are in a tropical climate by the heat that oppresses +us. Although it is midwinter, we find it prudent as well as pleasant +to remain indoors in the middle of the day (time which is very +precious for writing), and make our excursions in the morning or +evening. + +Morning in the tropics is delightful. There is a dewy freshness in the +air. Rising at daylight we take a small open carriage--a kind of "one +horse shay"--for our ride. It has but one seat, but the Hindoo driver, +nimble as a cat, crouches at our feet, with his legs dangling over the +side in front of the wheels, and thus mounted we gallop off gayly. + +One of our morning excursions was to the Flower Market, where the +fruits and flowers of the country are displayed with truly tropical +profusion. The building, designed with English taste, is of great +extent, surrounding a spacious court, which is laid out like a +garden, with fountains and ferns, and flowering shrubs and creepers +growing luxuriantly. Here are offered for sale all kinds of poultry +and birds, parrots, and even monkeys. The Flower Market is especially +brilliant, as flowers are the customary offerings at temples. They are +very cheap. Five cents bought a large bunch of roses. White jessamines +and yellow marigolds are wrought into wreaths and garlands for their +festivities. The fruits we liked less than the flowers. They were very +tempting to the eye, but too rich for our appetite. The famous mango +cloyed us with its sweetness. Indeed, I made the observation here, +which I had to repeat afterwards in Java, that the tropical fruits, +though large and luscious, had not the delicate flavor of our Northern +fruits. A good New Jersey peach would have been far sweeter to my +taste than the ripest orange or mango, or the longest string of +bananas. + +In the evening we ride out to Malabar Hill, or go to the public +gardens which English taste has laid out in different parts of the +city. Although Bombay is a city of Hindoos, yet the stamp of English +rule is everywhere impressed upon it. Like the cities of Great +Britain, it is thoroughly governed. The hand of a master is seen in +its perfect police, its well ordered and well lighted streets. There +are signs of its being gained by conquest and held by military power. +The English quarter is still called the Fort, being on the site of an +old fortress, the ramparts of which are all swept away, and in their +place are wide streets (indeed too wide for shade), and a number of +public buildings--Government offices, the Postoffice, and the +Telegraph Building, and the University--which would be an ornament to +any city in England. Here English taste comes in to add to its natural +beauty in the laying out of open squares. Our windows at the Hotel +look out upon the Esplanade, a large parade ground, the very spot +where the Sepoys were shot away from the guns after the mutiny, and +upon the sea, from which comes at evening a soft, delicious air from +the Indian ocean. It is a pretty sight to go here at sunset, when the +band is playing and there is a great turnout of carriages, bringing +the fashion and wealth of Bombay to listen to the music and inhale the +fresh breezes from the sea, that no doubt are sweeter to many in that +they seem to come from their beloved England. In the crowd of well +dressed people wealthy Parsees (distinguished by their high hats), and +Hindoos by their turbans, mingle with English officers, and the +children of all run about together on the lawn. My companion noticed +particularly the Parsee children, whose dresses were gay with many +colors--little fellows shining in pink trousers, blue shirts, green +vests, and scarlet caps! Others had satin trousers and vests of some +bright color, and over all white muslin or lace trimmings. The effect +of such a variety of colors was as if parterres of flowers were laid +out on the smooth shaven lawn. In another part of the city the +Victoria Gardens are set out like a Botanical Garden, with all manner +of plants and trees, especially with an endless variety of palms, +under which crowds saunter along the avenues, admiring the wonders of +tropical vegetation, and listening to the music that fills the evening +air. + +The environs of Bombay are very beautiful. Few cities have a more +delightful suburb than Malabar Hill, where the English merchant, after +the business of the day is over, retreats from the city to enjoy a +home which, though Indian without, is English within. Hundreds of +bungalows are clustered on these eminences, shaded with palms and +embowered in tropical foliage, with steep roofs, always thatched as a +better protection from the sun. Here the occupants sit at evening on +the broad verandahs, stretched in their long bamboo chairs, enjoying +the cool air that comes in from the sea, and talk of England or of +America. + +There are not many Americans in Bombay, although in one way the city +is, or was, closely connected with our country. Nowhere was the +effect of our civil war more felt than in India, as it gave a great +impetus to its cotton production. Under the sudden and powerful +stimulus, Bombay started up into an artificial prosperity. Fortunes +were made rapidly. The close of the war brought a panic from which it +has not yet recovered. But the impulse given has remained, and I am +told that there is at this moment more cotton grown in India than ever +before, although the fall in prices has cut off the great profits. But +the cost of transportation is much less, as the railroads constructed +within a few years afford the means of bringing it to market, where +before it had to be drawn slowly over the mountains in ox-carts. This +flow of cotton to the seaports has been turned to account by the +erection of cotton mills (several of which have been started here in +Bombay), which, under the direction of Englishmen, and having the +double advantage of native cotton and native labor, may yet supplant +English fabrics in the markets of India. + +Though there are few Americans (except the missionaries) here, yet +there is one who has all the enterprise of his countrymen, Mr. +Kittredge, who came out to India many years ago, and is now the head +of the old house of Stearns, Hobart & Co. He has introduced that +peculiarly American institution, the street railway--or tramway, as it +is called here--which is a great comfort in moving about the city, +where transportation before was chiefly by little ox-carts. The cars +run smoothly, and as they are open at the sides are delightfully cool. +The Hindoos, though slow in adopting new ideas or new ways, take to +these as an immense convenience. Not the least good effect is the +pressure which they bring to bear on caste, by forcing those of +different castes to sit side by side! + +A very singular people, found in Bombay, and nowhere else in India, +are the Parsees, who differ from the Hindoos both in race and +religion. They are followers of Zoroaster, the philosopher of Persia, +from which they were driven out centuries ago by the merciless +followers of the Prophet, and took refuge in Western India, and being, +as a class, of superior intelligence and education, they have risen to +a high position. They are largely the merchants of Bombay, and among +them are some of its wealthiest citizens, whose beautiful houses, +surrounded with gardens, line the road to Parell, the residence of the +Governor. They are fire-worshippers, adoring it as the principle of +life. Morning and evening they may be seen uncovering their heads, and +turning reverently to the rising or the setting sun, and offering +their adoration to the great luminary, which they regard as the source +of all life on earth. As I have seen them on the seashore, turning +their faces to the setting sun, and lifting their hands as if in +prayer, I have thought, that if this be idolatry, it is at least not +so degrading as that of the Hindoos around them, for if they bow to a +material object, it is at least the most glorious which they see in +nature. The more intelligent of them, however, explain that it is not +the sun itself they worship, but only regard it as the brightest +symbol and manifestation of the Invisible Deity. But they seem to have +an idolatrous reverence for fire, and keep a lamp always burning in +their houses. It is never suffered to go out day nor night, from year +to year. The same respect which they show to fire, they show also to +the other elements--earth, air, and water. + +A revolting application of their principles is seen in their mode of +disposing of the dead. They cannot burn them, as do the Hindoos, lest +the touch of death should pollute the flames; nor can they bury them +in the earth, nor in the sea, for earth and water and air are all +alike sacred. They therefore expose the bodies of their dead to be +devoured by birds of the air. Outside of Bombay, on Malabar Hill, are +three or four circular towers--called The Towers of Silence, which are +enclosed by a high wall to keep observers at a distance. When a Parsee +dies, his body is conveyed to the gates, and there received by the +priests, by whom it is exposed on gratings constructed for the +purpose. + +Near at hand, perched in groves of palms, are the vultures. We saw +them there in great numbers. As soon as a funeral procession +approaches, they scent their prey, and begin to circle in the air; and +no sooner is a body uncovered, and left by the attendants, than a +cloud of black wings settles down upon it, and a hundred horned beaks +are tearing at the flesh. Such are their numbers and voracity, that in +a few minutes--so we are told--every particle is stripped from the +bones, which are then slid down an inclined plane into a deep pit, +where they mingle with common clay. + +Compared with this, the Hindoo mode of disposing of the dead, by +burning, seems almost like Christian burial. Yet it is done in a mode +which is very offensive. In returning from Malabar Hill one evening, +along the beautiful drive around the bay, we noticed a number of +furnace-like openings, where fires were burning, from which proceeded +a sickening smell, and were told that this was the burning of the +bodies of the Hindoos! + +This mode of disposing of the dead may be defended on grounds of +health, especially in great cities. But, at any rate, I wish there was +nothing worse to be said of the Hindoos than their mode of treating +the forms from which life has departed. But their religion is far more +cruel to the living than to the dead. + +To one who has never been in a Pagan country, that which is most new +and strange is its idolatry. Bombay is full of temples, which at +certain hours are crowded with worshippers. Here they flock every +morning to perform their devotions. There is nothing like the orderly +congregation gathered in a Christian house of worship, sitting quietly +in their places, and listening to a sermon. The people come and go at +will, attending to their devotions, as they would to any matter of +business. A large part of their "worship" consists in washing +themselves. With the Hindoos as with the Mohammedans, bathing is a +part of their religion. The temple grounds generally enclose a large +tank, into which they plunge every morning, and come up, as they +believe, clean from the washing. At the temple of Momba Davi (the god +who gives name to Bombay), we watched these purifications and other +acts of worship. Within the enclosure, beside the temple filled with +hideous idols, there was the sacred cow (which the people would +consider it a far greater crime to kill than to kill a Christian) +which chewed her cud undisturbed, though not with half so much content +as if she had been in a field of sweet-scented clover; and there stood +the peepul tree, the sacred tree of India (a species of banyan), round +which men and women were walking repeating their prayers, and leaving +flowers as offerings at its foot. This latter custom is not peculiar +to Pagan countries. In Christian as well as in heathen lands flowers +are laid on the altar, as if their beauty were grateful to the Unseen +Eye, and their perfume a kind of incense to the object of devotion. +Inside the enclosure men were being washed and shaved (on their heads +as well as on their faces), and painted on their foreheads (as +Catholics might be with the sign of the cross) to mark the god they +worship. And not only in the temples, but along the streets, in the +houses, which were open to the view of passers-by, people were taking +plentiful ablutions, almost a full bath, and making their toilet, +quite unembarrassed by the presence of strangers. + +These observances (if divested of any religious value) are not to be +altogether condemned. The habit of frequent bathing is very useful in +a sanitary point of view, especially in this hot climate. But that +which most excites our admiration is the scrupulous regularity of the +Hindoos in their worship. They have to "do their pooja" (that is, make +their offerings and perform their devotions) before they go to their +work, or even partake of food! Here is an example of religious +fidelity worthy of Christian imitation. + +The religious ideas of the Hindoos show themselves in other ways, +which at least challenge our respect for their consistency. In their +eyes all life is sacred, the life of beast and bird, nay, of reptile +and insect, as well as of man. To carry out this idea they have +established a Hospital for Animals, which is one of the institutions +of Bombay. It is on a very extensive scale, and presents a spectacle +such as I do not believe can be seen anywhere else in the world. Here, +in an enclosure covering many acres, in sheds, or stables, or in the +open grounds, as may best promote their recovery, are gathered the +lame, the halt, and the blind, not of the human species, but of the +animal world--cattle and horses, sheep and goats, dogs and cats, +rabbits and monkeys, and beasts and birds of every description. Even +poor little monkeys forgot to be merry, and looked very solemn as they +sat on their perch. The cows, sacred as they were, were yet not beyond +the power of disease, and had a most woe-begone look. Long rows of +stables were filled with broken-down horses, spavined and ring-boned, +with ribs sticking out of their sides, or huge sores on their flanks, +dripping with blood. In one pen were a number of kittens, that mewed +and cried for their mothers, though they had a plentiful supply of +milk for their poor little emaciated bodies. The Hindoos send out +carts at night and pick them up wherever they have been cast into the +street. Rabbits, whom no man would own, have here a snug warren made +for them, and creep in and out with a feeling of safety and comfort. +In a large enclosure were some hundred dogs, more wretched-looking +than the dogs of Constantinople--"whelps and curs of low degree." +These poor creatures had been so long the companions of man that, +ill-treated as they were, starved and kicked, they still apparently +longed for human society, and as soon as they saw us they seemed to +recognize us as their deliverers, and set up a howling and yelping, +and leaped against the bars of their prison house, as if imploring us +to give them liberty. + +And here is a collection of birds to fill an extensive aviary, though +in their present condition they do not look exactly like birds of +Paradise. There are not only "four black crows," but more than any +farmer would like to see in his wheat field (for India is the land of +crows). Tall cranes, that had been wont to step with long legs by the +marshy brink of rivers, here were bandaged and splintered till they +could walk once more. Broken-winged seagulls, that could no more sweep +over the boundless sea, free as its own waves, were nursed till they +could fly again. + +The spectacle thus presented was half touching and half ludicrous. One +cannot but respect the Hindoo's regard for life, as a thing not to be +lightly and wantonly destroyed. And yet they carry it to an extent +that is absurd. They will not take the life of animals for food, nor +even of creatures that are annoying or dangerous to themselves. Many +will not crush the insects that buzz around them and sting them, nor +kill a cobra that crawls into their houses, even when it threatens to +bite them or their children. It has been said that they even nurse +serpents, and when recovered, turn them loose into the jungle; but of +this we saw no evidence. But certainly many wretched creatures, whose +existence is not worth keeping, which it were a mercy to let die, are +here rescued and brought back to life. + +While walking through these grounds in company with a couple of +missionaries, I thought how much better these animals were cared for +than some men. I was thinking of some of our broken-down ministers at +home, who, after serving their people faithfully for a whole +generation, are at last sent adrift without ceremony, like an old +horse turned out by the roadside to die! What lives of drudgery and +toil do such ministers lead! They are "beasts of burden," more than +any beast of the field. And when their working days are over, can +they not be cared for as well as the Hindoos care for old horses and +camels? If only these shattered wrecks (and magnificent wrecks some of +them are) were towed into port and allowed to rest in tranquil waters; +or (to change the figure) if these old veterans were housed and warmed +and fed and nursed as carefully as the Hindoos nurse their broken-down +animals, we should have fewer of those instances of cruel neglect +which we sometimes hear of to our sorrow and shame! + +Of the antiquities of India, one of the most notable is found here in +the Caves of Elephanta, which are on an island lying off the harbor. +We set apart a day to this visit, which we made with a couple of +Americans and a couple of Englishmen, the latter of whom we met first +in Bombay, but who were to keep us company a large part of our journey +around the world. We were to embark at the Apollo Bunder, and while +waiting here for our boat (a steam launch which is used for this +purpose), a snake-charmer desired to entertain us with the dexterous +manner in which he handled cobras, taking them up like kittens, +coiling them round his neck, and tossing them about in a very playful +and affectionate manner. No doubt their fangs had been completely +extracted before he indulged in these endearments. A very cruel form +of sport was to throw one on the ground, and let it be set upon by a +mangoose, a small animal like a weasel, that is not poisoned by the +bite of serpents, and attacks them without hesitation. One of these +the man carried in a bag for the purpose. As soon as let loose, the +little creature flew at the snake spitefully, as a terrier dog would +at a rat, and seized it by the head, and bit it again and again with +its sharp teeth, and left it covered with blood. As we expressed our +disgust at this cruelty, the juggler assured us that the deceitful +reptile was not dead (in fact as soon as laid on the ground it began +to wriggle), and that he would take it by the tail and hold it up, +and pour water on its head, and it would come all right again. He did +not say, but no doubt thought, "and will be all ready for torture when +the next American or Englishman comes along." + +By this time the steam launch had come round to the Bunder, and we got +on board. It was a little mite of a vessel, just big enough for the +half dozen of us, with a steam boiler not much larger than a teapot, +that wheezed as if it had the asthma. But it did its work well, and +away we shot swiftly across the beautiful bay. The island of Elephanta +is seven miles from the city, and takes its name from a gigantic +statue of an elephant that once stood upon its shore. Landing here, we +found ourselves at the foot of a rocky hill, which we mounted by +several hundred steps, and stood at the entrance of a gigantic cave or +cavern cut into the hill-side, with a lofty ceiling, pillared like a +temple. The main hall, as it might be called, runs back a hundred and +thirty feet into the solid rock. + +The first thing that struck me on entering was the resemblance to the +temples of Egypt. Though in size and extent it does not approach the +ruins of Karnak, yet one recognizes the same massive architecture in +this temple, which is literally "cut out of a mountain," its roof the +overhanging cliff, supported by rows of heavy columns. + +The resemblance to Egypt appears also in the symbol of divinity and +the objects of worship; the sacred bull in one country answering to +the sacred cow in the other; and the serpent, the same hooded cobra, +rearing its head on the front of the Temples of Thebes, and in the +Caves of Elephanta. + +At the end of the great hall are the objects of worship in three +colossal images of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. This is the Hindoo +Trinity, and the constant recurrence of these figures in their +mythology shows how the idea of a Trinity pervaded other ancient +religions besides our own. It is a question for scholars, whence came +the original conception of this threefold personality in the Divine +Being, whether from revelation, or from a tradition as old as the +human race. + +The faces are Egyptian--immobile like the Sphinx, with no expression +of eagerness or desire, but only of calm and eternal repose. Such was +the blessedness of the gods, and such the beatitude sought by their +worshippers. + +The age of the Caves of Elephanta is not known, but they must be of a +great antiquity. For many centuries this rock-temple has been the +resort of millions of worshippers. Generation after generation have +the poor people of India crossed these waters to this sacred island, +and climbed wearily up this hill as if they were climbing towards +heaven. + +That such a religion should have lived for thousands of years, and be +living still (for the worship of Brahma and Vishnu and Shiva is still +the religion of India), is a reflection that gives one but little hope +for the future of the human race. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +LEAVING BOMBAY--TRAVELLING IN INDIA--ALLAHABAD--THE MELA. + + +We had been in Bombay a week, and began to feel quite at home, when we +had to leave. A man who undertakes to go around the world, must not +stop too long in the soft places. He must be always on the march, or +ready to start at the tap of the drum. We had a long journey before +us, to the North of India, and could not linger by the way. So we set +out just at evening. Much of the travelling in India is at night, to +avoid the heat of the day. The sun was setting over the waters as we +moved slowly out of the station at Bombay, and sweeping around the +shores, caught our last glimpse of the Western sea, and then rushed +off for the mountains. + +"You'll need to take beds with you," said our friends, foreseeing that +we might have to lie down in rough places. So we procured for each of +us what is called a resai, a well-stuffed coverlet, which answered the +purpose of a light mattress. There are no sleeping-cars in India; but +the first-class carriages have generally a sofa on either side, which +may be turned into a sort of couch. On these sofas, having first +secured a whole compartment, we spread our resais, with pillows on +which to rest our weary heads, and stretch ourselves "to +sleep--perchance to dream." But the imagination is so busy that sleep +comes but slowly. I often lie awake for hours, and find a great peace +in this constant wakefulness. + +It was quite dark when we found ourselves climbing the Ghauts (what in +California would be called the Coast Range), a chain of mountains not +very high, but which separates the coast from the table-land of the +interior. As the train moved more slowly, we perceived that we were +drawing up a heavy incline. This slow motion soothes one to slumber, +and at length we closed our eyes, and when the morning broke, found +that we had passed the summit, and were rushing on over an open +country, not unlike our Western prairies. These were the Plains of +India--a vast plateau, broken here and there, but preserving its +general character across the whole peninsula from Bombay to Calcutta, +and North to the Himalayas. + +In this month of January, these plains are without verdure to give +them beauty. The trees keep their foliage, and here and there is a +broad-spreading banyan, or a mango grove, with its deep shade. But we +miss the fresh green grass and the flowers that come only with the +Spring. Landscapes which are not diversified in surface by hills and +valleys are only relieved from monotony by varieties of color. These +are wanting now, and hence the vast plain is but "a gray and +melancholy waste" like the sea. We visit India in winter because the +summer would be too oppressive. But in choosing this season, we have +to sacrifice that full glory when nature comes forth in all the +richness of tropical vegetation. It is in the rainy season that the +earth bursts suddenly into bloom. Then the dead plain, so bleak and +bare, in a few days is covered with a carpet of green, and decked with +innumerable flowers. But there are drawbacks to that gorgeous time and +that prodigality of nature. With the bursting into light of the +vegetable world, the insect world also comes forth. All the insects +that buzz and sting, fill the summer air; and then the reptile world +creeps abroad. Out of millions of holes, where they have slept all +winter long, crawl cobras and other deadly serpents, and all slimy +things. On the whole, therefore, I am content to see India in its +sombre dress, and be spared some other attendants of this tropical +world. + +Nor is there much animal life to give animation to the scene. A few +cattle are grazing here and there. Now a deer startled looks up, as we +go by, or a monkey goes leaping across the fields, but not a wild +beast of any kind is seen--not even a wild-cat or a jackal. As for +birds, storks are at home in India as much as in Holland. Red +flamingoes haunt + + "The plashy brink, or marge of river wide," + +while on the broad open plain the birds most seen are crows! They are +very tame, and quite familiar with the rest of the animal creation, a +favorite perch being the backs of cows or buffaloes, where they light +without resistance, and make themselves at home. They are said to be +very useful as scavengers. That is quite possible; but however useful, +they are certainly not beautiful. + +In these long stretches of course we pass hundreds of villages, but +these do not attract the eye nor form a feature in the landscape, for +the low mud hovels of which they are composed hardly rise above the +level of the plain. There is no church spire to be seen, as from a New +England village, nor even the dome or minaret of a mosque, for we are +not yet in the Mohammedan part of India. + +One feature there is which relieves the monotony--the railway stations +are the prettiest I have seen out of England. Simply but tastefully +built, they are covered with vines and flowers, which with irrigation +easily grow in this climate in the open air at all seasons of the +year. The railway administration has offered prizes for the +embellishment of stations, so that the natives, who are fond of +flowers, and who are thus tempted by the hope of reward, plant roses +and trail vines everywhere, so that the eye is relieved from the +glare of the barren plain by resting on a mass of flowers and +verdure. + +In their internal arrangements, too, these stations are models of +comfort, which might furnish an example to us in America. Wherever we +are to breakfast or lunch ("take tiffin") or dine, we find a table +neatly spread, with soft-footed Hindoos gliding about to serve us, and +with plenty of time to eat in peace, without that rushing which makes +travel in America such a hurry and fatigue. I am often asked about the +difficulty of travelling in India, to which I answer that there is no +difficulty, except from the climate, and that is to be guarded against +by going in the cold season. There are railroads all over the country, +and if Mr. Pullman would only introduce his sleeping-cars, made more +open to give more ventilation in this hot climate, one might travel in +India with as perfect comfort as in any part of Europe or America. + +But with all these comforts, and all that there is to divert the eye, +the way seems long. It is not till one reaches India that he +comprehends how vast a country it is--not only in density of +population, but in extent of territory. In "magnificent distances" it +is almost equal to America itself: all small ideas are dispelled as +soon as one leaves the coast, and penetrates into the interior. Our +first stage from Bombay to Allahabad was 845 miles, which took us not +only the first night and the day after, but the second night also, so +that it was not till the morning of the third day that we found +ourselves crossing the long bridge over the Jumna into the city which +is the great railroad centre in India--a sort of half-way station, +both on the "trunk line" from Bombay to Calcutta, and on the line to +the North of India. + +By this time we were glad of rest, and willingly exchanged our railway +carriage for a hotel, where we found the luxury of baths, which +refreshed us so that in an hour or two we were able to come forth +"clad in fine linen, white and clean," and ride about to see the +sights of the town. + +Allahabad is not a city of so much historical interest as many others, +but it has grown very much within a few years. The railroads have +given such an impulse to its business, and increase to its population, +that it has now 130,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the +Northwest Provinces, and thus has a political as well as a commercial +importance. Owing to its position, it has been chosen as a convenient +centre for missionary operations, and is the seat of one of the best +organized missions of our Presbyterian Board. Here we met some +excellent countrymen, who at once took us to their hearts and homes: +and though reluctant to accept hospitality, or to trespass on their +kindness, yet it was impossible to refuse an invitation so cordially +given, which took us from a great barrack of a hotel to a refined +American home. Our Board is fortunate in owning for its mission +premises a large "compound," an enclosure of many acres, on the banks +of the Jumna--obtained years ago at a nominal price, and which costs +now only the small tax of fifty rupees (twenty-five dollars) a year. +Here under one broad roof were Rev. Mr. Kellogg and his family--a wife +and four children--and Mr. Wynkoop, and Mr. Heyl: Dr. Brodhead had +just left for America. In the compound stands a neat chapel, in which +met three years ago the great conference of missionaries of different +denominations from all parts of India, the most memorable gathering of +the kind ever held in this country. Here there is a service in +Hindostanee every Sabbath. In another building is a school of 300 +pupils, under charge of Mr. Heyl. He has also, to give sufficient +variety to his occupation, to look after an asylum for the blind, and +another for lepers. Rev. Messrs. Holcomb and Johnson live in other +parts of the city, where there is a Printing-press and a large +Depository for the sale of Bibles and Tracts in the different +languages of India. All of these missionaries, besides preaching in +churches, preach in the streets and bazaars, and spend some months of +the year in itinerating through the villages in a large circuit of +country, living in tents, and speaking to the people by the roadside, +or in groves, or in their houses, wherever they can find them--a work +which they enjoy greatly. Thus with preaching in city and country, and +keeping up their schools, and looking after printing presses, writing +and publishing books and tracts, they have their hands full. + +Nor can I overlook our countrywomen in Allahabad. There is here a +"Zenana Mission," supported by the society of the good Mrs. Doremus, +and also two ladies connected with the Presbyterian Board, one of +whom, Miss Wilson, devotes herself to visiting in the Zenanas, while +the other, Miss Seward, is a physician, practising with great success +in many of the best native families, thus rendering a physical as well +as a spiritual service. She is a niece of the late Secretary of State, +William H. Seward, who when in India paid her a visit, and was so +impressed with what she was doing so quietly and yet so effectively; +with the access which her medical skill and her feminine tact gave her +to the interior life of the people; that on his return to America he +summed up the result of all his observations of missions in this brief +counsel: "Make all your missionaries women, and give them all a +medical education." + +Allahabad has a proud name--the City of God; but one sees not much to +render it worthy of that exalted title. It is however, in the +estimation of the Hindoos a sacred city, as it stands at the junction +of the Jumna and the Ganges, the two sacred rivers of India, which +issuing out of the glaciers of the Himalayas, hundreds of miles to the +north, here unite, and flow on in a broader stream, and with an +increased volume of sanctity. The point of junction is of course a +very holy place--one of the most sacred in India--and draws to it more +pilgrims than Mecca. Every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, +come from all parts of India to bathe in these holy waters. This is +the Mela--or great religious festival--which was now in progress. The +missionaries congratulated us that we had arrived at such an opportune +moment, as we had thus an opportunity of witnessing a spectacle which +would show more of Hindooism than any other that we could see in +India, unless it might be in the holy city of Benares. + +On a Saturday evening we rode down to the place of the encampment, +which we found covering a wide sandy plain at the junction of two +rivers. It was a camp-meeting of magnificent dimensions. The tents or +booths were laid out in streets, and sometimes grouped in a hollow +square, which for the time being was a compact and populous city. As +the evening was not the hour for bathing, we did not go down to the +river bank, but strolled among the camps to see the people. At every +tent fires were burning, and they were cooking their food. + +Our friends led the way to the camp of the Sikhs, the famous warrior +race of the Punjaub, who form a sect by themselves, and, strange to +say, are not idolators. They follow the teachings of a prophet of +their own, and like the Mohammedans, make it a special virtue, that +they do not worship idols. But the old instinct is too strong for +them, and while they do not bow to images, they pay a reverence to +their sacred book--the writings of their teacher--which is little +short of idolatry. At several places in their camp was something like +an altar, a raised platform which was too holy for us to ascend, where +sat a priest reading from this volume, before which all knelt as at +the shrine of a saint, while they scattered flowers around it as a +kind of incense or adoration. + +In other parts of the camp men were blowing horns and making all sorts +of hideous noise, as an intense way of offering devotions. This mockery +of religion moved the indignation of our friends, who opened their +mouths boldly in exposure of such folly and superstition, but they +found that those whom they addressed did not shrink from the encounter. +Some of them were very keen in argument. They have a subtle philosophy +at the bottom of their worship, which they explained with a good deal +of ingenuity, and tried to illumine by apt analogies and illustrations. +Like all Hindoos, they were most liberal in their tolerance of other +religions--much more so than the Mohammedans--generously conceding +that our religion was best _for us_, while claiming that theirs was +best _for them_. They did not try to convert us, and saw no reason why +we should try to convert them. This was the Broad Church indeed, large +enough for "all sorts and conditions of men." They even went further, +and paid us not only the respect due to men, but to gods. One of the +fakirs said to us in so many words: "You are God and I am God!" This +tells the whole story in a sentence. Their creed is the baldest +Pantheism: that God is in everything, and therefore everything is God. +As all life comes from Him, He is in everything that lives--not only +in man, but in beasts, and birds, and reptiles. All alike are +incarnations of a Divine life, and hence all alike are fit objects of +adoration. Man can adore himself. He need not carry any burden of +sorrow or guilt; he need not know repentance or shame; for how can he +mourn for impulses which are but the inspirations of the God in him, +or for acts which are but the manifestations of the Universal Soul? + +This was our first close contest with Hindooism, but still we had not +seen the Mela till we had seen the bathing of the pilgrims in the +Ganges, which was still in reserve. The Festival lasts a month--like +the Ramadan of the Mohammedans--and is regulated by the changes of the +moon. The day of the new moon, which was last Wednesday, was the great +day of the feast. On that day there was a grand procession to the +river, in which there were twenty-five elephants, mounted by their +_mahants_ (a sort of chief priests), with hundreds of fakirs on foot, +and a vast crowd in all the frenzy of devotion. On Monday, as the moon +was approaching her first quarter, there was likely to be a large +concourse, though not equal to the first, and we made arrangements to +be on hand to witness a spectacle such as we had never seen before, +and should probably never see again. Rev. Mr. Holcomb came very early +in the morning with his carriage, to take us to the riverside. As we +drove along the roads, we passed thousands who were flocking to the +place of bathing. Some rode in ox-carts, which carried whole families; +now and then a mounted horseman dashed by; while a long row of camels +told of a caravan that had toiled wearily over a great distance, +perhaps from the foot of the Himalayas or the Vale of Cashmere, to +reach the sacred spot. But the greater part of those who came were on +foot, and looked like pilgrims indeed. Most of them carried on their +shoulders a couple of baskets, in one of which was their food, and in +the other the ashes of their dead, which they had brought from their +homes, sometimes hundreds of miles, to cast into the sacred waters of +the Ganges. + +The carriage brought us only to the Bund, near the Fort--a huge +embankment of earth raised to keep out the waters at the time of the +annual risings, and which during the past year had saved the city from +inundation. Here our friends had provided an elephant to take us +through the crowd. The huge creature was waiting for us. The mahout +who stood at his head now mounted in an extraordinary manner. He +merely stepped in front of the elephant, and took hold of the flaps of +his ears, and put up a foot on his trunk, which the beast raised as +lightly as if the man had been a feather, and thus tossed his rider +upon his head. A word of command then brought him to his knees, when a +ladder was placed against his side, and we climbed to the top, and as +he rose up, were lifted into the air. An elephant's back is a capital +lookout for observation. It raises one on high, from which he can +look down upon what is passing below; and the mighty creature has not +much difficulty in making his way through even the densest crowd. He +moved down the embankment a little slowly at first, but once on level +ground, he strode along with rapid strides; while we, sitting aloft, +regarded with amazement the scene before us. + +Indeed it was a marvellous spectacle. Here was a vast camp, extending +from river to river. Far as the eye could reach, the plain was covered +with tents and booths. We had no means of estimating the number of +people present. Mr. Kellogg made a rough calculation, as he stood in +his preaching tent, and saw the crowd pouring by. Fixing his eye on +the tent-pole, with watch in hand, he counted the number that passed +in a minute, and found it to be a hundred and fifty, which would make +nine thousand in an hour. If this steady flow were kept up for four +hours (as it began at daylight, and was continued, though with varying +volume, through the forenoon), it would make thirty-six thousand; and +reckoning those encamped on the ground at twenty thousand, the whole +number would be over fifty thousand. + +This is a very small number, compared with that present at some times. +Last Wednesday it was twice as great, and some years the +multitude--which overflows the country for miles, like an inundation +of the Ganges--has been estimated at hundreds of thousands, and even +millions. Every twelve years there is a greater Mela than at other +times, and the concourse assumes extraordinary proportions. This came +six years ago, in 1870. That year it was said that there were present +75,000 fakirs alone, and on the great day of the feast it was +estimated that a million of people bathed in the Ganges. So fearful +was the crush that they had to be marshalled by the police, and +marched down to the river by ten or twenty thousand at a time, and +then across a bridge of boats to the other side, returning by another +way, so as to prevent a collision of the entering and returning mass, +that might have occasioned a fearful loss of life. That year it was +estimated that not less than two millions of pilgrims visited the +Mela. Allowing for the common exaggeration in estimating multitudes, +there is no doubt whatever that the host of pilgrims here has often +been "an exceeding great army." + +I could not but look with pity at the ignorant creatures flocking by, +but the feeling of pity changed to disgust at the sight of the priests +by whom they were misled. Everywhere were fakirs sitting on the +ground, receiving the reverence of the people. More disgusting objects +I never looked upon, not even in an asylum for the insane. They were +almost naked; their hair, which they suffer to grow long, had become +tangled and knotted, and was matted like swamp grass, and often bound +round with thick ropes; and their faces smeared with filth. The +meagerness of their clothing is one of the tokens of their sanctity. +They are so holy that they do not need to observe the ordinary rules +of decency. Yet these filthy creatures are regarded not only with +reverence, but almost worshipped. Men--and women also--stoop down and +kiss their feet. On Wednesday some three hundred of these fakirs +marched in procession _absolutely naked_, while crowds of women +prostrated themselves before them, and kissed the very ground over +which they had passed. One is amazed that such a disgusting exhibition +was not prevented by the police. Yet it took place under the guns of +an English fort, and--greatest shame of all--instead of being +suppressed, was accompanied and protected by the police, which, though +composed of natives, wore the uniform, and obeyed the orders, of +Christian England! There are not many sights which make one ashamed of +the English government in India, but surely this is one of them.[1] + +How such "brute beasts" can have any respect or influence, is one of +the mysteries of Hindooism. But the common people, ignorant and +superstitious, think these men have a power that is more than human, +and fear to incur their displeasure. They dread their curses: for +these holy men have a fearful power of imprecation. Wherever they +stroll through the country, no man dares to refuse them food or +shelter, lest one of their awful curses should light upon his head, +and immediately his child should die, or disaster should overtake his +house. + +But let us pass on to the banks of the river, where the crowd is +already becoming very great. To go among them, we get down from our +elephant and walk about. Was there ever such a scene--men, women, and +children, by tens of thousands, in all stages of nakedness, pressing +towards the sacred river? The men are closely shaved, as for every +hair of their heads they gain a million of years in Paradise! Some had +come in boats, and were out in the middle of the stream, from which +they could bathe. But the greater part were along the shore. The water +was shallow, so that they could wade in without danger; but to afford +greater security, lines of boats were drawn around the places of +bathing, to keep them from drowning and from suicide. + +It would not have been easy to make our way through such a crowd, had +not the native police, with that respect for Englishmen which is seen +everywhere in India, cleared the way for us. Thus we came down to the +water's edge, passing through hundreds that were coming up dripping +from the water, and other hundreds that were pressing in. They were of +all ages and sexes. It was hard to repress our disgust at the +voluntary debasement of men who might know better, but with these +there were some wretched objects, who could only excite our +pity--poor, haggard old women, who had dragged themselves to this +spot, and children borne on their mothers' shoulders! In former times +many infants were thrown into the Ganges. This was the most common +form of infanticide. But this practice has been stopped by the strong +hand of the government. And now they are brought here only to "wash +and be cleansed." Even the sick were carried in palanquins, to be +dipped in the healing waters; and here and there one who seemed ready +to die was brought, that he might breathe his last in sight of the +sacred river. + +I observed a great number of flags flying from tall poles in different +parts of the ground, which made the place look like a military +encampment. These marked the headquarters of the men who get up these +Melas, and in so doing contrive to unite business with religion. +During the year they perambulate the country, drumming up pilgrims. A +reputation for sanctity is a stock in trade, and they are not too +modest to set forth their own peculiar gifts, and invite those who +come to the holy water to repair to their shop, where they can be "put +through" in the shortest time, and for the least money. This +money-making feature is apparent in all the arrangements of these +pious pilgrimages. + +In keeping with these coarser features of the scene, was the presence +of dancing girls, who gathered a group around them close to the +bathing places, and displayed their indecent gestures on the banks of +the holy river, to those who had just engaged in what they considered +an act of moral purification. + +In other parts of the camp, retired from the river, was carried on the +business of "religious instruction." Here and there pundits, or +learned Brahmins, surrounded by large companies, chiefly of women, +were reading from the Shasters, which, considering that they got over +the ground with great velocity, could hardly be very edifying to their +hearers. This mattered little, however, as these sacred books are in +Sanscrit, which to the people is an unknown tongue. + +I was glad to see that these blind leaders of the blind did not have +it all their own way. Near by were the preaching-tents of several +missionaries, who also drew crowds, to whom they spoke of a better +religion. Among them was Rev. Mr. Macombie, who is a famous preacher. +He is a native of India, and is not only master of their language, but +familiar with their ideas. He knows all their arguments and their +objections, and if a hearer interrupts him, whether a Hindoo, or a +Mohammedan, he is very apt to get a shot which makes him sink back in +the crowd, glad to escape without further notice. Whether this +preaching converts many to Christianity, there can be no doubt that it +diffuses a widespread sense of the folly of these Melas, and to this +as one cause may be ascribed the falling-off in the concourse of +pilgrims, who were formerly counted by millions and are now only by +hundreds of thousands. + +While "religion" thus went on vigorously, business was not forgotten. +In the remoter parts of the camp it was turned into a market-place. A +festival which brings together hundreds of thousands of people, is an +occasion not to be lost for traffic and barter. So the camp becomes a +huge bazaar (a vast fair, such as one may see in America at a cattle +show or a militia muster), with streets of shops, so that, after one +has performed his religious duties, as he comes up from the holy +waters and returns to "the world," he can gratify his pride and vanity +by purchasing any quantity of cheap jewelry. + +There are shops for the sale of idols. We could have bought a lovely +little beast for a few pence. They are as "cheap as dirt;" in fact, +they are often made of dirt. As we stood in front of one of the shops, +we saw a group rolling up a little ball of mud, as children make mud +pies; who requested a lady of our party to step one side, as her +shadow, falling on this holy object, polluted it! + +It is hard to believe that even the most ignorant and degraded of men +can connect such objects with any idea of sacredness or religion. And +yet the wretched-looking creatures seemed infatuated with their +idolatries. To bathe in the Ganges washes away their sins. It opens to +them the gates of paradise. Such value do they attach to it that even +death in its sacred waters is a privilege. Formerly suicides were very +frequent here, till they were stopped by the Government. Fanaticism +seems to destroy the common sympathies of life. Last Wednesday, while +the great procession was in progress, a fire broke out in one of the +booths. As they are made of the lightest material it caught like +tinder, and spread so rapidly that in a few minutes a whole camp was +in a blaze. But for the presence of mind and energy of a few English +soldiers from the Fort who were on the ground, and who seized an +engine, and played upon the burning wood and thatch, the entire +encampment might have been destroyed, involving an appalling loss of +life. As it was, some thirty perished, almost all women. Mr. Kellogg +came up in time to see their charred and blackened remains. Yet this +terrible disaster awakened no feeling of compassion for its victims. +They were accounted rather favored beings to have perished in such a +holy spot. Thus does the blindness of superstition extinguish the +ordinary feelings of humanity. + +Weary and heart-sick at such exhibitions of human folly, we mounted +our elephant to leave the ground. The noble beast, who had waited +patiently for us (and was duly rewarded), now seemed as if he could +stand it no longer, and taking us on his back, strode off as if +disgusted with the whole performance, and disdaining the society of +such debased human creatures. + +This Mela, with other things which I have seen, has quite destroyed +any illusions which I may have had in regard to Hindooism. In coming +to India, one chief object was to study its religion. I had read much +of "the mild Hindoo" and "the learned Brahmin," and I asked myself, +May not their religion have some elements of good? Is it not better at +least than no religion? But the more I study it the worse it seems. I +cannot understand the secret of its power. I can see a fascination in +Romanism, and even in Mohammedanism. The mythology of the Greeks had +in it many beautiful creations of the imagination. But the gods of the +Hindoos are but deified beasts, and their worship, instead of +elevating men intellectually or morally, is an unspeakable +degradation. + +Hindooism is a mountain of lies. It is a vast and monstrous system of +falsehood, kept in existence mainly for the sake of keeping up the +power of the Brahmins. Their capacity for deceit is boundless, as is +that of the lower castes for being deceived. Of this I have just had a +specimen. In the fort here at Allahabad is a subterranean passage +which is held in the highest veneration, as it is believed that here a +river flows darkly underground to join the sacred waters of the Jumna +and the Ganges, and here--prodigy of nature--is a sacred tree, which +has been here (they tell us) for hundreds of years, and though buried +in the heart of the earth, still it lives. It is true it does show +some signs of sap and greenness. But the mystery is explained when the +fact comes out that the tree is changed every year. The +sergeant-major, who has been here four years, told me that he had +himself given the order three times, which admitted the party into the +Fort at midnight to take away the old stump and put in a fresh tree! +He said it was done in the month of February, so that with the first +opening of spring it was ready to bloom afresh! How English officers +can reconcile it with their honor to connive at such a deception--even +though it be to please the Brahmins--I leave them to explain. But the +fact, thus attested, is sufficient to show the unfathomable lying of +this ruling caste of India, and the immeasurable credulity of their +disciples. + +A religion that is founded on imposture, and supported by falsehood, +cannot bear the fruits of righteousness. In the essence of things +truth is allied to moral purity. Its very nature is "sweetness and +light." But craft and deceit in sacred things breed a vicious habit of +defending by false reasoning what an uncorrupted conscience would +reject; and the holy name of religion, instead of being a sacrament of +good, becomes a sacrament of evil, which is used to cover and +consecrate loathsome immoralities. Thus falsehood works like poison in +the blood, and runs through every vein till the whole moral being is +spotted with leprosy. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] That we may not do injustice, we add the excuse which is given, +which is, that such attendance of the police is necessary to prevent a +general melee and bloodshed. It seems that these fakirs, holy as they +are, belong to different sects, between which there are deadly feuds, +and if left to themselves unrestrained, when brought into close +contact in a procession, they might tear each other in pieces. But +this would be no great loss to the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +AGRA--VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES--PALACE OF THE GREAT MOGUL--THE +TAJ. + + +We left Allahabad at midnight, and by noon of the next day were at +Agra, in the heart of the old Mogul Empire. As we approached from the +other side of the Jumna, we saw before us what seemed a royal castle, +of imposing dimensions, strongly fortified, with walls and moat, like +one of the strongholds of the Middle Ages, a castle on the Rhine, +built for a double purpose, half palace and half fortress. As we +crossed the long bridge flags were flying in honor of the Prince of +Wales, who had arrived the week before. His entry into this old Mogul +capital was attended with a display of magnificence worthy of the days +of Aurungzebe. At the station he was met by a great number of Rajahs, +mounted on elephants richly caparisoned, of which there were nearly +two hundred in the procession, with long suites of retainers, who +escorted him to his camp outside of the city. Rev. Mr. Wynkoop (who +came on a few days before to witness the fetes, and was staying with a +friend who had a tent quite near to that of the Prince), met us at the +station and took us out to the Royal camp. It was indeed a beautiful +sight. The tents, many of which were very large, were laid off in an +oblong square, with the marquee of the Prince at the end, in front of +which floated the royal standard of England. The rest of the camp was +laid off in streets. On the outskirts of the Maidan (or parade ground) +were the military selected from different corps of the Indian army. +Some of the native troops in drill and discipline were equal to the +English. The Punjaubees especially were magnificent fellows. Tall and +athletic in figure, they are splendid horsemen, so that a regiment of +Punjaubee (or Sikh) cavalry is one of the sights of India. English +artillery manned the guns with which they saluted the native princes +according to their rank, as they came to pay their respects. Here, on +the Saturday before, the Prince had held a grand Durbar, to which the +Rajahs came riding on elephants, and each with a body-guard of +cavalry, mounted sometimes on horses and sometimes on camels, making +altogether such a scene of barbaric splendor as could not be witnessed +in any country in the world but India. + +The Prince was absent from the camp, having gone off a day or two +before to pay a visit to the Maharajah of Gwalior, but an hour later, +while we were making a first visit to the Taj, we heard the guns which +announced his return. A day or two after we saw him starting for +Jeypore, when, although he drove off in a carriage very quietly, the +camels and elephants that went rolling along the different roads, as +we drove out once more to the camp, told of the brilliant pageant that +was ended. + +This visit of the Prince of Wales is a great event. It has excited a +prodigious interest in official and military circles. His progress +through the country has been in a blaze of processions and +illuminations. To himself it must have been very gratifying. As he +said, "It had been the dream of his life to visit India." It was a +matter of political wisdom that he should know it, not only through +others but by personal observation. Mr. Disraeli, in proposing it in +Parliament, said justly that "travel was the best education for +princes." It was well that the future King of England, should make +himself acquainted with the great Empire that he was one day to rule. +But whether this royal visit will result in any real benefit to India +to correspond with the enormous expense it has involved, is a question +which I hear a good deal discussed among Englishmen. In some ways it +cannot fail to do good. It has presented to the people of India an +impersonation of sovereignty, a visible representative of that mighty +power, the British Empire. It has conciliated the native princes, who +have been greatly pleased by the frank and manly courtesy of their +future sovereign. In the art of courtesy he is a master. History will +give him this rank among princes, that he was not great, but gracious. +This is a kingly virtue which it was well to have exhibited in the +person of one of such exalted rank, the more as English officials in +India are charged with showing, often in the most offensive way, the +insolence of power. Perhaps it was on this very account that he took +such pains to show a generous and even chivalrous courtesy to natives +of rank, even while he did not hesitate, so I was told by Englishmen, +to "snub" his own countrymen. Such a bearing has certainly commanded +respect, and given him a personal popularity. But it has not converted +the people to loyalty any more than to Christianity. They run to see +the parades, the Rajahs, and the elephants. But as to its exciting any +deeper feeling in them, no Englishman who has lived long in the +country will trust to that for a moment. Even though English rule be +for their own safety and protection, yet their prejudices of race and +religion are stronger than even considerations of interest. It is a +curious illustration of the power of caste that the very Rajahs who +entertain the Prince of Wales with such lavish hospitality, who build +palaces to receive him, and spread before him sumptuous banquets, +still do not themselves sit down at the table; they will not even eat +with their Royal guest; and count his touch of food, and even his +shadow falling upon it, a pollution! Such a people are not to be +trusted very far beyond the range of English guns. The security of +English rule in India is not to be found in any fancied sentiment of +loyalty, which does not exist, but in the overwhelming proof of +English power. British possession is secured by the well-armed +fortresses which overlook every great city, and which could lay it in +ruins in twenty-four hours. The rule that was obtained by the sword, +must be held by the sword. + +But the interest of Agra is not in the present, but in the past. There +are few chapters in history more interesting than that of the +Mohammedan invasion of India--a history dating back to the Middle +Ages, but culminating about the time that Columbus discovered the New +World. Those fierce warriors, who had ravaged Central Asia, had long +made occasional incursions into India, but it was not till the +beginning of the sixteenth century that they became complete masters +of the country, and the throne was occupied by a descendant of the +house of Tamerlane. + +The dominion thus introduced into India was an exotic, but like other +products of the North, transplanted into a tropical clime, it +blossomed and flowered anew. The Moguls (a corruption of Mongols) had +all the wealth of Ormus and of Ind at their feet, and they lavished it +with Oriental prodigality, displaying a royal state which surpassed +the grandeur of European courts. + +The Great Mogul! What power there is in a name! Ever since I was a +child, I had read about the Great Mogul, until there was a magic in +the very word. To be sure, I had not much idea who or what he was; but +perhaps this vagueness itself added to the charm in my imagination. He +was an Oriental potentate, living somewhere in the heart of Asia, in a +pomp and glory quite unknown among barbarians of the West. He was a +sort of Haroun al Raschid, whose magnificence recalled the scenes of +the Arabian Nights. Even more, he was like the Grand Lama, almost an +object of worship. To keep up the illusion, he withdrew from +observation into his Palace, where he sat like a god, rarely seen by +mortal eyes, except by his court, and dwelling in unapproachable +splendor. + +And now here I was in the very Palace of the Great Mogul, walking +through the glittering halls where he held his gorgeous revelries, +entering the private apartments of his harem, and looking out of the +very windows from which they looked down upon the valley of the Jumna. + +The Palace is in the Citadel of Agra, for those old Emperors took good +care to draw fortified walls around their palaces. The river front +presents a wall sixty feet high, perhaps half a mile long, of red +sandstone, which heightens by contrast the effect of the white marble +pavilions, so graceful and airy-like, that rise above it. The Fort is +of great extent, but it is the mere casket of the jewels within, the +Palace and the Mosque, in which one may see the infinite beauty of +that Saracenic architecture, which is found nowhere in Europe in such +perfection, except in the Alhambra. The Mohammedan conquerors of +India, like the same conquerors of Spain, had gorgeous tastes in +architecture. Both aimed at the grandeur of effect produced by great +size and massive construction, combined with a certain lightness and +airiness of detail, which give it a peculiar delicacy and grace. Here +the imagination flowers in stone. The solid marble is made to bend in +vines and wreaths that run along the walls. The spirit of Oriental +luxury finds expression in cool marble halls, and open courts, with +plashing fountains, where the monarch could dally with the beauties of +his court. In all these things the life of the Great Mogul did not +differ from that of the Moorish Kings of Spain. + +The glory of Agra dates from the reign of Akbar the Great who made it +the capital of the Mogul Empire. He built the Fort, with its long line +of castellated walls, rising above the river, and commanding the +country around. Within this enclosure were buildings like a city, and +open spaces with canals, among which were laid out gardens, blooming +with flowers. On the river side of the Fort was a lofty terrace, on +which stood the Palace, built of the purest marble. It was divided +into a number of pavilions whose white walls and gilded domes +glittered in the sun. Passing from one pavilion to another over +tessellated pavements, we enter apartments rich in mosaics and all +manner of precious stones. Along the walls are little kiosks or +balconies, the windows of which are half closed by screens of marble, +which yet are so exquisitely carved and pierced as to seem like veils +of lace, drawn before the flashing eyes that looked out from behind +them. Straying through these rich halls, one cannot but reproduce the +scenes of three centuries ago, when Akbar ruled here in the midst of +his court; when the beauties of his seraglio, gathered from all the +East, sported in these gardens, and looked out from these latticed +windows. + +Of equal beauty with the palace is the mosque. It is called the Pearl +Mosque, and a pearl indeed it is, such is the simplicity of outline, +and such the exquisite and almost tender grace in every arch and +column. Said Bishop Heber: "This spotless sanctuary, showing such a +pure spirit of adoration, made me, a Christian, feel humbled when I +considered that no architect of our religion had ever been able to +produce anything equal to this temple of Allah." + +But these costly buildings have but little use now. The Mosque is +still here, but few are the Moslems who come to pray; and the palace +is tenantless. The great Moguls are departed. Their last descendant +was the late King of Delhi, who was compromised in the Great Mutiny, +and passed the rest of his life as a state prisoner. Not a trace +remains here nor at Delhi of the old Imperial grandeur. Yet once in a +long while these old palaces serve a purpose to entertain some royal +guest. Last week they were fitted up for a fete given to the Prince of +Wales, when the stately apartments were turned into reception rooms +and banqueting halls. It was a very brilliant spectacle, as the +British officers in their uniforms mingled with the native princes +glittering with diamonds. But it would seem as if the old Moguls must +turn in their coffins to hear this sound of revelry in their vacant +palaces, and to see the places where the Mohammedan ruled so long now +filled by unbelievers. + +Perhaps one gets a yet stronger impression of the magnificence of the +Great Mogul in a visit to the Summer Palace of Akbar at +Futtehpore-Sikri, so called from two villages embraced in the royal +retreat. This was the Versailles of the old Moguls. It is over twenty +miles from Agra, but starting early we were able to drive there and +return the same day. The site is a rocky hill, which might have been +chosen for a fortress. The outer wall enclosing it, with the two +villages at its foot, is nine miles in extent. The buildings were on a +scale to suit the wants of an Imperial Court--the plateau of the hill +being laid off in a vast quadrangle, surrounded by palaces, and +zenanas for the women of the Imperial household, and mosques and +tombs. Perhaps the most exquisite building of all is a tomb in white +marble--the resting place of Selim, a Moslem saint, a very holy shrine +to the true believers; although the Mosque is far more imposing, since +before it stands the loftiest gateway in the world. Around the hill +are distributed barracks for troops, and stables for horses and camels +and elephants. The open court in the centre of all these buildings is +an esplanade large enough to draw up an army. Here they show the spot +where Akbar used to mount his elephant, and here his troops filed +before him, or subject princes came with long processions to pay him +homage. + +As this palace was built for a summer retreat, everything is designed +for coolness; pavilions, covered overhead, screen from the sun, while +open at the sides, they catch whatever summer air may be stirring. In +studying the architecture of the Moors or the Moguls, one cannot but +perceive, that in its first inception it has been modelled after forms +familiar to their nomadic ancestors. The tribes of Central Asia first +dwelt in tents, and when they came to have more fixed habitations +built of wood or stone, they reproduced the same form, so that the +canvas tent became the marble pavilion--just as the builders of the +Gothic cathedrals caught the lines of their mighty arches from the +interlacing branches of trees which made the lofty aisles of the +forest. So the tribes of the desert, accustomed to live in tents, when +endowed with empire, falling heir to the riches of the Indies, still +preserved the style of their former life, and when they could no +longer dwell in tents, dwelt in tabernacles. These palaces are almost +all constructed on this type. There is one building of singular +structure, five stories high, which is a series of terraces, all open +at the side. + +If we believe the tales of travellers and historians, nothing since +the days of Babylon has equalled the magnificence of the Great Mogul. +But magnificence in a sovereign generally means misery in his +subjects. The wealth that is lavished on the court is wrung from the +people. So it is said to have been with some of the successors of +Akbar. The latest historian of Mussulman India[2] says: "They were the +most shameless tyrants that ever disgraced a throne. Mogul +administration ... was a monstrous system of oppression and extortion, +which none but Asiatics could have practised or endured. Justice was a +mockery. Magistrates could always be bribed; false witnesses could +always be bought.... The Hindoos were always in the hands of grinding +task-masters, foreigners who knew not how to pity or to spare." + +But Akbar was not merely a magnificent Oriental potentate--he was +truly a great king. A Mohammedan himself, he was free from Moslem +fanaticism and bigotry. Those conquerors of India had a difficult task +(which has vexed their English successors after two centuries), to +rule a people of a different race and a different religion. It was +harder for the Moslem than for the Christian, because his creed was +more intolerant; it made it his duty to destroy those whom he could +not convert. The first law of the Koran was the extermination of +idolatry, but the Hindoos were the grossest of idolaters. How then +could a Mohammedan ruler establish his throne without exterminating +the inhabitants? But the Moslems--like many other conquerors--learned +to bear the ills which they could not remove. Necessity taught them +the wisdom of toleration. In this humane policy they were led by the +example of Akbar, who, though a Mussulman, was not a bigot, and +thought it a pity that subtle questions of belief should divide +inhabitants of the same country. He admitted Hindoos to a share in his +government, and endeavored by complete tolerance to extinguish +religious hatreds. He had even the ambition to be a religious +reformer, and tried to blend the old faith with the new, and to make +an eclectic religion by putting together the systems of Zoroaster, of +the Brahmins, and of Christianity, while retaining some of the +Mohammedan forms. But he could not convert even his own Hindoo wives, +of whom he had one or two, and built a house for each, in Hindoo +architecture, with altars for idol worship. What impression then could +he make outside of the circle of his court? + +But greatness commands our homage, even though it sometimes undertakes +tasks beyond human power. Akbar, though he could not inspire others +with his own spirit of justice and toleration, deserves a place in +history as the greatest sovereign that ever sat in the seat of the +Great Mogul. And therefore, when in the Fort at Agra I stood beside +the large slab of black marble, on which he was wont to sit to +administer justice to his people, it was with the same feeling that +one would seek out the oak of Vincennes, under which St. Louis sat for +the same purpose; and at Secundra, a few miles from Agra, we visited +his tomb, as on another continent we had visited the tomb of Frederick +the Great, and of Napoleon. + +But the jewel of India--the Koh-i-noor of its beauty--is the TAJ, the +tomb built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, the grandson of Akbar, for his +wife, whom he loved with an idolatrous affection, and on her deathbed +promised to rear to her memory such a mausoleum as had never been +erected before. To carry out his purpose he gathered architects from +all countries, who rivalled each other in the extravagance and +costliness of their designs. The result was a structure which cost +fabulous sums of money (the whole empire being placed under +contribution for it, as were the Jews for the Temple of Solomon), and +employed twenty thousand workmen for seventeen years. The building +thus erected is one of the most famous in the world--like the Alhambra +or St. Peter's--and of which enthusiastic travellers are apt to say +that it is worth going around the world to see. This would almost +discourage the attempt to describe it, but I will try and give some +faint idea of its marvellous beauty. + +But how can I convey to others what is but a picture in my memory? +Descriptions of architecture are apt to be vague unless aided by +pictorial illustrations. Mere figures and measurements are dry and +cold. The most I shall aim at will be to give a general (but I hope +not indistinct) _impression_ of it. For this let us approach it +gradually. + +It stands on the banks of the Jumna, a mile below the Fort at Agra. As +you approach it, it is not exposed abruptly to view, but is surrounded +by a garden. You enter under a lofty gateway, and before you is an +avenue of cypresses a third of a mile long, whose dark foliage is a +setting for a form of dazzling whiteness at the end. That is the TAJ. +It stands, not on the level of your eye, but on a double terrace; the +first, of red sandstone, twenty feet high, and a thousand feet broad; +at the extremities of which stand two mosques, of the same dark stone, +facing each other. Midway between rises the second terrace, of +marble, fifteen feet high, and three hundred feet square, on the +corners of which stand four marble minarets. In the centre of all, +thus "reared in air," stands the Taj. It is built of marble--no other +material than this of pure and stainless white were fit for a purpose +so sacred. It is a hundred and fifty feet square (or rather it is +eight-sided, since the corners are truncated), and surmounted by a +dome, which rises nearly two hundred feet above the pavement below. + +These figures rather belittle the Taj, or at least disappoint those +who looked for great size. There are many larger buildings in the +world. But that which distinguishes it from all others, and gives it a +rare and ideal beauty, is the union of majesty and grace. This is the +peculiar effect of Saracenic architecture. The slender columns, the +springing arches, the swelling domes, the tall minarets, all combine +to give an impression of airy lightness, which is not destroyed even +when the foundations are laid with massive solidity. But it is in the +finish of their structures that they excelled all the world. Bishop +Heber said truly: "They built like Titans and finished like +jewellers." This union of two opposite features makes the beauty of +the Taj. While its walls are thick and strong, they are pierced by +high arched windows which relieve their heaviness. Vines and +arabesques running over the stone work give it the lightness of +foliage, of trees blossoming with flowers. In the interior there is an +extreme and almost feminine grace, as if here the strength of man +would pay homage to the delicacy of woman. Enclosing the sacred spot +is a screen of marble, carved into a kind of fretwork, and so pure and +white that light shines through it as through alabaster, falling +softly on that which is within. The Emperor, bereaved of his wife, +lavished riches on her very dust, casting precious stones upon her +tomb, as if he were placing a string of pearls around her neck. It is +overrun with vines and flowers, cut in stone, and set with onyx and +jasper and lapis lazuli, carnelians and turquoises, and chalcedonies +and sapphires. + +But the body rests in the crypt below. We descend a few steps and +stand by the very sarcophagus in which all that loveliness is +enshrined. Another sarcophagus contains the body of her husband. Their +tombs were covered with fresh flowers, a perpetual tribute to that +love which was so strong even on the throne; to those who were thus +united in life, and in death are not divided. + +Here sentiment comes in to affect our sense of the beauty of the +place. If it were not for the touching history connected with it, I +could not agree with those who pronounce the Taj the most beautiful +building in the world. Merely as a building, it does not "overcome" me +so much as another marble structure--the Cathedral of Milan. I could +not say with Bishop Heber that the mosques of Islam are more +beautiful, or more in harmony with the spirit of devotion, than +Christian churches or cathedrals. But the Taj is not a mosque, it is a +tomb--a monument to the dead. And that gives it a tender interest, +which spiritualizes the cold marble, and makes it more than a +building--a poem and a dream. + +This impression grew upon us the more we saw it. On our last night in +Agra we drove there to take our last view by moonlight. All slept +peacefully on the banks of the Jumna. Slowly we walked through the +long avenue of dark cypresses, that stood like ranks of mourners +waiting for the dead to pass, their tops waving gently in the night +wind, as if breathing a soft requiem over the departed. Mounting the +terrace we stood again before the Taj, rising into the calm blue +heavens. A few nights before the Prince of Wales had been here, and +the interior had been illuminated. As we had not seen it then, we had +engaged attendants with blue lights, who gave us an illumination of +our own. It was a weird scene as these swarthy natives, with naked +arms, held aloft their torches, whose blue flames, flaring and +flickering, cast a spectral light upward into the dim vault above. + +To add to the ghostly effect, we heard whispers above us, as if there +were unseen witnesses. It was the echo of our own voices, but one +starts to hear himself in such a place. The dome is a whispering +gallery; and as we stood beside the tomb, and spoke in a low voice +(not to disturb the sleep of the dead), our words seemed to be +repeated. Any sound at the tomb--a sigh of pity, or a plaintive +melody--rising upward, comes back again,--faintly indeed, yet +distinctly and sweetly--as if the very air trembled in sympathy, +repeating the accents of love and of despair, or as if unseen spirits +were floating above, and singing the departing soul to its rest. + +Then we went down once more into the crypt below, where sleeps the +form of the beautiful empress, and of Shah Jehan, who built this +monument for her, at her side. The place was dark, and the lights in +the hands of the attendants cast but a feeble glimmer, but this deep +shadow and silence suited the tenor of our thoughts, and we lingered, +reluctant to depart from the resting-place of one so much beloved. + +As we came out the moon was riding high overhead, flooding the marble +pile with beauty. Round and round we walked, looking up at arch and +dome and minaret. At such an hour the Taj was so pale and ghostlike, +that it did not seem like a building reared by human hands, but to +have grown where it stood--like a night-blooming Cereus, rising slowly +in the moonlight--lifting its domes and pinnacles (like branches +growing heavenward) towards that world which is the home of the love +which it was to preserve in perpetual memory. + +With such thoughts we kept our eyes fixed on that glittering vision, +as if we feared that even as we gazed it might vanish out of our +sight. Below us the Jumna, flowing silently, seemed like an image of +human life as it glided by. And so at last we turned to depart, and +bade farewell to the Taj, feeling that we should never look on it +again; but hoping that it might stand for ages to tell its history of +faithful love to future generations. Flow on, sweet Jumna, by the +marble walls, reflecting the moonbeams in thy placid breast; and in +thy gentle murmurs whispering evermore of Love and Death, and Love +that cannot die! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Mr. Talboys Wheeler. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DELHI--A MOHAMMEDAN FESTIVAL--SCENES IN THE MUTINY. + + +Delhi is the Rome of the old Mogul Empire. Agra was the capital in the +time of Akbar, but Delhi is an older city. It had a history before the +Moguls. It is said to have been destroyed and rebuilt seven times, and +thus is overspread with the ashes of many civilizations. Its very +ruins attest its ancient greatness. The plain around Delhi is like the +Campagna around Rome--covered with the remains of palaces and mosques, +towers and tombs, which give credit to the historical statement that +the city was once thirty miles in circuit, and had two millions of +inhabitants. This greatness tempted the spoiler. In 1398 it was +plundered by Tamerlane; in 1525 it was taken by his descendant, Baber, +the founder of the Mogul dynasty. Akbar made Agra, 112 miles to the +south, his capital; but Shah Jehan, the monarch of magnificent tastes, +who built the Taj, attracted by the mighty memories of this Rome of +Asia, returned to Delhi, and here laid the foundations of a city that +was to exceed all the capitals that had gone before it, if not in +size, at least in splendor. + +That distinction it still retains among the cities of India. Though +not a tenth of old Delhi in size, it has to-day over 160,000 +inhabitants. It is surrounded by walls seven miles in extent. We enter +under lofty arched gateways, and find ourselves in the midst of a +picturesque population, representing all the races of Southern and +Central Asia. The city is much gayer than Agra. Its streets are full +of people of all colors and costumes. Its shops are rich in Indian +jewelry, which is manufactured here, and in Cashmere shawls and other +Oriental fabrics; and in walking through the Chandney Chook, the +Broadway of Delhi, one might imagine himself in the bazaars of Cairo +or Constantinople. + +The Fort is very like that of Agra, being built of the same red +sandstone, but much larger, and encloses a Palace which Bishop Heber +thought superior to the Kremlin. In the Hall of Audience, which still +remains, stood the famous Peacock Throne, which is estimated to have +been worth thirty millions of dollars. Here the Great Mogul lived in a +magnificence till then unknown even in Oriental courts. At the time +that Louis XIV. was on the throne of France, a French traveller, +Tavernier, made his way to the East, and though he had seen all the +glory of Versailles, he was dazzled by this greater Eastern splendor. +But what a comment on the vanity of all earthly power, that the +monarch who built this Palace was not permitted to live in it! He was +dethroned by his son, the wily Aurungzebe, who imprisoned his father +and murdered his brother, to get possession of the throne. Shah Jehan +was taken back to Agra, and confined in the Fort, where he passed the +last years of his life. But as it is only a mile from the Taj, the +dethroned King, as he sat in his high tower, could see from his +windows the costly mausoleum he had reared. Death came at last to his +relief, as it comes alike to kings and captives, and he was laid in +his marble tomb, beside the wife he had so much loved. + +This story of crime is relieved by one of the most touching instances +of fidelity recorded in history. When all others deserted the fallen +monarch, there was one true heart that was faithful still. He had a +daughter, the favorite sister of that murdered brother, who shared her +father's captivity. She was famous throughout the East for her wit and +beauty, but sorrow brought out the nobler traits of her character. She +clung to her father, and thus comforted the living while she mourned +for the dead. She became very religious, and spent her life in deeds +of charity. She is not buried in the Taj Mahal, but at Delhi in a +humble grave. Lowly in spirit and broken in heart, she shrank from +display even in her tomb. She desired to be buried in the common +earth, with only the green turf above her. There she sleeps beneath a +lowly mound (though surrounded by costly marble shrines), and near the +head is a plain tablet, with an inscription in Persian, which reads: +"Let no rich canopy cover my grave. This grass is the best covering +for the tomb of one who was poor in spirit--the humble, the transitory +Jehanara, the disciple of the holy men of Cheest, the daughter of the +Emperor Shah Jehan." Was there ever a more touching inscription? As I +stood by this grave, on which the green grass was growing, and read +these simple words, I was more moved than even when standing by the +marble sarcophagus under the dome of the Taj. That covered an +Emperor's wife, and was the monument of a royal husband's affection; +this recalled a daughter's fidelity--broken in heart, yet loving and +faithful, and devoted to the last. + +But humiliations were to come to the house of Aurungzebe. As Louis +XIV. on his deathbed had to mourn his haughty policy, which had ended +in disaster and defeat, so Aurungzebe was hardly in his grave when +troubles gathered round his house.[3] About thirty years after, a +conqueror from Persia, Nadir Shah, came down from the passes of the +Himalayas, ravaged the North of India to the gates of Delhi, plundered +the city and the palace, and carried off the Peacock Throne--putting +out the eyes of the Great Mogul, telling him in bitter mockery that +he had no more need of his throne, since he had no longer eyes to see +it! + +Other sorrows followed hard after. The kingdom was overrun by the +terrible Mahrattas, whose horses' hoofs had so often trampled the +plains of India. Then came the English, who took Delhi at the +beginning of this century. But still the phantom of the old Empire +lived, and there was an Indian Rajah, who bore the sounding name of +the Great Mogul. The phantom continued till the Mutiny twenty years +ago, when this "King of Delhi" was set up by the Sepoys as their +rallying cry. The overthrow of the Rebellion was the end of his house. +His sons were put to death, and he was sent into exile, and the Great +Mogul ceased to reign. + +But though he no longer reigns in Delhi, yet it is one of the chief +centres of Islam in the world. Queen Victoria has more Mohammedan +subjects than the Sultan. There are forty millions of Moslems in +India. Delhi is their Mecca. It has some forty mosques, whose tall +minarets and gilded domes produce a very brilliant effect. One +especially, the Jumma Musjid, is the most magnificent in India. It +stands on a high terrace, mounted by long flights of steps, which give +it an imposing effect. Huge bronze doors open into a large court, with +a fountain in the centre, and surrounded by arched passages, like +cloisters. Here are preserved with religious care some very ancient +copies of the Koran, and the footprint of Mohammed in black marble (!), +and (holiest relic of all) a coarse red hair, which is said to have +been plucked from the beard of the prophet! + +Nor is Mohammedanism in India a dead faith, whose fire has died out, +its forms only being still preserved. The recurrence of one of their +festivals arouses their religious zeal to the highest pitch of +fanaticism. We were in Delhi at the time of the Mohurrim, the Moslem +"Feast of Martyrs," designed to commemorate the bloody deaths of the +grandsons of Mohammed. Macaulay, in his review of the Life of Lord +Clive, gives an instance in which this day was chosen for a military +assault because of the frenzy with which it kindled all true +Mussulmans. He says: + + "It was the great Mohammedan festival, which is sacred to + the memory of Hosein, the son of Ali. The history of Islam + contains nothing more touching than the event which gave + rise to that solemnity. The mournful legend relates how the + chief of the Fatimites, when all his brave followers had + perished round him, drank his latest draught of water and + uttered his latest prayer; how the assassins carried his + head in triumph; how the tyrant smote the lifeless lips with + his staff; and how a few old men recollected with tears that + they had seen those lips pressed to the lips of the Prophet + of God. After the lapse of twelve centuries, the recurrence + of this solemn season excites the fiercest and saddest + emotions in the bosoms of the devout Moslems of India. They + work themselves up to such agonies of rage and lamentation, + that some, it is said, have given up the ghost from the mere + effect of mental excitement." + +Such was the celebration that we witnessed in Delhi. The martyrdom of +these Moslem saints is commemorated by little shrines in their houses, +made of paper and tinsel, and on the great day of the feast they go in +procession out of the city to a cemetery five miles distant, and there +bury them in hundreds of newly-opened graves. As we drove out of +Delhi, we found the procession on its march; men, women, and children +by tens of thousands on foot, and others in bullock-carts, or mounted +on horses, camels, and elephants. Immense crowds gathered by the +roadside, mounting the steps of old palaces, or climbing to the tops +of houses, to see this mighty procession pass, as it went rolling +forward in a wild frenzy to its Golgotha--its place of a skull. There +they lay down these images of their saints as they would bury their +dead. We went into the cemetery, and saw the open graves, and the +little shrines garlanded with flowers, that were laid in the earth, +not (so far as we saw) with weeping and wailing, but rather with a +feeling of triumph and victory. + +Leaving this scene of wild fanaticism, we rode on a few miles farther +to the Kootub Minar, the loftiest isolated tower in the world, that +has stood there six hundred years, looking down on all the strange +scenes that have passed within its horizon, since watchers from its +summit saw the armies of Tamerlane march by. We rode back through a +succession of ruins, stopping at several royal tombs, but most +interested in one where the sons of the aged king of Delhi took refuge +after the fall of the city, and from which they were taken out by +Captain Hodson, and shot in the presence of their deluded followers, +and their bodies exposed in the Chandney Chook, to the terror of the +wretched people, who had seen the cruelty of these young princes, and +were awed to see the retribution that overtook those who had stained +their hands with blood. + +This tragedy took place less than twenty years ago, and recalls that +recent history from which fresh interest gathers round the walls of +Delhi. This city played a great part in the Mutiny of 1857. Indeed it +broke out at Meerut, thirty miles from here, where the Sepoys rose +upon their officers, and massacred the Europeans of both sexes, and +then rushed along the road to Delhi, to rouse the natives here to +mutiny. Had those in command anticipated such a blow, they might have +rallied their little force, and shut themselves up in the Fort (as was +done at Agra), with provisions and ammunition for a siege, and there +kept the tigers at bay. But they could not believe that the native +troops, that had been obedient till now, could "turn and rend them." +They were undeceived when they saw these Sepoys drunk with blood, +rushing into the town, calling on their fellow-soldiers to rise and +kill. Many perished on the spot. But they fell not ingloriously. A +brave officer shut himself up in the Arsenal, and when the mutineers +had gathered around, ready to burst in, applied the torch, and blew +himself and a thousand natives into the air. The little handful of +troops fled from the town, and were scarcely able to rally enough to +be safe even at a distance. But then rose the unconquerable English +spirit. With this small nucleus of an army, and such reinforcements as +could be brought from the Punjaub, they held out through the long, +dreadful Summer, till in September they had mustered all together +seven thousand men (half of whom were natives), with which they +proposed to assault a walled city held by sixty thousand native +troops! Planting their guns on the Ridge, a mile or two distant, they +threw shells into the town, and as their fire took effect, they +advanced their lines nearer and nearer. But they did not advance +unopposed. Many of the Sepoys were practised artillerists (since the +Mutiny all the artillery regiments in India are English), and answered +back with fatal aim. Still, though the English ranks were thinned, +they kept pushing on; they came nearer and nearer, and the roar of +their guns was louder and louder. Approaching the walls at one point, +they wished to blow up the Cashmere Gate. It was a desperate +undertaking. But when was English courage known to fail? A dozen men +were detailed for the attempt. Four natives carried bags of powder on +their shoulders, but as they drew within rifle range, English soldiers +stepped up to take their places, for they would not expose their +native allies to a danger which they were ready to encounter +themselves. The very daring of the movement for an instant bewildered +the enemy. The Sepoys within saw these men coming up to the gate, but +thinking perhaps that they were deserters, did not fire upon them, and +it was not till they darted back again that they saw the design. Then +came the moment of danger, when the mine was to be fired. A sergeant +advanced quickly, but fell mortally wounded; a second sprang to the +post, but was shot dead; the third succeeded, but fell wounded; the +fourth rushed forward, and seeing the train lighted sprang into the +moat, the bullets whizzed over him, and the next instant a tremendous +explosion threw the heavy wall into the air. + +Such are the tales of courage still told by the camp-fires of the +regiments here. More than once did we walk out to the Cashmere Gate, +and from that point followed the track of the English troops as they +stormed the city, pausing at the spot where the brave General +Nicholson fell. With mingled pride and sadness, we visited his grave, +and those of others who fell in the siege. The English church is +surrounded with them, and many a tablet on its walls tells of the +heroic dead. Such memories are a legacy to the living. We attended +service there, and as we saw the soldiers filing into the church, and +heard the swords of their officers ringing on the pavement, we felt +that the future of India was safe when committed to such brave +defenders! + +This church was standing during the siege, and above it rose a gilded +ball, supporting a cross, which was an object of hatred to both +Mohammedan and Hindoo, who wished to see this symbol of our religion +brought to the ground. Again and again they aimed their guns at it, +and the globe was riddled with balls, but still _the cross stood_, +until the city was completely subdued, when it was reverently taken +down by English hands, and carried to the Historical Museum, to be +kept as a sacred relic. May we not take this as a sign of the way in +which the Christian faith will stand against all the false religions +of India? + +But I turn from battles and sieges to a lighter picture. One may find +great amusement in the street scenes of Delhi, which will relieve +these "dun clouds of war." In the Mohammedan procession we had seen +hundreds of the drollest little carts, drawn by oxen, on which the +natives were stuck like pins, the sight of which, with the loads of +happy life they bore, excited our envy. Before leaving Delhi, we +thought it would be very "nice" to take a turn around the town in one +of these extraordinary vehicles. We had tried almost every kind of +locomotion; we had ridden on horses and donkeys, on camels and +elephants, and had been borne in palanquins; but one more glory +awaited us--to ride in a "bali,"--and so we commanded one to attend +us for our royal pleasure. But when it drew up in the yard of the +hotel, we looked at it in amazement. There stood the oxen, as ready to +draw us as a load of hay; but what a "chariot" was this behind! It was +a kind of baby-house on cart-wheels--a cushion and a canopy--one seat, +with a sort of umbrella over it, under which a native "lady" sits in +state, with her feet curled up between her. How we were to get into it +was the question. There were three of us, for the surgeon of the +Peshawur had joined us. C. of course had the place of honor, while the +Doctor and I sat on the edge of the seat, with our lower limbs +extended at right angles. The "bali" is rigged somewhat like an Irish +jaunting-car, in which one sits sidewise, hanging over the wheels; +only in a jaunting-car there is a board for the feet to rest upon, +whereas here the feet are literally "nowhere." In the East there is no +provision for the lower part of a man. Legs are very much in the way. +A Turk or Hindoo curls them up under him, and has done with them. But +if an impracticable European will dangle them about where they ought +not to be, he must take the consequences. I find that the only way is +to look out for the main chance--to see that the body is safe, and let +the legs take care of themselves. Then if an accident happens, I am +not responsible; I have done my duty. So we now "faced the situation," +and while the central personage reposed like a Sultana on a soft +divan, her attendants faced in either direction, with their +extremities flying all abroad. We felt as if sitting on the edge of a +rickety chair, that might break any moment and pitch us into the +street. But we held fast to the slender bamboo reeds that supported +the canopy, and, thrusting our feet into the air, bade the chariot +proceed. + +The driver sits astride the tongue of the cart, and sets the thing +going by giving the animals a kick in the rear, or seizing the tails +and giving them a twist, which sets the beasts into an awkward, +lumbering gallop. He was proud of his team, and wished to show us +their mettle, and now gave the tails a Herculean twist, which sent +them tearing like mad bulls along the street. Everybody turned to look +at us, while we laughed at the absurdity of our appearance, and wished +that we could have our photograph taken to send home. Thus we rode to +the great Mosque of the city, and through the Chandney Chook, the +street of the bazaars, and back to our hotel, having had glory enough +for one day. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] There are many parallels between Louis XIV. and Aurungzebe. They +were contemporaries--and both had long reigns, the former a little +over, and the latter a little less than, half a century. They were the +most splendid sovereigns of their time--one in Europe, and the other +in Asia, and with both the extravagance and prodigality of the +monarchs prepared the way for revolution after their deaths. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +FROM DELHI TO LAHORE. + + +Times have changed since twenty years ago, when Delhi was the head and +front of the Rebellion. It is now as tranquil and loyal as any city in +India. As we rode out to the Ridge, where the English planted their +guns during the siege, we found it surmounted by a lofty Memorial +Tower, reared to mark the spot where the courage of a few thousand men +saved India. So completely is the English power re-established, that +Delhi was lately chosen over all Indian cities as the one where should +be gathered the most imposing display of troops to do honor to their +future sovereign, the Prince of Wales. Some forty regiments, native +and English, were mustered here to form a grand Camp of Exercise. +Never before had India witnessed such a military display. Here were +native regiments in the picturesque costumes of the East--the superb +Sikh cavalry; a corps of guides mounted on camels; and heavy artillery +drawn by elephants, which, as they came before the Prince, threw up +their trunks and trumpeted a salute to the Majesty of England. Two +weeks passed in military manoeuvres, and the nights in a constant +round of festivities. The Fort was brilliantly illuminated, and the +Palace was thronged with "fair women and brave men," but they were +those of another race, and speaking another language, from any known +to the Great Mogul. Manly English forms took the place of the dusky +Hindoos, and bright English eyes shone where once the beauties of the +Seraglio "looked out from the lattice." As we walked through these +marble halls that had just witnessed these splendid festivities, I +could but think, What would the old fanatical Mohammedan Aurungzebe +have said, if he could have seen, less than two hundred years after +his day, a Christian prince from that distant island of which he had +perhaps scarcely heard, received in his palace, the heir of a power +ten thousand miles away, that from its seat on the banks of the Thames +stretches out its hand across the seas to grasp and hold the vast +empire of the house of Tamerlane? + +The change has been from darkness to light. If England has not done as +much for Delhi as the Great Mogul to give it architectural beauty, it +has done far more for the people. It has given them good government +for their protection, just laws rigidly enforced against the rich as +well as the poor, a police which preserves perfect order; and it even +cares for the material comfort of its subjects, giving them good +roads, clean and well-lighted streets, and public gardens; thus +providing for ornament and pleasure as well as for utility. + +The Camp of Exercise was breaking up as we left Delhi, and the troops +were marching home. We saw them filing out of the gates of the city, +and drew up by the roadside to see the gallant warriors pass. Among +them was the corps of Sikh guides, or couriers, mounted on "swift +dromedaries." As they were scattered along the road, our guide asked +some of them to show us how they could go. In an instant they dashed +their feet against the sides of their "coursers," and set them off at +full speed. I cannot say that they were very beautiful objects. The +camel with his long strides, and with the legs of his rider outspread +like the wings of a bird, looked like an enormous ostrich flying at +once with legs and wings in swift chase over the desert. But certainly +it was a picturesque sight. The infantry marched in column. The +spectacle was very gay, as the morning sun shone on the waving banners +and gleaming bayonets, and the sound of their bugles died away in the +distance. Regiments had been leaving for days, and were scattered at +intervals far to the North. As we travelled at night, we saw their +camp-fires for a hundred miles. Indeed the whole country seemed to be +a camp. Once or twice we came upon a regiment at sunset, just as they +had pitched their tents. They had parked their guns, and picketed +their horses, and the men were cooking their evening meal. It was a +busy scene for an hour or two, till suddenly all became quiet, and the +silence of night was broken only by the sentinel's tramp and the +jackal's cry. + +At Gazeeabad we met Sir Bartle Frere, the chief of the suite of the +Prince of Wales, and Canon Duckworth, his chaplain, who were going +North on the same train, and found them extremely courteous. The +former, I think, must be of French descent from his name (although his +family has been settled in England for generations), and from his +manners, which seemed to me more French than English, or rather to +have the good qualities of both. When French courtesy is united with +English sincerity, it makes the finest gentleman in the world. He is +an "old Indian," having been many years in the Indian service, and at +one time Governor of Bombay. I could but share the wish (which I heard +often expressed) that in the change which was just taking place, he +were to be the new Governor-General of India. + +Canon Duckworth seemed to me also a very "manly man." Though coming to +India in the train of royalty, he is much less interested in the fetes +which are setting the country ablaze, than in studying missions, +visiting native churches and schools and orphanages. Our American +missionaries like his bearing, and wish that he might be appointed the +new Bishop of Bombay. One fact should be mentioned to his credit--that +he is one of the strongest temperance men in England, carrying his +principles and his practice to the point of rigid total abstinence, +which, for one travelling in such company, and sitting at such +entertainments, shows a firmness in resisting temptation, greatly to +his honor. It is a good sign when such men are chosen to accompany +the future King of England on his visit to this great dependency, over +which he is one day to rule. + +That night we had our first sight of the Himalayas. Just at evening we +saw on the horizon a fire spreading on the side of a mountain. It was +kindled by the natives, as fires are sometimes lighted in our forests +or on our prairies. There were the Himalayas! + +We now entered the most Northwestern Province of India, the Punjaub, +which signifies in Persian "the land of the five streams," which +coming together like the fingers of a hand, make the Indus. About +midnight we crossed the Sutlej, which was the limit of the conquests +of Alexander the Great. + +Morning brought us to Umritzur, the holy city of the Sikhs--a sect of +reformed Hindoos, who began their "reforms" by rejecting idolatry, but +have found the fascination of the old worship too strong for them, and +have gradually fallen back into their old superstitions. Their most +holy place is a temple standing in the centre of a large tank of +water, which they call the Lake of Immortality, and with its pure +white marble, and its roof made of plates of copper, richly gilded, +merits the title of the Golden Temple. This is a very holy place, and +they would not let us even cross the causeway to it without taking off +our shoes; and when we put on slippers, and shuffled about, still they +followed, watching us with sharp eyes, lest by any unguarded step we +should profane their sanctuary. They are as fanatical as Mussulmans, +and glared at us with such fierce looks that the ladies of our party +were almost frightened. In the centre of the temple sat two priests, +on raised mats, to whom the rest were making offerings, while half a +dozen musicians kept up a hideous noise, to which the people responded +in a way that reminded us of the Howling Dervishes of Constantinople. + +A pleasant change from this disgusting scene was a visit to the +bazaars, and to the places where Cashmere shawls are manufactured. Of +the latter I must say that (as a visit to a dirty kitchen does not +quicken one's appetite for the steaming dinner that comes from it), if +our fine ladies could see the dens in which these shawls are woven, +they might not wear them with quite so much pride. They are close, +narrow rooms, in which twenty or thirty men are crowded together, +working almost without light or air. The only poetical thing about it +is that the patterns are written out _in rhyme_, which they read or +sing as they weave, and thus keep the patterns so regular. But the +rooms themselves seem like breeding places for the cholera and the +plague. But out of this filth comes beauty, as a flower shoots up from +the damp, black soil. Some of the shawls were indeed exquisite in +pattern and fabric. One was offered to us for eight hundred rupees +(four hundred dollars), which the dealer said had taken two years and +a half in its manufacture! + +We left Umritzur at five o'clock, and in a couple of hours rolled into +the station at Lahore. As the train stopped a friendly voice called +our name, and we were greeted most heartily by Dr. Newton, the father +of the Mission. Coolies were waiting to carry our baggage, and in a +few minutes we were in an American home, sitting before a blazing +fire, and receiving a welcome most grateful to strangers on the other +side of the world. Dr. Newton is the head of a missionary family, his +four sons being engaged in the same work, while his only daughter is +the wife of Mr. Forman, another missionary. Very beautiful it was to +see how they all gathered round their father, so revered and beloved, +happy to devote their lives to that form of Christian activity to +which he had led them both by instruction and example. Here we spent +four happy days in one of the most pleasant homes in India. + +Lahore, like Delhi, has a historical interest. It was a great city a +thousand years ago. In 1241 it was taken and plundered by Genghis +Khan; a century and a half later came Tamerlane, who did not spoil it +only because it was too poor to reward his rapacity. But as it +recovered a little of its prosperity, Baber, in 1524, plundered it and +partially burnt it. But again it rose from its ashes, and became a +great city. The period of its glory was during the time of the Moguls, +when it covered a space eighteen miles in circumference, and this vast +extent is still strewn with the ruins of its former greatness. Huge +mounds, like those which Layard laid open at Nineveh, cover the mighty +wreck of former cities. + +But though the modern city bears no comparison to the ancient, still +it has a political and commercial importance. It is the capital of the +Punjaub, and a place of commerce with Central Asia. The people are the +finest race we have seen in India. They are not at all like the +effeminate Bengalees. They are the Highlanders of India. Tall and +athletic, they seem born to be warriors. Their last great ruler, old +Runjeet Sing, was himself a soldier, and knew how to lead them to +victory. Uniting policy with valor, he kept peace with the English, +against whom his successors dashed themselves and were destroyed. All +readers of Indian history will remember the Sikh war, and how +desperate was the struggle before the Punjaub was subdued. But English +prowess conquered at last, and the very province that had fought so +bravely became the most loyal part of the Indian empire. It was +fortunate that at the breaking out of the mutiny the Governor of the +Punjaub was Sir John Lawrence, who had a great ascendancy over the +natives, and by his courage and prompt measures he succeeded not only +in keeping them quiet, but in mustering here a considerable force to +restore English authority in the rest of India. The Punjaubees took +part in the siege of Delhi. From that day they have been the most +trusted of natives for their courage and their fidelity. They are +chosen for police duty in the cities of India, and three months later +we were much pleased to recognize our old friends keeping guard and +preserving order in the streets of Hong Kong. + +Old Runjeet Sing is dead--and well dead, as I can testify, having seen +his tomb, where his four wives and seven concubines, that were burnt +on his funeral pile, are buried with him. His son too sleeps in a tomb +near by, but only seven widowed women were sacrificed for him, and for +a grandson only four! Thus there was a falling off in the glory of the +old suttee, and then the light of these fires went out altogether. +These were the last widows burnt on the funeral pile, and to-day the +old Lion of the Punjaub is represented by his son Maharajah Dhuleep +Sing, of whose marriage we heard such a romantic story in Cairo, and +who now lives with his Christian wife in Christian England. + +We had now reached almost the frontier of India. Two hundred and fifty +miles farther we should have come to Peshawur, the last military post, +on the border of Afghanistan, which no man crosses but at the peril of +his life. We find how far North we have come by the race and the +language of the people. Persian begins to be mingled with Hindostanee. +In the streets of Lahore we meet not only the stalwart Punjaubees, but +the hill tribes, that have come out of the fastnesses of the +Himalayas; the men of Cabul--Afghans and Beloochees--who have a +striking resemblance to the Circassians, who crossed the Mediterranean +with us on their pilgrimage to Mecca, the long dresses of coarse, +dirty flannel, looking not unlike the sheepskin robes of the wild +mountaineers of the Caucasus. + +One cannot be so near the border line of British India without having +suggested the possibility of a Russian invasion, the fear of which has +been for the last twenty years (since the Mutiny and since the Crimean +War) the bugbear of certain writers who are justly jealous of the +integrity of the English Empire in the East. Russia has been steadily +pushing Eastward, and establishing her outposts in Central Asia. These +gradual advances, it is supposed, are all to the end of finally +passing through Afghanistan, and attacking the English power in India. +The appearance of Russian soldiers in the passes of the Hindoo Koosh, +it is taken for granted, will be the signal for a general insurrection +in India; the country will be in a state of revolution; and at the end +of a struggle in which Russians and Hindoos will fight together +against the English, the British power will have departed never to +return. Or even should the Russians be held back from actual invasion, +their approach in a threatening attitude would be such a menace to the +Indian Empire, as would compel England to remain passive, while Russia +carried out her designs in Europe by taking possession of +Constantinople. + +This is a terrible prospect, and no one can say that it is impossible +that all this should yet come to pass. India has been invaded again +and again from the time of Alexander the Great. Even the mighty wall +of the Himalayas has not proved an effectual barrier against invasion. +Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, with their Tartar hordes, crossed the +mountains and swept over the plains of Northern India. A King of +Persia captured Delhi, and put out the eyes of the Great Mogul, and +carried off the Peacock Throne of Aurungzebe. What has been, may be; +what Persia has done, Russia may do. + +But while no one can say that it is impossible, all can see that the +difficulties are enormous. The distance to be traversed, the deserts +and the mountains to be crossed, are so many obstacles set up by +nature itself. An army from the Caspian Sea must march thousands of +miles over great deserts, where even a small caravan can hardly +subsist, and then only by carrying both food to eat and water to +drink. Many a caravan is buried by the sands of the desert. What then +must be the difficulty of passing a whole army over such a distance +and such a desert, with food for men and horses, and carrying guns and +all the munitions of war! Five years ago, Russia attempted a campaign +against Khiva, and sent out three separate expeditions, one of which +was forced to turn back, not by hostile armies, but by the natural +obstacles in its path, while the main column, under Gen. Kaufman, came +very near succumbing to heat and thirst before reaching its +destination. But if the deserts are crossed, then the army is at the +foot of the loftiest mountains on the globe, in the passes of which it +may have to fight against savage enemies. It is assumed that Russia +will have the support of Afghanistan, which will give them free access +to the country, and aid them in their march on India; though how a +government and people, which are fanatically Mussulman, should aid +Russia, which in Europe is the bitterest enemy of Turkey, the great +Mohammedan power, is a point which these alarmists seem not to +consider. + +But suppose all difficulties vanquished--the deserts crossed and the +mountains scaled, and the Russians descending the passes of the +Himalayas--what an army must they meet at its foot! Not a feeble race, +like that which fled before Nadir Shah or Tamerlane. With the railways +traversing all India, almost the whole Anglo-Indian army could be +transported to the Punjaub in a few days, and ready to receive the +invaders. + +With these defences in the country itself, add another supreme fact, +that England is absolute master of the sea, and that Russia has no +means of approach except over the deserts and the mountains, and it +will be seen that the difficulties in the way of a Russian invasion +render it practically impossible, at least for a long time to come. +What may come to pass in another century, no man can foresee; but of +this I feel well assured, that there will be no Russian invasion +within the lifetime of this generation. + +We had now reached the limit of our journey to the North, though we +would have gladly gone farther. Dr. Newton had spent the last summer +in Cashmere, and told us much of its beauty. We longed to cross the +mountains, but it was too early in the year. The passes were still +blocked up with snow. It would be months before we could make our way +over into the Vale of Cashmere. And so, though we "lifted up our eyes +unto the hills," we had to turn back from seeing the glory beyond. +Might we not comfort ourselves by saying with Mohammed, as he looked +down upon Damascus, "There is but one Paradise for man, and I will +turn away my eyes from this, lest I lose that which is to come." + +And so we turned away our eyes from beholding Paradise. But we had +seen enough. So we thought as on Saturday evening we rode out to the +Shalamir gardens, where an emperor had made a retreat, and laid out +gardens with fountains, and every possible accompaniment of luxury and +pride. All remains as he left it, but silent and deserted. Emperor and +court are gone, and as we walked through the gardens, our own footfall +on the marble pavement was the only sound that broke the stillness of +the place. But the beauty is as great as ever under the clear, full +moon, which, as we rode back, recalled the lines of Scott on Melrose: + + "And home returning, sooth declare, + Was ever scene so sad and fair?" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A WEEK IN THE HIMALAYAS. + + +Ever since we landed in India my chief desire has been to see the +Himalayas. I had seen Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, and +now wished to look upon the highest mountains in Asia, or the world. +To reach them we had travelled nearly fifteen hundred miles. We had +already had a distant view of them at night, lighted up by fires +blazing along their sides; but to come into their presence one must +leave the railway and cross the country some forty miles. + +We left Lahore Monday morning, and at noon were at Lodiana, a place +with sacred missionary associations; which we left at midnight, and in +the morning reached Saharanpur, where also is one of our Presbyterian +missions. Rev. Mr. Calderwood met us at the station, and made us +welcome to his home, and sped us on our way to the Hills. + +Saharanpur is forty-two miles distant from Dehra Doon, the beautiful +valley which lies at the foot of the Himalayas. A mail wagon runs +daily, but as it suited our convenience better, we chartered a vehicle +not unlike an omnibus, and which the natives, improving on the +English, call an _omnibukus_. It is a long covered _gharri_, that +looks more like a prison van than anything else to which I can compare +it, and reminded me of the Black Maria that halts before the Tombs in +New York to convey prisoners to Blackwell's Island. There are only two +seats running lengthwise, as they are made to lie down upon in case of +necessity. Much of the travelling is at night, and "old Indians," who +are used to the ways of the country, will spread their "resais" and +sleep soundly over all the joltings of the road. But we could sleep +about as well inside of a bass drum. So we gave up the idea of repose, +and preferred to travel by day to see the country, for which this sort +of conveyance is very well contrived. The canvas top keeps off the +sun, while the latticed slides (which are regular green blinds), drawn +back, give a fine view of the country as we go rolling over the road. +Our charioteer, excited by the promise of a liberal backsheesh if he +should get us into Dehra Doon before nightfall, drove at full speed. +Every five or six miles the blast of his horn told those at the next +stage that somebody was coming, and that a relay of fresh horses must +be ready. As we approached the hills he put on an extra horse, and +then two, so that we were driving four-in-hand. Then as the hills grew +steeper, he took two mules, with a horse in front as a leader, mounted +by a postilion, who, with his white dress and turbaned head, made a +very picturesque appearance. How gallantly he rode! He struck his +heels into the spirited little pony and set him into a gallop, which +the mules could but follow, and so we went tearing up hill and down +dale at a furious rate; while the coachman blew his horn louder still +to warn common folks to get out of the way, and the natives drew to +the roadside, wondering what great man it was who thus dashed by. + +But horses and mules were not enough to sustain such a load of +dignity, and at the last stage the driver took a pair of the beautiful +white hump-backed oxen of the country, which drew us to the top of the +pass. The hills which we thus cross are known as the Sewalic range. +The top once attained, two horses were quite enough to take us down, +and we descended rapidly. And now rose before us a vision of beauty +such as we had not seen in all India. The vale of Dehra Doon is +enclosed between two walls of mountains--the Sewalic range on one +side, and the first range of the Himalayas on the other. It is fifteen +miles wide, and about sixty miles long, extending from the Jumna to +the Ganges. Thus it lies between two mountains and two rivers, and +has a temperature and a moisture which keep it in perpetual green. +Nothing can be more graceful than the tall feathery bamboos, which +here grow to a great height. Here are fine specimens of the peepul +tree--the sacred tree of India, massive as an English oak--and groves +of mangoes. Everything seems to grow here--tea, coffee, tobacco, +cinnamon, cloves. The appearance of this rich valley, thus covered +with groves and gardens, to us coming from the burnt plains of India, +was like that of a garden of Paradise. Riding on through this mass of +foliage, we rattled into the town, but were not obliged to "find our +warmest welcome at an inn." Rev. Mr. Herron had kindly invited us to +accept his hospitality, and so we inquired for "Herron-sahib," and +were driven along a smooth road, embowered in bamboos, to the +Missionary Compound, where a large building has been erected for a +Female Seminary, chiefly by the labors of Messrs. Woodside and Herron, +the latter of whom is in charge of the institution, one of the most +complete in India. Here we were most cordially received, and found how +welcome, in the farthest part of the world, is the atmosphere of an +American home. + +But once in presence of the great mountains, we were impatient to +climb the first range, to get a view of the snows. Mr. Herron offered +to keep us company. We rose at four the next morning, while the stars +were still shining, and set out, but could ride only five miles in a +carriage, when we came to the foot of the hills, and were obliged to +take to the saddle. Our "syces" had led three horses alongside, which +we mounted just as the starlight faded, and the gray light of day +began to show over the mountain-tops, while our attendants, light of +foot, kept by our side in case their services were needed. + +And now we begin the ascent, turning hither and thither, as the road +winds along the sides of the mountain. The slope of the Himalayas is +not a smooth and even one, rising gently through an unbroken forest. +The mountain side has been torn by the storms of thousands of years. +In the spring, when the snows melt and the rains come, every torrent +whose rocky bed is now bare, becomes a foaming flood, rushing down the +hills, and tearing its way through the lowlands, till lost in the +Jumna or the Ganges. Thus the mountain is broken into innumerable +spurs and ridges that shoot out into the valley. Where the scanty +herbage can gather like moss on the rocks, there is grazing for sheep +and goats and cattle; and these upland pastures, like those of the +Alps or the Tyrol, are musical with the tinkling of bells. High up on +the mountains they are dark with pines; while on the inner ranges of +the Himalayas the mighty cedars "shake like Lebanon." + +One can imagine how lovely must be the Vale of Dehra Doon, with its +mass of verdure, set in the midst of such rugged mountains. Although +we were climbing upward, we could but stop, as we came to turning +points in the road, to look back into the valley. Sometimes a +projecting ledge of rock offered a fine point of view, on which we +reined up our horses; or an old oak, bending its gnarled limbs over +us, made a frame to the picture, through which we looked down into the +fairest of Indian vales, unless it be the Vale of Cashmere. From such +a point the landscape seemed to combine every element of +beauty--plains, and woods, and streams and mountains. Across the +valley rises the long serrated ridge of the Sewalic range. Within this +space is enclosed a great variety of surface--undulating in hill and +valley, with green meadows, and villages, and gardens, while here and +there, along the banks of the streams, whose beds are now dry, are +belts of virgin forest. + +The industry of the people, which turns every foot of soil to account, +is shown by the way in which the spurs of the mountains are terraced +to admit of cultivation. Wherever there is an acre of level ground, +there is a patch of green, for the wheat fields are just springing +up; and even spaces of but a few rods are planted with potatoes. Thus +the sides of the Himalayas are belted with lines of green, like the +sides of the Alps as one descends into Italy. The view is especially +beautiful at this morning hour as the sun rises, causing the dews to +lift from the valley, while here and there a curl of smoke, rising +through the mist, marks the place of human habitation. + +But we must prick up our horses, for the sun is up, and we are not yet +at the top. It is a good ride of two hours (we took three) to the +ridge on which are built the two "hill stations" of Mussoorie and +Landour--which are great resorts of the English during the summer +months. These "stations" do not deserve the name of towns; they are +merely straggling Alpine villages. Indeed nowhere in the Alps is there +such a cluster of houses at such a height, or in such a spot. There is +no "site" for a regular village, no place for a "main street." One +might as well think of "laying out" a village along the spine of a +sharp-backed whale, as on this narrow mountain ridge. There is hardly +an acre of level ground, only the jagged ends of hills, or points of +rocks, from which the torrents have swept away the earth on either +side, leaving only the bare surface. Yet on these points and +edges--wherever there is a shelf of rock to furnish a foundation, the +English have built their pretty bungalows, which thus perched in air, +7,500 feet high, look like mountain eyries, and might be the home of +the eagles that we see sailing over the valley below. From such a +height do they look over the very top of the Sewalic range to the +great plains of India. + +But we did not stop at this mountain to look back. Dashing through the +little straggling bazaar of Landour, we spurred on to the highest +point, "Lal Tiba"; from which we hoped for the great view of "the +snows." We reached the spot at nine o'clock, but as yet we saw "only +in part." Our final vision was to come three days later. Away to the +North and East the horizon was filled with mountains, whose summits +the foot of man had never trod, but the intervening distance was +covered with clouds, out of which rose the snowy domes, like islands +in a sea. + +My first impression of the Himalayas was one of disappointment, partly +because we "could not come nigh unto" them. We saw their summits, but +at such a distance that they did not look so high as Mont Blanc, where +we could come "even to his feet" in the Vale of Chamouni. But the +Himalayas were seventy miles off,[4] filling the whole horizon. Nor +did they rise up in one mighty chain, like the Cordilleras of Mexico, +standing like a wall of rock and snow against the sky; but seemed +rather a sea of mountains, boundless and billowy, rising range on +range, one overtopping the other, and rolling away to the heart of +Asia; or, to change the figure, the mountains appeared as an ice +continent, like that of the Polar regions, tossed up here and there +into higher and still higher summits, but around which, stretching +away to infinity, was the wild and interminable sea. + +Thus the view, though different from what I expected, was very grand, +and though we had not yet the full, clear vision, yet the sight was +sublime and awful, perhaps even more so from the partial obscurity, as +great clouds came rolling along the snowy heights, as if the heavenly +host uprose at the coming of the day, and were moving rank on rank +along the shining battlements. + +We had hoped by waiting a few hours to get an unobstructed view, but +the clouds seemed to gather rather than disperse, warning us to hasten +our descent. + +In going up the mountain, C---- had kept along with us on horseback, +but the long ride to one not used to the saddle had fatigued her so +that on the return she was glad to accept Mr. Herron's offer of a +_dandi_, a chair borne by two men, which two others accompanied as +relays, while we, mounted as before, followed as outriders. Thus +mustering our little force, we began to descend the mountain. + +A mile or so from the top we turned aside at the house of a gentleman +who was a famous hunter, and who had a large collection of living +birds, pheasants and manauls, while the veranda was covered with tiger +and leopard skins. He was absent, but his wife (who has the spirit and +courage of a huntress, and had often brought down a deer with her own +hand) was there, and bade us welcome. She showed us her birds, both +living and stuffed, the number of which made her house look like an +ornithological museum. To our inquiry she said, "The woods were full +of game. Two deer had been shot the evening before." + +We asked about higher game. She said that tigers were not common up on +the mountain as in the valley. She had two enormous skins, but "the +brutes" her husband had shot over in Nepaul. But leopards seemed to be +her special pets. When I asked, "Have you many leopards about here?" +she laughed as she answered, "I should think so." She often saw them +just across a ravine a few rods in front of her house, chasing goats +or sheep. "It was great fun." Of late they had become rather +troublesome in killing dogs. And so they had been obliged to set traps +for them. They framed a kind of cage, with two compartments, in one of +which they tied a dog, whose yelpings at night attracted the leopard, +who, creeping round and round, to get at his prey, at length dashed in +to seize the poor creature, but found bars between them, while the +trap closed upon him, and Mr. Leopard was a prisoner. In this way they +had caught four the last summer. Then this Highland lady came out from +her cottage, and with a rifle put an end to the leopard's career in +devouring dogs. The number of skins on the veranda told of their skill +and success. + +Pursuing my inquiry into the character of her neighbors, I asked, +"Have you any snakes about here?" "Oh no," she replied carelessly; +"that is to say not many. The cobras do not come up so high on the +mountain. But there is a serpent in the woods, a kind of python, but +he is a large, lazy creature, that doesn't do any mischief. One day +that my husband was out with his gun, he shot one that was eighteen +feet long. It was as big around as a log of wood, so that when I came +up I sat down and took my tiffin upon it." + +While listening to these tales, the clouds had been gathering, and now +they were piled in dark masses all around the horizon. The lightning +flashed, and we could hear the heavy though distant peals of thunder. +Presently the big drops began to fall. There was no time to be lost. +We could see that the rain was pouring in the valley, while heavy +peals came nearer and nearer, reverberating in the hollows of the +mountains. It was a grand spectacle of Nature, that of a storm in the +Himalayas. Thunder in front of us, thunder to the right of us, thunder +to the left of us! I never had a more exciting ride, except one like +it in the Rocky Mountains four years before. At our urgent request, +Mr. Herron spurred ahead, and galloped at full speed down the +mountain. I came more slowly with C---- in the _dandi_. But we did not +lose time, and after an hour's chase, in which we seemed to be running +the gauntlet of the storm, "dodging the rain," we were not a little +relieved, just as the scattered drops began to fall thicker and +faster, to come into the yard of the hotel at Rajpore. + +The brave fellows who had brought the dandi deserved a reward, +although Mr. Herron said they were his servants. I wanted to give them +a rupee each, but he would not hear of it, and when I insisted on +giving at least a couple of rupees for the four, which would be +twenty-five cents a piece, the poor fellows were so overcome with my +generosity that they bowed almost to the ground in acknowledgment, and +went off hugging each other with delight at the small fortune which +had fallen to them. + +At Rajpore the carriage was waiting for us, and under its cover from +the rain, we rode back, talking of the incidents of the day; and when +we got home and stretched ourselves before the blazing fire, the +subject was renewed. I have a boy's fondness for stories of wild +beasts, and listened with eager interest to all my host had to tell. +It was hard to realize that there were such creatures in such a lovely +spot. "Do you really mean to say," I asked, "that there are tigers +here in this valley?" "Yes," he answered, "within five miles of where +you are sitting now." He had seen one himself, and showed us the very +spot that morning as we rode out to the hills, when he pointed to a +ravine by the roadside, and said: "As I was riding along this road one +day with a lady, a magnificent Bengal tiger came up out of that +ravine, a few rods in front of us, and walked slowly across the road. +He turned to look at us, and we were greatly relieved when, after +taking a cool survey, he moved off into the jungle." + +But leopards are still more common and familiar. They have been in +this very dooryard, and on this veranda. One summer evening two years +ago, said Miss P., I was sitting on the gravelled walk to enjoy the +cool air, when an enormous creature brushed past but a step in front +between us and the house. At first we thought in the gloaming it might +be a dog of very unusual size, but as it glided past, and came into +the light of some cottages beyond, we perceived that it was a very +different beast. At another time a leopard crossed the veranda at +night, and brushed over the face of a native woman sleeping with her +child in her arms. It was well the beast was not hungry, or he would +have snatched the child, as they often do when playing in front of +native houses, and carried it off into the jungle. + +But we will rest to-night in sweet security in this missionary home, +without fear of wild beasts or thunder storms. The clouds broke away +at sunset, leaving a rich "after-glow" upon the mountains. It was the +clear shining after the rain. Just then I heard the voices of the +native children in the chapel, singing their hymns, and with these +sweet suggestions of home and heaven, "I will lay me down in peace and +sleep, for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety." + + * * * * * + +We had had a glimpse of the Himalayas, but the glimpse only made us +eager to get the full "beatific vision"; so, after resting a day, we +determined to try again, going up in the afternoon, and spending the +night, so as to have a double chance of seeing the snows--both at +sunset and at sunrise. This time we had also the company of Mr. +Woodside, beside whom I rode on horseback; while Mr. Herron gave his +escort to C----, who was "promoted" from a _dandi_ to a _jahnpan_, +which differs from the former only in that it is more spacious, and is +carried by four bearers instead of two. Thus mounted she was borne +aloft on men's shoulders. She said the motion was not unpleasant, +except that the men had a habit, when they came to some dangerous +point, turning a rock, or on the edge of a precipice, of changing +bearers, or swinging round the bamboo pole from one shoulder to +another, which made her a little giddy, as she was tossed about at +such a height, from which she could look down a gorge hundreds of feet +deep. However, she takes all dangers very lightly, and was enraptured +with the wildness and strangeness of the scene--to find herself, an +American girl, thus being transported over the mountains of Asia. + +So we took up our line of march for the hills, and soon found our +pulses beating faster. Why is it that we feel such exhilaration in +climbing mountains? Is it something in the air, that quickens the +blood, and reacts upon the brain? Or is it the sensation of rising +into a higher atmosphere, of "going up into heaven?" So it seemed that +afternoon, as we "left the earth" behind us, and went up steadily into +the clouds. + +I found that the Himalayas grew upon acquaintance. They looked more +grand the second time than the first. The landscape was changed by the +westering sun, which cast new lights and shadows across the valley, +and into the wooded bosom of the hills. To these natural beauties my +companion added the charm of historical associations. Few places in +India have more interest to the scholar. The Sewalic range was almost +the cradle of the Brahminical religion. Sewalic, or Sivalic, as it +might be written, means literally the hills of Shiva, or the hills of +the gods, where their worshippers built their shrines and worshipped +long before Christ was born in Bethlehem. The same ridge is a mine to +the naturalist. It is full of fossils, the bones of animals that +belonged to some earlier geological epoch. The valley has had a part +in the recent history of India. Here the Goorkas--one of the hill +tribes, which stood out longest against the English--fought their last +battle. It was on yonder wooded height which juts out like a +promontory into the plain, where the ruin of an old fort marks the +destruction of their power. Today the Goorkas, like the Punjaubees, +are among the most loyal defenders of English rule. + +At present the attraction of this valley for "old Indians" is not so +much in its historical or scientific associations, as the field which +it gives to the hunter. This belt of country, running about a hundred +miles along the foot of the Himalayas, is composed of forest and +jungle, and is a favorite habitat of wild beasts--tigers and leopards +and wild elephants. It was in this belt, called the Terai, though +further to the East, in Nepaul, that the Prince of Wales a few weeks +later made his great tiger-hunting expedition. He might perhaps have +found as good sport in the valley right under our eyes. "Do you see +that strip of woods yonder?" said Mr. Woodside, pointing to one four +or five miles distant. "That is full of wild elephants." An Indian +Rajah came here a year or two since for a grand hunt, and in two days +captured twenty-four. This is done by the help of tame elephants who +are trained for the purpose. A large tract of forest is enclosed, and +then by beating the woods, the herd is driven towards a corner, and +when once penned, the tame elephants go in among them, and by tender +caressing engage their attention, till the coolies slip under the huge +beasts and tie their feet with ropes to the trees. This done, they can +be left till subdued by hunger, when they are easily tamed for the +service of man. + +These creatures still have the range of the forests. In riding through +the woods one may often hear the breaking of trees, as wild elephants +crash through the dense thicket. I had supposed that all kinds of wild +beasts were very much reduced in India under English rule. The hunters +say they are so much so as to destroy the sport. But my companion +thinks not, for two reasons: the government has made stringent laws +against the destruction of forests; and since the mutiny the natives +are not allowed to carry fire-arms. + +We might have startled a leopard anywhere on the mountain side. A +young Scotchman whom we met with his rifle on his shoulder, said he +had shot two a fortnight ago, but that there was a very big one about, +which he had seen several times, but could never get a shot at, but he +hoped to bring him down before long. + +With such chat as this we trotted up the mountain road, till we came +to where it divides, where, leaving Mr. Herron and C---- to go on +straight to Landour, we turned to the left to make a flying visit to +the other hill station of Mussoorie. As we rode along, Mr. Woodside +pointed out to me the spot where, a few weeks before, his horse had +backed off a precipice, and been dashed to pieces. Fortunately he was +not on his back (he had alighted to make a call), or the horse and his +rider might have gone over together. As we wound up the road he +recalled another incident, which occurred several years ago: "I had +been to attend an evening reception at the Young Ladies' school (which +we had just left), and about eleven o'clock mounted to ride home. I +had a white horse, and it was a bright moonlight night, and as I rode +up the hill, just as I turned a corner in the road _there_ (pointing +to the spot) I saw a huge leopard crouching in the attitude of +preparing to spring. I rose up in the saddle (my friend is a man of +giant stature) and shouted at the top of my voice, and the beast, not +knowing what strange monster he had encountered, leaped over the bank +and disappeared." + +"The next day," he added, "I was telling the story to a gentleman, who +replied, 'You were very fortunate to escape so,' and then related an +incident of his own, in which a leopard sprang upon his horse, which +the fright caused to give such a bound that the brute fell off, and +the horse starting at full speed, they escaped. But he felt that the +escape was so providential that he had thanks returned in the church +the next Sabbath for his deliverance from a sudden death." + +Thus listening to my companion's adventures, we rode along the ridge +of Mussoorie to its highest point, which commands a grand view of the +Snowy Range. Here stands a convent, which educates hundreds of the +daughters of Protestant Englishmen, as well as those of its own faith. +Thus the Catholic Church plants its outposts on the very crests of the +mountains. + +At Landour is another Catholic institution (for boys) called St. +George's College, perhaps as a delicate flattery to Englishmen in +taking the name of their guardian saint. It has a chime of bells, +which at that height and that hour strikes the ear with singular and +touching effect. It may well stir up our Protestant friends, both to +admire and to imitate, as it furnishes a new proof of the omnipresence +of Rome, when the traveller finds its convents, and hears the chime of +its vesper bells, on the heights and amid the valleys of the +Himalayas. + +But the sun was sinking, and it was four miles from Mussoorie to +Landour, where we were to make our second attempt to see the snows. +Turning our horses, we rode at full speed along the ridge of the +mountain, and reached the top of Lal Tiba before sunset, but only to +be again disappointed. Northward and eastward the clouds hung upon the +great mountains. But if one part of the horizon was hidden, on the +other we looked over the top of the Sewalic range, to where the red +and fiery sun was sinking in a bank of cloud--not "clouds full of +rain," but merely clouds of dust, rolling upward "like the smoke of a +furnace" from the hot plains of India. In the foreground was the soft, +green valley of Dehra Doon, more beautiful from the contrast with the +burning plains beyond. It was a peaceful landscape, as the shadows of +evening were gathering over it. From this we turned to watch the light +as it crept up the sides of the mountains. The panorama was constantly +changing, and every instant took on some new feature of grandeur. As +daylight faded, another light flashed out behind us, for the mountains +were on fire. It is a custom of the people, who are herdsmen, to burn +off the low brush (as the Indians burned over the prairies), that the +grass may spring up fresh and green for their flocks and cattle; and +it was a fearful spectacle, that of these great belts of fire running +along the mountain side, and lighting up the black gorges below. + +Giving our horses to the guides to be led down the declivity, we +walked down a narrow path in the rocks that led to Woodstock, a female +seminary, built on a kind of terrace half a mile below--a most +picturesque spot (none the less romantic because a tiger had once +carried off a man from the foot of the ravine a few rods below the +house), and there, around a cheerful table, and before a roaring fire, +forgot the fatigues of the day, and hoped for sunshine on the morrow. + +It was not yet daylight when we awoke. The stars were shining when we +came out on the terrace, and the waning moon still hung its crescent +overhead. A faint light began to glimmer in the east. We were quickly +muffled up (for it was cold) and climbing up the steep path to Lal +Tiba, hoping yet trembling. I was soon out of breath, and had more +than once to sit down on the rocks to recover myself. But in a moment +I would rise and rush on again, so eager was I with hope, and yet so +fearful of disappointment. One more pull and we were on the top, and +behold the glory of God spread abroad upon the mountains! Our +perseverance was rewarded at last. There were the Himalayas--the great +mountains of India, of Asia, of the globe. The snowy range was in full +view for more than a hundred miles. The sun had not yet risen, but his +golden limb now touched the east, and as the great round orb rose +above the horizon, it seemed as if God himself were coming to illumine +the universe which he had created. One after another the distant peaks +caught the light upon their fields of snow, and sent it back as if +they were the shining gates of the heavenly city. One could almost +look up to them as Divine intelligences, and address them in the lines +of the old hymn: + + These glorious _minds_, how bright they shine, + Whence all their white array? + How came they to the happy seats + Of everlasting day? + +But restraining our enthusiasm for the moment, let us look at the +configuration of this Snowy Range, simply as a study in geography. We +are in presence of the highest mountains on the globe. We are on the +border of that table-land of Asia ("High Asia") which the Arabs in +their poetical language call "The Roof of the World." Yonder pass +leads over into Thibet. The trend of the mountains is from southeast +to northwest, almost belting the continent. Indeed, physical +geographers trace it much farther, following it down on one hand +through the Malayan Peninsula and on the other running it through the +Hindoo Koosh (or Caucasus) northwest to Mt. Ararat in Armenia; and +across into Europe, through Turkey and Greece, to the Alps and the +Pyrenees, forming what the Arabs call "The Stony Girdle of the Earth." +But the centre of that girdle, the clasp of that mighty zone, is here. + +It is difficult to form an idea of the altitude of mountains, when we +have no basis of comparison in those which are familiar. But nature +here is on another scale than we have seen it before. In Europe Mont +Blanc is "the monarch of mountains," but yonder peak, Nunda Davee, +which shows above the horizon at the distance of a hundred and ten +miles, is 25,600 feet high--that is, nearly two miles higher than Mont +Blanc! There are others still higher--Kinchinganga and Dwalaghiri--but +they are not in sight, as they are farther east in Nepaul. But from +Darjeeling, a hill station much frequented in the summer months by +residents of Calcutta, one may get an unobstructed view of Mount +Everest, 29,000 feet high, the loftiest summit on the globe. And here +before us are a number of peaks, twenty-two, twenty-three, and +twenty-four thousand feet high--higher than Chimborazo, or any peak of +the Andes. + +Perhaps the Himalayas are less impressive than the Alps _in +proportion_, because the snow line is so much higher. In Switzerland +we reach the line of perpetual snow at 8,900 feet, so that the +Jungfrau, which is less than 14,000 feet, has a full mile of snow +covering her virgin breast. But here the traveller must ascend 18,000 +feet, nearly two miles higher, before he comes to the line of +perpetual snow. It is considered a great achievement of the most +daring Alpine climbers to reach the top of the Jungfrau or the +Matterhorn, but here many of the _passes_ are higher than the summit +of either. Dr. Bellew, who accompanied the expedition of Sir Douglas +Forsyth three years since to Yarkund and Kashgar, told me they crossed +passes 19,000 feet high, nearly 4,000 feet higher than Mont Blanc. He +said they did not need a guide, for that the path was marked by bones +of men and beasts that had perished by the way; the bodies lying where +they fell, for no beast or bird lives at that far height, neither +vulture nor jackal, while the intense cold preserved the bodies from +decay. + +But the Himalayas are not all heights, but heights and depths. The +mountains are divided by valleys. From where we stand the eye sweeps +over the tops of nine or ten separate ranges, with valleys between, in +which are scattered hundreds of villages. The enterprising traveller +may descend into these deep places of the earth, and make his toilsome +way over one range after another, till he reaches the snows. But he +will find it a _fourteen days' march_. My companion had once spent six +weeks in a missionary tour among these villages. + +Wilson, the author of "The Abode of Snow,"[5] who spent months in +travelling through the Inner Himalayas, from Thibet to Cashmere, makes +a comparison of these mountains with the Alps. There are some +advantages to be claimed for the latter. Not only are they more +accessible, but combine in a smaller space more variety. Their sides +are more generally clothed with forests, which are mirrored in those +beautiful sheets of water that give such a charm both to Swiss and +Scottish scenery. But in the Himalayas there is hardly a lake to be +seen until one enters the Vale of Cashmere. Then the Alps have more of +the human element, in the picturesque Swiss villages. The traveller +looks down from snow-covered mountains into valleys with meadows and +houses and the spires of churches. But in the Himalayas there is not a +sign of civilization, and hardly of habitation. Occasionally a village +or a Buddhist monastery may stand out picturesquely on the top of a +hill, but generally the mountains are given up to utter desolation. + + "But," says Wilson, "when all these admissions in favor of + Switzerland are made, the Himalayas still remain + unsurpassed, and even unapproached, as regards all the + wilder and grander features of mountain scenery. There is + nothing in the Alps which can afford even a faint idea of + the savage desolation and appalling sublimity of many of the + Himalayan scenes. Nowhere have the faces of the rocks been + so scarred and riven by the nightly action of frost and the + midday floods from melting snow. In almost every valley we + see places where whole peaks or sides of great mountains + have very recently come shattering down." + +This constant action of the elements sometimes carves the sides of the +mountains into castellated forms, like the canyons of the Yellowstone +and the Colorado: + + "Gigantic mural precipices, bastions, towers, castles, + citadels, and spires rise up thousands of feet in height, + mocking in their immensity and grandeur the puny efforts of + human art; while yet higher the domes of pure white snow and + glittering spires of ice far surpass in perfection, as well + as in immensity, all the Moslem musjids and minars." + +But more impressive than the most fantastic or imposing forms are the +vast spaces of untrodden snow, and the awful solitudes and silences of +the upper air. No wonder that the Hindoos made this inaccessible +region the dwelling-place of their gods. It is their Kylas, or Heaven. +The peak of Badrinath, 24,000 feet high, is the abode of Vishnu; and +that of Kedarnath, 23,000, is the abode of Shiva--two of the Hindoo +Trinity. Nunda Davee (the goddess Nunda) is the wife of Shiva. Around +these summits gathers the whole Hindoo mythology. Yonder, where we see +a slight hollow in the mountains, is Gungootree, where the Ganges +takes its rise, issuing from a great glacier by a fissure, or icy +cavern, worn underneath, called the Cow's Mouth. Farther to the west +is Jumnootree, the source of the Jumna. Both these places are very +sacred in the eyes of the Hindoos, and as near to them as any +structure can be placed, are shrines, which are visited by hundreds of +thousands of pilgrims from all parts of India. + +Thus these snowy heights are to the Hindoo Mount Sinai and Calvary in +one. Here is not only the summit where God gave the law, but where God +dwells evermore, and out of which issue the sacred rivers, which are +like the rivers of the water of life flowing out of the throne of God; +or like the blood of atonement, to wash away the sins of the world. + +But the associations of this spot are not all of Hindooism and +idolatry. True, we are in a wintry region, but there is an Alpine +flower that grows at the foot of the snows. Close to Lal Tiba I +observed a large tree of rhododendrons, in full bloom, although it was +February, their scarlet blossoms contrasting with the snow which had +fallen on them the night before. But the fairest blossom on that +Alpine height is a Christian church. Lal Tiba itself belongs to the +Presbyterian mission, and adjoining it is the house of the +missionaries. On the ridge is a mission church, built chiefly by the +indefatigable efforts of Mr. Woodside. It is a modest, yet tasteful +building, standing on a point of rock, which is in full view of the +Snowy Range, and overlooks the whole mountain landscape. It was like a +banner in the sky--that white church--standing on such a height, as if +it were in the clouds, looking across at the mighty range beyond, and +smiling at the eternal snows! + +The hardest thing in going round the world, is to break away from +friends. Not the friends we have left in America, for those we may +hope to see again, but the friends made along the way. One meets so +many kind people, and enters so many hospitable homes, that to part +from them is an ever-renewing sorrow and regret. We have found many +such homes in India, but none in which we would linger more than in +this lovely Vale of Dehra Doon. + +One attraction is the Girls' School, which we might almost call the +missionary flower of India. The building, which would be a "Seminary" +at home, stands in the midst of ample grounds, where, in the intervals +of study, the inmates can find healthful exercise. The pupils are +mostly the daughters of native Christians--converted Hindoos or +Mohammedans. Some are orphans, or have been forsaken by their parents, +and have thus fallen to the care of an institution which is more to +them than their natural fathers and mothers. Many of these young girls +had very sweet faces, and all were as modest and well behaved as the +girls I have seen in any similar institution in our own country. Some +are adopted by friends in America, who engage to provide for their +education. Wishing to have a part in this good work, we looked about +the school till we picked out the veriest morsel of a creature, as +small as Dickens's Tiny Tim--but whose eyes were very bright, and her +mind as active as her body was frail, and C---- thereupon adopted her +and paid down a hundred rupees for a year's board and teaching. She is +by birth a Mohammedan, but will be trained up as a Christian. She is +very winning in her ways; and, dear me, when the little creature crept +up into my lap, and looked up into my face with her great black eyes, +it was such an appeal for love and protection as I could not resist; +and when she put her thin arms around my neck, I felt richer than if I +had been encircled with one of those necklaces of pearl, which the +Rajahs were just then throwing around the neck of the Prince of +Wales. + +Our last day was spent in a visit to the tea plantations. The culture +of tea has been introduced into India within a few years, and portions +of the country are found so favorable that the tea is thought by many +equal to that imported from China. Mr. Woodside took us out in a +carriage a few miles, when we left the road and crossed the fields on +the back of an elephant, which is a better "coigne of vantage" than +the back of a horse, as the rider is lifted up higher into the air, +and in passing under trees can stretch out his hand (as we did) and +pick blossoms and birds' nests from the branches; but there is a +rolling motion a little too much like "life on an ocean wave," and if +it were not for the glory of the thing I confess I should rather have +under me some steady old trotter, such as I have had at home, or even +one of the little donkeys with which we used to amble about the +streets of Cairo. But there are times when one would prefer the +elephant, as if he should chance to meet a tiger! The beast we were +riding this morning was an old tiger hunter, that had often been out +in the jungle, and as he marched off, seemed as if he would like +nothing better than to smell his old enemy. In a deadly combat the +tiger has the advantage in quickness of motion, and can spring upon +the elephant's neck, but if the latter can get his trunk around him he +is done for, for he is instantly dashed to the ground, and trampled to +death under the monster's feet. We had no occasion to test his +courage, though, if what we heard was true, he might have found game +not far off, for a native village through which we passed was just +then in terror because of a tiger who had lately come about and +carried off several bullocks only a few days before, and they had sent +to Mr. Bell, a tea planter whom we met later in the day, to come and +shoot him. He told me he would come willingly, but that the natives +were of a low caste, who had not the Hindoos' horror of touching such +food, and devoured the half eaten bullock. If, he said, they would +only let the carcass alone, the tiger always comes back, and he would +plant himself in some post of observation, and with a rifle which +never failed would soon relieve them of their terrible enemy. + +After an hour of this cross-country riding, our elephant drew up +before the door of a large house; a ladder was brought, and we +clambered down his sides. Just then we heard the sharp cracks of a +gun, and the planter came in, saying that he had been picking off +monkeys which were a little troublesome in his garden. This was Mr. +Nelson, one of the largest planters in the valley, with whom we had +engaged to take tiffin. He took us over his plantation, which is laid +out on a grand scale, many acres being set in rows with the tea plant, +which is a small shrub, about as large as a gooseberry bush, from +which the leaves are carefully picked. The green tea is not a +different plant from the black tea, but only differently prepared. +From the plantation we were taken to the roasting-house, where the tea +lay upon the floor in great heaps, like heaps of grain; and where it +is subjected to a variety of processes, to prepare it for use or for +exportation. It is first "wilted" in large copper pans or ovens; then +"rolled" on a table of stretched matting; then slightly dried, and put +back in the ovens; then rolled again; and finally subjected to a good +"roasting," by which time every drop of moisture is got out of it, and +it acquires the peculiar twist, or shrivelled look, so well known to +dainty lovers of the cup which cheers but not inebriates. How perfect +was the growing and the preparation appeared when we sat down at the +generous table, where we found the flavor as delicate as that of any +we had ever sipped that came from the Flowery Land. + +Leaving this kind and hospitable family, we rode on to the plantation +of Mr. Bell, who had the "engagement" to shoot the tiger. He is a +brave Scot, very fond of sport, and had a room full of stuffed birds, +which he was going to send off to Australia. Occasionally he had a +shot at other game. Once he had brought down a leopard, and, as he +said, thought the beast was "deed," and went up to him, when the brute +gave a spring, and tore open his leg, which laid him up for two +months. But such beasts are really less dangerous than the cobras, +which crawl among the rows of plants, and as the field-hands go among +them barefoot, some fall victims every year. But an Englishman is +protected by his boots, and Mr. Bell strolls about with his dog and +his gun, without the slightest sense of danger. + +We had now accomplished our visit to the Himalayas, and were to bid +adieu to the mountains and the valleys. But how were we to get back to +Saharanpur? There was the mail-wagon and the _omnibuckus_. But these +seemed very prosaic after our mountain raptures. Mr. Herron suggested +that we should try _dooleys_--long palanquins in which we could lie +down and sleep (perhaps), and thus be carried over the mountains at +night. As we were eager for new experiences, of course we were ready +for any novelty. But great bodies move slowly, and how great we were +we began to realize when we found what a force it took to move us. Mr. +Herron sent for the _chaudri_--a kind of public carrier whose office +it is to provide for such services--and an engagement was formally +entered into between the high contracting parties that for a certain +sum he was to provide two dooleys and a sufficient number of bearers, +to carry us over the mountains to Saharanpur, a distance of forty-two +miles. This was duly signed and sealed, and the money paid on the +spot, with promise of liberal backsheesh at the end if the agreement +was satisfactorily performed. + +Thus authorized and empowered to enter into negotiations with inferior +parties, the _chaudri_ sent forward a courier, or _sarbarah_, to go +ahead over the whole route a day in advance, and to secure the relays, +and thus prepare for our royal progress. + +This seemed very magnificent, but when our retinue filed into the +yard on the evening of our departure, and drew up before the veranda, +we were almost ashamed to see what a prodigious ado it took to get us +two poor mortals out of the valley. Our escort was as follows: Each +dooley had six bearers, or _kahars_--four to carry it, and two to be +ready as a reserve. Besides these twelve, there were two +_bahangi-wallas_ to carry our one trunk on a bamboo pole, making +fourteen persons in all. As there were five stages (for one set of men +could only go about eight miles), it took seventy men (besides the two +high officials) to carry our sacred persons these forty-two miles! Of +the reserve of four who walked beside us, two performed the function +of torch-bearers--no unimportant matter when traversing a forest so +full of wild beasts that the natives cannot be induced to cross it at +night without lights kept burning. + +The torch was made simply by winding a piece of cloth around the end +of a stick, and pouring oil upon it from a bottle carried for the +purpose (just the mode of the wise virgins in the parable). Our kind +friends had put a mattress in each dooley, with pillows and coverlet, +so that if we could not quite go to bed, we could make ourselves +comfortable for a night's journey. I took off my boots, and wrapping +my feet in the soft fur of the skin of the Himalayan goat, which I had +purchased in the mountains, stretched myself + + Like a warrior taking his rest, + With his martial cloak around him, + +and bade the cavalcade take up its march. They lighted their torches, +and like the wise virgins, "took oil in their vessels with their +lamps," and set out on our night journey. At first we wound our way +through the streets of the town, through bazaars and past temples, +till at last we emerged from all signs of human habitation, and were +alone with the forests and the stars. + +When we were fairly in the woods, all the stories I had heard of wild +beasts came back to me. For a week past I had been listening to +thrilling incidents, many of which occurred in this very mountain +pass. The Sewalic range is entirely uninhabited except along the +roads, and is thus given up to wild beasts, and nowhere is one more +likely to meet an adventure. That very morning, at breakfast, Mrs. +Woodside had given me her experience. She was once crossing this pass +at night, and as it came near the break of day she saw men running, +and heard the cry of "tiger," but thought little of it, as the natives +were apt to give false alarms; but presently the horses began to rear +and plunge, so that the driver loosed them and let them go, and just +then she heard a tremendous roar, which seemed close to the wagon, +where a couple of the brutes had come down to drink of a brook by the +roadside. She was so terrified that she did not dare to look out, but +shut at once the windows of the gharri. Presently some soldiers came +up the pass with elephants, who went in pursuit, but the monsters had +retreated into the forest. + +That was some years ago, but such incidents may still happen. Only a +few weeks since Mr. Woodside was riding through the pass at night in +the mail-wagon, and had dropped asleep, when his companion, a British +officer, awoke him, telling him he had just seen a couple of tigers +distinctly in the moonlight. + +One would suppose we were safe enough with more than a dozen +attendants, but the natives are very timid, and a tiger's roar will +set them flying. A lady at Dehra, the daughter of a missionary, told +us how she was once carried with her mother and one or two other +children in dooleys, when just at break of day a huge tiger walked out +of a wood, and came right towards them, when the brave coolies at once +dropped them and ran, leaving the mother and her children to their +fate. Fortunately she had presence of mind to light a piece of +matting, and throw it out to the brute, who either from that, or +perhaps because he was too noble a beast to attack a woman, after +eyeing them for some moments, deliberately walked away. + +Such associations with the road we were travelling, gave an excitement +to our night journey which was not the most composing to sleep. It is +very well to sit by the fireside and talk about tigers, but I do not +know of anybody who would care to meet one in the woods, unless well +armed and on an elephant's back. + +But what if a wild elephant should come out upon us? In general, I +believe these are quiet and peaceable beasts, but they are subject to +a kind of madness which makes them untamable. A "rogue elephant"--one +who has been tamed, and afterwards goes back to his savage state--is +one of the most dangerous of wild beasts. When the Prince of Wales was +hunting in the Terai with Sir Jung Bahadoor, an alarm was given that a +rogue elephant was coming, and they pushed the Prince up into a tree +as quickly as possible, for the monster has no respect to majesty. +Mrs. Woodside told me that they once had a servant who asked to go +home to visit his friends. On his way he lay down at the foot of a +tree, and fell asleep, when a rogue elephant came along, and took him +up like a kitten, and crushed him in an instant, and threw him on the +roadside. + +The possibility of such an adventure was quite enough to keep our +imagination in lively exercise. Our friends had told us that there was +no danger with flaming torches, although we might perhaps hear a +distant roar on the mountains, or an elephant breaking through the +trees. We listened intently. When the men were moving on in silence, +we strained our ears to catch any sound that might break the stillness +of the forest. If a branch fell from a tree, it might be an elephant +coming through the wood. If we could not see, we imagined forms +gliding in the darkness. Even the shadows cast by the starlight took +the shapes that we dreaded. Hush! there is a stealthy step over the +fallen leaves. No, it is the wind whispering in the trees. Thus was it +all night long. If any wild beasts glared on us out of the covert, our +flaming torches kept them at a respectful distance. We did not hear +the tramp of an elephant, the growl of a tiger, or even the cry of a +jackal. + +But though we had not the excitement of an adventure, the scene itself +was wild and weird enough. We were entirely alone, with more than a +dozen men, with not one of whom we could exchange a single word, +traversing a mountain pass, with miles of forest and jungle separating +us from any habitation. Our attendants were men of powerful physique, +whose swarthy limbs and strange faces looked more strange than ever by +the torchlight. Once in seven or eight miles they set down their +burden. We halted at a camp fire by the roadside, where a fresh relay +was waiting. There our fourteen men were swelled to twenty-eight. Then +the curtain of my couch was gently drawn aside, a black head was +thrust in, and a voice whispered in the softest of tones "Sahib, +backsheesh!" Then the new bearers took up their load, and jogged on +their way. + +I must say they did very well. The motion was not unpleasant. The +dooley rested not on two poles, but on one long bamboo, three or four +inches in diameter, at each end of which two men braced themselves +against each other, and moved forward with a swinging gait, a kind of +dog trot, which they accompanied with a low grunt, which seemed to +relieve them, and be a way of keeping time. Their burdens did not +fatigue them much--at least they did not groan under the load, but +talked and laughed by the way. Nor were luxuries forgotten. One of the +men carried a hooka, which served for the whole party, being passed +from mouth to mouth, with which the men, when off duty, refreshed +themselves with many a puff of the fragrant weed. + +Thus refreshed they kept up a steady gait of about three miles an +hour through the night. At length the day began to break. As we +approached the end of our journey the men picked up speed, and I +thought they would come in on a run. Glad were we to come in sight of +Saharanpur. At ten o'clock we entered the Mission Compound, and drew +up before the door of "Calderwood Padre," who, as he saw me stretched +out at full length, "like a warrior taking his rest," if not "with his +martial cloak around him," yet with his Scotch plaid shawl covering +"his manly breast," declared that I was "an old Indian!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] This is given as an average distance in an air line. The nearest +peak, Boonderpunch (Monkey's Tail), is forty-five miles as the crow +flies, though by the nearest accessible route, it is a hundred and +forty! Nunda Davee is a hundred and ten in an air line, but by the +paths over the mountains, must be over two hundred. + +[5] A very fascinating book, especially to Alpine tourists, or those +fond of climbing mountains. The title, "The Abode of Snow," is a +translation of the word Himalaya. The writer is a son of the late Dr. +Wilson, of Bombay. Taking a new field, he has produced a story of +travel and adventure, which will be apt to tempt others to follow him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE TRAGEDY OF CAWNPORE. + + +The interest of India is not wholly in the far historic past. Within +our own times it has been the theatre of stirring events. In coming +down from Upper India, we passed over the "dark and bloody ground" of +the Mutiny--one of the most terrible struggles of modern times--a +struggle unrelieved by any of the amenities of civilized warfare. On +the banks of the Ganges stands a dull old city, of which Bayard Taylor +once wrote: "Cawnpore is a pleasant spot, though it contains nothing +whatever to interest the traveller." That was true when he saw it, +twenty-four years ago. It was then a "sleepy" place. Everything had a +quiet and peaceful look. The river flowed peacefully along, and the +pretty bungalows of the English residents on its banks seemed like so +many castles of indolence, as they stood enclosed in spacious grounds, +under the shade of trees, whose leaves scarcely stirred in the sultry +air. But four years after that American traveller had passed, that +peaceful river ran with Christian blood, and that old Indian town +witnessed scenes of cruelty worse than that of the Black Hole of +Calcutta, committed by a monster more inhuman than Surajah Dowlah. The +memory of those scenes now gives a melancholy interest to the place, +such as belongs to no other in India. + +It was midnight when we reached Cawnpore (we had left Saharanpur in +the morning), and we were utter strangers; but as we stepped from the +railway carriage, a stalwart American (Rev. Mr. Mansell of the +Methodist Mission) came up, and calling us by name, took us to his +home, and "kindly entreated us," and the next morning rode about the +city with us to show the sadly memorable places. + +The outbreak of the Mutiny in India in 1857, took its English rulers +by surprise. They had held the country for a hundred years, and +thought they could hold it forever. So secure did they feel that they +had reduced their army to a minimum. In the Russian war, regiment +after regiment was called home to serve in the Crimea, till there were +left not more than twenty thousand British troops in all India--an +insignificant force to hold such a vast dependency; and weakened still +more by being scattered in small bodies over the country, with no +means of rapid concentration. There was hardly a railroad in India. +All movements of troops had to be made by long marches. Thus detached +and helpless, the military power was really in the hands of the +Sepoys, who garrisoned the towns, and whom the English had trained to +be good soldiers, with no suspicion that their skill and discipline +would ever be turned against themselves. + +This was the opportunity for smothered discontent to break out into +open rebellion. There had long been among the people an uneasy and +restless feeling, such as is the precursor of revolution--a ground +swell, which sometimes comes before as well as after a storm. It was +just a hundred years since the battle of Plassey (fought June, 1757), +which decided the fate of India, and it was whispered that when the +century was complete, the English yoke should be broken, and India +should be free. The Crimean war had aroused a spirit of fanaticism +among the Mohammedans, which extended across the whole of Asia, and +fierce Moslems believed that if the English were but driven out, there +might be a reconstruction of the splendid old Mogul Empire. This was, +therefore, a critical moment, in which the defenceless state of India +offered a temptation to rebellion. Some there were (like the +Lawrences--Sir John in the Punjaub, and Sir Henry in Lucknow) whose +eyes were opened to the danger, and who warned the government. But it +could not believe a rebellion was possible; so that when the storm +burst, it was like a peal of thunder from a clear sky. + +Thus taken by surprise, and off their guard, the English were at a +great disadvantage. But they quickly recovered themselves, and +prepared for a desperate defence. In towns where the garrisons were +chiefly of native troops, with only a small nucleus of English +officers and soldiers, the latter had no hope of safety, but to rally +all on whom they could rely, and retreat into the forts, and hold out +to the last. Such a quick movement saved Agra, where Sir William Muir +told me, he and hundreds of refugees with him, passed the whole time +of the mutiny, shut up in the fort. The same promptness saved +Allahabad. But in Delhi, where the rising took place a few days +before, the alarm was not taken quickly enough; the Sepoys rushed in, +shooting down their officers, and made themselves masters of the fort +and the city, which was not retaken till months after, at the close of +a long and terrible siege. + +At Cawnpore there was no fort. Sir Hugh Wheeler, who was in command, +had three or four thousand troops, but not one man in ten was an +English soldier. The rest were Sepoys, who caught the fever of +disaffection, and marched off with horses and guns. Mustering the +little remnant of his force, he threw up intrenchments on the +parade-ground, into which he gathered some two hundred and fifty men +of different regiments. Adding to these "civilians" and native +servants, and the sick in the hospital, there were about 300 more, +with 330 women and children. The latter, of course, added nothing to +the strength of the garrison, but were a constant subject of care and +anxiety. But with this little force he defended himself bravely for +several weeks, beating off every attack of the enemy. But he was in no +condition to sustain a siege; his force was becoming rapidly reduced, +while foes were swarming around him. In this extremity, uncertain when +an English army could come to his relief, he received a proposal to +surrender, with the promise that all--men, women, and children--should +be allowed to depart in safety, and be provided with boats to take +them down the Ganges to Allahabad. He did not listen to these smooth +promises without inward misgivings. He was suspicious of treachery; +but the case was desperate, and Nana Sahib, who up to the time of the +Mutiny had protested great friendship for the English, took a solemn +oath that they should be protected. Thus tempted, they yielded to the +fatal surrender. + +The next morning, June 27th, those who were left of the little +garrison marched out of their intrenchments, and were escorted by the +Sepoy army on their way to the boats. The women and children and +wounded were mounted on elephants, and thus conveyed down to the +river. With eagerness they embarked on the boats that were to carry +them to a place of safety, and pushed off into the stream. At that +moment a native officer who stood on the bank raised his sword, and a +masked battery opened on the boats with grape-shot. Instantly ensued a +scene of despair. Some of the boats sunk, others took fire, and men, +women, and children, were struggling in the water. The Mahratta +horsemen pushed into the stream, and cut down the men who tried to +save themselves (only four strong swimmers escaped), while the women +and children were spared to a worse fate. All the men who were brought +back to the shore were massacred on the spot, in the presence of this +human tiger, who feasted his eyes with their blood; and about two +hundred women and children were taken back into the town as prisoners, +in deeper wretchedness than before. They were kept in close +confinement nearly three weeks in dreadful uncertainty of their fate, +till the middle of July, when Havelock was approaching by forced +marches; and fearful that his prey should escape, Nana Sahib gave +orders that they should be put to death. No element of horror was +wanting in that fearful tragedy. Says one who saw the bodies the next +day, and whose wife and children were among those who perished: + + "The poor ladies were ordered to come out, but neither + threats nor persuasions could induce them to do so. They + laid hold of each other by dozens, and clung so close that + it was impossible to separate them, or drag them out of the + building. The troopers therefore brought muskets, and after + firing a great many shots from the doors and windows, rushed + in with swords and bayonets. [One account says that, as + Hindoos shrink from the touch of blood, five Mohammedan + _butchers_ were sent in to complete the work.] Some of the + helpless creatures, in their agony, fell down at the feet of + their murderers, clasped their legs, and begged in the most + pitiful manner to spare their lives, but to no purpose. The + fearful deed was done most deliberately, and in the midst of + the most dreadful shrieks and cries of the victims. From a + little before sunset till candlelight was occupied in + completing the dreadful deed. The doors of the building were + then locked up for the night, and the murderers went to + their homes. Next morning it was found, on opening the + doors, that some ten or fifteen women, with a few of the + children, had managed to escape from death by falling and + hiding under the murdered bodies of their fellow-prisoners. + A fresh order was therefore sent to murder them also; but + the survivors, not being able to bear the idea of being cut + down, rushed out into the compound, and seeing a well, threw + themselves into it without hesitation, thus putting a period + to lives which it was impossible for them to save. The dead + bodies of those murdered on the preceding evening were then + ordered to be thrown into the same well, and 'jullars' were + employed to drag them along like dogs."[6] + +The next day after the massacre, Havelock entered the city, and +officers and men rushed to the prison house, hoping to be in time to +save that unhappy company of English women and children. But what +horrors met their sight! Not one living remained. The place showed +traces of the late butchery. The floors were covered with blood. "Upon +the walls and pillars were the marks of bullets, and of cuts made by +sword-strokes, not high up as if men had fought with men, but low +down, and about the corners, where the poor crouching victims had been +cut to pieces." "Locks of long silky hair, torn shreds of dress, +little children's shoes and playthings, were strewn around." + +The sight of these things drove the soldiers to madness. "When they +entered the charnel house, and read the writing on the walls +[sentences of wretchedness and despair], and saw the still clotted +blood, their grief, their rage, their desire for vengeance, knew no +bounds. Stalwart, bearded men, the stern soldiers of the ranks, came +out of that house perfectly unmanned, utterly unable to repress their +emotions." Following the track of blood from the prison to the well, +they found the mangled remains of all that martyred company. There the +tender English mother had been cast with every indignity, and the +child still living thrown down to die upon its mother's breast. Thus +were they heaped together, the dying and the dead, in one writhing, +palpitating mass. + +Turning away from this ghastly sight, the soldiers asked only to meet +face to face the perpetrators of these horrible atrocities. But the +Sepoys, cowardly as they were cruel, fled at the approach of the +English. Those who were taken had to suffer for the whole. "All the +rebel Sepoys and troopers who were captured, were collectively tried +by a drumhead court-martial, and hanged." But for such a crime as the +cold-blooded murder of helpless women and children, death was not +enough--it should be death accompanied by shame and degradation. The +craven wretches were made to clean away the clotted blood--a task +peculiarly odious to a Hindoo. Says General Neill: + + "Whenever a rebel is caught, he is immediately tried, and + unless he can prove a defence, he is sentenced to be hanged + at once; but the chief rebels, or ringleaders, I make first + clear up a certain portion of the pool of blood, still two + inches deep in the shed where the fearful murder and + mutilation of women and children took place. To touch blood + is most abhorrent to the high-caste natives; they think by + doing so, they doom their souls to perdition. Let them think + so. My object is to inflict a fearful punishment for a + revolting, cowardly, and barbarous deed, and to strike + terror into these rebels. + + "The first I caught was a subahdar, or native officer--a + high-caste Brahmin, who tried to resist my order to clean up + the very blood he had helped to shed; but I made the + provost-marshal do his duty, and a few lashes made the + miscreant accomplish his task. When done, he was taken out + and immediately hanged, and after death, buried in a ditch + at the roadside. No one who has witnessed the scenes of + murder, mutilation, and massacre, can ever listen to the + word mercy, as applied to these fiends. + + "Among other wretches drawn from their skulking places, was + the man who gave Nana Sahib's orders for the massacre. After + this man's identity had been clearly established, and his + complicity in directing the massacre proved beyond all + doubt, he was compelled, upon his knees, to cleanse up a + portion of the blood yet scattered over the fatal yard, and + while yet foul from his sickening task, hung like a dog + before the gratified soldiers, one of whom writes: 'The + collector who gave the order for the murder of the poor + ladies, was taken prisoner day before yesterday, and now + hangs from a branch of a tree about two hundred yards off + the roadside.'" + +What became of Nana Sahib after the Mutiny, is a mystery that probably +will never be solved. If he lived he sought safety in flight. Many of +the Mutineers took refuge in the jungle. The Government kept up a hunt +for him for years. Several times it was thought that he was +discovered. Only a year or two ago a man was arrested, who was said to +be Nana Sahib, but it proved to be a case of mistaken identity. In +going up from Delhi we rode in the same railway carriage with an old +army surgeon, whose testimony saved the life of the suspected man. He +had lived in Cawnpore before the Mutiny, and knew Nana Sahib well, +indeed had been his physician, and gave me much information about the +bloody Mahratta chief. He said he was not so bad a man by nature, as +he became when he was put forward as a leader in a desperate +enterprise, and surrounded by men who urged him on to every crime. So +long as he was under the wholesome restraint of English power, he was +a fair specimen of the "mild Hindoo," "as mild a mannered man as ever +scuttled ship or cut a throat." His movement was as soft as that of a +cat or a tiger. But like the tiger, when once he tasted blood, it +roused the wild beast in him, and he took a delight in killing. And so +he who might have lived quietly, and died in his bed, with a +reputation not worse than that of other Indian rulers, has left a name +in history as the most execrable monster of modern times. It seems a +defeat of justice that he cannot be discovered and brought to the +scaffold. But perhaps the judgment of God is more severe than that of +man. If he still lives, he has suffered a thousand deaths in these +twenty years. + +My informant told me of the punishment that had come on many of these +men of blood. Retribution followed hard after their crimes. When the +rebellion was subdued, it was stamped out without mercy. The leaders +were shot away from guns. Others who were only less guilty had a short +trial and a swift punishment. In this work of meting out retribution, +this mild physician was himself obliged to be an instrument. Though +his profession was that of saving lives, and not of destroying them, +after the Mutiny he was appointed a Commissioner in the district of +Cawnpore, where he had lived, to try insurgents, with the power of +life and death, and with no appeal from his sentence! It was a +terrible responsibility, but he could not shrink from it, and he had +to execute many. Those especially who had been guilty of acts of +cruelty, could not ask for mercy which they had never shown. Among +those whom he captured was the native officer who had given the +signal, by raising his sword, to the masked battery to fire on the +boats. He said, "I took him to that very spot, and hung him there!" +All this sad history was in mind as we went down to the banks of the +Ganges, where that fearful tragedy took place not twenty years before. +The place still bears the name of the Slaughter Ghat, in memory of +that fearful deed. We imagined the scene that summer's morning, when +the stream was covered with the bodies of women and children, and the +air was filled with the shrieks of despair. With such bitter memories, +we recalled the swift retribution, and rejoiced that such a crime had +met with such a punishment. + +From the river we drove to "the well," but here nothing is painful but +its memories. It is holy ground, which pious hands have decked with +flowers, and consecrated as a shrine of martyrdom. Around it many +acres have been laid out as a garden, with all manner of tropical +plants, and well-kept paths winding between, along which the stranger +walks slowly and sadly, thinking of those who suffered so much in +life, and that now sleep peacefully beyond the reach of pain. In the +centre of the garden the place of the well is enclosed, and over the +sacred spot where the bodies of the dead were thrown, stands a figure +in marble, which might be that of the angel of Resignation or of +Peace, with folded wings and face slightly bended, and arms across her +breast, and in her hands palm-branches, the emblems of victory. + +The visit to these spots, consecrated by so much suffering, had an +added tenderness of interest, because some of our own countrymen and +countrywomen perished there. In those fearful scenes the blood of +Americans--men, women, and children--mingled with that of their +English kindred. One of the most terrible incidents of those weeks of +crime, was the massacre of a party from Futteghur that tried to escape +down the Ganges, hoping to reach Allahabad. As they approached +Cawnpore, they concealed themselves in the tall grass on an island, +but were discovered by the Sepoys, and made prisoners. Some of the +party were wealthy English residents, who offered a large ransom for +their lives. But their captors answered roughly: "What they wanted was +not money, but blood!" Brought before Nana Sahib, he ordered them +instantly to be put to death. Among them were four American +missionaries, with their wives, who showed in that hour of trial that +they knew how to suffer and to die. Of one of these I had heard a very +touching story but a few days before from my friend, Mr. Woodside. +When we were standing on the lower range of the Himalayas, looking off +to "the snows," he told me how he had once made an expedition with a +brother missionary among these mountains, which are full of villages, +like the hamlets in the High Alps. He pointed out in the distance the +very route they took, and even places on the sides of the successive +ranges where they pitched their tents. They started near the close of +September, and were out all October, and came in about the middle of +November, being gone six weeks. After long and weary marches for many +days, they came to a little village called Karsali near Jumnootree, +the source of the sacred river Jumna, near which rose a giant peak, +19,000 feet high (though we could but just see it on the horizon), +that till then had never been trodden by human foot, but which they, +like the daring Americans they were, determined to ascend. Their +guides shrank from the attempt, and refused to accompany them; but +they determined to make the ascent if they went alone, and at last, +rather than be left behind, their men followed, although one sank down +in the snow, and could not reach the summit. But the young +missionaries pressed on with fresh ardor, as they climbed higher and +higher. As they reached the upper altitudes, the summit, which to us +at a distance of ninety miles seemed but a peak or cone, broadened out +into a plateau of miles in extent; the snow was firm and hard; they +feared no crevasses, and strode on with fearless steps. But there was +something awful in the silence and the solitude. Not a living thing +could be seen on the face of earth or sky. Not a bird soared to such +heights; not an eagle or a vulture was abroad in search of prey; not a +bone on the waste of snow told where any adventurous explorer had +perished before them. Alone they marched over the fields of untrodden +snow, and started almost to hear their own voices in that upper air. +And yet such was their sense of freedom, that they could not contain +their joy. My companion, said Mr. Woodside, was very fond of a little +hymn in Hindostanee, a translation of the familiar lines: + + I'm a pilgrim, I'm a stranger, + And I tarry but a night, + +and as we went upward, he burst into singing, and sang joyously as he +strode over the fields of snow. Little he thought that the end of his +pilgrimage was so near! But six months later the Mutiny broke out, and +he was one of its first victims. He was of the party from Futteghur, +with a fate made more dreadful, because he had with him not only his +wife, but two children, and the monster spared neither age nor sex. +After the Mutiny, Mr. Woodside visited Cawnpore, and made diligent +inquiry for the particulars of his friend's death. It was difficult to +get the details, as the natives were very reticent, lest they should +be accused; but as near as he could learn, "Brother Campbell," as he +spoke of him, was led out with his wife--he holding one child in his +arms, and she leading another by the hand--and thus all together they +met their fate! Does this seem very hard? Yet was it not sweet that +they could thus die together, and could come up (like the family of +Christian in Pilgrim's Progress) in one group to the wicket gate? No +need had he to sing any more: + + I'm a pilgrim, I'm a stranger, + And I tarry but a night, +for on that summer morning he passed up a shining pathway, whiter than +the fields of snow on the crest of the Himalayas, that led him +straight to the gates of gold. Let no man complain of the sacrifice, +who would claim the reward; for so it is written, "It is through much +tribulation that we must enter into the Kingdom of God." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] "Narrative of Mr. Shepherd." He owed his escape to the fact that +before the surrender of the garrison he had made an attempt to pass +through the rebel lines and carry word to Allahabad to hasten the +march of troops to its relief, and had been taken and thrown into +prison, and was there at the time of the massacre. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE STORY OF LUCKNOW. + + +"You are going to Lucknow?" she said. It was a lady in black, who sat +in the corner of the railway carriage, as we came down from Upper +India. A cloud passed over her face. "I cannot go there; I was in the +Residency during the siege, and my husband and daughter were killed +there. I cannot revisit a place of such sad memories." It was nothing +to her that the long struggle had ended in victory, and that the story +of the siege was one of the most glorious in English history. Nothing +could efface the impression of those months of suffering. She told us +how day and night the storm of fire raged around them; how the women +took refuge in the cellars; how her daughter was killed before her +eyes by the bursting of a shell; and how, when they grew familiar with +this danger, there came another terrible fear--that of death by +famine; how strong men grew weak for want of food; how women wasted +away from very hunger, and children died because they could find no +nourishment on their mother's breasts. + +But amid those horrors there was one figure which she loved to +recall--that of Sir Henry Lawrence, the lion-hearted soldier, who kept +up all hearts by his courage and his iron will--till he too fell, and +left them almost in despair. + +Such memories might keep away one who had been a sufferer in these +fearful scenes, but they stimulated our desire to see a spot +associated with such courage and devotion, and led us from the scene +of the tragedy of Cawnpore to that of the siege of Lucknow. + +But how soon nature washes away the stain of blood! As we crossed the +Ganges, the gentle stream, rippling against the Slaughter Ghat, left +no red spots upon its stony steps. Near the station was a large +enclosure full of elephants, some of which perhaps had carried their +burden of prisoners down to the river's brink on that fatal day, but +were now "taking their ease," as beasts and men like to do. Familiar +as we are with the sight, it always gives us a fresh impression of our +Asiatic surroundings, to come suddenly upon a herd of these creatures +of such enormous bulk, with ears as large as umbrellas, which are kept +moving like punkas to keep off the flies; to see them drawing up water +into their trunks, as "Behemoth drinketh up Jordan," and spurting it +over their backs; or what is more ludicrous still, to see them at +play, which seems entirely out of character. We think of the elephant +as a grave and solemn creature, made to figure on grand occasions, to +march in triumphal processions, carrying the howdahs of great Rajahs, +covered with cloth of gold. But there is as much of "youth" in the +elephant as in any other beast. A baby elephant is like any other +baby. As little tigers play like kittens, so a little elephant is like +a colt, or like "Mary's little lamb." + +Lucknow is only forty miles from Cawnpore, with which it is connected +by railway. A vast plain stretches to the gates of the capital of +Oude. It was evening when we reached our destination, where another +American friend, Rev. Mr. Mudge of the Methodist Mission, was waiting +to receive us. A ride of perhaps a couple of miles through the streets +and bazaars gave us some idea of the extent of a city which ranks +among the first in India. Daylight showed us still more of its extent +and its magnificence. It spreads out many miles over the plain, and +has a population of three hundred thousand, while in splendor it is +the first of the native cities of India--by native I mean one not +taking its character, like Calcutta and Bombay, from the English +element. Lucknow is more purely an Indian city, and has more of the +Oriental style in its architecture--its domes and minarets reminding +us of Cairo and Constantinople. Bayard Taylor says: "The coup d'oeil +from one of the bridges over the Goomtee, resembles that of +Constantinople from the bridge over the Golden Horn, and is more +imposing, more picturesque, and more truly Oriental than any other +city in India." It is a Mohammedan city, as much as Delhi, the mosques +quite overshadowing the Hindoo temples; and the Mohurrim, the great +Moslem festival, is observed here with the same fanaticism. But it is +much larger than Delhi, and though no single palaces equal those of +the old Moguls, yet it has more the appearance of a modern capital, in +its busy and crowded streets. It is a great commercial city, with rich +merchants, with artificers in silver and gold and all the fabrics of +the East. + +But the interest of Lucknow, derived from the fact of its being one of +the most populous cities of India, and one of the most splendid, is +quite eclipsed by the thrilling events of its recent history. All its +palaces and mosques have not the attraction of one sacred spot. This +is the Residency, the scene of the siege, which will make the name of +Lucknow immortal. How the struggle came, we may see by recalling one +or two facts in the history of India. + +A quarter of a century ago, this was not a part of the British +possessions. It was the Kingdom of Oude, with a sovereign who still +lives in a palace near Calcutta, with large revenues wherewith to +indulge his royal pleasure, but without his kingdom, which the English +Government has taken from him. This occurred just before the Mutiny, +and has often been alleged as one of the causes, if not _the_ cause, +of the outbreak; and England has been loudly accused of perfidy and +treachery towards an Indian prince, and of having brought upon +herself the terrible events which followed. + +No doubt the English Government has often carried things with a high +hand in India, and done acts which cannot be defended, just as we must +confess that our own Government, in dealing with our Indian tribes, +has sometimes seemed to ignore both justice and mercy. But as to this +king of Oude, his "right" to his dominion (which is, being +interpreted, a right to torture his unhappy subjects) is about the +same as the right of a Bengal tiger to his jungle--a right which holds +good till some daring hunter can put an end to his career. + +When this king ruled in Oude he was such a father to his people, and +such was the affection felt for his paternal government, that he had +to collect his taxes by the military, and it is said that the poor +people in the country built their villages on the borders of the +jungle, and kept a watch out for the approach of the soldiers. As soon +as they were signalled as being in sight, the wretched peasants +gathered up whatever they could carry, and fled into the jungle, +preferring to face the wild beasts and the serpents rather than these +mercenaries of a tyrant. The troops came, seized what was left and set +fire to the village. After they were gone, the miserable people +returned and rebuilt their mud hovels, and tried by tilling the soil, +to gain a bare subsistence. Such was the patriarchal government of one +of the native princes of India. + +This king of Oude now finds his chief amusement in collecting a great +menagerie. He has a very large number of wild beasts. He has also a +"snakery," in which he has collected all the serpents of India. It +must be confessed that such a man seems more at home among his tigers +and cobras than in oppressing his wretched people. If Americans who +visit his palace near Calcutta are moved to sympathy with this deposed +king, let them remember what his government was, and they may feel a +little pity for his miserable subjects. + +To put such a monster off the throne, and thus put an end to his +tyrannies, was about as much of a "crime" as it would be to restrain +the king of Dahomey or of Ashantee from perpetuating his "Grand +Custom." I am out of patience with this mawkish sympathy. There is too +much real misery in the world that calls for pity and relief, to have +us waste our sensibilities on those who are the scourges of mankind. + +But once done, the deed could not be undone. Having seized the bull by +the horns, it was necessary to hold him, and this was not an easy +matter. It needed a strong hand, which was given it in Sir Henry +Lawrence, who had been thirty years in India. Hardly had he been made +governor before he felt that there was danger in the air. Neither he +nor his brother John, the Governor of the Punjaub, were taken by +surprise when the Mutiny broke out. Both expected it, and it did not +find them unprepared. Oude was indeed a centre of rebellion. The +partisans of the ex-king were of course very active, so that when the +Sepoys mutinied at Meerut, near Delhi, the whole kingdom of Oude was +in open revolt. Every place was taken except Lucknow, and that was +saved only by the wisdom and promptness of its new governor. + +His first work was to fortify the Residency (so called from having +been occupied by the former English residents), which had about as +much of a military character as an old English manor-house. The +grounds covered some acres, on which were scattered a few buildings, +official residences and guardhouses, with open spaces between, laid +out in lawns and gardens. But the quick eye of the governor saw its +capability of defence. It was a small plateau, raised a few feet above +the plain around, and by connecting the different buildings by walls, +which could be mounted with batteries and loopholed for musketry, the +whole could be constructed into a kind of fortress. Into this he +gathered the European residents with their women and children. And +behind such rude defences a few hundred English soldiers, with as many +natives who had proved faithful, kept a large army at bay for six +months. + +There was a fort in Lucknow well supplied with guns and ammunition, +but it was defended by only three hundred men, and was a source of +weakness rather than strength, since the English force was too small +to hold it, and if it should fall into the hands of the Sepoys with +all its stores, it would be the arsenal of the rebellion. At Delhi a +similar danger had been averted only by a brave officer blowing up the +arsenal with his own hand. It was a matter of the utmost moment to +destroy the fort and yet to save the soldiers in it. The only hope of +keeping up any defence was to unite the two feeble garrisons. But they +were more than half a mile apart, and each beleaguered by watchful +enemies. Sir Henry Lawrence signalled to the officer in command: "Blow +up the fort, and come to the Residency at twelve o'clock to-night. +Bring your treasure and guns, and destroy the remainder." This +movement could be executed only by the greatest secrecy. But the order +was promptly obeyed. At midnight the little band filed silently out of +the gates, and stole with muffled steps along a retired path, almost +within reach of the guns of the enemies, who discovered the movement +only when they were safe in the Residency, and the fuse which had been +lighted at the fort reached the magazine, and exploding two hundred +and fifty barrels of gunpowder, blew the massive walls into the air. + +But the siege was only just begun. Inside the Residency were collected +about two thousand two hundred souls, of whom over five hundred were +women and children. Only about six hundred were English soldiers, and +seven or eight hundred natives who had remained faithful, held to +their allegiance by the personal ascendancy of Sir Henry Lawrence.[7] +There were also some three hundred civilians, who, though unused to +arms, willingly took part in the defence. Thus all together the +garrison did not exceed seventeen hundred men, of whom many were +disabled by sickness and wounds. The force of the besiegers was twenty +to one. There is in the Indian nature a strange mixture of languor and +ferocity, and the latter was aroused by the prospect of vengeance on +the English, who were penned up where they could not escape, and where +their capture was certain; and every Sepoy wished to be in at the +death. Under the attraction of such a prospect it is said that the +besieging force rose to fifty thousand men. Many of the natives, who +had been in the English service, were practised artillerists, and +trained their guns on the slender defences with fatal effect. +Advancing over the level ground, they drew their lines nearer and +nearer, till their riflemen picked off the soldiers serving in the +batteries. Three times they made a breach by exploding mines under the +walls, and endeavored to carry the place by storm. But then rose high +the unconquerable English spirit. They expected to die, but they were +determined to sell their lives dearly. When the alarm of these attacks +reached the hospital, the sick and wounded crawled out of their beds +and threw away their crutches to take their place at the guns; or if +they could not stand, lay down flat on their faces and fired through +the holes made for musketry. + +But brave as were the defenders, the long endurance told upon them. +They were worn out with watching, and their ranks grew thinner day by +day. Those who were killed were carried off in the arms of their +companions, who gathered at midnight for their burial in some lonely +and retired spot, and while the chaplain in a low voice read the +service, the survivors stood around the grave, thinking how soon their +turn would come, the gloom of the night in fit harmony with the dark +thoughts that filled their breasts. + +But darker than any night was the day when Sir Henry Lawrence fell. He +was the beloved, the adored commander. "While he lived," said our +informant, "we all felt safe." But exposing himself too much, he was +struck by a shell. Those around him lifted him up tenderly and carried +him away to the house of the surgeon of the garrison, where two days +after he died. When all was over "they did not dare to let the +soldiers know that he was dead," lest they should give up the +struggle. But he lived long enough to inspire them with his +unconquerable spirit. + +He died on the 4th of July, and for nearly three months the siege went +on without change, the situation becoming every day more desperate. It +was the hottest season of the year, and the sun blazed down fiercely +into their little camp, aggravating the sickness and suffering, till +they longed for death, and were glad when they could find the grave. +"When my daughter was struck down by a fragment of a shell that fell +on the floor, she did not ask to live. She might have been saved if +she had been where she could have had careful nursing. But there was +no proper food to nourish the strength of the sick, and so she sunk +away, feeling that it was better to die than to live." + +But still they would not yield to despair. Havelock had taken +Cawnpore, though he came too late to save the English from massacre, +and was straining every nerve to collect a force sufficient to relieve +Lucknow. As soon as he could muster a thousand men he crossed the +Ganges, and began his march. The movement was known to the little +garrison, and kept up their hopes. A faithful native, who acted as a +spy throughout the siege, went to and fro, disguising himself, and +crept through the lines in the night, and got inside the Residency, +and told them relief was coming. "He had seen the general, and said he +was a little man with white hair," who could be no other than +Havelock. Word was sent back that, on approaching the city, rockets +should be sent up to notify the garrison. Night after night officers +and men gazed toward the west for the expected signal, till their +hearts grew sick as the night passed and there was no sign. +Deliverance was to come, but not yet. + +Havelock found that he had attempted the impossible. His force was but +a handful, compared with the hosts of his enemies. Even nature +appeared to be against him. It was the hot and rainy season, when it +seemed impossible to march over the plains of India. Cannon had to be +drawn by bullocks over roads and across fields, where they sank deep +in mud. Men had to march and fight now in the broiling sun, and now in +floods of rain. "In the full midday heat of the worst season of the +year, did our troops start. The sun struck down with frightful force. +At every step a man reeled out of the ranks, and threw himself +fainting by the side of the road; the calls for water were incessant +all along the line." "During the interval between the torrents of +rain, the sun's rays were so overpowering that numbers of the men were +smitten down and died." But the survivors closed up their ranks and +kept their face to the foe. Their spirit was magnificent. Death had +lost its terrors for them, and they made light of hardships and +dangers. When fainting with heat, if they found a little dirty water +by the roadside "it was like nectar." After marching all day in the +rain, they would lie down in the soaking mud, and grasp their guns, +and wrap their coats around them, and sleep soundly. Says an officer: + + "August 5th we marched toward Lucknow nine miles and then + encamped on a large plain for the night. You must bear in + mind that we had no tents with us, they are not allowed, so + every day we were exposed to the burning sun and to the rain + and dew by night. No baggage or beds were allowed; but the + soldier wrapped his cloak around him, grasped his musket and + went to sleep, and soundly we slept too. My Arab horse + served me as a pillow, I used to lie down alongside of him, + with my head on his neck, and he never moved with me except + now and then to lick my hand." But he adds, "We found that + it was impossible to proceed to Lucknow, for our force was + too small--for though we were a brave little band, and could + fight to Lucknow, yet we could not compel them to raise the + siege when we got there." + +Another enemy also had appeared. Cholera had broken out in the camp; +eleven men died in one day. The Rebels too were rising behind them. As +soon as Havelock crossed the Ganges they began to gather in his rear. +Nana Sahib was mustering a force and threatened Cawnpore. Thus beset +behind and before, Havelock turned and marched against the Mahratta +chief, and sent him flying towards Delhi. In reading the account of +these marches and battles, it is delightful to see the spirit between +the commander and his men. After this victory, as he rode along the +lines, they cheered him vehemently. He returned their salute, but +said, "Don't cheer me, my lads, you did it all yourselves." Such men, +fighting together, were invincible. + +In September Havelock had collected 2,700 men, and again set out for +Lucknow. Three days they marched "under a deluge of rain." But their +eyes were "steadfastly set" towards the spot where their countrymen +were in peril, and they cared not for hardships and dangers. The +garrison was apprised of their coming, and waited with feverish +anxiety. In the relieving force was a regiment of Highlanders, and if +no crazy woman could put her ears to the ground (according to the +romantic story so often told) and hear the pibroch, and shout "The +Campbells are coming," they knew that those brave Scots never turned +back. As they drew near the city over the Cawnpore road, they found +that it was mined to blow them up. Instantly they wheeled off, and +marched round the city, and came up on the other side. Capturing the +Alumbagh, one of the royal residences, which, surrounded by a wall, +was easily converted into a temporary fortress, Havelock left here his +heavy baggage and stores of ammunition, with an immense array of +elephants and camels and horses; and all his sick and wounded, and the +whole train of camp-followers; and three hundred men, with four guns +to defend it. Thus "stripped for the fight," he began his attack on +the city. It was two miles to the Residency, and every step the +English had to fight their way through the streets. The battle began +in the morning, and lasted all day. It was a desperate attempt to +force their way through a great city, where every man was an enemy, +and they were fired at from almost every house. "Our advance was +through streets of flat-roofed and loop-holed houses, each forming a +separate fortress." Our informant told us of the frenzy in the +Residency when they heard the sound of the guns. "The Campbells were +coming" indeed! Sometimes the firing lulled, and it seemed as if they +were driven back. Then it rose again, and came nearer and nearer. How +the tide of battle ebbed and flowed, is well told in the narratives of +those who were actors in the scenes: + + "Throughout the night of the 24th great agitation and alarm + had prevailed in the city; and, as morning advanced, + increased and rapid movements of men and horses, gave + evidence of the excited state of the rebel force. At noon, + increasing noise proclaimed that street fighting was growing + more fierce in the distance; but from the Residency nought + but the smoke from the fire of the combatants could be + discerned. As the afternoon advanced, the sounds came nearer + and nearer, and then we heard the sharp crack of rifles + mingled with the flash of musketry; the well-known uniforms + of British soldiers were next discerned." + +A lady who was in the Residency, and has written a Diary of the Siege, +thus describes the coming in of the English troops: + + "Never shall I forget the moment to the latest day I live. + We had no idea they were so near, and were breathing the air + in the portico as usual at that hour, speculating when they + might be in; when suddenly just at dusk, we heard a very + sharp fire of musketry close by, and then a tremendous + cheering. An instant after, the sound of bagpipes--then + soldiers running up the road--our compound and veranda + filled with our deliverers, and all of us shaking hands + frantically, and exchanging fervent 'God bless you's' with + the gallant men and officers of the 78th Highlanders. Sir + James Outram and staff were the next to come in, and the + state of joyful confusion and excitement was beyond all + description. The big, rough-bearded soldiers were seizing + the little children out of our arms, kissing them, with + tears rolling down their cheeks, and thanking God they had + come in time to save them from the fate of those at + Cawnpore. We were all rushing about to give the poor fellows + drinks of water, for they were perfectly exhausted; and tea + was made down in the Tye-khana, of which a large party of + tired, thirsty officers partook, without milk or sugar. We + had nothing to give them to eat. Every one's tongue seemed + going at once with so much to ask and to tell; and the faces + of utter strangers beamed upon each other like those of + dearest friends and brothers." + +It was indeed a great deliverance, but the danger was not over. Of all +that were in the Residency when the siege began, three months before, +more than half were gone. Out of twenty-two hundred but nine hundred +were left, and of these less than one-half were fighting men. Even +with the reinforcement of Havelock the garrison was still far too +small to hold such a position in the midst of a city of such a +population. The siege went on for two months longer. The final relief +did not come till Sir Colin Campbell, arriving with a larger force, +again fought his way through the city. The atrocities of the Sepoys +had produced such a feeling that he could hardly restrain his +soldiers. Remembering the murders and massacres of their countrymen +and countrywomen, they fought with a savage fury. In one walled +enclosure, which they carried by storm, were two thousand Sepoys, and +they killed every man! + +Even then the work was not completed. Scarcely had Sir Colin Campbell +entered the Residency before he decided upon its evacuation. Again the +movement was executed at midnight, in silence and in darkness. While +the watch-fires were kept burning to deceive the enemy, the men filed +out of the gates, with the women and children in the centre of the +column, and moving softly and quickly through a narrow lane, in the +morning they were several miles from the city, in a strong position, +which made them safe from attack. + +The joy of this hour of deliverance was saddened by the death of +Havelock. He had passed through all the dangers of battle and siege, +only to die at last of disease, brought on by the hardships and +exposures of the last few months. But his work was done. He had +nothing to do but to die. To his friend, Sir James Outram, who came to +see him, he stretched out his hand and said: "For more than forty +years I have so ruled my life, that when death came, I might face it +without fear." + +The garrison was saved, but the city was still in the hands of the +Rebels, who were as defiant as ever. It was some months before Sir +Colin Campbell gathered forces sufficient for the final and crushing +blow. Indeed it was not till winter that he had collected a really +formidable army. Then he moved on the city in force and carried it by +storm. Two days of terrible fighting gave him the mastery of Lucknow, +and the British flag was once more raised over the capital of Oude, +where it has floated in triumph unto this day. + +But the chief interest gathers about the earlier defence. The siege of +Lucknow is one of the most thrilling events in modern history, and may +well be remembered with pride by all who took part in it. A few weeks +before we were here the Prince of Wales had made his visit to Lucknow, +and requested that the survivors of the siege might be presented to +him. Mr. Mudge was present at the interview, and told me he had never +witnessed a more affecting scene than when these brave old soldiers, +the wrecks of the war, some of them bearing the marks of their wounds, +came up to the Prince, and received his warmest thanks for their +courage and fidelity. + +These heroic memories were fresh in mind as we took our morning walk +in Lucknow, along the very street by which Havelock had fought his way +through the city. The Residency is now a ruin, its walls shattered by +shot and shell. But the ruins are overrun with vines and creeping +plants, and are beautiful even in their decay. With sad interest we +visited the spot where Sir Henry Lawrence was struck by the fatal +shell, and the cemetery in which he is buried. He was a Christian +soldier and before his death received the communion. He asked that no +eulogy might be written on his tomb, but only these words: "Here lies +Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. May God have mercy on his +soul." This dying utterance is inscribed on the plain slab of marble +that covers his dust. It is enough. No epitaph could say more. As I +stood there and read these simple words and thought of the noble dead, +my eyes were full of tears. With such a consciousness of duty done, +who could fear to die? How well do these words express that which +should be the highest end of human ambition. Happy will it be for any +man of whom, when he has passed from the world, it can with truth be +written above his grave, "Here lies one who tried to do his duty!" + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] As the historian of the mutiny has frequent occasion to speak of +the treachery of the Sepoys, it should not be forgotten that to this +there were splendid exceptions; that some were "found faithful among +the faithless." Even in the regiments that mutinied there were some +who were not carried away by the general madness; and, when the little +remnant of English soldiers retreated into the Residency, these loyal +natives went with them, and shared all the dangers and hardships of +the siege. Even after it was begun, they were exposed to every +temptation to seduce them from their allegiance; for as the lines of +the besiegers drew closer to the Residency and hemmed it in on every +side, the assailants were so near that they could talk with those +within over the palisades of the intrenchments, and the Sepoys +appealed to their late fellow-soldiers by threats, and taunts, and +promises; by pride of race and of caste; by their love of country and +of their religion, to betray the garrison. But not a man deserted his +post. Hundreds were killed in the siege, and their blood mingled with +that of their English companions-in-arms. History does not record a +more noble instance of fidelity. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE ENGLISH RULE IN INDIA. + + +In reviewing the terrible scenes of the Mutiny, one cannot help asking +whether such scenes are likely to occur again; whether there will ever +be another Rebellion; and if so, what may be the chance of its +success? Will the people of India wish to rise? How are they affected +towards the English government? Are they loyal? We can only answer +these questions by asking another: Who are meant by the people of +India? The population is divided into different classes, as into +different castes. The great mass of the people are passive. Accustomed +to being handed over from one native ruler to another, they care not +who holds the power. He is the best ruler who oppresses them the +least. But among the high caste Brahmins, and especially those who +have been educated (among whom alone there is anything like political +life in India), there is a deep-seated disaffection towards the +English rule. This is a natural result of an education which enlarges +their ideas and raises their ambition. Some of the Bengalees, for +example, are highly educated men, and it is but natural that, as they +increase in knowledge, they should think that they are quite competent +to govern themselves. Hence their dislike to the foreign power that is +imposed upon them. Not that they have any personal wrongs to avenge. +It may be that they are attached to English _men_, while they do not +like the English rule. Every man whose mind is elevated by knowledge +and reflection, wishes to be his own master; and if ruled at all, he +likes to be ruled by those of his own blood and race and language. +This class of men, whether Hindoos or Mohammedans, however courteous +they may be to the English in their personal or business relations, +are not thereby converted to loyalty, any more than they are converted +to Christianity. + +But however strong their dislike, it is not very probable that it +should take shape in organized rebellion, and still less likely that +any such movement should succeed. The English are now guarded against +it as never before. In the Mutiny they were taken at every possible +disadvantage. The country was almost stripped of English troops. Only +20,000 men were left, and these scattered far apart, and surrounded by +three times their number of Sepoys in open rebellion. Thus even the +military organization was in the hands of the enemy. If with all these +things against them, English skill and courage and discipline +triumphed at last, can it ever be put to such a test again? + +When the Mutiny was over, and the English had time to reflect on the +danger they had escaped, they set themselves to repair their defences, +so that they should never more be in such peril. The first thing was +to reorganize the army, to weed out the elements of disaffection and +rebellion, and to see that the power was henceforth in safe hands. The +English troops were tripled in force, till now, instead of twenty, +they number sixty thousand men. The native regiments were carefully +chosen from those only who had proved faithful, such as the Goorkas, +who fought so bravely at Delhi, and other hill tribes of the +Himalayas; and the Punjaubees, who are splendid horsemen, and make the +finest cavalry. But not even these, brave and loyal as they had been, +were mustered into any regiment except cavalry and infantry. Not a +single native soldier was left in the artillery. In the Mutiny, if the +Sepoys had not been practised gunners, they would not have been so +formidable at the siege of Lucknow and elsewhere. Now they are +stripped of this powerful arm, and in any future rising they could do +nothing against fortified places, nor against an army in the field, +equipped with modern artillery. In reserving this arm of the service +to themselves, the English have kept the decisive weapon in their own +hands. + +Then it is hardly too much to say that by the present complete system +of railroads, the English force is _quadrupled_, as this gives them +the means of concentrating rapidly at any exposed point. + +To these elements of military strength must be added the greater +organizing power of Englishmen. The natives make good soldiers. They +are brave, and freely expose themselves in battle. In the Sikh war the +Punjaubees fought desperately. So did the Sepoys in the Mutiny. But +the moment the plan of attack was disarranged, they were "all at sea." +Their leaders had no "head" for quick combinations in presence of an +enemy. As it has been, so it will be. In any future contests it will +be not only the English sword, English guns, and English discipline, +but more than all, the English brains, that will get them the victory. + +Such is the position of England in India. She holds a citadel girt +round with defences on every side, with strong walls without, and +brave hearts within. I have been round about her towers, and marked +well her bulwarks, and I see not why, so guarded and defended, she may +not hold her Indian Empire for generations to come. + +But there is a question back of all this. Might does not make right. A +government may be established in power that is not established in +justice. It may be that the English are to remain masters of India, +yet without any right to that splendid dominion. As we read the +thrilling stories of the Mutiny, it is almost with a guilty feeling +(as if it betrayed a want of sympathy with all that heroism), that we +admit any inquiry as to the cause of that fearful tragedy. But how +came all this blood to be shed? Has not England something to answer +for? If she has suffered terribly, did she not pay the penalty of her +own grasping ambition? Nations, like individuals, often bring curses +on themselves, the retribution of their oppressions and their crimes. +The fact that men fight bravely, is no proof that they fight in a just +cause. Nay, the very admiration that we feel for their courage in +danger and in death, but increases our horror at the "political +necessity" which requires them to be sacrificed. If England by her own +wicked policy provoked the Mutiny, is she not guilty of the blood of +her children? Thomas Jefferson, though a slaveholder himself, used to +say that in a war of races every attribute of Almighty God would take +part with the slave against his master; and Englishmen may well ask +whether in the conflict which has come once, and may come again, they +can be quite sure that Infinite Justice will always be on their side. + +In these sentences I have put the questions which occur to an American +travelling in India. Wherever he goes, he sees the English flag flying +on every fortress--the sign that India is a conquered country. The +people who inhabit the country are not those who govern it. With his +Republican ideas of the right of every nation to govern itself, he +cannot help asking: What business have the English in India? What +right have a handful of Englishmen, so far from their native island, +in another hemisphere, to claim dominion over two hundred millions of +men? + +As an American, I have not the bias of national feeling to lead me to +defend and justify the English rule in India; though I confess that +when, far off here in Asia, among these dusky natives, I see a white +face, and hear my own mother tongue, I feel that "blood is thicker +than water," and am ready to take part with my kindred against all +comers. Even Americans cannot but feel a pride in seeing men of their +own race masters of such a kingdom in the East. But this pride of +empire will not extinguish in any fair mind the sense of justice and +humanity. + +"Have the English any right in India?" If it be "a question of +titles," we may find it difficult to prove our own right in America, +from which we have crowded out the original inhabitants. None of us +can claim a title from the father of the human race. All new settlers +in a country are "invaders." But public interest and the common law of +the world demand that power, once established, should be recognized. + +According to the American principle, that "all just government derives +its authority from the consent of the governed," there never was a +just government in India, for the consent of the governed was never +obtained. The people of India were never asked to give their "consent" +to the government established over them. They were ruled by native +princes, who were as absolute, and in general as cruel tyrants, as +ever crushed a wretched population. + +No doubt in planting themselves in India, the English have often used +the rights of conquerors. No one has denounced their usurpations and +oppressions more than their own historians, such as Mill and Macaulay. +The latter, in his eloquent reviews of the lives of Clive and Warren +Hastings, has spoken with just severity of the crimes of those +extraordinary but unscrupulous men. For such acts no justification can +be pleaded whatever. But as between Clive and Surajah Dowlah, the rule +of the former was infinitely better. It would be carrying the doctrine +of self-government to an absurd extent, to imagine that the monster +who shut up English prisoners in the Black Hole had any right which +was to be held sacred. The question of right, therefore, is not +between the English and the people of India, but between the English +and the native princes. Indeed England comes in to protect the people +against the princes, when it gives them one strong master in place of +a hundred petty tyrants. The King of Oude collecting his taxes by +soldiers, is but an instance of that oppression and cruelty which +extended all over India, but which is now brought to an end. + +And how has England used her power? At first, we must confess, with +but little of the feeling of responsibility which should accompany the +possession of power. Nearly a hundred years ago, Burke (who was master +of all facts relating to the history of India, and to its political +condition, more than any other man of his time) bitterly arraigned the +English government for its cruel neglect of that great dependency. He +denounced his countrymen, the agents of the East India Company, as a +horde of plunderers, worse than the soldiers of Tamerlane, and held up +their greedy and rapacious administration to the scorn of mankind, +showing that they had left no beneficent monuments of their power to +compare with those of the splendid reigns of the old Moguls. In a +speech in Parliament in 1783, he said: + + "England has erected no churches, no palaces, no hospitals, + no schools; England has built no bridges, made no high + roads, cut no navigations, dug out no reservoirs. Every + other conqueror of every other description has left some + monument either of State or beneficence behind him. Were we + to be driven out of India this day, nothing would remain to + tell that it had been possessed, during the inglorious + period of our dominion, by anything better than the + orang-outang or the tiger." + +This is a fearful accusation. What answer can be made to it? Has there +been any change for the better since the great impeacher of Warren +Hastings went to his grave? How has England governed India since that +day? She has not undertaken to govern it like a Model Republic. If she +had, her rule would soon have come to an end. She has not given the +Hindoos universal suffrage, or representation in Parliament. But she +has given them something better--Peace and Order and Law, a trinity of +blessings that they never had before. When the native princes ruled in +India, they were constantly at war among themselves, and thus +overrunning and harassing the country. Now the English government +rules everywhere, and Peace reigns from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas. + +Strange to say, this quietness does not suit some of the natives, who +have a restless longing for the wild lawlessness of former times. A +missionary was one day explaining to a crowd the doctrine of original +sin, when he was roughly interrupted by one who said, "I know what is +original sin: it is the English rule in India." "You ought not to say +that," was the reply, "for if it were not for the English the people +of the next village would make a raid on your village, and carry off +five thousand sheep." But the other was not to be put down so, and +answered promptly, "_I should like that_, for then we would make a +raid on them and carry off ten thousand!" This was a blunt way of +putting it, but it expresses the feeling of many who would prefer that +kind of wild justice which prevails among the Tartar hordes of Central +Asia to a state of profound tranquility. They would rather have +Asiatic barbarism than European civilization. + +With peace between States, England has established order in every +community. It has given protection to life and property--a sense of +security which is the first condition of the existence of human +society. It has abolished heathen customs which were inhuman and +cruel. It has extirpated thuggism, and put an end to infanticide and +the burning of widows. This was a work of immense difficulty, because +these customs, horrid as they were, were supported by religious +fanaticism. Mothers cast their children into the Ganges as an offering +to the gods; and widows counted it a happy escape from the sufferings +of life to mount the funeral pile. Even to this day there are some who +think it hard that they cannot thus sacrifice themselves. + +So wedded are the people to their customs, that they are very jealous +of the interference of the government, when it prohibits any of their +practices on the ground of humanity. Dr. Newton, of Lahore, the +venerable missionary, told me that he knew a few years ago a fakir, a +priest of a temple, who had grown to be very friendly with him. One +day the poor man came, with his heart full of trouble, to tell his +griefs. He had a complaint against the government. He said that Sir +John Lawrence, then Governor of the Punjaub, was very arbitrary. And +why? Because he wanted to bury himself alive, and the Governor +wouldn't let him! He had got to be a very old man (almost a hundred), +and of course must soon leave this world. He had had a tomb prepared +in the grounds of the temple (he took Dr. Newton to see what a nice +place it was), and there he wished to lie down and breathe his last. +With the Hindoos it is an act of religious merit to bury one's self +alive, and on this the old man had set his heart. If he could do this, +he would go straight to Paradise, but the hard English Governor, +insensible to such considerations, would not permit it. Was it not too +bad that he could not be allowed to go to heaven in his own way? + +Breaking up these old barbarities--suicide, infanticide, and the +burning of widows--the government has steadily aimed to introduce a +better system for the administration of justice, in which, with due +regard to Hindoo customs and prejudices, shall be incorporated, as far +as possible, the principles of English law. For twenty years the +ablest men that could be found in India or in England, have been +engaged in perfecting an elaborate Indian Code, in which there is one +law for prince and pariah. What must be the effect on the Hindoo mind +of such a system, founded in justice, and enforced by a power which +they cannot resist? Such laws administered by English magistrates, +will educate the Hindoos to the idea of justice, which, outside of +English colonies, can hardly be said to exist in Asia. + +The English are the Romans of the modern world. Wherever the Roman +legions marched, they ruled with a strong hand, but they established +law and order, the first conditions of human society. So with the +English in all their Asiatic dependencies. Wherever they come, they +put an end to anarchy, and give to all men that sense of protection +and security, that feeling of personal safety--safety both to life and +property--without which there is no motive to human effort, and no +possibility of human progress. + +The English are like the Romans in another feature of their +administration, in the building of roads. The Romans were the great +road-builders of antiquity. Highways which began at Rome, and thus +radiated from a common centre, led to the most distant provinces. Not +only in Italy, but in Spain and Gaul and Germany, did the ancient +masters of the world leave these enduring monuments of their power. +Following this example, England, before the days of railroads, built a +broad macadamized road from Calcutta to Peshawur, over 1,500 miles. +This may have been for a military purpose; but no matter, it serves +the ends of peace more than of war. It becomes a great avenue of +commerce; it opens communication between distant parts of India, and +brings together men of different races, speaking different languages; +and thus, by promoting peaceful and friendly intercourse, it becomes a +highway of civilization. + +Nor is this the only great road in this country. Everywhere I have +found the public highways in excellent condition. Indeed I have not +found a bad road in India--not one which gave me such a "shaking up" +as I have sometimes had when riding over the "corduroys" through the +Western forests of America. Around the large towns the roads are +especially fine--broad and well paved, and often planted with trees. +The cities are embellished with parks, like cities in England, with +botanical and zoological gardens. The streets are kept clean, and +strict sanitary regulations are enforced--a matter of the utmost +moment in this hot climate, and in a dense population, where a sudden +outbreak of cholera would sweep off thousands in a few days or hours. +The streets are well lighted and well policed, so that one may go +about at any hour of day or night with as much safety as in London or +New York. If these are the effects of foreign rule, even the most +determined grumbler must confess that it has proved a material and +substantial benefit to the people of India. + +Less than twenty years ago the internal improvements of India received +a sudden and enormous development, when to the building of roads +succeeded that of railroads. Lord Dalhousie, when Governor-General, +had projected a great railroad system, but it was not till after the +Mutiny, and perhaps in consequence of the lessons learned by that +terrible experience, that the work was undertaken on a large scale. +The government guaranteed five per cent. interest for a term of years, +and the capital was supplied from England. Labor was abundant and +cheap, and the works were pushed on with unrelaxing energy, till India +was belted from Bombay to Calcutta, and trunk lines were running up +and down the country, with branches to every large city. Thus, to +English foresight and sagacity, to English wealth and engineering +skill, India owes that vast system of railroads which now spreads over +the whole peninsula. + +In no part of the world are railroads more used than in India. Of +course the first-class carriages are occupied chiefly by English +travellers, or natives of high rank; and the second-class by those +less wealthy. But there are trains for the people, run at very low +fares. There are huge cars, built with two stories, and carrying a +hundred passengers each, and these two-deckers are often very closely +packed. The Hindoos have even learned to make pilgrimages by steam, +and find it much cheaper, as well as easier, than to go afoot. When +one considers the long journeys they have been accustomed to undertake +under the burning sun of India, the amount of suffering relieved by a +mode of locomotion so cool and swift is beyond computation. + +Will anybody tell me that the people of India, if left alone, would +have built their own railways? Perhaps in the course of ages, but not +in our day. The Asiatic nature is torpid and slow to move, and cannot +rouse itself to great exertion. In the whole Empire of China there is +not a railroad, except at Shanghai, where a few months ago was opened +a little "one-horse concern," a dozen miles long, built by the +foreigners for the convenience of that English settlement. This may +show how rapid would have been the progress of railroads in India, if +left wholly to native "enterprise." It would have taken hundreds of +years to accomplish what the English have wrought in one generation. + +Nor does English engineering skill expend itself on railroads alone. +It has dug canals that are like rivers in their length. The Ganges +Canal in Upper India is a work equal to our Erie Canal. Other canals +have been opened, both for commerce and for irrigation. The latter is +a matter vital to India. The food of the Hindoos is rice, and rice +cannot be cultivated except in fields well watered. A drought in the +rice fields means a famine in the province. Such a calamity is now +averted in many places by this artificial irrigation. The overflow +from these streams, which are truly "fountains in the desert," has +kept whole districts from being burnt up, by which in former years +millions perished by famine. + +While thus caring for the material comfort and safety of the people of +India, England has also shown regard to their enlightenment in +providing a magnificent system of National Education. Every town in +India has its government school, while many a large city has its +college or its university. Indeed, so far has this matter of education +been carried, that I heard a fear expressed that it was being +overdone--at least the higher education--because the young men so +educated were unfitted for anything else than the employ of the +government. All minor places in India are filled by natives, and well +filled too. But there are not enough for all. And hence many, finding +no profession to enter, and educated above the ordinary occupations of +natives, are left stranded on the shore. + +These great changes in India, these schools and colleges, the better +administration of the laws, and these vast internal improvements, have +been almost wholly the work of the generation now living. In the first +century of its dominion the English rule perhaps deserved the bitter +censure of Burke, but + + "If 'twere so, it were a grievous fault, + And grievously hath Caesar answered it." + +England has paid for the misgovernment of India in the blood of her +children, and within the last few years she has striven nobly to +repair the errors of former times. Thus one generation makes atonement +for the wrongs of another. She has learned that justice is the highest +wisdom, and the truest political economy. The change is due in part to +the constant pressure of the Christian sentiment of England upon its +government, which has compelled justice to India, and wrought those +vast changes which we see with wonder and admiration. + +Thus stretching out her mighty arm over India, England rules the land +from sea to sea. I say not that she rules it in absolute +righteousness--that her government is one of ideal perfection, but it +is immeasurably better than that of the old native tyrants which it +displaced. It at least respects the forms of law, and while it +establishes peace, it endeavors also to maintain justice. The +railroads that pierce the vast interior quicken the internal commerce +of the country, while the waters that are caused to flow over the +rice-fields of Bengal abate the horrors of pestilence and famine. Thus +England gives to her Asiatic empire the substantial benefits of modern +civilization; while in her schools and colleges she brings the subtle +Hindoo mind into contact with the science and learning of the West. At +so many points does this foreign rule touch the very life of India, +and infuse the best blood of Europe into her languid veins. + +With such results of English rule, who would not wish that it might +continue? It is not that we love the Hindoo less, but the cause of +humanity more. The question of English rule in India is a question of +civilization against barbarism. These are the two forces now in +conflict for the mastery of Asia. India is the place where the two +seas meet. Shall she be left to herself, shut up between her seas and +her mountains? That would be an unspeakable calamity, not only to her +present inhabitants, but to unborn millions. I believe in modern +civilization, as I believe in Christianity. These are the great forces +which are to conquer the world. In conquering Asia, they will redeem +it and raise it to a new life. The only hope of Asia is from Europe: + + "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay;" + +and the only hope of India is from England. So whatever contests may +yet arise for the control of this vast peninsula, with its two hundred +millions of people, our sympathies must always be against Asiatic +barbarism, and on the side of European civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +MISSIONS IN INDIA--DO MISSIONARIES DO ANY GOOD? + + +"Is it not all a farce?" said a Major in the Bengal Staff Corps, as we +came down from Upper India. We were talking of Missions. He did not +speak of them with hatred, but only with contempt. The missionaries +"meant well," but they were engaged in an enterprise which was so +utterly hopeless, that no man in his senses could regard it as other +than supreme and almost incredible folly. In this he spoke the opinion +of half the military men of India. They have no personal dislike to +missionaries--indeed many an officer in an out-of-the-way district, +who has a missionary family for almost his only neighbors, will +acknowledge that they are "a great addition to the English society." +But as for their doing any good, as an officer once said to me: "They +might as well go and stand on the shore of the sea and preach to the +fishes, as to think to convert the Hindoos!" Their success, of which +so much is said in England and America, is "infinitesimally small." +Some even go so far as to say that the missionaries do great mischief; +that they stir up bad blood in the native population, and perpetuate +an animosity of races. Far better would it be to leave the "mild +Hindoo" to his gods; to let him worship his sacred cows, and monkeys +and serpents, and his hideous idols, so long as he is a quiet and +inoffensive subject of the government. + +If one were preaching a sermon to a Christian congregation, he might +disdain a reply to objections which seem to come out of the mouths of +unbelievers; it would be enough to repeat the words of Him who said, +"Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." But I +am not preaching, but conversing with an intelligent gentleman, who +has lived long in India, and might well assume that he knows far more +about the actual situation than I do. Such men are not to be put down. +They represent a large part of the Anglo-Indian population. We may +therefore as well recognize the fact that Modern Missions, like any +other enterprise which is proposed in the interest of civilization, +are now on trial before the world. We may look upon them as too sacred +for criticism; but in this irreverent age nothing is too sacred; +everything that is holy has to be judged by reason, and by practical +results, and by these to be justified or to be condemned. I would not +therefore claim anything on the ground of authority, but speak of +missions as I would of national education, or even of the railroad +system of India. + +The question here raised I think deserves a larger and more candid +treatment than it commonly receives either from the advocates or the +opponents of missions. It is not to be settled merely by pious +feeling, by unreasoning sentiment on the one hand, nor by sneers on +the other. To convert a whole country from one religion to another, is +an undertaking so vast that it is not to be lightly entered upon. The +very attempt assumes a superior wisdom on the part of those who make +it, which is itself almost an offence. If it be not "a grand +impertinence," an intrusion into matters with which no stranger has a +right to intermeddle, it is at least taking a great liberty to thrust +upon a man our opinion in censure of his own. We may think him very +ignorant, and in need of being enlightened. But he may have a poor +opinion of our ability to enlighten him. We think him a fool, and he +returns the compliment. At any rate, right or wrong, he is entitled to +the freedom of his opinion as much as we are to ours. If a stranger +were to come to us day by day, to argue with us, and to force his +opinions upon us, either in politics or religion, we might listen +civilly and patiently at first, but we should end by turning him out +of doors. What right have we to pronounce on his opinions and conduct +any more than he upon ours? + +In the domain of religion, especially, a man's opinions are sacred. +They are between himself and God. There is no greater offence against +courtesy, against that mutual concession of perfect freedom, which is +the first law of all human intercourse, than to interfere wantonly +with the opinions--nay, if you please, with the false opinions, with +the errors and prejudices--of mankind. Nothing but the most imperative +call of humanity--a plea of "necessity or mercy"--can justify a +crusade against the ancestral faith of a whole people. + +I state the case as strongly as I can, that we may look upon it as an +English officer, or even an intelligent Hindoo, looks upon it, and I +admit frankly that we have no more right to force our religion upon +the people of India, than to force upon them a republican form of +government, unless we can give a reason for it, which shall be +recognized at the bar of the intelligent judgment of mankind. + +Is there then any good reason--any _raison d'etre_--for the +establishment of missions in India? If there be not some very solid +and substantial ground for their existence, they are not to be +justified merely because their motive is good. Is there then any +reason whatever which can justify any man, or body of men, in invading +this country with a new religion, and attacking the ancient faith of +the people? + +All students of history will acknowledge that there are certain great +revolutions in the opinions of mankind, which are epochs in history, +and turning points in the life of nations. India has had many such +revolutions, dating far back before the Christian era. Centuries +before Christ was born, Buddha preached his new faith on the banks of +the Ganges. For a time it conquered the country, driving out the old +Brahminism, which however came back and conquered in its turn, till +Buddhism, retiring slowly from the plains of India, planted its +pagodas on the shores of Burmah and among the mountains of Ceylon. + +Thus India is a land of missions, and has been from the very +beginnings of history. It was traversed by missionaries of its ancient +faith ages before Tamerlane descended the passes of the Himalayas with +the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other; or Francis Xavier, +the Apostle of the Indies, laid his bones in the Cathedral of Goa. If +then Buddhists and Brahmins, and Moslems and Romanists, have so long +disputed the land, there is certainly no reason why we should condemn +at the very outset the entrance of Protestant Christianity. + +Beside this great fact in the history of India place another: that +there is no country in the world where religion is such a power, such +an element in the life of the people. The Hindoos are not only +religious, they are intensely so. They have not indeed the fierce +fanaticism of the Moslems, for their creed tolerates all religions, +but what they believe they believe strongly. They have a subtle +philosophy which pervades all their thinking, which digs the very +channels in which their thoughts run, and cannot overflow; and this +philosophy, which is imbedded in their religious creed, fixes their +castes and customs, as rigidly as it does their forms of worship. +Religion is therefore the chief element in the national life. It has +more to do in moulding the ideas and habits, the manners and customs, +of the people, than laws or government, or any other human +institution. Thus India furnishes the most imposing illustration on +earth of the power of Religion to shape the destiny of a country or a +race. + +Whether there be anything to justify a friendly invasion of India, and +the attempt to convert its people to a better religion, may appear if +we ask, What is Hindooism? Is it a good or bad faith? Does it make men +better or worse--happy or unhappy? Does it promote the welfare of +human beings, or is it a system which is false in belief and deadly in +its effects, and against which we have a right to wage a holy war? + +Hindooism has a thousand shapes, spreading out its arms like a mighty +banyan tree, but its root is one--Pantheism. When an old fakir at the +Mela at Allahabad said to me, "You are God and I am God!" he did not +utter a wild rhapsody, but expressed the essence of Hindoo philosophy, +according to which all beings that exist are but One Being; all +thoughts are but the pulse-beats of One Infinite Mind; all acts are +but the manifestation of One Universal Life. + +Some may think this theory a mere abstraction, which has no practical +bearing. But carried out to its logical consequences, it overthrows +all morality. If all acts of men are God's acts, then they are all +equally good or bad; or rather, they are neither good nor bad. Thus +moral distinctions are destroyed, and vice and virtue are together +banished from the world. Hence Hindooism as a religion has nothing +whatever to do with morality or virtue, but is only a means of +propitiating angry deities. It is a religion of terror and fear. It is +also unspeakably vile. It is the worship of obscene gods by obscene +rites. Its very gods and goddesses commit adultery and incest. Thus +vice is deified. Such a mythology pollutes the imaginations of the +people, whereby their very mind and conscience are defiled. Not only +the heart, but even the intellect is depraved by the loathsome objects +set up in their temples. The most common object of worship in India is +an obscene image. Indeed, so well understood is this, that when a law +was passed by the Government against the exhibition of obscene images, +an express exception was made in favor of those exposed in temples, +and which were objects of religious worship. Thus Hindooism has the +privilege of indecency, and is allowed to break over all restraints. +It is the licensed harlot, that is permitted, in deference to its +religious pretensions, to disregard the common decencies of mankind. +The effect of this on public morals can be imagined. The stream cannot +rise higher than its source. How can a people be pure, when their very +religion is a fountain of pollution? But this is a subject on which we +cannot enlarge. It is an abyss into which no one would wish to look. +It is sufficient to indicate what we cannot for very loathing +undertake to describe. + +There is another element in the Hindoo religion, which cannot be +ignored, and which gives it a tremendous power for good or evil. It is +Caste. Every Hindoo child is born in a certain caste, out of which he +cannot escape. When I landed at Bombay I observed that every native +had upon his forehead a mark freshly made, as if with a stroke of the +finger, which indicated the god he worshipped or the caste to which he +belonged. Of these there are four principal ones--the Priest, or +Brahmin caste, which issued out of the mouth of Brahm; the Warrior +caste, which sprung from his arms and breast; the Merchant caste, from +his thighs; and the Shoodras, or Servile caste, which crawled out from +between his feet; beside the Pariahs, who are below all caste. These +divisions are absolute and unchangeable. To say that they are +maintained by the force of ancient custom is not enough: they are +fixed as by a law of nature. The strata of society are as immovable as +the strata of the rock-ribbed hills. No man can stir out of his place. +If he is up he stays up by no virtue of his own; and if he is down, he +stays down, beyond any power of man to deliver him. No gift of genius, +or height of virtue, can ever raise up one of a low caste into a +higher, for caste is a matter of birth. Upon these sub-strata this +fixity of caste rests with crushing weight. It holds them down as with +the force of gravitation, as if the Himalayas were rolled upon them to +press them to the earth. + +Against this oppression there is no power of resistance, no lifting up +from beneath to throw it off. One would suppose that the people +themselves would revolt at this servitude, that every manly instinct +would rise up in rebellion against such a degradation. But so +ingrained is it in the very life of the people, that they cannot cast +it out any more than they can cast out a poison in their blood. Indeed +they seem to glory in it. The lower castes crouch and bow down that +others may pass over them. A Brahmin, who had become a Christian, told +me that the people had often asked him to wash his feet in the water +of the street, that they might drink it! + +Caste is a cold and cruel thing, which hardens the heart against +natural compassion. I know it is said that high caste is only an +aristocracy of birth, and that, as such, it fosters a certain nobility +of feeling, and also a mutual friendliness between those who belong to +the same order. A caste is only a larger family, and in it there is +the same feeling, a mixture of pride and affection, which binds the +family together. Perhaps it may nurture to some extent a kind of +clannishness, but it does this at the sacrifice of the broader and +nobler sentiment of humanity. It hardens the heart into coldness and +cruelty against all without one sacred pale. The Brahmin feels nothing +for the sufferings of the Pariah, who is of another order of being as +truly as if he were one of the lower animals. Thus the feeling of +caste extinguishes the sentiment of human brotherhood. + +Taking all these elements together, Hindooism must rank as the most +despotic, the most cruel, and the vilest of all that is called +religion among men. There is no other that so completely upturns moral +distinctions, and makes evil good and good evil. Other religions, even +though false, have some sentiment that ennobles them, but Hindooism, +the product of a land fertile in strange births, is the lowest and +basest, the most truly earth-born, of all the religions that curse +mankind. + +And what burdens does it lay upon a poor, patient, and suffering +people, in prayers, penances, and pilgrimages! The faith of Hindooism +is not a mild and harmless form of human credulity. It exacts a +terrible service, that must be paid with sweat and blood. Millions of +Hindoos go every year on pilgrimages. The traveller sees them +thronging the roads, dragging their weary feet over the hot plains, +many literally _crawling_ over the burning earth, to appease the wrath +of angry gods! A religion which exacts such service is not a mere +creature of the imagination--it is a tremendous reality, which makes +its presence felt at every moment. It is therefore not a matter of +practical indifference. It is not a mere exhibition of human folly, +which, however absurd, does no harm to anybody. It is a despotism +which grinds the people to powder. + +Seeing this, how they suffer under a power from which they cannot +escape, can there be a greater object of philanthropy in all the world +than to emancipate them from the bondage of such ignorance and +superstition? Scientific men, the apostles of "modern thought," +consider it not only a legitimate object, but the high "mission" of +science, by unfolding the laws of nature, to disabuse our minds of +idle and superstitious fears; to break up that vague terror of unseen +forces, which is the chief element of superstition. If they may fight +this battle in England, may we not fight the battle of truth with +error and ignorance in Hindostan? Englishmen think it a noble thing +for brave and adventurous spirits to form expeditions to penetrate the +interior of Africa to break up the slave trade. But here is a slavery +the most terrible which ever crushed the life out of human beings. +Brahminism, which is fastened upon the people of India, embraces them +like an anaconda, clasping and crushing them in its mighty folds. It +is a devouring monster, which takes out of the very body of every +Hindoo, poor and naked and wretched as he may be, its pound of +quivering flesh. Can these things be, and we look on unmoved? Can we +see a whole people bound, like Laocooen and his sons, in the grasp of +the serpent, writhing and struggling in vain, and not come to their +rescue? + +Such is Hindooism, and such is the condition to which it has reduced +the people of India. Do we need any other argument for Christian +missions? Does not this simple statement furnish a perfect defence, +and even an imperative demand for their establishment? Christianity is +the only hope of India. In saying this I do not intend any disrespect +to the people of this country, to whom I feel a strong attraction. We +are not apt to hear from our missionary friends much about the virtues +of the heathen; but virtues they have, which it were wrong to ignore. +The Hindoos, like other Asiatics, are a very domestic people, and have +strong domestic attachments. They love their homes, humble though they +be, and their children. And while they have not the active energy of +Western races, yet in the passive virtues--meekness, patience under +injury, submission to wrong--they furnish an example to Christian +nations. That submissiveness, which travellers notice, and which moves +some to scorn, moves me rather to pity, and I find in this patient, +long-suffering race much to honor and to love. Nor are they +unintelligent. They have very subtle minds. Thus they have many of the +qualities of a great people. But their religion is their destruction. +It makes them no better, it makes them worse. It does not lift them +up, it drags them down. It is the one terrible and overwhelming curse, +that must be removed before there is any hope for the people of India. + +Is there not here a legitimate ground for an attempt on the part of +the civilized and Christian world to introduce a better faith into +that mighty country which holds two hundred millions of the human +race? This is not intrusion, it is simple humanity. In seeking to +introduce Christianity into India, we invade no right of any native of +that country, Mohammedan or Hindoo; we would not wantonly wound their +feelings, nor even shock their prejudices, in attacking their +hereditary faith. But we claim that here is a case where we cannot +keep silent. If we are told that we "interfere with the people," we +answer, that we interfere as the Good Samaritan interfered with the +man who fell among thieves, and was left by the roadside to die; as +the physician in the hospital interferes with those dying of the +cholera; as one who sees a brother at his side struck by a deadly +serpent applies his mouth to the wound, to suck the poison from his +blood! If that be interference, it is interference where it would be +cruelty to stand aloof, for he would be less than man who could be +unmoved in presence of misery so vast, which it was in any degree in +his power to relieve. + +Thus India itself is the sufficient argument for missions in India. +Let any one visit this country, and study its religion, and see how it +enters into the very life of the people; how all social intercourse is +regulated by caste; how one feels at every instant the pressure of an +ancient and unchangeable religion, and ask how its iron rule is ever +to be broken? Who shall deliver them from the body of this death? +There is in Hindooism no power of self-cure. For ages it has remained +the same, and will remain for ages still. Help, if it come at all, +must come from without, and where else can it come from, but from +lands beyond the sea? + +Therefore it is that the Christian people of England and America come +to the people of India, not in a tone of self-righteousness, assuming +that we are better than they, but in the name of humanity, of the +brotherhood of the human race. We believe that "God hath made of one +blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth," and these +Hindoos, though living on the other side of the globe, are our +brothers. They are born into the same world; they belong to the same +human family, and have the same immortal destiny. To such a people, +capable of great things, but crushed and oppressed, we come to do +them good. We would break the terrible bondage of caste, and bring +forth woman out of the prison-house where she passes her lonely +existence. This involves a social as well as a religious revolution. +But what a sigh of relief would it bring to millions who, under their +present conditions, are all their lifetime subject to bondage. + +There is a saying in the East that in India the flowers yield no +perfume, the birds never sing, and the women never smile. Of course +this is an exaggeration, and yet it has a basis of truth. It is true +that the flowers of the tropics, though often of brilliant hues, do +not yield the rich perfume of the roses of our Northern clime; and +many of the birds whose golden plumage flashes sunlight in the deep +gloom of tropical forests, have only a piercing shriek, instead of the +soft, delicious notes of the robin and the dove; and the women have a +downcast look. Well may it be so. They lead a secluded and solitary +life. Shut up in their zenanas, away from society, they have no part +in many of the joys of human existence, though they have more than +their share of life's burdens and its woes. No wonder that their faces +should be sad and sorrowful. Thus the whole creation seems to groan +and travail in pain. + +Now we desire to dispel the darkness and the gloom of ages, and to +bring smiles and music and flowers once more into this stricken world. +Teaching a religion of love and good will to men, we would cure the +hatred of races, and bring all together in a common brotherhood. We +would so lift up the poor of this world, that sorrow and sighing shall +flee away, and that every lowly Indian hut shall be filled with the +light of a new existence. In that day will not nature share in the joy +of man's deliverance? Then will the birds begin to sing, as if they +were let loose from the gates of heaven to go flying through the +earth, and to fill our common air with the voice of melody. Then shall +smiles be seen once more on human faces; not the loud cackling of +empty laughter; but smiles breaking through tears (the reflection of +a peace that passeth understanding), shall spread like sunshine over +the sad faces of the daughters of Asia. + +But some "old Indian" who has listened politely, yet smiling and +incredulous, to this defence of missions, may answer, "All this is +very fine; no doubt it would be a good thing if the people of India +would change their religion; would cast off Hindooism, and adopt +Christianity. But is it not practically impossible? Do all the efforts +of missionaries really amount to anything." This is a fair question, +and I will try to give it a fair answer. + +"Do missionaries do any good?" Perhaps we can best answer the question +by drawing the picture of an Indian village, such as one may see at +thousands of points scattered over the country. It is a cluster of +huts, constructed sometimes with a light frame-work of bamboo, filled +in with matting, but more commonly of mud, with a roof of thatch to +prevent its being washed away in the rainy season. These huts are +separated from each other by narrow lanes that can hardly be dignified +with the name of streets. Yet in such a hamlet of hovels, hardly fit +for human habitation, may be a large population. Every doorway is +swarming with children. On the outskirts of the village is _the +missionary bungalow_, a large one-story house, also built of mud, but +neatly whitewashed and protected from the rains by a heavy thatched +roof, which projects over the walls, and shades the broad veranda. In +the "compound" are two other buildings of the same rude material and +simple architecture, a church and a schoolhouse. In the latter are +gathered every day ten, twenty, fifty--perhaps a hundred--children, +with bare feet and poor garments, though clean, but with bright eyes, +and who seem eager to learn. All day long comes from that low building +a buzz and hum as from a hive of bees. Every Sunday is gathered in the +little chapel a congregation chiefly of poor people, plainly but +neatly dressed, and who, as they sit there, reclaimed from +heathenism, seem to be "clothed and in their right minds." To the poor +the Gospel is preached, and never does it show its sweetness and +power, as when it comes down into such abodes of poverty, and gives to +these humble natives a new hope and a new life--a life of joy and +peace. Perhaps in the same compound is an orphanage, in which are +gathered the little castaways who have been deserted by their parents, +left by the roadside to die--or whose parents may have died by +cholera--and who are thus rescued from death, and given the chance +which belongs to every human creature of life and of happiness. + +Perhaps the missionary is a little of a physician, and has a small +chest of medicines, and the poor people come to him for cures of their +bodily ailments, as well as for their spiritual troubles. After awhile +he gains their confidence, and becomes, not by any appointment, but +simply by the right of goodness and the force of character, a sort of +unofficial magistrate, or head man of the village, a general +peacemaker and benefactor. Can any one estimate the influence of such +a man, with his gentle wife at his side, who is also active both in +teaching and in every form of charity? Who does not see that such a +missionary bungalow, with its school, its orphanage, and its church, +and its daily influences of teaching and of example, is a centre of +civilization, when planted in the heart of an Indian village? + +How extensive is this influence will of course depend on the many or +the few devoted to this work, and the wisdom and energy with which +they pursue it. The number of missionaries in India is very small +compared with the vast population. And yet the picture here drawn of +one village is reproduced in hundreds of villages. Take the +representatives of all the churches and societies of Protestant +Christendom, they would make a very respectable force. But even this +does not represent the full amount of influence they exert. Moral +influences cannot be weighed and measured like material forces. Nor +are missionaries to be counted, like the soldiers of an army. They are +not drawn up on parade, and do not march through the streets, with +gleaming bayonets. Their forces are scattered, and their work is +silent and unseen. + +But in all quiet ways, by churches, schools, and orphanages, their +influence is felt; while by the printing-press they scatter religious +truth all over India, the effect of which, in tens of thousands of +those whom it does not "convert," is to destroy the power of their old +idolatry. + +That more Hindoos do not openly embrace Christianity is not +surprising, when one considers the social influences which restrain +them. When a Hindoo becomes a Christian, he is literally an outcast. +His most intimate friends will not know him. His own family turn him +from their door, feeling that he has brought upon them a disgrace far +greater than if he had committed a crime for which he was to perish on +the scaffold. To them he is _dead_, and they perform his funeral rites +as if he were no more in this world. The pastor of the native church +in Bombay has thus been _buried_ or _burned_ by his own family. +Another told me that his own father turned from him in the street, and +refused to recognize him. These things are very hard to bear. And so +far from wondering that there are not more conversions among the +natives of India, I wonder that there are so many. + +But what sort of Christians are they? Are they like English or +American Christians? When I landed in India, and saw what a strange +people I was among, how unlike our own race, I asked a question which +many have asked before: Whether these people _could_ become +Christians? It is a favorite idea of many travellers--and of many +English residents in India--that not only is the number of conversions +small, but that the "converts" are not worth having when they are +made. It is said that it is only low caste natives, who have nothing +to lose, that will desert their old religion; and that they are +influenced only by the lowest motives, and that while they profess to +be converted, they are in no wise changed from what they were, except +that to their old heathen vices they have added that of hypocrisy. +Hearing these things, I have taken some pains to ascertain what sort +of people these native converts are. I have attended their religious +services, and have met them socially, and, so far as I could judge, I +have never seen more simple-minded Christians. Some of them are as +intelligent as the best instructed members of our New England +churches. As to their low caste, statistics show, among them, a +greater proportion of Brahmins than of any other caste, as might be +expected from their greater intelligence. + +The work, then, has not been in vain. The advance is slow, but it is +something that there _is_ an advance. I am told, as the result of a +careful estimate, that if the progress continues in the future as it +has for the last fifteen years, in two centuries the whole of India +with its two hundred millions of people, will be converted to the +Christian religion. This is a spread of Christianity more rapid than +that in the age of the apostles, for it was three centuries before the +faith which they preached became master of the Roman empire. + +With such a record of what Christian Missions have done in India, with +such evidences of their good influence and growing power, they are +entitled to honor and respect as one of the great elements in the +problem of the future of that country. To speak of them flippantly, +argues but small acquaintance with the historical forces which have +hitherto governed India or indeed Britain itself. It ill becomes +Englishmen to sneer at missions, for to missionaries they owe it that +their island has been reclaimed from barbarism. When Augustine landed +in Britain their ancestors were clothed in skins, and roaming in +forests. It was the new religion that softened their manners, refined +their lives, and in the lapse of generations wrought out the slow +process of civilization. + +In Johnson's "Tour to the Hebrides," he refers to the early +missionaries who civilized Britain in a passage which is one of the +most eloquent in English literature: "We were now treading that +illustrious island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian +regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the +benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion.... Far from me +and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us +indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by +wisdom, bravery or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose +patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose +piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." + +That power which has made England so great; which has made the English +race the foremost race in all this world; is now carried to another +hemisphere to work the same gradual elevation in the East. It is a +mighty undertaking. The lifting up of a race is like the lifting up of +a continent. Such changes cannot come suddenly; but in the slow lapse +of ages the continent may be found to have risen, and to be covered, +as it were, with a new floral vegetation; as that faith, which is the +life of Europe, has entered into the vast populations of Asia. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +BENARES, THE HOLY CITY. + + +We had begun to feel ourselves at home in India. A stranger takes root +quickly, as foreign plants take root in the soil, and spring up under +the sun and rain of the tropics. A traveller makes acquaintances that +ripen into friendship and bind him so fast that it is a real pain when +he has to break away and leave these new friends behind. Thus +Allahabad had become our Indian home. The missionary community was so +delightful, and everybody was so kind and hospitable, that we had come +to feel as if we were only in an outlying corner of America. The +missionary bungalow was like a parsonage in New England; and when we +left all, and the train rolled across the long bridge over the Jumna, +from which we saw Miss Seward and Miss Wilson standing on their +veranda, and waving us farewell, it seemed as if we were leaving home. + +But the holy city was before us. Some seventy miles from Allahabad +stands a city which, to the devout Hindoo, is the most sacred place on +earth--one which overtops all others, as the Himalayas overtop all +other mountains on the globe. There are holy shrines in different +countries, which are held sacred by the devotees of different +religions; but there are four chief holy cities--Rome, Jerusalem, +Mecca, and Benares. As the devout Catholic makes a pilgrimage to Rome, +to receive the blessing of the Holy Father; as the Jew traverses land +and sea, that his feet may stand within the gates of Jerusalem, where +he weeps at the place of wailing under the walls of the ancient +temple; as the caravan of the Arab still crosses the desert to Mecca; +so does the devout Hindoo come to Benares, and count it his supreme +joy if he can but see its domes and towers; and eternal felicity to +die on the banks of the sacred river. + +A couple of hours brought us to the Ganges, from which we had a full +view of the city on the other side of the river. If the first sight +did not awaken in us the same emotions as in the mind of the Hindoo, +the scene was picturesque enough to excite our admiration. The +appearance of Benares is very striking. For two miles it presents a +succession of palaces and temples which are built not only on, but +almost in, the river, as Venice is built in the sea; the huge +structures crowding each other on the bank, and flights of steps going +down into the water, as if they would receive the baptism of the +sacred river as it flowed gently by; as if the people listened fondly +to its murmurs, and when wakened in their dreams, were soothed to hear +its waters lapping the very stones of their palaces. + +We crossed the river on a bridge of boats, and drove out to the +English quarter, which is two or three miles distant, and here rested +an hour or two before we took a courier and plunged into the labyrinth +of the city, in which a stranger would soon be lost who should attempt +to explore it without a guide. Benares would be well worth a visit if +it were only for its Oriental character. It is peculiarly an Indian +city, with every feature of Asiatic and of Indian life strongly +marked. Its bazaars are as curious and as rich as any in Asia, with +shawls of cashmere, and silks wrought by fine needlework into every +article of costly array. It has also cunning workmen in precious +metals and precious stones--in gold and silver and diamonds. One +special industry is workmanship in brass. We brought away a number of +large trays, curiously wrought like shields. One contains a lesson in +Hindoo mythology for those who are able to read it, as on it are +traced all the incarnations of Vishnu. + +While thus rambling about the city, we had an opportunity to see +something of the marriage customs of the Hindoos, as we met in the +streets a number of wedding processions. The heavenly influences were +favorable to such unions. The Hindoos are great astrologers, and give +high importance to the conjunction of the stars, and do not marry +except when Jupiter is in the ascendant. Just now he rides high in the +heavens, and this is the favored time of love. The processions were +very curious. The bridegroom was mounted on horseback, tricked out in +the dress of a harlequin, with a crowd on horses and on foot, going +before and following after, waving flags, beating drums, and making +all manner of noises, to testify their joy; while the bride, who was +commonly a mere child, was borne in a palanquin, covered with ribbons +and trinkets and jewelry, looking, as she sat upright in her doll's +house, much more as if she were a piece of frosted cake being carried +to the wedding, than a living piece of flesh and blood that had any +part therein. Altogether the scene was more like a Punch-and-Judy +show, than any part of the serious business of life. Engagements are +often made when the parties are in childhood, or even in infancy; and +the marriage consummated at twelve. These child-marriages are a great +curse to the country, as they fill the land with their puny offspring, +that wither like weeds in the hot sun of India. It is a pity that they +could not be prohibited; that marriages could not be forbidden until +the parties had reached at least sixteen years of age. + +Another thing which greatly amused us was to see how the people made +way for us wherever we came. The streets are very narrow, and there is +not room for a jostling crowd. But their politeness stopped at no +obstacle. They meant to give us a free passage. They drew to one side, +making themselves very small, and even hugging the wall, to get out of +our way. We accepted this delicate attention as a mark of respect, +which we thought a touching proof of Oriental courtesy; and with the +modesty of our countrymen, regarded it as an homage to our greatness. +We were a little taken aback at being informed that, on the contrary, +it was to avoid pollution; that if they but touched the hem of our +garments, they would have had to run to the Ganges to wash away the +stain! + +But we need not make merry with these strict observances of the +people, for with them Religion is the great business of life, and it +is as the Mecca of their faith that Benares has such interest for the +intelligent traveller. No city in India, perhaps none in all Asia, +dates back its origin to a more remote antiquity. It is the very +cradle of history and of religion. Here Buddha preached his new faith +centuries before Christ was born in Judea--a faith which still sways a +larger part of mankind than any other, though it has lost its dominion +in the place where it began. Here Hindooism, once driven out, still +fought and conquered, and here it still has its seat, from which it +rules its vast and populous empire. + +It is always interesting to study a country or a religion in its +capital. As we go to Rome to see Romanism, we come to Benares to see +Hindooism, expecting to find it in its purest form. Whether that is +anything to boast of, we can tell better after we have seen a little +of this, its most holy city. Benares is full of temples and shrines. +Of course we could only visit a few of the more sacred. The first that +we entered was like a menagerie. It was called the Monkey Temple; and +rightly so, for the place was full of the little creatures. It fairly +swarmed with them. They were overhead and all around us, chattering as +if they were holding a council in the heart of a tropical forest. The +place was for all the world like the monkey-house in the Zoological +Gardens in London, or in our Central Park in New York, and would be an +amusing resort for children were it not regarded as a place for +religious worship. Perhaps some innocent traveller thinks this a +touching proof of the charming simplicity of the Hindoos, that they +wish to call on all animated nature to unite in devotion, and that +thus monkeys (speaking the language which monkeys understand) are +permitted to join with devout Hindoos in the worship of their common +Creator. But a glance shows the stranger that the monkeys are here, +not to worship, but to be worshipped. According to the Pantheism of +the Hindoos, all things are a part of God. Not only is he the author +of life, but he lives in his creatures, so that they partake of his +divinity; and therefore whatsoever thing liveth and moveth on the +earth--beast, or bird, or reptile--is a proper object of worship. + +But the monkeys were respectable compared with the hideous idol which +is enthroned in this place. In the court of the Temple is a shrine, a +Holy of Holies, where, as the gilded doors are swung open, one sees a +black divinity, with thick, sensual lips, that are red with blood, and +eyes that glare fiendishly. This is the goddess Doorgha, whose sacred +presence is guarded by Brahmin priests, so that no profane foot may +come near her. While they kept us back with holy horror from +approaching, they had no scruples about reaching out their hands to +receive our money. It is the habit of strangers to drop some small +coin in the outstretched palms. But I was too much disgusted to give +to the beggars. They were importunate, and said the Prince of Wales, +who was there a few days before, had given them a hundred rupees. +Perhaps he felt under a necessity of paying such a mark of respect to +the religion of the great Empire he was to rule. But ordinary +travellers are under no such obligation. The rascals trade in the +curiosity of strangers. It might be well if they did not find it such +a source of revenue. So I would not give them a penny; though I +confess to spending a few pice on nuts and "sweets" for the monkeys, +who are the only ones entitled to "tribute" from visitors; and then, +returning to the gharri, we rode disgusted away. In another part of +the city is the Golden Temple, devoted to the god Shiva, which +divides with that of the monkeys the homage of the Hindoos. Here are +no chattering apes, though the place is profaned with the presence of +beasts and birds. Some dozen cows were standing or lying down in the +court, making it seem more like a stable or a barnyard than a holy +place. Yet here was a fakir rapt in the ecstasies of devotion, with +one arm uplifted, rigid as a pillar of iron. He was looked upon with +awe by the faithful who crowded around him, and who rewarded his +sanctity by giving him money; but to our profane eyes he was a figure +of pride (though disguised under the pretence of spirituality), as +palpable to the sight as the peacock who spread his tail and strutted +about in the filthy enclosure. + +But perhaps the reader will think that we have had enough of this, and +will gladly turn to a less revolting form of superstition. The great +sight of Benares is the bathing in the Ganges. This takes place in the +morning. We rose early the next day, and drove down to the river, and +getting a boat, were rowed slowly for hours up and down the stream. It +is lined with temples and palaces, which descend to the water by +flights of steps, or _ghauts_, which at this hour are thronged with +devout Hindoos. By hundreds and thousands they come down to the +river's brink, men, women, and children, and wade in, not swimming, +but standing in the water, plunging their heads and mumbling their +prayers, and performing their libations, by taking the water in their +hands, and casting it towards the points of the compass, as an act of +worship to the celestial powers, especially to the sun. + +As the boatmen rested on their oars, that we might observe the strange +scene, C---- started with horror to see a corpse in the water. It was +already half decayed, and obscene birds were fluttering over it. But +this is too common a sight in Benares to raise any emotion in the +breast of the Hindoo, whose prayer is that he may die on the banks of +the Ganges. Does his body drift down with the stream, or become food +for the fowls of the air, his soul floats to its final rest in the +Deity, as surely as the Ganges rolls onward to the sea. + +But look! here is another scene. We are approaching the Burning Ghaut, +and I see piles of wood, and human bodies, and smoke and flame. I bade +the boatmen draw to the shore, that we might have a clearer view of +this strange sight. Walking along the bank, we came close to the +funeral piles. Several were waiting to be lighted. When all is ready, +the nearest male relative walks round and round the pile, and then +applies to it a lighted withe of straw. Here was a body just dressed +for the last rites. It was wrapped in coarse garments, perhaps all +that affection could give. Beside it stood a woman, watching it with +eager eyes, lest any rude hand should touch the form which, though +dead, was still beloved. I looked with pity into her sad, sorrowful +face. What a tale of affection was there!--of love for the life that +was ended, and the form that was cherished, that was soon to be but +ashes, and to float away upon the bosom of the sacred river. + +Another pile was already lighted, and burning fiercely. I stood close +to it, till driven away by the heat and smoke. As the flames closed +round the form, portions of the body were exposed. Now the hair was +consumed in a flash, leaving the bare skull; now the feet showed from +the other end of the pile. It was a ghastly sight. Now a horrid smell +filled the air, and still the pile glowed like a furnace, crackling +with the intense heat, and shot out tongues of flame that seemed eager +to lick up every drop of blood. + +In this disposal of the dead there is nothing to soothe the mourner +like a Christian burial, when the body is committed to the earth, +ashes to ashes, dust to dust, when a beloved form is laid down under +the green turf gently, as on a mother's breast. + +The spectacle of this morning, with the similar one at Allahabad, have +set me a-thinking. I ask, What idea do the Hindoos attach to bathing +in the Ganges? Is it purification or expiation, or both? Is it the +putting away of sin by the washing of water; the cleansing of the body +for the sins of the soul? Or is there in it some idea of atonement? +What is the fascination of this religious observance? Perhaps no +stranger can fully understand it, or enter into the feeling with which +the devout Hindoo regards the sacred river. The problem grows the more +we study it. However we approach the great river of India, we find a +wealth of associations gathering around it such as belongs to no other +river on the face of the earth. No other is so intimately connected +with the history and the whole life of a people. Other rivers have +poetical or patriotic associations. The ancient Romans kept watch on +the Tiber, as the modern Germans keep watch on the Rhine. But these +are associations of country and of patriotic pride--not of life, not +of existence, not of religion. In these respects the only river in the +world which approaches the Ganges is the Nile, which, coming down from +the Highlands of Central Africa, floods the long valley, which it has +itself made in the desert, turning the very sands into fertility, and +thus becoming the creator and life-giver of Egypt. + +What the Nile is to Egypt, the Ganges is to a part of India, giving +life and verdure to plains that but for it were a desert. As it bursts +through the gates of the Himalayas, and sweeps along with resistless +current, cooling with its icy breath the hot plains of India, and +giving fertility to the rice fields of Bengal, it may well seem to the +Hindoo the greatest visible emblem of Almighty power and Infinite +beneficence. + +But it is more than an emblem. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the +Nile as a god, and in this they had the same feeling which now exists +among the Hindoos in regard to the Ganges. It is not only a sacred +river because of its associations; it is itself Divine, flowing, like +the River of Life in the Book of Revelation, out of the throne of God. +It descends out of heaven, rising in mountains whose tops touch the +clouds--the sacred mountains which form the Hindoo Kylas, or Heaven, +the abode of the Hindoo Trinity--of Brahma and Shiva and Vishnu. +Rushing from under a glacier in the region of everlasting snow, it +seems as if it gushed from the very heart of the Dweller on that holy +mount; as if that flowing stream were the life-blood of the Creator. +When the Hindoo has seized this idea, it takes strong hold of his +imagination. As he stands on the banks of the Ganges at night, and +sees its broad current quivering under the rays of the full moon, it +seems indeed as if it were the clear stream flowing through the calm +breast of God himself, bearing life from Him to give life to the +world. Hence in his creed it has all the virtue and the "divine power +that belongs in the Christian system to the blood of Christ. It makes +atonement for sins that are past." "He that but looks on the Ganges," +says the Hindoo proverb, "or that drinks of it, washes away the stains +of a hundred births; but he that bathes in it washes away the stains +of a thousand births." This is a virtue beyond that of the Nile, or +the rivers of Damascus, or of the Jordan, or even of + + Siloa's brook + That flowed fast by the oracle of God. + +It is a virtue which can be found alone in that blood which "cleanseth +from all sin." + +The spectacle of such superstition produced a strong revulsion of +feeling, and made me turn away from these waters that cannot cleanse +the guilty soul, nor save the dying, to the Mighty Sufferer, whose +blood was shed for the sins of the world, and I seemed to hear voices +in far-off Christian lands singing: + + E'er since by faith I saw the stream + Thy flowing wounds supply, + Redeeming love has been my theme, + And shall be till I die. + +But I do not sit in judgment on the Hindoos, nor include a whole +people in one general condemnation. Some of them are as noble +specimens of humanity, with as much "natural goodness" as can be found +anywhere; and are even religious in their way, and in zeal and +devotion an example to their Christian neighbors. Of this, a very +striking instance can be given here. + +On the other side of the Ganges lives a grand old Hindoo, the +Maharajah of Benares, and as he is famed for his hospitality to +strangers, we sent him a letter by a messenger (being assured that +that was the proper thing to do), saying that we should be happy to +pay our respects to my lord in his castle; and in a few hours received +a reply that his carriage should be sent to our hotel for us the next +morning, and that his boat would convey us across the river. We did +not wait for the carriage, as we were in haste to depart for Calcutta +the same forenoon, but rode down in our own gharri to the river side, +where we found the boat awaiting us. On the other bank stood a couple +of elephants of extraordinary size, that knelt down and took us on +their broad backs, and rolled off at a swinging pace to a pleasant +retreat of the Maharajah a mile or two from the river, where he had a +temple of his own, situated in the midst of beautiful gardens. + +On our return we were marched into the courtyard of the castle, where +the attendants received us, and escorted us within. The Maharajah did +not make his appearance, as it was still early, but his secretary +presented himself to do the honors, giving his master's respects with +his photograph, and showing us every possible courtesy. We were shown +through the rooms of state, where the Prince of Wales had been +received a few weeks before. The view from the terrace on the river +side is enchanting. It is directly on the water, and commands a view +up and down the Ganges for miles, while across the smooth expanse rise +the temples and palaces of the Holy City. What a place for a Brahmin +to live or to die! + +This Maharajah of Benares is well known all over India. He is a member +of the Viceroy's Council at Calcutta, and held in universal respect by +the English community. Sir William Muir, who is one of the most +pronounced Christian men in India, whom some would even call a Puritan +for his strictness, told me that the Maharajah was one of the best of +men. And yet he is of the straitest sect of the Hindoos, who bathes in +the Ganges every morning, and "does his pooja." In all religious +observances he is most exemplary, often spending hours in prayer. The +secretary, in excusing his master's absence, said that he had been up +nearly all night engaged in his devotions. How this earnest faith in a +religion so vile can consist with a life so pure and so good, is one +of the mysteries of this Asiatic world which I leave to those wiser +than I am to explain. + +We had lingered so long that it was near the hour of our departure for +Calcutta, and we were three miles up the river. The secretary +accompanied us to the boat of the Maharajah, which was waiting for us, +and bade us farewell, with many kind wishes that we might have a +prosperous journey. Lying against the bank was the gilded barge in +which the Maharajah had received and escorted the Prince of Wales. +Waving our adieu, we gave the signal, and the boatmen pushed off into +the stream. It was now a race against time. We had a long stretch to +make in a very few minutes. I offered the men a reward if they should +reach the place in time. The stalwart rowers bent to their oars, their +swarthy limbs making swift strokes, and the boat shot like an arrow +down the stream. I stood up in the eagerness and excitement of the +chase, taking a last look at the sacred temples as we shot swiftly by. +It wanted but two or three minutes of the hour as our little pinnace +struck against the goal by the bridge of boats, and throwing the +rupees to the boatmen, we hurried up the bank, and had just time to +get fairly bestowed in the roomy first-class carriage, which we had +all to ourselves, when the train started for Calcutta, and the towers +and domes and minarets of the holy city of India faded from our sight. + +Thinking! Still thinking! What does it all mean? Who can understand +Hindooism--where it begins and where it ends? It is like the fabled +tree that had its roots down in the Kingdom of Death, and spread its +branches over the world. Behind it, or beneath it, is a deep +philosophy, which goes down to the very beginnings of existence, and +touches the most vital problems of life and death, of endless dying +and living. Out of millions of ages, after a million births, following +each other in long succession, at last man is cast upon the earth, but +only as a bird of passage, darting swiftly through life, and then, in +an endless transmigration of souls, passing through other stages of +being, till he is absorbed in the Eternal All. Thus does man find his +way at last back to God, as the drop of water, caught up by the sun, +lifted into the cloud, descends in the rain, trickles in streams down +the mountain side, and finds its way back to the ocean. So does the +human soul complete the endless cycle of existence, coming from God +and returning to God, to be swallowed up and lost in that Boundless +Sea. + +Much might be said, by way of argument, in support of this pantheistic +philosophy. But whatever may be urged in favor of Hindooism in the +abstract, its practical results are terrible. By a logic as close and +irresistible as it is fatal, it takes away the foundation of all +morality, and strikes down all goodness and virtue--all that is the +glory of man, and all that is the beauty of woman. It is nothing to +the purpose to quote the example of such a man as the Maharajah of +Benares, for there is a strange alchemy in virtue, by which a pure +nature, a high intelligence, and right moral instincts, will convert +even the most pernicious doctrines to the purpose of a spiritual life. +But with the mass of Hindoos it is only a system of abject +superstition and terror. As we rolled along the banks of the Ganges, +I thought what tales that stream could tell. Could we but listen in +the dead of night, what sounds we might hear! Hush! hark! There is a +footstep on the shore. The rushes on the bank are parted, and a Hindoo +mother comes to the water's edge. Look! she holds a child in her arms. +She starts back, and with a shriek casts it to the river monsters. +Such scenes are not frequent now, because the government has repressed +them by law, though infanticide is fearfully common in other ways. But +even yet in secret--"darkly at dead of night"--does fanaticism +sometimes pay its offering to the river which is worshipped as a god. +This is what Hindooism does for the mother and for her child. Thus it +wrongs at once childhood and motherhood and womanhood. Who that thinks +of such scenes can but pray that a better faith may be given to the +women of India, that the mother may no longer look with anguish into +the face of her own child, as one doomed to destruction, but like any +Christian mother, clasp her baby to her breast, thanking God who has +given it to her, and bidden her keep it, and train it up for life, for +virtue and for happiness. + +But is there any hope of seeing Hindooism destroyed? I fear not very +soon. When I think how many ages it has stood, and what mighty forces +it has resisted, the task seems almost hopeless. For centuries it +fought with Buddhism for the conquest of India, and remained master of +the field. Then came Mohammedanism in the days of the Mogul Empire. It +gained a foothold, and reared its mosques even in the Holy City of the +Hindoos. To this day the most splendid structure in Benares is the +great Mosque of Aurungzebe. As I climbed its tall minaret, and looked +over the city, I saw here and there the gilded domes and slender +spires that mark the temples of Islam. But these fierce iconoclasts, +who set out from Arabia to break the idols in pieces, could not +destroy them here. The fanatical Aurungzebe could build his mosque, +with its minaret so lofty as to overtop all the temples of Paganism; +but he could not convert the idolaters. With such tenacity did they +cling to their faith, that even the religion of the Prophet could make +little impression, though armed with all the power of the sword. + +And now come modern civilization and Christianity. The work of +"tearing down" is not left to Missions alone. There is in India a +vast system of National Education. In Benares there is an University +whose stately halls would not look out of place among the piles of +Oxford. In the teaching there is a rigid--I had almost said a +religious--abstinence from religion. But science is taught, and +science confutes the Hindoo cosmogony. When it is written in the +Puranas that the world rests on the back of an elephant, and that the +elephant stands on the back of a tortoise, and the tortoise on the +back of the great serpent Naga, it needs but a very little learning to +convince the young Hindoo that his sacred books are a mass of fables. +But this does not make him a Christian. It lands him in infidelity, +and leaves him there. And this is the state of the educated mind of +India, of what is sometimes designated as Young India, or Young +Bengal. Here they stand--deep in the mire of unbelief, as if they had +tried to plant their feet on the low-lying Delta of the Ganges, and +found it sink beneath them, with danger of being buried in Gangetic +ooze and slime. But even this is better than calling to gods that +cannot help them; for at least it may give them a sense of their +weakness and danger. It may be that the educated mind of India has to +go through this stage of infidelity before it can come into the light +of a clearer faith. At present they believe nothing, yet conform to +Hindoo customs for social reasons, for fear of losing caste. This is +all-powerful. It is hard for men to break away from it in detail. But +once that a breach is made in their ranks, the same social tyranny may +carry them over _en masse_, so that a nation shall be born in a day. +At present the work that is going on is that of sapping and mining, +of boring holes into the foundation of Hindooism; and this is done as +industriously, and perhaps as effectively, by Government schools and +colleges as by Missions. + +At Benares we observed, in sailing up and down the Ganges, that the +river had undermined a number of temples built upon its banks, and +that they had fallen with their huge columns and massive architecture, +and were lying in broken and shapeless masses, half covered by the +water. What a spectacle of ruin and decay in the Holy City of the +Hindoos! This is a fit illustration of the process which has been +going on for the last half century in regard to Hindooism. The waters +are washing it away, and by and by the whole colossal fabric, built up +in ages of ignorance and superstition, will come crashing to the +earth. Hindooism will fall, and great will be the fall of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CALCUTTA-FAREWELL TO INDIA. + + +It is a good rule in travelling, as in rhetoric, to keep the best to +the last, and wind up with a climax. But it would be hard to find a +climax in India after seeing the old Mogul capitals, whose palaces and +tombs outshine the Alhambra; after climbing the Himalayas, and making +a pilgrimage to the holy city. And yet one feels a _crescendo_ of +interest in approaching the capital. India has three capitals--Delhi, +where once reigned the Great Mogul, and which is still the centre of +the Mohammedan faith; Benares, the Mecca of the Hindoos; and Calcutta, +the capital of the modern British Empire. The two former we have seen; +it is the last which is now before us. + +Our route was southeast, along the valley of the Ganges, and through +the province of Bengal. What is the magic of a name? From childhood +the most vivid association I had with this part of India, was that of +Bengal tigers, which were the wonder of every menagerie; and it was +not strange if we almost expected to see them crouching in the forest, +or gliding away in the long grass of the jungle. But Bengal has other +attractions to one who rides over it. This single province of India is +five times as large as the State of New York. It is a vast alluvial +plain, through which the Ganges pours by a hundred mouths to the sea, +its overflow giving to the soil a richness and fertility like that of +the valley of the Nile, so that it supports a population equal to that +of the whole of the United States. The cultivated fields that we pass +show the natural wealth of the country, as the frequent towns show the +density of the population. Of these the largest is Patna, the centre +of the opium culture. But we did not stop anywhere, for the way was +long. From Benares to Calcutta is over four hundred miles, or about as +far as from New York city to Niagara Falls. We started at eleven +o'clock, and kept steadily travelling all day. Night fell, and the +moon rose over the plains and the palm groves, and still we fled on +and on, as if pursued by the storm spirits of the Hindoo Kylas, till +the morning broke, and found us on the banks of a great river filled +with shipping, and opposite to a great city. This was the Hoogly, one +of the mouths of the Ganges, and there was Calcutta! A carriage +whirled us swiftly across the bridge, and up to the Great Eastern +Hotel, where we were glad to rest, after travelling three thousand +miles in India, and to exchange even the most luxurious railway +carriage for beds and baths, and the comforts of civilization. The +hotel stands opposite the Government House, the residence of the +Viceroy of India, and supplies everything necessary to the dignity of +a "burra Sahib." Soft-footed Hindoos glided silently about, watching +our every motion, and profoundly anxious for the honor of being our +servants. A stalwart native slept on the mat before my door, and +attended on my going out and my coming in, as if I had been a grand +dignitary of the Empire. + +Calcutta bears a proud name in the East--that of the City of +Palaces--from which a traveller is apt to experience a feeling of +disappointment. And yet the English portion of the city is +sufficiently grand to make it worthy to rank with the second class of +European capitals. The Government House, from its very size, has a +massive and stately appearance, and the other public buildings are of +corresponding proportions. The principal street, called the +Chowringhee road, is lined for two miles with the handsome houses of +government officials or wealthy English residents. But the beauty of +Calcutta is the grand esplanade, called the Maidan--an open space as +large as our Central Park in New York; beginning at the Government +House, and reaching to Fort William, and beyond it; stretching for two +or three miles along the river, and a mile back from it to the +mansions of the Chowringhee Road. This is an immense parade-ground for +military and other displays. Here and there are statues of men who +have distinguished themselves in the history of British India. +Tropical plants and trees give to the landscape their rich masses of +color and of shade, while under them and around them is spread that +carpet of green so dear to the eyes of an Englishman in any part of +the world--a wide sweep of soft and smooth English turf. Here at +sunset one may witness a scene nowhere equalled except in the great +capitals of Europe. In the middle of the day the place is deserted, +except by natives, whom, being "children of the sun," he does not +"smite by day," though the moon may smite them by night. The English +residents are shut closely within doors, where they seek, by the +waving of punkas, and by admitting the air only through mats dripping +with water, to mitigate the terrible heat. But as the sun declines, +and the palms begin to cast their shadows across the plain, and a cool +breeze comes in from the sea, the whole English world pours forth. The +carriage of the Viceroy rolls out from under the arches of the +Government House, and the other officials are abroad. A stranger is +surprised at the number of dashing equipages, with postilions and +servants in liveries, furnished by this foreign city. These are not +all English. Native princes and wealthy baboos vie with Englishmen in +the bravery of their equipages, and give to the scene a touch of +Oriental splendor. Officers on horseback dash by, accompanied often by +fair English faces; while the band from Fort William plays the martial +airs of England. It is indeed a brilliant spectacle, which, but for +the turbans and the swarthy faces under them, would make the traveller +imagine himself in Hyde Park. + +From this single picture it is easy to see why Calcutta is to an +Englishman the most attractive place of residence in India, or in all +the East. It is more like London. It is a great capital--the capital +of the Indian Empire; the seat of government; the residence of the +Viceroy, around whom is assembled a kind of viceregal court, composed +of all the high officials, both civil and military. There is an Army +and Navy Club, where one may meet many old soldiers who have seen +service in the Indian wars, or who hold high appointments in the +present force. The assemblage of such a number of notable men makes a +large and brilliant English society. + +Nor is it confined to army officers or government officials. Connected +with the different colleges are men who are distinguished Oriental +scholars. Then there is a Bishop of Calcutta, who is the Primate of +India, with his clergy, and English and American missionaries, who +make altogether a very miscellaneous society.[8] Here Macaulay lived +for three years as a member of the Governor's Council, and was the +centre of a society which, if it lacked other attractions, must have +found a constant stimulus in his marvellous conversation. + +And yet with all these attractions of Calcutta, English residents +still pine for England. One can hardly converse with an English +officer, without finding that it is his dream to get through with his +term of service as soon as he may, and return to spend the rest of his +days in his dear native island. Even Macaulay--with all the resources +that he had in himself, with all that he found Anglo-Indian society, +and all that he made it--regarded life in India as only a splendid +exile. + +The climate is a terrible drawback. Think of a country, where in the +hot season the mercury rises to 117-120 deg. in the shade; while if the +thermometer be exposed to the sun, it quickly mounts to 150, 160, or +even 170 deg.!--a heat to which no European can be exposed for half an +hour without danger of sunstroke. Such is the heat that it drives the +government out of Calcutta for half the year. For six months the +Viceroy and his staff emigrate, bag and baggage, going up the country +twelve hundred miles to Simla, on the first range of the Himalayas, +which is about as if the President of the United States and his +Cabinet should leave Washington on the first of May, and transfer the +seat of government to some high point in the Rocky Mountains. + +But the climate is not the only, nor the chief, drawback to life in +India. It is the absence from home, from one's country and people, +which makes it seem indeed like exile. Make the best of it, Calcutta +is not London. What a man like Macaulay misses, is not the English +climate, with its rains and fogs, but the intellectual life, which +centres in the British capital. It was this which made him write to +his sister that "A lodgings up three pairs of stairs in London was +better than a palace in a compound at Chowringhee." I confess I cannot +understand how any man, who has a respectable position in his own +country, should choose Calcutta, or any other part of India, as a +place of residence, except for a time; as a merchant goes abroad for a +few years, in the hope of such gain as shall enable him to return and +live in independence in England or America; or as a soldier goes to a +post of duty ("Not his to ask the reason why"); or as a missionary, +with the purely benevolent desire of doing good, for which he accepts +this voluntary exile. + +But if a man has grown, by any mental or moral process, to the idea +that life is not given him merely for enjoyment; that its chief end is +not to make himself comfortable--to sit at home in England, and hear +the storm roar around the British Islands, and thank God that he is +safe, though all the rest of the world should perish; if he but once +recognize the fact that he has duties, not only to himself, but to +mankind; then for such a man there is not on the round globe a broader +or nobler field of labor than India. For an English statesman, however +great his talents or boundless his ambition, one cannot conceive of a +higher place on the earth than that of the Viceroy of India. He is a +ruler over more than two hundred millions of human beings, to whose +welfare he may contribute by a wise and just administration. What +immeasurable good may be wrought by a Governor-General like Lord +William Bentinck, of whom it was said that "he was William Penn on the +throne of the Great Mogul." A share in this beneficent rule belongs to +every Englishman who holds a place in the government of India. He is +in a position of power, and therefore of responsibility. To such men +is entrusted the protection, the safety, the comfort, and the +happiness of multitudes of their fellow-men, to whom they are bound, +if not by national ties, yet by the ties of a common humanity. + +And for those who have no official position, who have neither place +nor power, but who have intelligence and a desire to do good on a wide +scale, India offers a field as broad as their ambition, where, either +as moral or intellectual instructors, as professors of science or +teachers of religion, they may contribute to the welfare of a great +people. India is a country where, more than in almost any other in the +world, European civilization comes in contact with Asiatic barbarism. +Its geographical position illustrates its moral and intellectual +position. It is a peninsula stretched out from the lower part of Asia +into the Indian Ocean, and great seas dash against it on one side and +on the other. So, intellectually and morally, is it placed "where two +seas meet," where modern science attacks Hindooism on one side, and +Christianity attacks it on the other. + +In this conflict English intelligence has already done much for the +intellectual emancipation of the people from childish ignorance and +folly. In Calcutta there are a number of English schools and colleges, +which are thronged with young Bengalees, the flower of the city and +the province, who are instructed in the principles of modern science +and philosophy. The effect on the mind of Young Bengal has been very +great. An English education has accomplished all that was expected +from it, _except_ the overthrow of idolatry, and here it has +conspicuously failed. + +When Macaulay was in India, he devoted much of his time to perfecting +the system of National Education, from which he expected the greatest +results; which he believed would not only fill the ignorant and vacant +minds of the Hindoos with the knowledge of modern science, but would +uproot the old idolatry. In the recently published volumes of his +letters is one to his father, dated Calcutta, Oct. 12, 1836, in which +he says: + + "Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully. We find it + difficult--in some places impossible--to provide instruction + for all who want it. At the single town of Hoogly 1400 boys + are learning English. The effect of this education on the + Hindoos is prodigious. No Hindoo who has received an English + education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. + Some continue to profess it as a matter of policy; but many + profess themselves pure Deists, and some embrace + Christianity. It is my firm belief that, if our plans of + education are followed up, there will not be a single + idolater among the reputable classes in Bengal thirty years + hence. And this will be effected without any efforts to + proselytize; without the smallest interference with + religious liberty; merely by the natural operation of + knowledge and reflection." + +These sanguine expectations have been utterly disappointed. Since that +letter was written, forty years have passed, and every year has turned +out great numbers of educated young men, instructed in all the +principles of modern science; and yet the hold of Hindooism seems as +strong as ever. I find it here in the capital, as well as in the +provinces, and I do not find that it is any better by coming in +contact with modern civilization. Nothing at Benares was more +repulsive and disgusting than what one sees here. The deity most +worshipped in Calcutta is the goddess Kali, who indeed gives name to +the city, which is Anglicized from Kali-ghat. She delights in blood, +and is propitiated only by constant sacrifices. As one takes his +morning drive along the streets leading to her shrine, he sees them +filled with young goats, who are driven to the sacred enclosure, which +is like a butcher's shambles, so constantly are the heads dropping on +the pavement, which is kept wet with blood. She is the patron of +thieves and robbers, the one to whom the Thugs always made offerings, +in setting out on their expeditions for murder. No doubt the young men +educated in the English colleges despise this horrid worship. Yet in +their indifference to all religion, they think it better to keep up an +outward show of conformity, to retain the respect, or at least the +good will, of their Hindoo countrymen, among whom it is the very first +condition of any social recognition whatever, that they shall not +break away from the religion of their ancestors. + +How then are they to be reached? The Christian schools educate the +very young; and the orphanages take neglected children and train them +from the beginning. But for young men who are already educated in the +government colleges, is there any way of reaching _them_? None, except +that of open, direct, manly argument. Several years since President +Seelye of Amherst College visited India, and here addressed the +educated Hindoos, both in Calcutta and Bombay, on the claims of the +Christian religion. He was received with perfect courtesy. Large +audiences assembled to hear him, and listened with the utmost respect. +What impression he produced, I cannot say; but it seems to me that +this is "the way to do it," or at least one way, and a way which gives +good hope of success. + +In fighting this battle against idolatry, I think we should welcome +aid from any quarter, whether it be evangelical or not. While in +Calcutta, I paid a visit to Keshoob Chunder Sen, whose name is well +known in England from a visit which he made some years ago, as the +leader of the Brahmo Somaj. I found him surrounded by his pupils, to +whom he was giving instruction. He at once interrupted his teaching +for the pleasure of a conversation, to which all listened apparently +with great interest. He is in his creed an Unitarian, so far as he +adopts the Christian faith. He recognizes the unity of God, and gives +supreme importance to _prayer_. The interview impressed me both with +his ability and his sincerity. I cannot agree with some of my +missionary friends who look upon him with suspicion, because he does +not go far enough. On the contrary, I think it a matter of +congratulation that he has come as far as he has, and I should be glad +if he could get Young Bengal to follow him. But I do not think the +Brahmo Somaj has made great progress. It has scattered adherents in +different parts of India, but the whole number of followers is small +compared with the masses that cling to their idols. He frankly +confessed that the struggle was very unequal, that the power of the +old idolatry was tremendous, and especially that the despotism of +caste was terrific. To break away from it, required a degree of moral +courage that was very rare. The great obstacle to its overthrow was a +social one, and grew out of the extreme anxiety of Hindoo parents for +the marriage of their children. If they once broke away from caste, it +was all over with them. They were literally outcasts. Nobody would +speak to them, and they and their children were delivered over to one +common curse. This social ostracism impending over them, is a terror +which even educated Hindoos dare not face. And so they conform +outwardly, while they despise inwardly. Hence, Keshoob Chunder Sen +deserves all honor for the stand he has taken, and ought to receive +the cordial support of the English and Christian community. + +What I have seen in Calcutta and elsewhere satisfies me that in all +wise plans for the regeneration of India, Christian missions must be a +necessary part. One cannot remember but with a feeling of shame, how +slow was England to receive missionaries into her Indian Empire. The +first attempt of the English Church to send a few men to India was met +with an outcry of disapprobation. Sydney Smith hoped the Government +would send the missionaries home. When Carey first landed on these +shores, he could not stay in British territory, but had to take refuge +at Serampore, a Danish settlement a few miles from Calcutta, where he +wrought a work which makes that a place of pilgrimage to every +Christian traveller in India. We spent a day there, going over the +field of his labor. He is dead, but his work survives. There he opened +schools and founded a college, the first of its kind in India (unless +it were the government college of Fort William in Calcutta, in which +he was also a professor), and which led the way for the establishment +of that magnificent system of National Education which is now the +glory of India. + +What Carey was in his day, Dr. Duff in Calcutta and Dr. Wilson in +Bombay were a generation later, vigorous advocates of education as an +indispensable means to quicken the torpid mind of India. They were the +trusted advisers and counsellors of the government in organizing the +present system of National Education. This is but one of many benefits +for which this country has to thank missionaries. And if ever India is +to be so renovated as to enter into the family of civilized and +Christian nations, it will be largely by their labors. One thing is +certain, that mere education will not convert the Hindoo. The +experiment has been tried and failed. Some other and more powerful +means must be taken to quicken the conscience of a nation deadened by +ages of false religion--a religion utterly fatal to spiritual life. +That such a change may come speedily, is devoutly to be wished. No +intelligent traveller can visit India, and spend here two months, +without feeling the deepest interest in the country and its people. +Our interest grew with every week of our stay, and was strongest as we +were about to leave. + +The last night that we were in Calcutta, it was my privilege to +address the students at one of the Scotch colleges. The hall was +crowded, and I have seldom, if ever, spoken to a finer body of young +men. These young Bengalees had many of them heads of an almost +classical beauty; and with their grace of person heightened by their +flowing white robes, they presented a beautiful array of young +scholars, such as might delight the eyes of any instructor who should +have to teach them "Divine philosophy." My heart "went out" to them +very warmly, and as that was my last impression of India, I left it +with a very different feeling from that with which I entered it--with +a degree of respect for its people, and of interest in them, which I +humbly conceive is the very first condition of doing them any good. + +It was Sunday evening: the ship on which we were to embark for Burmah +was to sail at daybreak, and it was necessary to go on board at once. +So hardly had we returned from our evening service, before we drove +down to the river. The steamer lay off in the stream, the tide was +out, and even the native boats could not come up to where we could +step on board. But the inevitable coolies were there, their long naked +legs sinking in the mud, who took us on their brawny backs, and +carried us to the boats, and in this dignified manner we took our +departure from India. + +The next morning, as we went on deck, the steamer was dropping down +the river. The guns of Fort William were firing a salute; at Garden +Reach we passed the palace of the King of Oude, where this deposed +Indian sovereign still keeps his royal state among his serpents and +his tigers. We were all day long steaming down the Hoogly. The country +is very flat; there is nothing to break the monotony of its swamps and +jungles, its villages of mud standing amid rice fields and palm +groves. As we approach the sea the river divides into many channels, +like the lagoons of Venice. All around are low lying islands, which +now and then are swept by terrible cyclones that come up from the Bay +of Bengal. At present their shores are overgrown with jungles, the +home of wild beasts, of serpents, and crocodiles, of all slimy and +deadly things, the monsters of the land and sea. Through a net-work of +such lagoons, we glide out into the deep; slowly the receding shores +sink till they are submerged, as if they were drowned; we have left +India behind, and all around is only a watery horizon. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] There are not many Americans in Calcutta, and as they are few, we +are the more concerned that they should be respectable, and not +dishonor our national character. Sometimes I am told we have had +representatives of whom we had no reason to be proud. We are now most +fortunate in our Consul, General Litchfield, a gentleman of excellent +character, who is very obliging to his countrymen, and commands in a +high degree the respect of the English community. There is here also +an American pastor, Dr. Thorburn, who is very popular, and whose +people are building him a new church while he is absent on a visit to +his own country; and what attracts a stranger still more, an excellent +family of American ladies, engaged in the Zenana Mission, which is +designed to reach Hindoo women, who, as they live in strict seclusion, +can never hear of Christianity except through those of their own sex. +This hospitable "Home" was made ours for a part of the time that we +were in Calcutta, for which, and for all the kindness of these +excellent ladies, we hold it in grateful remembrance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +BURMAH, OR FARTHER INDIA. + + +In America we speak of the Far West, which is an undefined region, +constantly receding in the distance. So in Asia there is a Far and +Farther East, ever coming a little nearer to the rising sun. When we +have done with India, there is still a Farther India to be "seen and +conquered." On the other side of the Bay of Bengal is a country, +which, though called India, and under the East Indian Government, is +not India. The very face of nature is different. It is a country not +of vast plains, but of mountains and valleys, and springs that run +among the hills; a country with another people than India, another +language, and another religion. Looking upon the map of Asia, one sees +at its southeastern extremity a long peninsula, reaching almost to the +equator, with a central range of mountains, an Alpine chain, which +runs through its whole length, as the Apennines run through Italy. +This is the Malayan peninsula, on one side of which is Burmah, and on +the other, Siam, the land of the White Elephant. + +Such was the "undiscovered country" before us, as we went on deck of +the good ship Malda, four days out from Calcutta, and found her +entering the mouth of a river which once bore the proud name of the +River of Gold, and was said to flow through a land of gold. These +fabled riches have disappeared, but the majestic river still flows on, +broad-bosomed like the Nile, and which of itself might make the riches +of a country, as the Nile makes the riches of Egypt. This is the +mighty Irrawaddy, one of the great rivers of Eastern Asia; which takes +its rise in the western part of Thibet, not far from the head waters +of the Indus, and runs along the northern slopes of the Himalayas, +till it turns south, and winding its way through the passes of the +lofty mountains, debouches into Lower Burmah, where it divides into +two large branches like the Nile, making a Delta of ten thousand +square miles--larger than the Delta of Egypt--whose inexhaustible +fertility, yielding enormous rice harvests, has more than once +relieved a famine in Bengal. + +On the Irrawaddy, twenty-five miles from the sea, stands Rangoon, the +capital of British Burmah, a city of nearly a hundred thousand +inhabitants. As we approach it, the most conspicuous object is the +Great Pagoda, the largest in the world, which is a signal that we are +not only in a new country, but one that has a new religion--not +Brahmin, but Buddhist--whose towering pagodas, with their gilded +roofs, take the place of Hindoo temples and Mohammedan mosques. +Rangoon boasts a great antiquity; it is said to have been founded in +the sixth century before Christ, but its new masters, the English, +with their spirit of improvement, have given it quite a modern +appearance. Large steamers in the river and warehouses along its bank, +show that the spirit of modern enterprise has invaded even this +distant part of Asia. + +Burmah is a country with a history, dating back far into the past. It +was once the seat of a great empire, with a population many fold +larger than now. In the interior are to be found ruins like those in +the interior of Cambodia, which mark the sites of ancient cities, and +attest the greatness of an empire that has long since passed away. +This is a subject for the antiquarian; but I am more interested in its +present condition and its future prospects than its past history. +Burmah is now a part of the great English Empire in the East, and it +has been the scene of events which make a very thrilling chapter in +the history of American Missions. Remembering this, as soon as we got +on shore we took a gharri, and rode off to find the American +missionaries, of whom and of their work I shall have more to say. We +brought a letter also to the Chief Commissioner, Mr. Rivers Thompson, +who invited us to be his guests while in Rangoon. This gentleman is a +representative of the best class of English officials in the East, of +those conscientious and laborious men, trained in the civil service in +India, whose intelligence and experience make the English rule such a +blessing to that country. The presence of a man of such character and +such intelligence in a position of such power--for he is virtually the +ruler of Burmah--is the greatest benefit to the country. We shall long +remember him and his excellent wife--a true Englishwoman--for their +courtesy and hospitality, which made our visit to Rangoon so pleasant. +The Government House is out of the city, surrounded partly by the +natural forest, which was alive with monkeys, that were perched in the +trees, and leaping from branch to branch. One species of them had a +very wild and plaintive cry, almost like that of a human creature in +distress. It is said to be the only animal whose notes range through +the whole scale. It begins low, and rises rapidly, till it reaches a +pitch at which it sounds like a far-off wail of sorrow. Every morning +we were awakened by the singing of birds, the first sound in the +forest, with which there came through the open windows a cool, +delicious air, laden with a dewy freshness as of Spring, the exquisite +sensation of a morning in the tropics. Then came the tramp of soldiers +along the walk, changing guard. In the midst of these strange +surroundings stood the beautiful English home, with all its culture +and refinement, and the morning and evening prayers, that were a +sweeter incense to the Author of so much beauty than "the spicy +breezes that blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle." The evening drive to the +public gardens, where a band of music was playing, gave one a sight +of the English residents of Rangoon, and made even an American feel, +in hearing his familiar tongue, that he was not altogether a stranger +in a strange land. The Commissioner gave me his Report on British +Burmah, made to the Government of India. It fills a large octavo +volume, and in reading it, one is surprised to learn the extent of the +country, which is twice as large as the State of New York, and its +great natural wealth in its soil and its forests--the resources for +supporting a dense population. + +I found the best book on Burmah was by an American missionary, Dr. +Mason, who, while devoted to his religious work, had the tastes of a +naturalist, and wrote of the country with the enthusiasm of a poet and +a man of science.[9] He describes the interior as of marvellous +beauty, with rugged mountains, separated by soft green valleys, in +which sometimes little lakes, like the Scottish lochs, sleep under the +shadow of the hills; and rivers whose banks are like the banks of the +Rhine. He says: "British Burmah embraces all variety of aspect, from +the flats of Holland, at the mouths of the Irrawaddy, to the more than +Scottish beauty of the mountainous valley of the Salwen, and the +Rhenish river banks of the Irrawaddy near Prome." With the zest of an +Alpine tourist, he climbs the wild passes of the hills, and follows +the streams coursing down their sides, to where they leap in +waterfalls over precipices fifty or one hundred feet high. Amid this +picturesque scenery he finds a fauna and flora, more varied and rich +than those of any part of Europe. + +The country produces a great variety of tropical fruits; it yields +spices and gums; while the natives make use for many purposes of the +bamboo and the palm. The wild beasts are hunted for their skins, and +the elephants furnish ivory. But the staples of commerce are two--rice +and the teak wood. Rice is the universal food of Burmah, as it is of +India and of China. And for timber, the teak is invaluable, as it is +the only wood that can resist the attacks of the white ants. It is a +red wood, like our cedar, and when wrought with any degree of taste +and skill, produces a pretty effect. The better class of houses are +built of this, and being raised on upright posts, with an open story +beneath, and a broad veranda above, they look more like Swiss chalets +than like the common Eastern bungalows. The dwellings of the poorer +people are mere huts, like Irish shanties or Indian wigwams. They are +constructed only with a frame of bamboo, with mats hung between. You +could put up one as easily as you would pitch a tent. Drive four +bamboo poles in the ground, put cross pieces and hang mats of bark, +and you have a Burmese house. To be sure it is a slender +habitation--"reeds shaken with the wind;" but it serves to cover the +poor occupants, and if an earthquake shakes it down, little harm is +done. It costs nothing for house-rent; rice is cheap, and the natives +are expert boatmen, and get a part of their living from the rivers and +the sea. Their wants are few and easily supplied. "There is perhaps no +country in the world," says Mason, "where there are so few beggars, so +little suffering, and so much actual independence in the lower strata +of society." Thus provided for by nature, they live an easy life. +Existence is not a constant struggle. The earth brings forth +plentifully for their humble wants. They do not borrow trouble, and +are not weighed down with anxiety. Hence the Burmese are very +light-hearted and gay. In this they present a marked contrast to some +of the Asiatics. They have more of the Mongolian cast of countenance +than of the Hindoo, and yet they are not so grave as the Hindoos on +the one hand, or as the Chinese on the other. The women have much more +freedom than in India. They do not veil their faces, nor are they shut +up in their houses. They go about as freely as men, dressed in +brilliant colored silks, wound simply and gracefully around them, and +carrying the large Chinese umbrellas. They enjoy also the glorious +liberty of men in smoking tobacco. We meet them with long cheroots, +done up in plantain leaves, in their mouths, grinning from ear to ear. +The people are fond of pleasure and amusement, of games and festivals, +and laugh and make merry to-day, and think not of to-morrow. This +natural and irrepressible gayety of spirit has given them the name of +the Irish of the East. Like the Irish too, they are wretchedly +improvident. Since they can live so easily, they are content to live +poorly. It should be said, however, that up to a recent period they +had no motive for saving. The least sign of wealth was a temptation to +robbery on the part of officials. Now that they have security under +the English government, they can save, and some of the natives have +grown rich. + +This is one of the benefits of English rule, which make me rejoice +whenever I see the English flag in any part of Asia. Wherever that +flag flies, there is protection to property and life; there is law and +order--the first condition of civilized society. Such a government has +been a great blessing to Burmah, as to India. It is not necessary to +raise the question how England came into possession here. It is the +old story, that when a civilized and a barbarous power come in +contact, they are apt to come into conflict. They cannot be quiet and +peaceable neighbors. Mutual irritations end in war, and war ends in +annexation. In this way, after two wars, England acquired her +possessions in the Malayan Peninsula, and Lower Burmah became a part +of the great Indian Empire. We cannot find fault with England for +doing exactly what we should do in the same circumstances, what we +have done repeatedly with the American Indians. Such collisions are +almost inevitable. So far from regretting that England thus "absorbed" +Burmah, I only regret that instead of taking half, she did not take +the whole. For British Burmah is not the whole of Burmah; there is +still a native kingdom on the Upper Irrawaddy, between British Burmah +and China, with a capital, Mandelay, and a sovereign of most +extraordinary character, who preserves in full force the notions of +royalty peculiar to Asiatic countries. Recently a British envoy, Sir +Douglas Forsyth, was sent to have some negotiations with him, but +there was a difficulty about having an audience of his Majesty, owing +to the peculiar etiquette of that court, according to which he was +required to take off his boots, and get down on his knees, and +approach the royal presence on all fours! I forget how the great +question was compromised, but there is no doubt that the King of +Burmah considers himself the greatest potentate on earth. His capital +is a wretched place. A Russian gentleman whom we met in Rangoon, had +just come down from Mandelay, and he described it as the most +miserable mass of habitations that ever assumed to be called a city. +There were no roads, no carriages, no horses, only a few bullock +carts. Yet the lord of this capital thinks it a great metropolis, and +himself a great sovereign, and no one about him dares tell him to the +contrary. He is an absolute despot, and has the power of life and +death, which he exercises on any who excite his displeasure. He has +but to speak a word or raise a hand, and the object of his wrath is +led to execution. Suspicion makes him cruel, and death is sometimes +inflicted by torture or crucifixion. Formerly bodies were often seen +suspended to crosses along the river. Of course no one dares to +provoke such a master by telling him the truth. Not long ago he sent a +mission to Europe, and when his ambassadors returned, they reported to +the King that "London and Paris were very respectable cities, but not +to be compared to Mandelay!" This was repeated to me by the captain of +the steamer which brought them back, who said one of them told him +they did not dare to say anything else; that they would lose their +heads if they should intimate to his majesty that there was on the +earth a greater sovereign than himself. + +But in spite of his absolute authority, this old King lives in +constant terror, and keeps himself shut up in his palace, or within +the walls of his garden, not daring to stir abroad for fear of +assassination. + +It requires a few hard knocks to get a little sense into such a thick +head; and if in the course of human events the English were called to +administer these, we should be sweetly submissive to the ordering of +Providence. + +But though so ignorant of the world, this old king is accounted a +learned man among his people, and is quite religious after his +fashion. Indeed he is reported to have said to an English gentleman +that "the English were a great people, but what a pity that they had +no religion!" In his own faith he is very "orthodox." He will not have +any "Dissenters" about him--not he. If any man has doubts, let him +keep them to himself, lest the waters of the Irrawaddy roll over his +unbelieving breast. + +But in the course of nature this holy man will be gathered to his +rest, and then his happy family may perhaps not live in such perfect +harmony. He is now sixty-five years old, and has _thirty sons_, so +that the question of succession is somewhat difficult, as there is no +order of primogeniture. He has the right to choose an heir; and has +been urged to do so by his English neighbors, to obviate all dispute +to the succession. But he did this once and it raised a storm about +his ears. The twenty-nine sons that were not chosen, with their +respective mothers, raised such a din about his head that the poor man +was nearly distracted, and was glad to revoke his decision, to keep +peace in the family. He keeps his sons under strict surveillance lest +they should assassinate him. But if he thus gets peace in his time, he +leaves things in a state of glorious uncertainty after his death. Then +there may be a household divided against itself. Perhaps they will +fall out like the Kilkenny cats. If there should be a disputed +succession, and a long and bloody civil war, it might be a duty for +their strong neighbors, "in the interest of humanity," to step in and +settle the dispute by taking the country for themselves. Who could +regret an issue that should put an end to the horrible oppression and +tyranny of the native government, with its cruel punishments, its +tortures and crucifixions? + +It would give the English the mastery of a magnificent country. The +valley of the Irrawaddy is rich as the valley of the Nile, and only +needs "law and order" for the wilderness to bud and blossom as the +rose. Should the English take Upper Burmah, the great East Indian +Empire would be extended over the whole South of Asia, and up to the +borders of China. + +But the excellent Chief Commissioner has no dream of annexation, his +only ambition being to govern justly the people entrusted to his care; +to protect them in their rights; to put down violence and robbery, for +the country has been in such a fearful state of disorganization, that +the interior has been overrun with bands of robbers. Dacoity, as it is +called, has been the terror of the country, as much as brigandage has +been of Sicily. But the English are now putting it down with a strong +hand. To develop the resources of the country, the Government seeks to +promote internal communication and foreign commerce. At Rangoon the +track is already laid for a railroad up the country to Prome. The +seaports are improved and made safe for ships. With such facilities +Burmah may have a large commerce, for which she has ample material. +Her vast forests of teak would supply the demand of all Southern Asia; +while the rice from the delta of the Irrawaddy may in the future, as +in the past, feed the millions of India who might otherwise die from +famine. + +With the establishment of this civilized rule there opens a prospect +for the future of Burmah, which shall be better than the old age of +splendid tyranny. Says Mason: "The golden age when Pegu was the land +of gold, and the Irrawaddy the river of gold, has passed away, and +the country degenerated into the land of paddy (rice), and the stream +into the river of teak. Yet its last days are its best days. If the +gold has vanished, so has oppression; if the gems have fled, so have +the taskmasters; if the palace of the Brama of Toungoo, who had +twenty-six crowned heads at his command, is in ruins, the slave is +free." The poor native has now some encouragement to cultivate his +rice field, for its fruit will not be taken from him. The great +want of the country is the same as that of the Western States of +America--population. British Burmah has but three millions of +inhabitants, while, if the country were as thickly settled as Belgium +and Holland, or as some parts of Asia, it might support thirty +millions. Such a population cannot come at once, or in a century, but +the country may look for a slow but steady growth from the overflow of +India and China, that shall in time rebuild its waste places, and +plant towns and cities along its rivers. + +While thus interested in the political state of Burmah we cannot +forget its religion. In coming from India to Farther India we have +found not only a new race, but a new faith and worship. While +Brahminism rules the great Southern Peninsula of Asia, Buddhism is the +religion of Eastern Asia, numbering more adherents than any other +religion on the globe. Of this new faith one may obtain some idea by a +visit to the Great Pagoda. The Buddhists, like the priests of some +other religions, choose lofty sites for their places of worship, +which, as they overtop the earth, seem to raise them nearer to heaven. +The Great Pagoda stands on a hill, or rocky ledge, which overlooks the +city of Rangoon and the valley of the Irrawaddy. It is approached by a +long flight of steps, which is occupied, like the approaches to the +ancient temple in Jerusalem, by them that buy and sell, so that it is +a kind of bazaar, and also by lepers and blind men, who stretch out +their hands to ask for alms of those who mount the sacred hill to +pray. Ascending to the summit, we find a plateau, on which there is an +enclosure of perhaps an acre or two of ground. The Pagoda is a +colossal structure, with a broad base like a pyramid, though round in +shape, sloping upwards to a slender cone, which tapers at last to a +sort of spire over three hundred feet high, and as the whole, from +base to pinnacle, is covered with gold leaf, it presents a very +dazzling appearance, when it reflects the rays of the sun. As a pagoda +is always a solid mass of masonry, with no inner place of worship--not +even a shrine, or a chamber like that in the heart of the Great +Pyramid--there was more of fervor than of fitness in the language of +an English friend of missions, who prayed "that the pagodas might +resound with the praises of God!" They might resound, but it must +needs be on the outside. The tall spire has for its extreme point, +what architects call a finial--a kind of umbrella, which the Burmese +call a "htee," made of a series of iron rings gilded, from which hang +many little silver and brass bells, which, swinging to and fro with +every passing breeze, give forth a dripping musical sound. The +Buddhist idea of prayer is not limited to human speech; it may be +expressed by an offering of flowers, or the tinkling of a bell. It is +at least a pretty fancy, which leads them to suspend on every point +and pinnacle of their pagodas these tiny bells, whose soft, aerial +chimes sound sweetly in the air, and floating upward, fill the ear of +heaven with a constant melody. Besides the Great Pagoda, there are +other smaller pagodas, one of which has lately been decorated with a +magnificent "htee," presented by a rich timber merchant of Maulmain. +It is said to have cost fifty thousand dollars, as we can well +believe, since it is gemmed with diamonds and other precious stones. +There was a great festival when it was set up in its place, which was +kept up for several days, and is just over. At the same time he +presented an elephant for the service of the temple, who, being thus +consecrated, is of course a sacred beast. We met him taking his +morning rounds, and very grand he was, with his crimson and gold +trappings and howdah, and as he swung along with becoming gravity, he +was a more dignified object than the worshippers around him. But the +people were very good-natured, and we walked about in their holy +places, and made our observations with the utmost freedom. In the +enclosure are many pavilions, some of which are places for worship, +and others rest-houses for the people. The idols are hideous objects, +as all idols are, though perhaps better looking than those of the +Hindoos. They represent Buddha in all positions, before whose image +candles are kept burning. + +In the grounds is an enormous bell, which is constantly struck by the +worshippers, till its deep vibrations make the very air around holy +with prayer. With my American curiosity to see the inside of +everything, I crawled under it (it was hung but a few inches above the +ground), and rose up within the hollow bronze, which had so long +trembled with pious devotion. But at that moment it hung in silence, +and I crawled back again, lest by some accident the enormous weight +should fall and put an extinguisher on my further comparative study of +religions. This bell serves another purpose in the worship of +Buddhists. They strike upon it before saying their prayers, to attract +the attention of the recording angel, so that they may get due credit +for their act of piety. Those philosophical spirits who admire all +religions but the Christian, will observe in this a beautiful economy +in their devotions. They do not wish their prayers to be wasted. By +getting due allowance for them, they not only keep their credit good, +but have a balance in their favor. It is the same economy which leads +them to attach prayers to water-wheels and windmills, by which the +greatest amount of praying may be done with the least possible amount +of labor or time. The one object of the Buddhist religion seems to be +to attain merit, according to the amount of which they will spend more +or less time in the realm of spirits before returning to this cold +world, and on which depends also the form they will assume on their +reincarnation. Among those who sit at the gate of the temple as we +approach, are holy men, who, by a long course of devotion, have +accumulated such a stock of merit that they have enough and to spare, +and are willing to part with it for a consideration to others less +fortunate than themselves. It is the old idea of works of +supererogation over again, in which, as in many other things, they +show the closest resemblance to Romanism. + +But however puerile it may be in its forms of worship, yet as a +religion Buddhism is an immeasurable advance on Brahminism. In +leaving India we have left behind Hindooism, and are grateful for the +change, for Buddhism is altogether a more respectable religion. It has +no bloody rites like those of the goddess Kali. It does not outrage +decency nor morality. It has no obscene images nor obscene worship. It +has no caste, with its bondage and its degradation. Indeed, the +scholar who makes a study of different religions, will rank Buddhism +among the best of those which are uninspired; if he does not find in +its origin and in the life of its founder much that looks even like +inspiration. There is no doubt that Buddha, or Gaudama, if such a man +ever lived (of which there is perhaps no more reason to doubt than of +any of the great characters of antiquity), began his career of a +religious teacher, as a reformer of Brahminism, with the honest and +noble purpose of elevating the faith, and purifying the lives of +mankind. Mason, as a Christian missionary, certainly did not desire to +exaggerate the virtues of another religion, and yet he writes of the +origin of Buddhism: + + "Three hundred years before Alexandria was founded; about + the time that Thales, the most ancient philosopher of + Europe, was teaching in Greece that water is the origin of + all things, the soul of the world; and Zoroaster, in Media + or Persia, was systematizing the fire-worship of the Magi; + and Confucius in China was calling on the teeming multitudes + around him to offer to guardian spirits and the names of + their ancestors; and Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden image + in the plains of Dura, and Daniel was laboring in Babylon to + establish the worship of the true God; a reverend sage, with + his staff and scrip, who had left a throne for philosophy, + was travelling from Gaya to Benares, and from Benares to + Kanouj, exhorting the people against theft, falsehood, + adultery, killing and intemperance. No temperance lecturer + advocates teetotalism now more strongly than did this sage + Gaudama twenty-three centuries ago. Nor did he confine his + instructions to external vices. Pride, anger, lust, envy and + covetousness were condemned by him in as strong terms as are + ever heard from the Christian pulpit. Love, mercy, patience, + self-denial, alms-giving, truth, and the cultivation of + wisdom, he required of all. Good actions, good words, and + good thoughts were the frequent subjects of his sermons, + and he was unceasing in his cautions to keep the mind free + from the turmoils of passion, and the cares of life. + Immediately after the death of this venerable peripatetic, + his disciples scattered themselves abroad to propagate the + doctrines of their master, and tradition says, one party + entered the principal mouth of the Irrawaddy, where they + traced its banks to where the first rocks lift themselves + abruptly above the flats around. Here, on the summit of this + laterite ledge, one hundred and sixty feet above the river, + they erected the standard of Buddhism, which now lifts its + spire to the heavens higher than the dome of St. Paul's." + +In its practical effects Buddhism is favorable to virtue; and its +adherents, so far as they follow it, are a quiet and inoffensive +people. They are a kind of Quakers, who follow an inward light, and +whose whole philosophy of life is one of repression of natural +desires. Their creed is a mixture of mysticism and stoicism, which by +gentle meditation subdues the mind to "a calm and heavenly frame," a +placid indifference to good or ill, to joy or sorrow, to pleasure and +pain. It teaches that by subduing the desires--pride, envy, and +ambition--one brings himself into a state of tranquillity, in which +there is neither hope nor fear. It is easy to see where such a creed +is defective; that it does not bring out the heroic virtues, as shown +in active devotion to others' good. This active philanthropy is born +of Christianity. There is a spiritual selfishness in dreaming life +away in this idle meditation. But so far as others are concerned, it +bids no man wrong his neighbor. + +Buddha's table of the law may be compared with that of Moses. Instead +of Ten Commandments, it has only Five, which correspond very nearly to +the latter half of the Decalogue. Indeed three of them are precisely +the same, viz.: Do not kill; Do not steal; and Do not commit adultery; +and the fourth, Do not lie, includes, as a broader statement, the +Mosaic command not to bear false witness against one's neighbor; but +the last one of all, instead of being "not to covet," is, Do not +become intoxicated. These commands are all prohibitions, and enforce +only the negative side of virtue. They forbid injury to property and +life and reputation, and thus every injury to one's neighbor, and the +last of all forbids injury to one's self, while they do not urge +active benevolence to man nor piety towards God. + +These Five Commandments are the rule of life for all men. But to those +who aspire to a more purely religious life, there are other and +stricter rules. They are required to renounce the world, to live +apart, and practice rigid austerities, in order to bring the body into +subjection. Every day is to be one of abstinence and self-denial. To +them are given five other commands, in addition to those prescribed to +mankind generally. They must take no solid food after noon (a fast not +only Friday, but every day of the week); they must not visit dances, +singing or theatrical representations; must use no ornaments or +perfumery in dress; must not sleep in luxurious beds, and while living +by alms, accept neither gold nor silver. By this rigid self-discipline, +they are expected to be able to subdue their appetites and passions +and overcome the world. + +This monastic system is one point of resemblance between Buddhism and +Romanism. Both have orders of monks and nuns, who take vows of +celibacy and poverty, and live in convents and monasteries. There is +also a close resemblance in their forms of worship. Both have their +holy shrines, and use images and altars, before which flowers are +placed, and lamps are always burning. Both chant and pray in an +unknown tongue.[10] + +This resemblance of the Buddhist creed and worship to their own, the +Jesuit missionaries have been quick to see, and with their usual +artfulness have tried to use it as an argument to smooth the way for +the conversion of the Asiatics by representing the change as a slight +one. But the Buddhist, not to be outdone in quickness, answers that +the difference is so slight that it is not worth making the change. +The only difference, they say, is "we worship a man and you worship a +woman!" + +But Christianity has had other representatives in Burmah than the +Jesuits. At an early day American missionaries, as if they could not +go far enough away from home, in their zeal to carry the Gospel where +it had not been preached before, sought a field of labor in +Southeastern Asia. More than sixty years ago they landed on these +shores. They planted no colonies, waged no wars, raised no flag, and +made no annexation. The only flag they carried over them was that of +the Gospel of peace. And yet in the work they wrought they have left a +memorial which will long preserve their sainted and heroic names. +While in Rangoon I took up again "The Life of Judson" by Dr. Wayland, +and read it with new interest on the very spot which had been the +scene of his labors. Nothing in the whole history of missions is more +thrilling than the story of his imprisonment. It was during the second +Burmese war. He was at that time at Ava, the capital of Burmah, where +he had been in favor till now, when the king, enraged at the English, +seized all that he could lay hands upon, and threw them into prison. +He could not distinguish an American, who had the same features and +spoke the same language, and so Judson shared the fate of the rest. +One day his house was entered by an officer and eight or ten men, one +of whom he recognized by his hideous tattooed face as the executioner, +who seized him in the midst of his family, threw him on the floor, +drew out the instrument of torture, the small cord, with which he +bound him, and hurried him to the death prison, where he was chained, +as were the other foreigners, each with three pairs of fetters to a +pole. He expected nothing but death, but the imprisonment dragged on +for months, varied with every device of horror and of cruelty. Often +he was chained to the vilest malefactors. Sometimes he was cast into +an inner prison, which was like the Black Hole of Calcutta, where his +limbs were confined with five pairs of fetters. So loathsome was his +prison, that he counted it the greatest favor and indulgence, when, +after a fever, he was allowed to sleep in the cage of a dead lion! +This lasted nearly two years. Several times his keepers had orders (as +they confessed afterward) to assassinate him, but, restrained perhaps +by pity for his wife, they withheld their hand, thinking that disease +would soon do the work for them. + +During all that long and dreadful time his wife watched over him with +never-failing devotion. She could not sleep in the prison, but every +day she dragged herself two miles through the crowded city, carrying +food for her husband and the other English prisoners. During that +period a child was born, whose first sight of its father was within +prison walls. Some time after even his heathen jailors took pity on +him, and allowed him to take a little air in the street outside of the +prison gate. And history does not present a more touching scene than +that of this man, when his wife was ill, carrying his babe through the +streets from door to door, asking Burman mothers, in the sacred name +of maternity, of that instinct of motherhood which is universal +throughout the world, to give nourishment to this poor, emaciated, and +dying child. + +But at length a day of deliverance came. The English army had taken +Rangoon and was advancing up the Irrawaddy. Then all was terror at +Ava, and the tyrant that had thrown Judson into a dungeon, sent to +bring him out and to beg him to go to the English camp to be his +interpreter, and to sue for terms of peace. He went and was received +with the honor due to his character and his sufferings. But the +heroine of the camp was that noble American woman, whose devotion had +saved, not only the life of her husband, but the lives of all the +English prisoners. The commander-in-chief received her as if she had +been an empress, and at a great dinner given to the Burmese +ambassadors placed her at his right hand, in the presence of the very +men to whom she had often been to beg for mercy, and had been often +driven brutally from their doors. The tables were turned, and they +were the ones to ask for mercy now. They sat uneasy, giving restless +glances at the missionary's wife, as if fearing lest a sudden burst of +womanly indignation should impel her to demand the punishment of those +who had treated her with such cruelty. But they were quite safe. She +would not touch a hair of their heads. Too happy in the release of the +one she loved, her heart was overflowing with gratitude, and she felt +no desire but to live among this people, and to do good to those from +whom she had suffered so much. They removed to Amherst, at the mouth +of the Maulmain River, and had built a pretty home, and were beginning +to realize their dream of missionary life, when she was taken ill, +and, broken by her former hardships, soon sank in death. + +Probably "The Life of Judson" has interested American Christians in +Burmah more than all the histories and geographical descriptions put +together. General histories have never the interest of a personal +narrative, and the picture of Judson in a dungeon, wearing manacles on +his limbs, exposed to death in its most terrible forms, to be tortured +or to be crucified, and finally saved by the devotion of his wife, has +touched the hearts of the American people more than all the learned +histories of Eastern Asia that ever were written. + +And when I stood at a humble grave on Amherst Point, looking out upon +the sea, and read upon the stone the name of ANN HASSELTINE JUDSON, +and thought of that gentle American wife, coming out from the peace +and protection of her New England home to face such dangers, I felt +that I had never bent over the dust of one more worthy of all the +honors of womanhood and sainthood; tender and shrinking, but whom love +made strong and brave; who walked among coarse and brutal men, armed +only with her own native modesty and dignity: who by the sick-bed or +in a prison cast light in a dark place by her sweet presence; and who +united all that is noble in woman's love and courage and devotion. + +Judson survived this first wife about a quarter of a century--a period +full of labor, and in its later years, full of precious fruit. That +was the golden autumn of his life. He that had gone forth weeping, +bearing precious seed, came again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with +him. I wish the Church in America could see what has been achieved by +that well-spent life. Most of his fellow-laborers have gone to their +rest, though Mr. and Mrs. Bennett at Rangoon, and Dr. and Mrs. Haswell +at Maulmain, still live to tell of the trials and struggles of those +early days.[11] And now appears the fruit of all those toilsome years. +The mission that was weak has grown strong. In Rangoon there are a +number of missionaries, who have not only established churches and +Christian schools, but founded a College and a Theological Seminary. +They have a Printing Press, under the charge of the veteran Mr. +Bennett, who has been here forty-six years. In the interior are +churches in great numbers. The early missionaries found a poor +people--a sort of lower caste among the Burmese--the Karens. It may +almost be said that they caught them in the woods and tamed them. They +first reduced their language to writing; they gave them books and +schools, and to-day there are twenty thousand of this people who are +members of their churches. In the interior there are many Christian +villages, with native churches and native pastors, supported by the +people themselves, whose deep poverty abounds to their liberality in a +way that recalls Apostolic times. + +The field which has been the scene of such toils and sacrifices +properly belongs to the denomination which has given such examples of +Christian devotion. The Baptists were the first to enter the country, +led by an apostle. The Mission in Burmah is the glory of the Baptist +Church, as that of the Sandwich Islands is of the American Board. They +have a sort of right to the land by reason of first occupancy--a right +made sacred by these early and heroic memories; and I trust will be +respected by other Christian bodies in the exercise of that comity +which ought to exist between Churches as between States, in the +possession of a field which they have cultivated with so much zeal, +wisdom, and success. + + * * * * * + +It is not till one leaves Rangoon that he sees the beauty of Burmah. +The banks of the Irrawaddy, like those of the Hoogly, are low and +jungly; but as we glide from the river into the sea, and turn +southward, the shores begin to rise, till after a few hours' sail we +might be on the coast of Wales or of Scotland. The next morning found +us at anchor off the mouth of the Salwen River. The steamers of the +British India Company stop at all the principal ports, and we were now +to pass up the river to Maulmain. But the Malda was too large to cross +the bar except at very high tide, for which we should have to wait +over a day. The prospect of resting here under a tropical sun, and in +full sight of the shore, was not inviting, and we looked about for +some way of escape. Fortunately we had on board Miss Haswell, of the +well-known missionary family, who had gone up from Maulmain to Rangoon +to see some friends off for America, and was now returning. With such +an interpreter and guide, we determined to go on shore, and hailing a +pilot-boat, went down the ship's ladder, and jumped on board. The +captain thought us very rash, as the sea was rough, and the boat rose +and plunged in waves; but the Malays are like seagulls on the water, +and raising their sail, made of bamboo poles, and rush matting, we +flew before the wind, and were soon landed at Amherst Point. This was +holy ground, for here Judson had lived, and here his wife died and was +buried. Her grave is on the sea-shore, but a few rods from the water, +and we went straight to it. It is a low mound, with a plain headstone, +around which an American sea captain had placed a wooden paling to +guard the sacred spot. There she sleeps, with only the murmur of the +waves, as they come rippling up the beach, to sing her requiem. But +her name will not die, and in all the world, where love and heroism +are remembered, what this woman hath done shall be told for a memorial +of her. Her husband is not here, for (as the readers of his life will +remember) his last years were spent at Maulmain, from which he was +taken, when very ill, on board a vessel, bound for the Mauritius, in +hope that a voyage might save him when all other means had failed, and +died at sea when but four days out, and was committed to the deep in +the Bay of Bengal. One cannot but regret that he did not die on land, +that he might have been buried beside his wife in the soil of Burmah; +but it is something that he is not far away, and the waters that roll +over him kiss its beloved shores. + +Miss Haswell led the way up the beach to the little house which Judson +had built. It was unoccupied, but there was an old bedstead on which +the apostle had slept, and I stretched myself upon it, feeling that I +caught as much inspiration lying there as when I lay down in the +sarcophagus of Cheops in the heart of the Great Pyramid. We found a +rude table too, which we drew out upon the veranda, and a family of +native Christians brought us rice and milk and eggs, with which we +made a breakfast in native style. The family of Miss Haswell once +occupied this mission house, and it was quite enlivening to hear, as +we sat there quietly taking our rice and milk, how the tigers used to +come around and make themselves at home, snuffing about the doors, and +carrying off dogs from the veranda, and killing a buffalo in the +front yard. They are not quite so familiar now along the coast, but in +the interior one can hardly go through a forest without coming on +their tracks. Only last year Miss Haswell, on her way to attend the +meeting of an association, camped in the woods. She found the men were +getting sleepy, and neglected the fire, and so she kept awake, and sat +up to throw on the wood. It was well, for in the night suddenly all +the cattle sprang up with every sign of terror, and there came on the +air that strong smell which none who have perceived it can mistake, +which shows that a tiger is near. Doubtless he was peering at them +through the covert, and nothing but the blazing fire kept him away. + +After our repast, we took a ride in native style. A pair of oxen was +brought to the door, with a cart turned up at both ends, in such a +manner that those riding in it were dumped into a heap; and thus well +shaken together, we rode down to the shore, where we had engaged a +boat to take us up the river. It was a long slender skiff, which, with +its covering of bamboo bent over it, was in shape not unlike a gondola +of Venice. The arch of its roof was of course not very lofty; we could +not stand up, but we could sit or lie down, and here we stretched +ourselves in glorious ease, and as a pleasant breeze came in from the +sea, our little bark moved swiftly before it. The captain of our boat +was a venerable-looking native, like some of the Arabs we saw on the +Nile, with two boatmen for his "crew," stout fellows, whose brawny +limbs were not confined by excess of clothing. In fact, they had on +only a single garment, a kind of French blouse, which, by way of +variety, they took off and washed in the river as we sailed along. +However, they had another clout for a change, which they drew over +them with great dexterity before they took off the first, so as not to +offend us. Altogether the scene was not unlike what some of my readers +may have witnessed on one of our Southern rivers; and if we could +only have had the rich voices of the negro boatmen, singing + + "Down on the Alabama," + +the illusion would have been complete. Thus in a dreamy mood, and with +a gentle motion, we glided up the beautiful Salwen, between low banks +covered with forests, a distance of thirty miles, till at five o'clock +we reached the lower end of Maulmain, and went ashore, and rode two or +three miles up the river to Dr. Haswell's, where Miss H. claimed C---- +for her guest, while I was entertained at her brother's in the old +missionary compound, where Dr. Judson lived for so many years, and +which he left only to die. These American friends, with their kind +hospitalities, made us feel quite at home in Burmah; and as if to +bring still nearer Christian England and America, we were taken the +same evening to a prayer-meeting at the house of an English officer +who is in command here, where they sang Sankey's hymns! + +Maulmain is a place of great natural beauty. Though on the river, it +rises from the water's edge in steep and wooded banks, and has a +background of hills. One can hardly find a lovelier view in all the +East than that from the hill behind it, on which stands an old +Buddhist monastery and pagoda. Here the eye ranges over a distance of +many miles. Several rivers which flow together give the country the +appearance of being covered with water, out of which rise many +elevated points, like islands in a sea. In clear weather, after the +rains, one may see on the horizon the distant peaks of the mountains +in Siam. This was a favorite resort of Dr. Judson, who, being a man of +great physical as well as intellectual vigor, was fond of walking, and +loved to climb the hills. Miss Haswell, who as a child remembered him, +told us how she once saw him here "playing tag" with his wife, chasing +her as she ran down the hill. This picture of the old man delighted +me--to think that not all his labors and sufferings could subdue that +unconquerable spirit, but that he retained even to old age the +freshness of a boy, and was as hearty in play as in preaching. This is +the sort of muscular Christians that are needed to face the hardships +of a missionary life--men who will not faint in the heat of the +tropics, nor falter at the prospect of imprisonment or death. + +While we stood here the Buddhist monks were climbing slowly up the +hill, and I could but think of the difference between our intrepid +missionary and these languid, not to say lazy, devotees. We had a good +chance to observe them, and to remark their resemblance to similar +orders in the Church of Rome. The Buddhist monk, like his Romish +brother, shaves his head, eats no animal food (the command of Buddha +not to kill, is interpreted not to take life of any kind), and lives +only by the alms of the faithful. Seeing them here, with their shaven +heads and long robes, going about the streets, stopping before the +doors to receive their daily tributes of rice, one is constantly +reminded of the mendicant friars of Italy. They live in monasteries, +which are generally situated, like this, on the tops of hills, retired +from the world, where they keep together for mutual instruction, and +to join in devotion. They do no work except to cultivate the grounds +of the temple, but give up their lives to meditation and to prayer. + +It would be wrong to speak of such men but with proper respect. They +are quiet and inoffensive; some of them are learned; still more are +serious and devout. Says Dr. Williams: "Their largest monasteries +contain extensive libraries, and a portion of the fraternity are well +acquainted with letters, though numbers of them are ignorant even of +their own books." "Their moral character, as a class, is on a par with +their countrymen, and many of them are respectable, intelligent, and +sober-minded persons, who seem to be sincerely desirous of making +themselves better, if possible, by their religious observances." + +But this life of a recluse, while favorable to study and meditation, +does not inspire active exertion. Indeed the whole Buddhist philosophy +of life seems to be comprised in this, that man should dream away +existence here on earth, and then lapse into a dreamy eternity. + + "To be or not to be, that's the question;" + +and for them it seems better "not to be." Their heaven--their +Nirvana--is annihilation, yet not absolute non-existence, but only +absorption of their personality, so that their separate being is +swallowed up and lost in God. They will still be conscious, but have +no hope and no fear, no dread and no desire, but only survey existence +with the ineffable calm of the Infinite One. This passive, emotionless +state is expressed in all the statues and images of Buddha. + +If that be heaven, it is not earth; and they who pass life in a dream +are not the men to revolutionize the world. This whole monastery, full +of monks, praying and chanting for generations, cannot so stir the +mind of Asia, or make its power felt even in Burmah, as one heroic man +like Judson. + +Miss Haswell belongs to a family of missionaries. Her father and +mother were companions of Judson, and the children are in one way and +another devoted to the same work. She has a school for girls, which is +said to be the best in Burmah. The Chief Commissioner at Rangoon spoke +of it in the highest terms, and makes special mention of it in his +Report. She told us with great modesty, and almost with a feeling of +shame, of the struggle and mortification with which she had literally +"begged" the money for it in America. But never did good seed +scattered on the waters bear richer fruit. If a deputation from all +the Baptist churches which contributed to that school could but pay it +a visit, and see what it is doing, it would never want for funds +hereafter. + +Burmah is a country which needs all good influences--moral and +religious. It needs also a strong government, just laws rigidly +enforced, to keep peace and order in the land. For though the people +are so gay and merry, there is a fearful degree of crime. In Maulmain +there is a prison, which holds over a thousand prisoners, many of whom +have been guilty of the worst crimes. A few days since there was an +outbreak, and an attempt to escape. A number got out of the gate, and +were running till they were brought up by shots from the military. +Seven were killed and seven wounded. I went through this prison one +morning with the physician as he made his rounds. As we entered a man +was brought up who had been guilty of some insubordination. He had +once attempted to kill the jailer. The Doctor inquired briefly into +the offence, and said, without further words: "Give him fifteen cuts." +Instantly the man was seized and tied, arms extended, and legs +fastened, so that he could not move, and his back uncovered, and an +attendant standing off, so that he could give his arm full swing, gave +him fifteen cuts that made the flesh start up like whip-cord, and the +blood run. The man writhed with agony, but did not scream. I suppose +such severity is necessary, but it was a very painful sight. In the +hospital we found some of the prisoners who had been concerned in the +mutiny. The ringleader had been shot in the leg, which had been +amputated. They had found that the ways of transgressors were hard. + +Continuing our walk, we went through the different workshops, and saw +the kinds of labor to which the men were put, such as making chairs of +bamboo, weaving cloth, beating cocoanut husks to make stuff for +mattresses, carving, making furniture, blacksmithing, &c. The worst +offenders were put to grinding corn, as that was a species of labor in +which they had no tools which could be used as deadly weapons. The men +in this ward--perhaps a hundred in number--were desperate characters. +They were almost all highway robbers, Dacoits, bands of whom have long +been the terror of the country. They all had irons on their ankles, +and stood up to their tasks, working with their hands. I was not sorry +to see "their feet made fast in the stocks," for in looking into their +savage faces, one could but feel that he would rather see them in +chains and behind iron bars, than meet them alone in a forest. + +But I turn to a more agreeable spectacle. It is sometimes more +pleasant to look at animals than at men, certainly when men make +beasts of themselves, and when, on the other hand, animals show an +intelligence almost human. One of the great industries of Burmah is +the timber trade. The teak wood, which is the chief timber cut and +shipped, is very heavy, and requires prodigious force to handle it; +and as the Burmese are not far enough advanced to use machinery for +the purpose, they employ elephants, and bravely do the noble beasts +perform their task. In the timber yards both at Rangoon and at +Maulmain, all the heavy work of drawing and piling the logs is done by +them. I have never seen any animals showing such intelligence, and +trained to such docility and obedience. In the yard that we visited +there were seven elephants, five of which were at that moment at work. +Their wonderful strength came into play in moving huge pieces of +timber. I did not measure the logs, but should think that many were at +least twenty feet long and a foot square. Yet a male elephant would +stoop down, and run his tusks under a log, and throw his trunk over +it, and walk off with it as lightly as a gentleman would balance his +bamboo cane on the tip of his finger. Placing it on the pile, he would +measure it with his eye, and if it projected too far at either end, +would walk up to it, and with a gentle push or pull, make the pile +even. If a still heavier log needed to be moved on the ground to some +part of the yard, the mahout, sitting on the elephant's head, would +tell him what to do, and the great creature seemed to have a perfect +understanding of his master's will. He would put out his enormous +foot, and push it along; or he would bend his head, and crouching +half way to the ground, and doubling up his trunk in front, throw his +whole weight against it, and thus, like a ram, would "butt" the log +into its place; or if it needed to be taken a greater distance, he +would put a chain around it, and drag it off behind him. The female +elephant especially was employed in drawing, as having no tusks, she +could not lift like her big brothers, but could only move by her power +of traction or attraction. Then using her trunk as deftly as a lady +would use her fingers, she would untie the knot or unhitch the chain, +and return to her master, perhaps putting out her trunk to receive a +banana as a reward for her good conduct. It was a very pretty sight, +and gave us a new idea of the value of these noble creatures, and of +the way in which they can be trained for the service of man, since +they can be not only made subject to his will, but taught to +understand it, thus showing equal intelligence and docility. + +After a day or two thus pleasantly passed, we went on board the Malda +(which had finally got over the bar and come up to Maulmain), and +dropped down the river, and were soon sailing along the coast, which +grows more beautiful as we steam southward. We pass a great number of +islands, which form the Mergui Archipelago, and just now might be off +the shores of Greece. Within these sheltered waters is Tavoy, from +which it is proposed to build a road over the mountains to Bangkok in +Siam. There has long been a path through the dense forest, but one +that could only be traversed by elephants. Now it is proposed to have +a good road, the expense to be borne by the two kingdoms. Is not this +a sign of progress, of an era of peace and good will? Formerly Burmah +and Siam were always at war. Being neighbors and rivals, they were +"natural enemies," as much as were France and England. But now the +strong English hand imposes peace, and the two countries seek a closer +connection. The road thus inaugurated will bind them together, and +prove not only an avenue of commerce but a highway of civilization. + +At Penang we enter the Straits of Malacca, on one side of which is the +Malayan Peninsula, and on the other the island of Sumatra, which is +larger than all Great Britain, and where just now, at this upper end, +the Dutch have a war on their hands. Penang is opposite Acheen, and +the Malays, who are engaged in such a desperate resistance to the +Dutch, often cross the Straits, and may be seen at any time in the +streets of the English settlement. Perhaps it is but natural that the +English should have a sympathy with these natives, who are defending +their country against invaders, though I do not perceive that this +makes them more ready to yield the ground on their own side of the +Straits, where just now, at Perak, they have a little war of their +own. To this war in Acheen I may refer again, when I come to write of +the Dutch power in Java. + +Bayard Taylor celebrates Penang as "the most beautiful island in the +world," which is a great deal for one to say who has travelled so far +and seen so much. I could not be quite so enthusiastic, and yet I do +not wonder at any degree of rapture in one who climbs the Peak of +Penang, which commands a view not only of the town and harbor below, +but of other islands and waters, as well as of mountains and valleys +in the interior, which are a part of Siam. Turning seaward, and +looking down, this little island of Penang appears as the gem of the +scene--a mass of the richest tropical vegetation, set in the midst of +tropical seas. + +We were now in the tropics indeed. We had been for weeks, but we had a +more "realizing sense" of it as we got into the lower latitudes. The +heat grew intense as we approached the Equator. One after another we +laid aside the garments of the colder North, and put on the lightest +and thinnest costume, till we did not know but our only relief would +be that suggested by Sydney Smith, "to take off our flesh and sit in +our bones." With double awnings spread over the deck, and the motion +of the ship stirring the air, still the vertical sun was quite +overpowering. We were obliged to keep on deck day and night, although +there was ample room below. As there were but eight passengers in the +cabin, each had a state-room; but with all this space, and portholes +wide open, still it was impossible to keep cool. An iron ship becomes +so heated that the state-rooms are like ovens. So we had to take +refuge on deck. Every evening the servants appeared, bringing our +mattresses, which were spread on the skylight above the cabin. This +was very well for the gentlemen of our company, but offered no relief +of coolness for our only lady passenger. But a couple of gallant young +Englishmen, who with us were making the tour of the world, were +determined that she should not be imprisoned below, and they set up on +deck a screen, in which she was enclosed as in a tent; and not +Cleopatra, when floating in her gilded barge, reclined more royally +than she, thus lifted up into the cool night air. Then we all had our +reward. The glory of the night made up for the fervors of the day. +From our pillows we looked out upon the sea, and as the hot day +brought thunderstorms, the lightning playing on the distant horizon +lighted up the watery leagues around, till it seemed as if we were + + "Alone, alone, all, all alone, + Alone on the wide, wide sea," + +floating on in darkness over an unfathomable abyss. At other times the +sea was luminous with the light which she carries in her own bosom. +These Southern seas are full of those marine insects which shine like +glow-worms in the dark; and when the waters were calm and still, when +there was not a ripple on the bosom of the deep, we leaned over the +stern of the ship to watch the long track of light which she left in +the phosphorescent sea. But brighter than this watery illumination +was the sky above, which was all aglow with celestial fires. We had +long become familiar with the Southern Cross, which we first saw in +Egypt on the Nile, near the First Cataract. But then it was just above +the horizon. Now it shone in mid-heaven, while around it were gathered +the constellations of the Southern hemisphere. I have seen the stars +on the desert and on the sea, but never anything before that quite +equalled these nights on the Equator. + +But our voyage was coming to an end. We had already been twice as long +on the Bay of Bengal as in crossing the Atlantic. It was the last day +of March when the captain of the ship came to me, as I was standing on +deck, and said: "Do you see that low point of land, with the trees +upon it, coming down to the water? That is the most Southern point of +Asia." That great continent, which we saw first at Constantinople, and +had followed so far around the globe, ended here. An hour afterward, +as we rounded into Singapore, a hand pointed Eastward, and a voice at +my side said: "Uncle, there's the Pacific!" She who spoke might +perhaps have said rather, "There are the China Seas," but they are a +part of the great Ocean which rolls its waters from Asia to America. + +Singapore is on an island, at the very end of the peninsula, so that +it may be called truly "the jumping-off place." On this point of land, +but a degree and a half from the Equator, England has planted one of +those colonies by which she keeps guard along the coasts, and over the +waters, of Southern Asia. The town, which has a population of nearly a +hundred thousand, is almost wholly Chinese, but it is the English +power which is seen in the harbor filled with ships, and the fort +mounted with guns; and English taste which has laid out the streets +and squares, and erected the public buildings. This might be called +the Island of Palms, which grow here in great profusion--the tall +cocoanut palm with its slender stem, the fan palm with its broad +leaves, and many other varieties which mantle the hillsides, forming a +rich background for the European bungalows that peer out from under a +mass of tropical foliage. + +Whoever goes around the world must needs pass by Singapore. It is the +one inevitable point in Asia, as San Francisco is in America. One is +sure to meet here travellers, mostly English and American, passing to +and fro, from India to China, or from China to India, making the Grand +Tour. So common are they that they cease to inspire as much awe as +Marco Polo or Capt. Cook, and have even received the nickname of +"globe-trotters," and are looked upon as quite ordinary individuals. +Singapore is a good resting-point for Americans--a convenient half-way +house--as it is almost exactly on the other side of the globe from New +York. Having "trotted" thus far, we may be allowed to rest, at least +over Sunday, before we take a new start, and sail away into the +Southern hemisphere. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] This book furnishes a good illustration of the incidental service +which missionaries--aside from the religious work they do--render to +the cause of geography, of science, and of literature. They are the +most indefatigable explorers, and the most faithful and authentic +narrators of what they see. Its full title is: "BURMAH: its People and +Natural Productions; or Notes on the Natives, Fauna, Flora, and +Minerals, of Tenasserim, Pegu, and Burmah; With systematic catalogues +of the known Mammals, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, Mollusks, +Crustaceans, Anellides, Radiates, Plants, and Minerals, with +vernacular names." In his preface the writer says: + +"No pretensions are made in this work to completeness. It is not a +book composed in the luxury of literary leisure, but a collection of +Notes [What is here so modestly called Notes, is an octavo of over 900 +pages] which I have been making during the twenty years of my +residence in this country, in the corners of my time that would +otherwise have been wasted. Often to forget my weariness when +travelling, when it has been necessary to bivouac in the jungles; +while the Karens have been seeking fuel for their night-fires, or +angling for their suppers in the stream; I have occupied myself with +analyzing the flowers that were blooming around my couch; or examining +the fish that were caught; or an occasional reptile, insect, or bird, +that attracted my attention. With such occupations I have brightened +many a solitary hour; and often has the most unpromising situation +proved fruitful in interest; for 'the barren heath, with its mosses, +lichens, and insects, its stunted shrubs and pale flowers, becomes a +paradise under the eye of observation; and to the genuine thinker the +sandy beach and the arid wild are full of wonders.'" + +[10] Dr. S. Wells Williams, who was familiar with Buddhism during his +forty years residence in China, says ("Middle Kingdom," Vol. II., p. +257): + +"The numerous points of similarity between the rites of the Buddhists +and those of the Romish Church, early attracted attention, ... such as +the vow of celibacy in both sexes, the object of their seclusion, the +loss of hair, taking a new name and looking after the care of the +convent. There are many grounds for supposing that their favorite +goddess Kwanyin, i. e., the Hearer of Cries, called also Holy Mother, +Queen of Heaven, is only another form of Our Lady. The monastic habit, +holy water, counting rosaries to assist in prayer, the ordinances of +celibacy and fasting, and reciting masses for the dead, worship of +relics, and canonization of saints, are alike features of both sects. +Both burn candles and incense, and bells are much used in their +temples: both teach a purgatory, from which the soul can be delivered +by prayers, and use a dead language for their liturgy, and their +priests pretend to miracles. These striking resemblances led the +Romish missionaries to suppose that some of them had been derived from +the Romanists or Syrians who entered China before the twelfth century; +others referred them to St. Thomas, but Premare ascribes them to the +devil, who had thus imitated holy mother church in order to scandalize +and oppose its rights. But as Davis observes: 'To those who admit that +most of the Romish ceremonies are borrowed directly from Paganism, +there is less difficulty in accounting for the resemblance.'" + +The following scene in a Buddhist temple described by an eye-witness, +answers to what is often seen in Romish churches: + +"There stood fourteen priests, seven on each side of the altar, erect, +motionless, with clasped hands and downcast eyes, their shaven heads +and flowing gray robes adding to their solemn appearance. The low and +measured tones of the slowly moving chant they were singing might have +awakened solemn emotions, and called away the thoughts from worldly +objects. Three priests kept time with the music, one beating an +immense drum, another a large iron vessel, and a third a wooden bell. +After chanting, they kneeled upon low stools, and bowed before the +colossal image of Buddha, at the same time striking their heads upon +the ground. Then rising and facing each other, they began slowly +chanting some sentences, and rapidly increasing the music and their +utterance until both were at the climax of rapidity, they diminished +in the same way until they had returned to the original measure.... +The whole service forcibly reminded me of scenes in Romish chapels." + +[11] Dr. Haswell died a few months after we left Burmah. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE ISLAND OF JAVA. + + +Most travellers who touch at Singapore sweep round that point like a +race-horse, eager to be on the "home stretch." But in turning north, +they turn away from a beauty of which they do not dream. They know not +what islands, embowered in foliage, lie in those Southern seas--what +visions would reward them if they would but "those realms explore." +The Malayan Peninsula is a connecting link between two great divisions +of the globe; it is a bridge hundreds of miles long--a real Giants' +Causeway, reaching out from the mainland of Asia towards the Island +World beyond--a world with an interest all its own, which, now that we +were so near, attracted us to its shores. Leaving our fellow-travellers +to go on to Siam or to China, we took the steamer of the Netherlands +India Company for Java. It was a little boat of but 250 tons, but it +shot away like an arrow, and was soon flying like a sea-bird among +islands covered with palm groves. On our right was the long coast of +Sumatra. Towards evening we entered the Straits of Rhio, and in the +night crossed the Equator. When as a child I turned over the globe, I +found this line indicated by a brass ring, and rather expected that +the ship would get a thump as she passed over it; but she crossed +without a shock, or even a jar; ocean melted into ocean; the waters of +the China and the Java seas flowed together, and we were in the +Southern hemisphere. + +The first thing on board which struck us strangely was that we had +lost our language. The steamer was Dutch, and the officers spoke only +Dutch. But on all these waters will be found passing to and fro +gentlemen of intelligence, holding official positions here, but who +have lived long in Europe, and who speak English or French. At Rhio we +were joined by the Resident, the highest official of that island, and +by the Inspector of Schools from Batavia; and the next day, as we +entered the Straits of Banca, by the Resident of Palembang in +Sumatra--all of whom were very polite to us as strangers. We saw them +again in Java, and when we parted, felt almost that they were not only +acquaintances, but friends. They were of course thoroughly informed +about the new world around us, and were ready to enlighten our +ignorance. We sat on deck at evening, and as they puffed their cigars +with the tranquillity of true Dutchmen, we listened to their discourse +about the islands and people of the Malayan Archipelago. + +This part of the world would delight Mr. Darwin by the strange races +it contains, some of which approach the animal tribes. In the island +of Rhio the Resident assured me there were wild men who lived in +trees, and had no language but cries; and in Sumatra the Resident of +Palembang said there were men who lived in the forests, with whom not +only the Europeans, but even the Malays, could have no intercourse. He +himself had never seen one. Yet, strange to say, they have a petty +traffic with the outer world, yet not through the medium of speech. +They live in the woods, and live by the chase. They hunt tigers, not +with the gun, but with a weapon called a sumpitan, which is a long +tube, out of which they blow arrows with such force, and that are so +keen of point, and touched with such deadly poison, that a wound is +almost immediately fatal. These tiger skins or elephant tusks they +bring for barter--not for sale--they never sell anything, for money is +about the most useless thing they could have; they cannot eat it, or +drink it, or wear it. But as they have wants, they exchange; yet they +themselves are never seen. They bring what they have to the edge of +the forest, and leave it there, and the Malays come and place what +_they_ have to dispose of, and retire. If the offer is satisfactory, +when the Malays return they find what they brought gone, and take what +is left and depart. If not, they add a few trifles more to tempt the +eyes of these wild men of the woods, and so at last the exchange is +effected, yet all the while the sellers keep themselves invisible. +This mode of barter argues great honesty on both sides. + +This island of Sumatra is a world in itself. The Resident of Palembang +has under him a country as large as the whole of Java. The people of +Palembang are Malays and Chinese, thousands of whom live on rafts. In +the interior of the island there are different races, speaking a dozen +different languages or dialects. But with all its population, the +greater part of the country is still given up to forest and jungle, +the home of wild beasts--of the tiger and the rhinoceros. Wild +elephants range the forests in great numbers. He had often seen them +in herds of two or three hundred. It seemed strange that they were not +tamed, as in India and Burmah. But such is not the habit of the +people, who hunt them for ivory, but never attempt to subdue them, or +use them as beasts of burden. Hence they become a great nuisance, as +they come about the villages and break into the plantations; and it is +only when a grand hunt is organized for their destruction, that a +neighborhood can be for a time rid of the pest. + +But if these are uncomfortable neighbors, there are others that are +more so--the reptiles, which abound here as in India. But familiarity +breeds contempt or indifference. The people are not afraid of them, +and hardly notice them, but speak of them in an easy sort of way, as +if they were the most harmless things in nature--poor innocent +creatures, which might almost be pets in the family, and allowed to +run about the house at their will. Soberly, there are certain +domestic snakes which are indulged with these liberties. Said Mr. K.: +"I was once visiting in Sumatra, and spending a night at the house of +a friend. I heard a noise overhead, and asked, 'What is that?' 'Oh, +nothing,' they said; 'it's only the serpent.' 'What! do you keep a +family snake?' 'Yes,' they said; it was a large black snake which +frequented the house, and as it did no mischief, and hunted the rats, +they let it roam about wherever it liked." Thinking this rather a big +story, with which our friend might practise on the credulity of a +stranger, I turned to the Resident of Palembang, who confirmed it. He +said this domestication of serpents was not uncommon. There was a kind +of boa that was very useful as an exterminator of rats, and for this +purpose the good Dutch housekeepers allowed it to crawl about or to +lie coiled up in the pantry. Sometimes this interesting member of the +family was stretched out on the veranda to bask in the sun--a pleasant +object to any stranger who might be invited to accept hospitality. I +think I should have an engagement elsewhere, however pressing the +invitation. I never could "abide" snakes. From the Old Serpent down, +they have been my aversion, and I beg to decline their company, though +they should be as insinuating as the one that tempted Eve. But an +English merchant in Java afterwards assured me that "snakes were the +best gardeners; that they devoured the worms and insects and small +animals; and that for his part, he was rather pleased than otherwise +when he saw a big boa crawling among the vines or in the rice-fields." +I thought that the first instance of a serpent's gardening was in +Paradise, the effect of which was not encouraging, but there is no +disputing about tastes. He said they frequently came around the +houses, but did not often enter them, except that they were very fond +of music (the dear creatures!); and sometimes in the evening, as doors +and windows were left open for coolness, if the music was very fine, a +head might be thrust in of a guest that had not been invited. + +But our conversation was not limited to this harrowing topic, but +ranged over many features of Sumatra--its scenery and climate, soil +and vegetation. It is indeed a magnificent island. Over a thousand +miles long, and with more square miles than Great Britain and Ireland +together, it is large enough for a kingdom. In some parts the scenery +is as grand as that of Switzerland. Along the western coast is a range +of mountains like the Alps (some peaks are 15,000 feet high), among +which is set many an Alpine valley, with its glistening lake. That +coast is indented with bays, on one of which is the Dutch capital, +Padang. East of the mountains the island spreads out into vast plains, +watered by noble rivers. The soil is very rich, yielding all the +fruits of the tropics in great abundance. The tobacco especially is of +a much finer quality than that of Java, and brings twice as much in +the market. This fertility will attract population both from Asia and +from Europe, and under a good government this island may yet be the +seat of an empire worthy of its greatness. + +But just now the Dutch have a task to bring it into subjection. They +have an enemy in the North harder to subdue than tigers and wild +elephants. These are the terrible Malays, against whom has been kept +up for years the war in Acheen--a war waged with such deadly and +unrelenting hate and fury, that it has taken on a character of +ferocity. Of the right or wrong of this savage contest, I cannot +judge, for I hear only one side of the story. I am told that the +Malays are a race of pirates, with whom it is impossible to live in +good neighborhood, and that there can be no peace till they are +subdued. At the same time, one cannot refuse a degree of sympathy even +to savages who defend their own country, and who fight with such +conspicuous bravery. To this all the Dutch officers bore testimony, +saying that they fought "like devils." The Malays are very much like +our American Indians, both in features and in character--a proud, +high-spirited race, capable of any act of courage or devotion, but +full of that hot blood that resents an insult. "If you have a Malay +servant," I heard often in the East, "you may scold him or send him +away, but _never strike_ him, for that is an indignity which he feels +more than a wound; which he never forgets or forgives; but which, if +he has an opportunity, he will avenge with blood." Such a people, when +they come into battle, sacrifice their lives without a moment's +hesitation. They have a great advantage, as they are in their own +territory, and can choose their own time and place of attack, or keep +out of the way, leaving the enemy to be worn out by the hot climate +and by disease. Of course if the Dutch could once bring them within +range of their guns, or entice them into a pitched battle, European +skill and discipline would be victorious. But the Malays are too wary +and active; they hide in the fastnesses of the hills, and start up +here and there in unexpected quarters, and after a sudden dash, fly to +the mountains. They have a powerful ally in the pestilential climate, +which brings on those deadly fevers that kill more than perish in +battle. Such a war may drag on for years, during which the Dutch +territory will not extend much beyond the places occupied by troops, +or the ports defended by the guns of the fleet. If the Dutch hold on +with their proverbial tenacity, they may conquer in the end, though at +an immense cost in treasure and in life. If the Malays are once +subdued, and by a wise and lenient policy converted to some degree of +loyalty, they may prove, like the Sikhs in India, the brave defenders +of the power against which they fought so well. + +With such conversation to lighten the hours, they did not seem long, +as we were running through the Java Sea. On the third day from +Singapore, we came among the Thousand Islands, and in the afternoon +descried on the horizon the mountains of Java, and just at sunset were +in the roads of Batavia. There is no harbor, but an open roadstead; +and here a whole fleet of ships were riding at anchor--ships of war +and merchant ships from all parts of the world. It was two or three +miles from the quay, but as the evening drew on, we could see lights +along the shore; and at eight o'clock, just as the gun was fired from +the flagship of the Dutch Admiral, we put off in a native boat, manned +by a Malay crew. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and we seemed to +be floating in a dream, as our swarthy boatmen bent to their oars, and +we glided silently over a tropical sea to this unknown shore. + +At the Custom House a dark-skinned official, whose buttons gave him a +military air, received us with dignity, and demanded if we had +"pistolets," and being satisfied that we were not attempting an armed +invasion of the island, gave but a glance at our trunks, and politely +bowed us to a carriage that was standing outside the gates, and away +we rattled through the streets of Batavia to the Hotel Nederland. + +The next morning at an early hour we were riding about to "take our +bearings" and adjust ourselves to the situation. If we had not known +where we were, but only that we were in some distant part of the +world, we could soon guess that we were in a Dutch rather than in an +English colony. Here were the inevitable canals which the Dutch carry +with them to all parts of the earth. The city is intersected by these +watery streets, and the boats in them might be lying at the quays of +Rotterdam or Amsterdam. The city reminds us a good deal of the Hague, +in its broad streets lined with trees, and its houses, which have a +substantial Dutch look, as if they were built for comfort and not for +show. They are low and large, spreading out over a great deal of +surface, but not towering ambitiously upwards. A pretty sight it was +to see these fine old mansions, standing back from the street, with +ample space around them, embowered in trees and shrubbery, with lawns +and gardens kept in perfect order; and with all the doors and windows +wide open, through which we could see the breakfast tables spread, as +if to invite even strangers, such as we were, to enter and share their +hospitality. Before we left Java, we were guests in one of these +mansions, and found that Dutch hospitality was not merely in name. + +Among the ornaments of the city are two large and handsome public +squares--the King's Plain and Waterloo Plain. The latter name reminds +us that the Dutch had a part in the battle of Waterloo. With +pardonable pride they are persuaded that the contingent which they +contributed to the army of Wellington had no small part in deciding +the issue of that terrible day, and they thus commemorate _their_ +victory. This plain is used as a parade-ground, and the Dutch cavalry +charge over it with ardor, inspired by such heroic memories. + +It may surprise some of my readers accustomed to our new American +cities, to learn how old is Batavia. About the time that the Pilgrim +Fathers sailed from Holland, another expedition from the same country +carried the Dutch flag to the other side of the world, and Batavia was +settled the year before the landing on Plymouth Rock. Of course it was +a very small beginning of their power in the East, but slowly the +petty trading settlement grew into a colony, and its territory was +extended by degrees till, more than a hundred years after, it took in +the whole island. In the old palace on Waterloo Plain, now used as a +museum, are the portraits of Dutch governors who have ruled here for +two hundred and fifty years. + +But the capital of Java--at least the residence of the +Governor-General--is not at Batavia, but at Buitenzorg, nearly forty +miles in the interior, to which one can go by railroad in two hours. +As we took our seats in the carriage we had the good fortune to meet +Mr. Fraser, an English merchant, who has lived many years in Java, and +is well known and highly respected throughout the island, who gave us +information of the country over which we were passing. The plains +near the sea had at this time an appearance of great beauty. They were +laid out in rice fields which have a more vivid color than fields of +grain, and now shone with an emerald green. It was the time of the +gathering of the harvest, and the fields were filled with reapers, men +and women, young men and maidens. But one hears not the click of the +reaper. I am told that the attempt to introduce a mowing machine or a +patent reaper would make a revolution in the island. All the rice of +Java is cut by hand, and not even with the sickle, which is an +instrument much too coarse for this dainty work, but with a knife +three or four inches long, so that the spears are clipped as with a +pair of scissors. Taking a few blades gently, they cut them off, and +when they have a handful bind it in a tiny sheaf about as large as a +bunch of asparagus. When they have cut and bound up five, one is laid +aside for the landlord and four go to the cultivators. + +This slow progress might make a young American farmer very impatient. +Perhaps not, if he knew all the charms of the rice field, which might +make a country swain quite willing to linger. Mr. Fraser explained +that this season was the time, and the rice field the scene, of the +matrimonial engagements made during the year! Ah, now it is all +explained. Who can wonder that the gentle reapers linger over the rice +blades while they are proposing or answering questions on which their +whole life may depend? No doubt in merry England it has often happened +that hay-making and love-making have gone on in the fields together. +And we cannot wonder that such rural arts should be known in a land +warmed by a tropical sun. + +But the food of the natives is not found in the rice fields alone; it +is brought down from the top of the cocoanut palm, and drawn up from +the bottom of caves of the earth. "Do you see yonder small mountain?" +said Mr. F. "That is a famous hunting-ground for the edible birds' +nests, which are esteemed such a delicacy by the Chinese. The birds +are swallows and build their nests in caves, into which the hunters +are let down by long bamboo ropes, and drawn up laden with spoil. So +great has been the yield, and so highly prized, that the product of +that hill exported to China in one year returned a profit of L4,000. +Of late this has been much reduced, owing to the diminished +production, or that the Chinese are not ready to pay so much for such +dainty luxuries." + +At Buitenzorg the low land of the coast is exchanged for the hills. We +are at the foot of the range of mountains which forms the backbone of +the island. To give an idea of the character of the scenery, let me +sketch a picture from my own door in the Bellevue Hotel. The rooms, as +in all tropical climates, open on a broad veranda. Here, stretched in +one of the easy chairs made of bamboo, we look out upon a scene which +might be in Switzerland, so many features has it which are Alpine in +their character. The hotel stands on a projecting shelf of rock or +spur of a hill, overlooking a deep gorge, through which flows, or +rather rushes, a foaming mountain torrent, whose ceaseless murmurs +come up from below; while in front, only three or four miles distant, +rises the broad breast of a mountain, very much like the lower summits +or foothills of the Alps, which hang over many a sequestered vale in +Switzerland or in the Tyrol. + +But here the resemblance ends. For as we descend from the broad +outlines of the landscape to closer details, it changes from the +rugged features of an Alpine pass, and takes its true tropical +character. There are no snow-clad peaks, for we are almost under the +Equator. The scene might be in the Andes rather than in the Alps. The +mountain before us, the Salak, is a volcano, though not now in action. +As we look down from our perch, the eye rests upon a forest such as is +never seen in the Alps. Here are no dark pines, such as clothe the +sides of the vale of Chamouni. In the foreground, on the river bank, +at the foot of the hill, is a cluster of native huts, half hidden by +long feathery bamboos and broad-leaved palms. The forest seems to be +made up of palms of every variety--the cocoanut palm, the sago palm, +and the sugar palm, with which are mingled the bread-fruit tree, and +the nutmeg, and the banana; and not least of all, the _cinchona_, +lately imported from South American forests, which yields the famous +Peruvian bark. The attempt to acclimatize this shrub, so precious in +medicine, has been completely successful, so that the quinine of Java +is said to be even better than that of South America. In the middle +distance are the rice fields, with their intense green, and farther, +on the side of the mountain, are the coffee plantations, for which +Java is so famous. + +Buitenzorg has a Botanical Garden, the finest by far to be found out +of Europe, and the richest in the world in the special department of +tropical plants and trees. All that the tropics pour from their +bounteous stores; all those forms of vegetable life created by the +mighty rains and mightier sun of the Equator--gigantic ferns, like +trees, and innumerable orchids (plants that live on air)--are here in +countless profusion. One of the glories of the Garden is an +india-rubber tree of great size, which spreads out its arms like an +English oak, but dropping shoots here and there (for it is a species +of banyan) which take root and spring up again, so that the tree +broadens its shade, and as the leaves are thick and tough as leather, +offers a shield against even the vertical sun. There are hundreds of +varieties of palms--African and South American--some of enormous +height and breadth, which, as we walked under their shade, seemed +almost worthy to stand on the banks of the River of Life. + +Such a vast collection offers an attraction like the Garden of Plants +in Paris. I met here the Italian naturalist Beccari, who was spending +some weeks at Buitenzorg to make a study of a garden in which he had +the whole tropics in a space of perhaps a hundred acres. He has spent +the last eight years of his life in the Malayan Archipelago, dividing +his time, except a few months in the Moluccas, between Borneo and New +Guinea. The latter island he considered richer in its fauna and flora +than any other equal spot on the surface of the globe, with many +species of plants and animals unknown elsewhere. He had his own boat, +and sailed along the coast and up the rivers at his will. He +penetrated into the forest and the jungle, living among savages, and +for the time adopting their habits of life, not perhaps dressing in +skins, but sleeping in their huts or on the ground, and living on +their food and such game as he could get with his gun. He laughed at +the dangers. He was not afraid of savages or wild beasts or reptiles. +Indeed he lived in such close companionship with the animal kingdom +that he got to be in very intimate, not to say amicable, relations; +and to hear him talk of his friends of the forest, one would think he +would almost beg pardon of a beast that he was obliged to shoot and +stuff in the interest of science. He complained only that he could not +find enough of them. Snakes he "doted on," and if he espied a monster +coiling round a tree, or hanging from the branches, his heart leaped +up as one who had found great spoil, for he thought how its glistening +scales would shine in his collection. I was much entertained by his +adventures. He left us one morning in company with our host Carlo, who +is a famous hunter, on an expedition after the rhinoceros--a royal +game, which abounds in the woods of Java. + +The beauty of this island is not confined to one part of it. As yet we +have seen only Western Java, and but little of that. But there is +Middle Java and Eastern Java. The island is very much like Cuba in +shape--long and narrow, being near seven hundred miles one way, and +less than a hundred the other. Thus it is a great breakwater dividing +the Java Sea from the Indian Ocean. To see its general configuration, +one needs to sail along the coast to get a distant view; and then, to +appreciate the peculiar character of its scenery, he should make +excursions into the interior. The Residents of Rhio and Palembang +called to see us and made out an itineraire; and Mr. Levyssohn Norman, +the Secretary General, to whom I brought a letter from a Dutch officer +whom we met at Naples, gave me letters to the Residents in Middle +Java. Thus furnished we returned to Batavia, and took the steamer for +Samarang--two days' sail to the eastward along the northern shore. As +we put out to sea a few miles, we get the general figure of the +island. The great feature in the view is the mountains, a few miles +from the coast, some of which are ten and twelve thousand feet high, +which make the background of the picture, whose peculiar outline is +derived from their volcanic character. Java lies in what may be called +a volcano belt, which is just under the Equator, and reaches not only +through Java, but through the islands of Bali and Lombok to the +Moluccas. Instead of one long chain of equal elevation in every part, +or a succession of smooth, rounded domes, there is a number of sharp +peaks thrown up by internal fires. Thus the sky line is changing every +league. European travellers are familiar with the cone-like shape of +Vesuvius, overlooking the Bay of Naples. Here is the same form, +repeated nearly forty times, as there are thirty-eight volcanoes in +the island. Around the Bay of Samarang are nine in one view! Some of +them are still active, and from time to time burst out in fearful +eruptions; but just now they are not in an angry mood, but smoking +peacefully, only a faint vapor, like a fleecy cloud, curling up +against the sky. All who have made the ascent of Vesuvius, remember +that its cone is a blackened mass of ashes and scoriae. But a volcano +here is not left to be such a picture of desolation. Nature, as if +weary of ruin, and wishing to hide the rents she has made, has mantled +its sides with the richest tropical vegetation. As we stand on the +deck of our ship, and look landward, the mountains are seen to be +covered near their base with forests of palms; while along their +breasts float belts of light cloud, above which the peaks soar into +the blue heavens. + +At the eastern end of the island, near Souraboya, there is a volcano +with the largest crater in the world, except that of Kilaccea in the +Sandwich Islands. It is three miles across, and is filled with a sea +of sand. Descending into this broad space, and wading through the +sand, as if on the desert, one comes to a new crater in the centre, a +thousand feet wide, which is always smoking. This the natives regard +with superstitious dread, as a sign that the powers below are in a +state of anger; and once a year they go in crowds to the mountain, +dragging a bullock, which is thrown alive into the crater, with other +offerings, to appease the wrath of the demon, who is raging and +thundering below. + +Wednesday morning brought us to Samarang, the chief port of Middle, as +Batavia is of Western, and Sourabaya of Eastern Java. As we drew up to +the shore, the quay was lined with soldiers, who were going off to the +war in Acheen. The regiments intended for that service are brought +first to Java, to get acclimated before they are exposed to what would +be fatal to fresh European troops. These were now in fine condition, +and made a brave sight, drawn up in rank, with the band playing, and +the people shouting and cheering. This is the glittering side of war. +But, poor fellows! they have hard times before them, of which they do +not dream. It is not the enemy they need to fear, but the hot climate +and the jungle fever, which will be more deadly than the kris of the +Malay. These soldiers are not all Dutch; some are French. On our +return to Batavia, the steamer carried down another detachment, in +which I found a couple of French zouaves (there may have been others), +one of whom told me he had been in the surrender at Sedan, and the +other had taken part in the siege of Paris. After their terms had +expired in the French army, they enlisted in the Dutch service, and +embarked for the other side of the world, to fight in a cause which is +not their own. I fear they will never see France again, but will leave +their bones in the jungles of Sumatra. + +But our thoughts are not of war, but of peace, as we ride through the +long Dutch town, so picturesquely situated between the mountains and +the sea, and take the railway for the interior. We soon leave the +lowlands of the coast, and penetrate the forests, and wind among the +hills. Our first stop is at Solo, which is an Imperial residence. It +is a curious relic of the old native governments of Java, that though +the Dutch are complete masters, there are still left in the island an +Emperor and a Sultan, who are allowed to retain their lofty titles, +surrounded with an Imperial etiquette. The Emperor of Solo lives in +his "Kraton," which is what the Seraglio is among the Turks, a large +enclosure in which is the palace. He has a guard of a few hundred men, +who gratify his vanity, and enable him to spend his money in keeping a +number of idle retainers; but there is a Dutch Resident close at hand, +without whose permission he cannot leave the district, and hardly his +own grounds; while in the very centre of the town is a fort, with guns +mounted, pointing towards his palace, which it could soon blow about +his ears. Thus "protected," he is little better than a State prisoner. +But he keeps his title "during good behavior," and once a year turns +out in grand state, to make an official visit to the Resident, who +receives him with great distinction; and having thus "marched up the +hill," he "marches down again." We had a letter to the Resident, and +hoped to pay our respects to his Majesty, but learned that it would +require several days to arrange an audience. It is a part of the Court +dignity which surrounds such a potentate, that he should not be easily +accessible, and we should be sorry to disturb the harmless illusion. + +But if we did not see the "lion" of Solo, we saw the tigers, which +were perhaps quite as well worth seeing. The Emperor, amid the +diversions with which he occupies his royal mind, likes to entertain +his military and official visitors with something better than a +Spanish bull-fight, namely, a tiger-fight with a bull or a buffalo, or +with men, for which he has a number of trained native spearmen. For +these combats his hunters trap tigers in the mountains; and in a +building made of heavy timbers fitted close together, with only space +between for light and air, were half a dozen of them in reserve. They +were magnificent beasts; not whelped in a cage and half subdued by +long captivity, like the sleek creatures of our menageries and +zoological gardens; but the real kings of the forest, caught when full +grown (some but a few weeks before), and who roared as in their native +wilds. It was terrific to see the glare of their eyes, and to hear the +mutterings of their rage. One could not look at them, even through +their strong bars, without a shudder. A gentleman of Java told me that +he had once caught in the mountains a couple of tigers in a pit, but +that as he approached it, their roaring was so terrific, as they +bounded against the sides of the pit, that it required all his courage +to master a feeling of indescribable terror. + +Adjoining the dominion of Solo is that of Jookja, where, instead of an +Emperor, is a Sultan, not quite so great a potentate as the former, +but who has his chateau and his military guard, and goes through the +same performance of playing the king. The Dutch Resident has a very +handsome palace, with lofty halls, where on state occasions he +receives the Sultan with becoming dignity--a mark of deference made +all the more touching by the guns of the fort, which, from the centre +of the town, keep a friendly watch for the least sign of rebellion. + +This part of Middle Java is very rich in sugar plantations. One +manufactory which we visited was said to yield a profit of $400,000 a +year. Nor is this the product of slave labor, like the sugar of Cuba. +Yet it is not altogether free labor. There is a peculiar system in +Java by which the government, which is the owner of the land, in +renting an estate to a planter, rents those who live on it with the +estate. It guarantees him sufficient labor to work his plantation. The +people are obliged to labor. This is exacted partly as a due to the +government, amounting to one or two days in the week. For the rest of +the time they are paid small wages. But they cannot leave their +employer at will. There is no such absolute freedom as that which is +said to have ruined Jamaica, where the negro may throw down his tools +and quit work at the very moment when the planter is saving his crop. +The government compels him to labor, but it also compels his master to +pay him. The system works well in Java. Laborers are kept busy, the +lands are cultivated, and the production is enormous--not only making +the planters rich, but yielding a large revenue to Holland. + +At Jookja the railroad ends. Further excursions into the country must +be by a private carriage. Some thirty miles distant is an ancient +ruin, which is in Java what the Great Pyramid is in Egypt, with which +it is often compared. To reach this, we ordered a carriage for the +next morning. Probably the landlord thought he had a Milord Anglais +for his guest, who must make his progress through the island with +royal magnificence; for, when we rose very early for our ride, we +found in front of the door a huge carriage with _six horses_! The +horses of Java are small, but full of spirit, like the Canadian +ponies. On the box was a fat coachman, who outweighed both of us +inside. Behind us stood two fellows of a lighter build, whose high +office it was to urge our gallant steeds by voice and lash to their +utmost speed. They were dressed in striped jackets, like +circus-riders, and were as agile as cats. Whenever the mighty chariot +lagged a little, they leaped to the ground, and running forward with +extraordinary swiftness, shouted and lashed the horses till, with +their goadings and their cries, the beasts, driven to madness, reared +and plunged and raced forward so wildly, that we almost expected to be +dashed in pieces. Such is the price of glory! What grandeur was this! +When we were in Egypt, riding about the streets of Cairo with two +"syces" (servants dressed in white, who run before a carriage to clear +the way), I felt like Joseph riding in Pharaoh's chariot. But now I +felt as if I were Pharaoh himself. + +Our route was through long avenues of trees, of palms and bamboos. The +roads, as everywhere in Java, are excellent, smooth as a floor, +solidly built, and well kept. To construct such roads, and keep them +in repair, must be a work of great difficulty, as in the rainy season +the floods come in such force as would sweep away any but those which +are firmly bedded. These roads are said to be owing to a famous Dutch +governor, Marshal Daendels, who ruled here in the early part of this +century. According to tradition he was a man of tremendous will, which +he enforced with arbitrary and despotic authority. He laid out a +system of highways, and assigned to certain native officers each his +portion to build. Knowing that things moved slowly in these Eastern +countries, and that the officers in charge might try to make excuses +for delay, he added a gentle admonition that he should hold each man +responsible; and by way of quickening their sense of duty, he erected +gibbets at convenient intervals along the road, and if an official +failed to "come to time," he simply had him executed. The spectacle of +a few of these native gentry hanging by the roadside had such an +enlivening effect on the Javanese imagination, that the roads were +built as if by magic. Perhaps the system might be applied with +excellent effect to "contractors" in other parts of the world! + +But on the best roads this speed could not be kept up for a long time. +The stages were short, the relays being but five miles apart. Every +three-quarters of an hour we changed horses. The stations were built +over the roads, something in the style of an old-fashioned turnpike +gate; so that we drove under the shelter, and the horses, dripping +with foam, were slipped out of the carriage, and left to cool under +the shade of the trees, or rolled over in the dust, delighted to be +free. + +As we advanced, our route wound among the hills. On our right was +Merape, one of the great mountains of Java--his top smoking gently, +while rice-fields came up to his foot. This middle part of the island +is called the Garden of Java, and it might be called one of the +gardens of the world. Nowhere in Europe, not even in Lombardy nor in +England, have I seen a richer country. Every foot of ground is in a +high state of cultivation. Not only are the plains and valleys covered +with rice-fields, but the hills are terraced to admit of carrying the +culture far up their sides. Here, as in Western Java, it was the time +of the harvest, and the fields were filled with joyous reapers. To +this perfect tilling of the earth it is due that this island is one of +the most populous portions of the globe. The country literally swarms +with inhabitants, as a hive swarms with bees; but so few are their +wants, that everybody seems to "live and be merry." We passed through +a number of villages which, though the dwellings were of the rudest, +yet had a pretty look, as they were embowered in foliage of palms and +bamboos. As the country grew more hilly, our progress was not so +swift. Sometimes we went down a steep bank to cross a river on a boat, +and then it was not an easy task to draw up the carriage on the +opposite bank, and we had to call on Caesar for help. Almost a whole +village would turn out. At one time I counted eighteen men pushing and +tugging at our wheels, of course with no eye to the small coin that +was scattered among them when the top of the bank was reached. So +great was the load of dignity we bore! + +At noon we reached the object of our journey in the famous ruins of +Borobodo. Sir Stamford Raffles says that all the labor expended on the +Pyramids of Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared with that +bestowed on the grand architectural remains of Java; but after seeing +this, the greatest on the island, his estimate seems to me very +extravagant. This is much smaller than the Great Pyramid, in the space +of ground which it covers, and lower in height, and altogether less +imposing. But without making comparisons, it is certainly a wonderful +pile. It is a pyramid in shape, some four hundred feet square, and +nine stories high, being ascended by a series of gigantic steps or +terraces. That it was built for Buddhist worship is evident from the +figures of Buddha which cover its sides. It is the monument not only +of an ancient religion, but of an extinct civilization, of a mighty +empire once throned on this island, which has left remains like those +of ancient Egypt. What a population and what power must have been here +ages ago, to rear such a structure! One can imagine the people +gathered at great festivals in numbers such as now assemble at +pilgrimages in India. Doubtless this hill of stone was often black +with human beings (for as many could stand on its sides as could be +gathered in the Coliseum at Rome), while on the open plain in front, +stretching to a mountain in the background, a nation might have +encamped, like the Israelites before Sinai, to receive the law. But +the temple is in ruins, and there is no gathering of the people for +worship any more. The religion of the island is changed. Buddhism has +passed away, and Islam has taken its place, to pass away in its turn. +It was Good Friday, in 1876, that I stood on the top of this pyramid, +and thought of Him who on this day suffered for mankind, and whose +religion is yet to possess the world. When it has conquered Asia, it +will cross the sea, and take this beautiful island, from which it may +pass on to the mainland of the continent of Australia. + +In such musings we lingered for hours, wandering about the ruins and +enjoying the landscape, which is one of the most beautiful we have +seen in all our travels--the wide sweep in the foreground reminding us +of the view from Stirling Castle in Scotland. + +But the carriage is waiting, and once more the driver cracks his whip, +his horses prance, and away we fly along the roads, through the +valleys, and over the hills. At evening we reached Magellang, the +centre of one of the districts into which Java is divided, and a town +of some importance. It is a curious geographical fact that it stands +exactly in the centre of the island. One spot is called the Navel of +Java. The Javanese think a certain hill is the head of a great nail, +which is driven into the earth and holds the island firm in its place. +If this be so, it is strange that it does not keep it more quiet. For +if we may use the language of the brokers, we might say with truth +that in Java "real estate is active," since it is well shaken up once +or twice a year with earthquakes, and is all the time smouldering with +volcanoes. + +But however agitated underground, the country is very beautiful above +it. Here as in all the places where the Dutch "most do congregate," +there is a mixture of European civilization with the easy and +luxurious ways of the East. Some of the villages are as pretty as any +in our own New England, and reminded us of those in the Connecticut +valley, being laid out with a broad open square or common in the +centre, which is shaded by magnificent trees, and surrounded by +beautiful residences, whose broad verandas and open doors give a most +inviting picture of domestic comfort and generous hospitality. There +is a club-house for the officers, and music by the military band. The +Residents always live very handsomely. They are the great men in every +district. Each one has a spacious residence, with a military guard, +and a salary of six or eight thousand dollars a year, with extras for +the expense of entertaining or of travelling, and a liberal pension +at the close of twenty years of service. + +Magellang is marked with a white stone in our memories of Java, as it +was the scene of a novel experience. When we drove into the town, we +found the hotel full, which obliged us to fall back upon our letter to +the Resident. He was absent, but his secretary at once took us in +hand, and requested the "Regent" (a native prince who holds office +under the Dutch government, and has special oversight of the native +population) to entertain us. He responded in the most courteous +manner, so that, instead of being lodged at a hotel, we were received +as guests in a princely residence. His "palace" was in the Eastern +style, of but one story (as are most of the buildings in Java, on +account of earthquakes), but spread out over a large surface, with +rows of columns supporting its ample roof, presenting in front in its +open colonnade what might be regarded as a spacious hall of audience; +and furnishing in its deep recesses a cool retreat from the heat of +the tropical sun. A native guard pacing before the door indicated the +official character of the occupant. The Regent received us with +dignity, but with great cordiality. He was attired in the rich costume +of the East. His feet were without stockings, but encased in richly +embroidered sandals. He could speak no English, and but a few words of +French--only Malay, Dutch, and Javanese. But he sent for a gentleman +to dine, who was of Spanish descent, and who, though a native of Java, +and had never been out of it, yet spoke both French and English, and +thus we were able to converse. + +The Regent had a wife, and after a time she entered the hall, and +welcomed my niece with a cordiality almost like that of two +school-girls meeting. She was simply dressed, in the lightest costume, +with bare feet, but in gold-embroidered slippers. Everything in her +attire was very plain, except that her ears were hung with diamonds +that fairly dazzled us with their brilliancy. She began talking with +great volubility, and seemed not quite to comprehend why it was that +we did not understand Malay or Javanese. However, with the help of our +interpreter, we got along, and were soon in the most confidential +relations. She had very vague ideas of the part of the world we came +from. We tried to make her understand that the world was round, and +that we lived on the other side of the globe. We asked why the Regent +did not go abroad to see the world? But she signified with a peculiar +gesture, as if counting with her fingers, that it took a great deal of +money. She asked "if we were rich," to which we replied modestly that +we had enough for our wants. As she talked of family matters, she +informed us that her lord had another wife. Of this she spoke without +the least reserve. It was quite natural that he should desire this. +She (his first wife) had been married to him over twenty years, and +was getting a little _passee_, and he needed a young face to make the +house bright and gay. Presently the second wife entered, and we were +presented to her. She was very young--I should think not twenty years +of age. Evidently the elder occupied the first place in the household, +and the younger took the second. They seemed to stand in a kind of +sisterly relation to each other, without the slightest feeling of +jealousy between them. Both were very pretty, after the Malayan +type--that is, with mild, soft eyes, and skins, not black, like +Africans, but of a rich brown color. They would have been even +beautiful if they had had also, what the Africans so often have, +dazzling white teeth; but this is prevented by the constant chewing of +the betel-nut and tobacco. + +At half-past eight o'clock we went to dinner. C---- had the honor of +sitting between the two wives, and enjoyed the courtesy of both, who +prepared fruit for her, and by many little attentions, such as are +understood in all parts of the world, showed that they belonged to the +true sisterhood of woman. The position of woman in Java is somewhat +peculiar. The people are Mohammedans, and yet the women are not +secluded, nor do they veil their faces; they receive strangers in +their houses and at their tables; thus they have much greater freedom +than their sisters in Turkey or Egypt. The Regent, being a Mussulman, +did not take wine, though he provided it for his guests. After the +dinner, coffee was served, of a rich, delicious flavor--for Java is +the land of coffee--followed by the inevitable cigar. I do not smoke, +but could not allow my refusal to interfere with the habits of those +whose guest I was, and could but admire the ineffable satisfaction +with which the Regent and his friend puffed the fragrant weed. While +they were thus wreathed in clouds, and floating in a perfect Nirvana +of material enjoyment, the gentler sex were not forgotten. The two +wives took their pleasure in their own fashion. A small box, like a +tea-caddy, was brought on the table, full of little silver cups and +cases, containing leaves of the betel-nut, and spices, cassia and +gambier, a little lime, and a cup of the finest tobacco. Out of these +they prepared a delicate morsel for their lips. With her own dainty +fingers, each rolled up a leaf of the betel-nut, enclosing in it +several kinds of spices, and filling it with a good pinch of tobacco, +which, our Spanish friend explained, was not so much for the taste, as +to make the morsel plump and round, large enough to fill the mouth +(or, as a wine-taster would say of his favorite madeira or port, to +give it sufficient _body_); and also, he added, it was to clean the +teeth, and to give an aromatic fragrance to the breath! I repeat, as +exactly as I can recall them, his very words. + +Whether the precious compound had all these virtues, certainly these +courtly dames took it with infinite relish, and rolled it as a sweet +morsel under their tongues, and looked on their lord with no jealousy +of his enjoyment of his cigar. + +Here was a picture of conjugal felicity. The family was evidently an +affectionate and happy one. The Regent loved both his wives, and they +sat side by side without envy or uncharitableness, happy in the +sunshine of his face, and chewed their betel-nut with a composure, an +aspect of tranquil enjoyment, which many in more civilized countries +may admire, but cannot equal. + +In the morning, when the family came together, I remarked that the +first wife, who then apparently saw her husband for the first time, +came forward, and bending low, kissed his jewelled hand; and soon +after the second wife entered, and kissed the first wife's hand, thus +observing that natural order of precedence which is so beautiful in +every well-regulated family. + +I observed also with curious interest the relations of master and +servant in this Oriental household. The divisions are very marked. The +Regent, for example, is regarded by his retainers with an awe as if he +were a sacred person. No one approaches him standing. The theory is, +that no inferior must ever be in a position or attitude where his head +is higher than his master's. If the Regent but looks at a man, he +drops as if shot with a bullet. If a servant wishes to communicate +with his master, he falls, not on his knees, but on his haunches, and +in this posture shuffles forward till he comes behind his chair, and +meekly whispers a word into his ear. He receives his orders, and then +shuffles back again. In one way, the division of ranks in Java is more +marked even than that of castes in India. The Javanese language, which +is a branch of the Malay, has three separate forms of speech--one, +that used by a superior addressing an inferior; second, that of an +inferior addressing a superior; and a third, that used between equals. +Such divisions would seem to cut off all relations between those of +different rank. And yet, with all this stooping and bowing, abject as +it seems to us, the relation of the master to his dependants is rather +patriarchal; and to these same servants the Regent will speak, not +only kindly, but familiarly, all the more so as the lines are so +drawn that there is no danger that they should ever presume on undue +familiarity. + +In the morning the Regent took me out for a ramble. We strolled along +under the trees, admiring the beauty of the country. After half an +hour's walk, suddenly, like an apparition, an open phaeton stood +beside us, with two beautiful ponies, into which the Regent invited me +to step, and taking his seat by my side, drove me about the town. We +returned for breakfast, and then he sent for his musicians to give us +a performance, who, beating on drums and other native instruments, +executed a plaintive kind of music. With such attentions did this +Javanese prince and his wives (none of whom we had ever seen till a +few hours before, and on whom we had no claim whatever) win our hearts +by their kindness, so that, when the carriage came round to the door, +we were sorry to depart. The Regent pressed us to stay a month, or as +long as we would. We could not accept a longer hospitality; but we +shall remember that which we had. We keep his photograph, with others +which we like to look upon; and if these words can reach the other +side of the world, they will tell him that his American friends have +not forgotten, and will not forget, the kind manner in which they were +entertained in the island of Java by the Regent of Magellang. + +The drive of to-day was hardly less interesting than that of +yesterday, although our pride had a fall. It was a great come-down, +after riding with six horses to be reduced to four! But the +mortification was relieved by adding now and then, at the steep +places, a pair of buffaloes. As we were still in the hill country, we +were all day among the coffee plantations, which thrive best at a +considerable elevation above the sea. Other products of the island +flourished around us in rich abundance: the spices--aloes and cassia, +and nutmeg and pepper. And there was our old friend, the peanut. They +were gathering perhaps the very nuts that were yet to ornament the +stands of the apple-women of New York, and to be a temptation to +bootblacks and newsboys. Amid such fields and forests, over mountain +roads, and listening to the roar of mountain streams, we came down to +Ambarrawa, a place of note in Java, as containing the strongest +fortress in the island. It is planted here right in the heart of +Middle Java, where, half a century ago, was a formidable insurrection, +which was quelled only after an obstinate contest, lasting five +years--from 1825 to 1830. Ambarrawa is connected by railroad with +Samarang. It is easy to see that both the railroads which start from +that point, and which have thus a base on the sea (the one leading to +Solo and Jookja, the residences of the Emperor and the Sultan, who +might make trouble, and the other to the great fortress of Ambarrawa), +have been constructed with a military as well as a commercial purpose. + +So the Dutch have had their wars in Java, as the English have had in +India; but having conquered, it must be said that on the whole they +have ruled wisely and well. The best proof of this is the perfect +tranquillity that reigns everywhere, and that with no great display of +armed force. What a contrast in this respect between the two most +important islands in the East and West Indies--Java and Cuba! They are +about equal in the number of square miles. Both have been settled by +Europeans for nearly three centuries, and yet to-day Cuba has less +than two millions of inhabitants, and is in a chronic state of +insurrection; while Java has over fifteen millions (or eight times as +many), and is as quiet as Holland itself. The whole story is told in +one word--the one is Dutch rule, and the other is Spanish rule. + +We spent our Easter in Samarang--a day which is not forgotten in this +part of the world, although Sunday is not observed after the manner of +Scotland or New England, but rather of Continental Europe, with bands +playing on the public square, and all the European world abroad +keeping holiday. From Samarang, another two days' sail along the same +northern coast, with the grand outline of mountains on the horizon, +brought us back to Batavia. + +Batavia was not the same to us on the second visit as on the first; or +rather it was a great deal more, for now we knew the place, the +streets were familiar, and we felt at home--the more so as a Scotch +gentleman, to whom we brought a letter from Singapore, Mr. James Greig +(of the old house of Syme, Pitcairn & Co., so well known in the East), +took us in charge, and carried us off to one of those large mansions +which we had so much admired on our former visit, set far back from +the street, and surrounded with trees; and constructed especially for +this climate, with spacious rooms, wide hall, high ceilings, and broad +veranda, and all the devices for mitigating the heat of the tropics. +More than all, this hospitable mansion was lighted up by the sweetest +feminine presence in one who, though of an old Dutch family well known +in Java, had been educated in Paris, and spoke English and French, as +well as Dutch and Malay, and who gave us such a welcome as made us +feel that we were not strangers. Not only did these friends open their +house to us, but devoted themselves till our departure in going about +with us, and making our visit pleasant. I do not know whether to call +this Scotch or Dutch hospitality, but it was certainly of the most +delightful kind. + +As we had three or four days before the sailing of the French steamer +for Singapore, our friends planned an excursion into the mountains of +Western Java, for which we returned to Buitenzorg, and engaged a +couple of _cahars_, carriages as light as if made of wicker-work, with +the small Javanese ponies, and thus mounted, began to climb the hills. +Our route was over the great post-road, which runs through the island +to Souraboya--a road which must have been constructed with immense +labor, as it passes over high mountains, but which is as solidly built +and as well kept as Napoleon's great road over the Simplon Pass of the +Alps. Indeed it is very much the same, having a rocky bed for its +foundation, with a macadamized surface, over which the carriage rolls +smoothly. But it does not climb so steadily upward as the Simplon or +the Mont Cenis. The ascent is not one long pull, like the ascent of +the Alps, but by a succession of hills, one beyond another, with many +a deep valley between, so that we go alternately up hill and down +dale. The hills are very steep, so that the post-carriage, which is as +heavy and lumbering as a French diligence, has to be drawn up by +buffaloes. Thus it climbs slowly height after height, and when it has +reached the summit, goes thundering down the mountain, and rolls +majestically along the road. But our light carriages suited us much +better than these ponderous vehicles; and as our little ponies trotted +swiftly along, we were in a very gay mood, making the woods ring with +our merry talk and glee. Sometimes we got out to stretch our limbs +with a good walk up the hills, turning as we reached the top to take +in the landscape behind us, which spread out broader and broader, as +we rose higher and higher. At every stage the view increased in extent +and in majesty, till the whole island, + + "From the centre all round to the sea," + +was piled with mountains, which here, as in Middle Java, showed their +volcanic origin by their forms, now rising in solitary cones, and now +lying on the horizon in successive ridges, like mighty billows tossed +up on a sea of fire, that in cooling had cracked in all fantastic +shapes, which, after being worn down by the storms of thousands of +years, were mantled thick with the verdure of forests. As in England +the ivy creeps over old walls, covering ruined castles and towers with +its perpetual green, so here the luxuriance of the tropics has +overspread the ruin wrought by destroying elements. The effect is a +mingled wildness and beauty in these mountain landscapes, which often +reminded us of Switzerland and the Tyrol. + +The enjoyment of this ride was increased by the character of the day, +which was not all sunshine, but one of perpetual change. Clouds swept +over the sky, casting shadows on the sides of the mountains and into +the deep valleys. Sometimes the higher summits were wrapped so as to +be hidden from sight, and the rain fell heavily; then as the storm +drifted away, and the sun burst through the parted clouds, the +glorious heights shone in the sudden light like the Delectable +Mountains. + +The object of our journey was a mountain retreat four thousand feet +above the level of the sea--as high as the Righi Kulm, but in no other +respect like that mountain-top, which from its height overlooks so +many Swiss lakes and cantons. It is rather like an Alpine valley, +surrounded by mountains. This is a favorite resort of the Dutch from +Batavia. Here the Governor-General has a little box, to which he +retires, from his grander residence at Buitenzorg, and here many sick +and wounded officers find a cool retreat and recover strength for +fresh campaigns. The place bears the musical name of Sindanglaya, +which one would think might have been given with some reference to the +music of murmuring winds and waters which fill the air. The valley is +full of streams, of brooks and springs, that run among the hills. +Water, water everywhere! The rain pattering on the roof all night long +carried me back to the days of my childhood, when I slept in a little +cot under the eaves, and that sound was music to my ear. The Scotch +mist that envelopes the mountains might make the traveller fancy +himself in the Highlands; and so he might, as he seeks out the little +"tarns" that have settled in the craters of extinct volcanoes, where +not only wild deer break through the tangled wood of the leafy +solitudes, but the tiger and the rhinoceros come to drink. Streams run +down the mountain-sides, and springs ooze from mossy banks by the +roadside, and temper the air with their dripping coolness. What a +place to rest! How this perfect quiet must bring repose to the brave +fellows from Acheen, and how sweet must sound this music of mountain +streams to ears accustomed to the rude alarms of war! + +That we were in a new quarter of the world--far away, not only from +America and Europe, but even from Asia--we were reminded by the line +of telegraph which kept us company over the mountains, and which here +crosses the island on its way to Australia! It goes down the coast to +Bangaewangi, where it dives into the sea only to come up on the +mainland of the great Southern Continent. Indeed we were strongly +advised to extend our journey around the world to Australia, which we +could have reached in much less time than it had taken to come from +Calcutta to Singapore. But we were more interested to visit old +countries and old nations than to set foot on a virgin continent, and +to see colonies and cities, which, with all their growth, could only +be a smaller edition of what we have so abundantly in the new States +of America. + +We were now within a few miles of the Southern Ocean, the greatest of +all the oceans that wrap their watery mantle around the globe. From +the top of the Gede, a mountain which rose above us, one may look off +upon an ocean broader than the Pacific--a sea without a shore--whose +waters roll in an unbroken sweep to the Antarctic Pole. + +From all these seas and shores, and woods and waters, we now turned +away, and with renewed delight in the varied landscapes, rode back +over the mountains to Buitenzorg, and came down by rail to Batavia. + +Before I depart from this pleasant land of Java, I must say a word +about the Dutch and their position in South-eastern Asia. The Dutch +have had possession of Java over 250 years--since 1623--without +interruption, except from 1811 to 1816, when Napoleon had taken +Holland; and as England was using all her forces on land and sea to +cripple the French empire in different parts of the world, she sent a +fleet against Java. It yielded almost without opposition; indeed many +of the Dutch regarded the surrender as simply placing the island under +British protection, which saved it from the French. For five years it +had an English Governor, Sir Stamford Raffles, who has written a large +work on Java. After the fall of Napoleon, England restored Java to the +Dutch, but kept Ceylon, Malacca, and the Cape of Good Hope. Thus the +Dutch have lost some of their possessions in the East, and yet Holland +is to-day the second colonial power in the world, being inferior only +to England. The Dutch flag in the East waves not only over Java, but +over almost the whole of the Malayan Archipelago, which, with the +intervening waters, covers a portion of the earth's surface larger +than all Europe. + +There are some peculiar physical features in this part of the world. +The Malayan Archipelago lies midway between Asia and Australia, +belonging to neither, and yet belonging to both. It is a very curious +fact, brought out by Wallace, whose great work on "The Malayan +Archipelago" is altogether the best on the subject, that this group of +islands is in itself divided by a very narrow space between the two +continents, which it at once separates and unites. Each has its own +distinct fauna and flora. The narrow Strait of Bali, only fifteen +miles wide, which separates the two small islands of Bali and Lombok, +separates two distinct animal and vegetable kingdoms, which are as +unlike as are those of the United States and Brazil. One group belongs +to Asia, the other to Australia. Sumatra is full of tigers; in Borneo +there is not one. Australia has no carnivora--no beasts that prey on +flesh--but chiefly marsupials, such as kangaroos. + +There are a good many residents in the East who think Holland, in the +management of her dependencies, has shown a better political economy +than England has shown in India. An English writer (a Mr. Money), in a +volume entitled "How to Govern a Colony," has brought some features +of the Dutch policy to the notice of his countrymen. I will mention +but one as an illustration. Half a century ago Java was very much run +down. A native rebellion which lasted five years had paralyzed the +industry of the country. To reanimate it, a couple of years after the +rebellion had been subdued, in 1832, the home government began a very +liberal system of stimulating production by making advances to +planters, and guaranteeing them labor to cultivate their estates. The +effect was marvellous. By that wise system of helping those who had +not means to help themselves, a new life was at once infused into all +parts of the island. Out of that has grown the enormous production of +coffee, sugar, and tobacco. Now Java not only pays all the expenses of +her own government, (which India does not do, at least without +contracting very heavy loans,) but builds her own railroads, and other +roads and bridges, and supplies the drain of the Acheen war, and +remits every year millions to the Hague to build railroads in Holland. + +Is it too much to believe that there is a great future in store for +South Eastern Asia? We talk about the future of America. But ours is +not the only continent that offers vast unoccupied wastes to the +habitation of man. Besides Australia, there are these great islands +nearer to Asia, which, from the overflow of India and China, may yet +have a population that shall cultivate their waste places. I found in +Burmah a great number of Bengalees and Madrasees, who had crossed the +Bay of Bengal to seek a home in Farther India; while the Chinese, who +form the population of Singapore, had crept up the coast. They are +here in Java, in every seaport and in every large town in the +interior, and there is every reason to suppose that there will be a +yet greater overflow of population in this direction. Sumatra and +Borneo are not yet inhabited and cultivated like Java, but in their +great extent they offer a magnificent seat for future kingdoms or +empires, which, Asiatic in population, may be governed by European +laws, and moulded by European civilization. + +One thing more before we cross the Equator--a word about nature and +life in the tropics. I came to Java partly to see the tropical +vegetation, of which we saw but little in India, as we were there in +winter, which is at once the cold and the dry season, when vegetation +withers, and the vast plains are desolate and dreary. Nature then +holds herself in reserve, waiting till the rains come, when the earth +will bloom again. But as I could not wait for the change of seasons, I +must needs pass on to a land where the change had already come. We +marked the transition as we came down the Bay of Bengal. There were +signs of changing seasons and a changing nature. We were getting into +the rainy belt. In the Straits of Malacca the air was hot and +thunderous, and we had frequent storms; the heavens were full of rain, +and the earth was fresh with the joy of a newly-opened spring. But +still we kept on till we crossed the Equator. Here in Java the rainy +season was just over. It ends with the last of March, and we arrived +at the beginning of April. For months the windows of heaven had been +opened, the rains descended, and the floods came; and lo! the land was +like the garden of the Lord. Here we had at last the tropical +vegetation in its fullest glory. Nothing can exceed the prodigality +and luxuriance of nature when a vertical sun beats down on fields and +forests and jungles that have been drenched for months in rain. +Vegetation of every kind springs up, as in the temperate zone it +appears only when forced in heated conservatories (as in the Duke of +Devonshire's gardens at Chatsworth), and the land waves with these +luxuriant growths. In the forest creeping plants wind round the tall +trunks, and vines hang in festoons from tree to tree. + +But while the tropical forest presents such a wild luxuriance of +growth, I find no single trees of such stature as I have seen in +other parts of the world. Except an occasional broad-spreading banyan, +I have seen nothing which, standing alone, equals in its solitary +majesty the English oak or the American elm. Perhaps there is a +difference in this respect between countries in the same latitude in +the Eastern and Western hemispheres. An English gentleman whom we +found here in charge of a great sugar plantation, who had spent some +years in Rio Janeiro, told me that the trees of Java did not compare +in majesty with those of Brazil. Nor is this superiority confined to +South America. Probably no trees now standing on the earth equal the +Big Trees of California. And besides these there are millions of lofty +pines on the sides of the Sierra Nevada, which I have seen nowhere +equalled unless it be in the mighty cedars which line the great +Tokaido of Japan. On the whole, I am a little inclined to boast that +trees attain their greatest height and majesty in our Western +hemisphere. + +But the glory of the tropics is in the universal life of nature, +spreading through all her realms, stirring even under ground, and +causing to spring forth new forms of vegetation, which coming up, as +it were, out of the darkness of the grave, seek the sun and air, +whereby all things live. + +Of course one cannot but consider what effect this marvellous +production must have upon man. Too often it overpowers him, and makes +him its slave, since he cannot be its master. This is the terror of +the Tropics, as of the Polar regions, that nature is too strong for +man to subdue her. What can he do--poor, puny creature--against its +terrible forces; against the heat of a vertical sun, that while it +quickens the earth, often blasts the strength of man, subduing his +energy, if not destroying his life? What can man do in the Arctic +circle against the cold that locks up whole continents in ice? Much as +he boasts of his strength and of his all-conquering will, he is but a +child in the lap of nature, tossed about by material forces as a leaf +is blown by the wind. The best region for human development and +energy is the temperate zone, where nature stimulates, but does not +overpower, the energies of man, where the winter's cold does not +benumb him and make him sink into torpor, but only pricks him to +exertion and makes him quicken his steps. + +The effect of this fervid climate shows itself not only upon natives, +but upon Europeans. It induces a languor and indisposition to effort. +It has two of the hardest and toughest races in the world to work +upon, in the English in India and the Dutch in Java, and yet it has +its effect even upon them, and would have a still greater were it not +that this foreign element is constantly changing, coming and going, +whereby there is all the time a fresh infusion of European life. Here +in Java the Dutch have been longer settled than the English in India; +they more often remain in the island, and the effect of course is more +marked from generation to generation. The Dutchman is a placid, +easy-going creature, even in his native Holland, except when roused by +some great crisis, like a Spanish invasion, and then he fights with a +courage which has given him a proud name in history. But ordinarily he +is of a calm and even temper, and likes to sit quietly and survey his +broad acres, and smoke his pipe in blissful content with himself and +all the world beside. When he removes from Holland to the other side +of the world, he has not changed his nature; he is a Dutchman still, +only with his natural love of ease increased by life in the tropics. +It is amusing to see how readily his Dutch nature falls in with the +easy ways of this Eastern world. + +If I were to analyze existence, or material enjoyment in this part of +the world, I should say that the two great elements in one's life, or +at least in his comfort, are sleep and smoke. They smoke in Holland, +and they have a better right to smoke in Java; for here they but +follow the course of nature. Why should not man smoke, when even the +earth itself respires through smoke and flame? The mountains smoke, +and why not the Dutch? Only there is this difference: the volcanoes +sometimes have a period of rest, but the Dutch never. Morning, noon, +and night, before breakfast and after dinner, smoke, smoke, smoke! It +seems to be a Dutchman's ideal of happiness. I have been told of some +who dropped to sleep with the cigar in their lips, and of one who +required his servants to put his pipe between his teeth while he was +yet sleeping, that he might wake up with the right taste in his mouth. +It seemed to me that this must work injury to their health, but they +think not. Perhaps there is something in the phlegmatic Dutch +temperament that can stand this better than the more mercurial and +excitable English or American. + +And then how they do sleep! Sleep is an institution in Java, and +indeed everywhere in the tropics. The deep stillness of the tropical +noon seems to prescribe rest, for then nature itself sinks into +repose. Scarcely a leaf moves in the forest--the birds cease their +musical notes, and seek for rest under the shade of motionless palms. +The sleep of the Dutch is like this stillness of nature. It is +profound and absolute repose. For certain hours of the day no man is +visible. I had a letter to the Resident of Solo, and went to call on +him at two o'clock. He lived in a grand Government House, or palace; +but an air of somnolence pervaded the place, as if it were the Castle +of Indolence. The very servant was asleep on the marble pavement, +where it was his duty to keep watch; and when I sent in my letter, he +came back making a very significant gesture, leaning over his head to +signify that his master was asleep. At five o'clock I was more +fortunate, but even then he was dressed with a lightness of costume +more suitable for one who was about to enter his bath than to give +audience. + +There is a still graver question for the moralist to consider--the +effect of these same physical influences upon human character. No +observer of men in different parts of the world can fail to see that +different races have been modified by climate, not only in color and +features, but in temperament, in disposition, and in character. A hot +climate makes hot blood. Burning passions do but reflect the torrid +sun. What the Spaniard is in Europe, the Malay is in Asia. There is a +deep philosophy in the question of Byron: + + "Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle + Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime, + Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, + Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?" + +But I must not wander into deep philosophy. I only say that great as +is the charm of life in the tropics, it is not without alloy. In +landing in Java it seemed as if we had touched the shores of some +enchanted island, as if we had found the Garden of Paradise lying far +off in these Southern seas. We had come to the land of perpetual +spring and perpetual summer, where nature is always in bloom, and +frost and snow and hail have fled away to the bleak and wintry North. +But as we are obliged to go back to that North, we wish to be +reconciled to it. We find that one may have too much even of Paradise. +There is a monotony in perpetual summer. The only change of seasons +here is from the dry season to the rainy season; and the only +difference between these, so far as we can see, is that in the dry +season it rains, and in the rainy season it pours. We have been here +in the dry season, and yet we have had frequent showers, with +occasional thunderstorms. If we should stay here a year, we should +weary of this unrelieved monotony of sun and rain. We should long for +some more marked change of seasons, for the autumn leaves and the +winter winds, and the gradual coming on of spring, and all those +insensible gradations of nature which make the glory of the full round +year. + +And what a loss should we find in the absence of twilight. Java, being +almost under the Equator, the days and nights are almost equal +throughout the year; there are no short days and no long days. Day and +night come on suddenly--not instantly, but in a few minutes the night +breaks into the full glare of day, and the day as quickly darkens into +night. How we should miss the long summer twilight, which in our +Northern latitudes lingers so softly and tenderly over the quiet +earth. + +Remembering these things, we are reconciled to our lot in living in +the temperate zone, and turn away even from the soft and easy life of +the tropics, to find a keener delight in our rugged clime, and to +welcome even the snow-drifts and the short winter days, since they +bring the long winter evenings, and the roaring winter fires! + +We leave Java, therefore, not so much with regret that we can no +longer sit under the palm groves, and indulge in the soft and easy +life of the tropics, as that we part from friends. Our last night in +Batavia they took us to a representation given by amateurs at the +English Club, where it was very pleasant to see so many English faces +in this distant part of the world, and to hear our own mother tongue. +The next morning they rode down with us to the quay, and came off to +the steamer, and did not leave us till it was ready to move; and it +was with a real sadness that we saw them over the ship's side, and +watched their fluttering signals as they sailed back to the shore. +These partings are the sore pain of travel. But the friendships +remain, and are delightful in memory. A pleasure past is a pleasure +still. Even now it gives us a warm feeling at the heart to think of +those kind friends on the other side of the globe. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +UP THE CHINA SEAS--HONG KONG AND CANTON. + + +In Singapore, as in Batavia, the lines fell to us in pleasant places. +An English merchant, Mr. James Graham, carried us off to his +hospitable bungalow outside the town, where we passed four days. It +stood on a hill, from which we looked off on one side to the harbor, +where were riding the ships of all nations, and on the other to an +undulating country, with here and there an English residence embowered +in trees. In this delightful retreat our hosts made us feel perfectly +at home. We talked of England and America; we romped with the +children; we played croquet on the lawn; we received calls from the +neighbors, and went out to "take tea" in the good old-fashioned way. +We attended service, the Sunday before going to Java, in the +Cathedral, and on our return, in the Scotch church; so that around us, +even at this extremity of Asia, were the faces and voices, the happy +domestic life, and the religious worship, of dear old England. + +But just as we began to settle into this quiet life, the steamer was +signalled from Ceylon which was to take us to China, and we had to +part from our new friends. + +It had been in my plan to go from here to Siam. It is but three days' +sail from Singapore up the Gulf to Bangkok; but it is not so easy to +get on from there. Could we have been sure of a speedy passage to +Saigon, to connect with the French steamer, we should not have +hesitated; but without this, we might be detained for a week or two, +or be obliged to come back to Singapore. Thus uncertain, we felt that +it was safer to take the steamer direct for Hong Kong, though it was +a sore disappointment to pass across the head of the Gulf of Siam, +knowing that we were so near the Land of the White Elephant, and leave +it unvisited. + +The China seas have a very bad name among sailors and travellers, as +they are often swept by terrible cyclones; but we crossed at a +favorable season, and escaped. The heat was great, and passengers sat +about on deck in their easy cane chairs, as on the Red Sea; but beyond +that, we experienced not so much discomfort as on the Mediterranean. +On the sixth morning we saw in the distance an island, which, as we +drew nearer, rose up so steeply and so high that it appeared almost +like a mountain. This was the Peak of Hong Kong--a signal-station from +which men, with their glasses, can look far out to sea, and as soon as +one of the great steamers is descried on the horizon, a flag is run up +and a gun fired to convey the news to the city below. Coming up behind +the island, we swept around its point, and saw before us a large town, +very picturesquely situated on the side of a hill, rising street above +street, and overlooking a wide bay shut in by hills, so that it is +sheltered from the storms that vex the China seas. The harbor was full +of foreign ships, among which were many ships of war (as this is the +rendezvous of the British fleet in these waters), which were firing +salutes; among those flying the flags of all nations was one modest +representative of our country, of which we did not need to be +ashamed--the Kearsarge. We afterwards went on board of her, and saw +and stroked with affection, mingled with pride, the big gun that sunk +the Alabama. + +Hong Kong, like Singapore, is an English colony, but with a Chinese +population. You can hardly set foot on shore before you are snapped up +by a couple of lusty fellows, with straw hats as large as umbrellas on +their heads, and who, though in bare feet, stand up as straight as +grenadiers, and as soon as you take your seat in a chair, lift the +bamboo poles to their shoulders, and walk off with you on the +double-quick. + +No country which we see for the first time is exactly as we supposed +it to be. Somehow I had thought of China as a vast plain like India; +and behold! the first view reveals a wild, mountainous coast. As we +climb Victoria Peak above Hong Kong, and look across to the mainland, +we see only barren hills--a prospect almost as desolate as that of the +Arabian shores on the Red Sea. + +But what wonders lie beyond that Great Wall of mountains which guards +this part of the coast of China! One cannot be in sight of such a +country without an eager impulse to be in it, and after two or three +days of rest we set out for Canton, which is only eight hours distant. +Our boat was an American one, with an American captain, who took us +into the wheel-house, and pointed out every spot of interest as we +passed through the islands and entered the Canton river. Forty miles +south is the old Portuguese port of Macao. At the mouth of the river +are the Bogue Forts, which played such a part in the English war of +1841, but which were sadly battered, and now lie dismantled and +ungarrisoned. Going by the stately Second Bar Pagoda, we next pass +Whampoa, the limit to which foreign vessels could come before the +Treaty Ports were opened. As we ascend the river, it is crowded with +junks--strange craft, high at both ends, armed with old rusty cannon, +with which to beat off the pirates that infest these seas, and +ornamented at the bow with huge round eyes, that stand out as if from +the head of some sea-monster, some terrible dragon, which keeps watch +over the deep. Amid such fantastic barks, with their strange crews, we +steamed up to Canton. + +At the landing, a son of Dr. Happer, the American missionary, came on +board with a letter from his father inviting us to be his guests, and +we accordingly took a native boat, and were rowed up the river. Our +oarsman was a woman, who, besides the trifle of rowing our boat up +the stream, had a baby strapped on her back! Perhaps the weight helped +her to keep her balance as she bent to the oar. But it was certainly +bringing things to a pretty fine point when human muscles were thus +economized. This boat, well called in Chinese a _tan-ka_ or egg-house, +was the home of the family. It sheltered under its little bamboo cover +eight souls (as many as Noah had in the Ark), who had no other +habitation. Here they ate and drank and slept; here perhaps children +were born and old men died. In Canton it is estimated that a hundred +and fifty thousand people thus live in boats, leading a kind of +amphibious existence. + +Above the landing is the island of Shameen, a mile long, which is the +foreign quarter, where are the Hongs, or Factories, of the great +tea-merchants, and where live the wealthy foreign residents. Rounding +this island, we drew up to the quay, in front of Dr. Happer's door, +where we found that welcome which is never wanting under the roof of +an American missionary. Dr. Happer has lived here thirty-two years, +and was of course familiar with every part of Canton, and was an +invaluable guide in the explorations of the next three or four days. + +When we were in Paris, we met Dr. Wells Williams, the well-known +missionary, who had spent over forty years in China, twelve of them in +Peking, of which he said, that apart from its being the capital, it +had little to interest a stranger--at least not enough to repay the +long journey to reach it. He said it would take a month to go from +Shanghai to Tientsin, and then cross the country cramped up in carts +to Peking, and visit the Great Wall, and return to Shanghai. Canton +was not only much nearer, but far more interesting, and the best +representative of a Chinese city in the Empire. + +The next morning we began our excursions, not with horses and +chariots, but with coolies and chairs. An English gentleman and his +wife, who had come with us from Singapore, joined us, making, with a +son of Dr. Happer and the guide, a party of six, for whom eighteen +bearers drew up before the door, forming quite a procession as we +filed through the streets. The motion was not unpleasant, though they +swung us along at a good round pace, shouting to the people to get out +of the way, who forthwith parted right and left, as if some high +mandarin were coming. The streets were narrow and densely crowded. +Through such a mass it required no small effort to force our way, +which was effected only by our bearers keeping up a constant cry, like +that of the gondoliers in Venice, when turning a corner in the +canals--a signal of warning to any approaching in the opposite +direction. I could but admire the good-nature of the people, who +yielded so readily. If we were thus to push through a crowd in New +York, and the policemen were to shout to the "Bowery boys" to "get out +of the way," we might receive a "blessing" in reply that would not be +at all agreeable. But the Chinamen took it as a matter of course, and +turned aside respectfully to give us a passage, only staring mildly +with their almond eyes, to see what great personages were these that +came along looking so grand. + +Our way led through the longest street of the city, which bears the +sounding name of the Street of Benevolence and Love. This is the +Broadway of Canton, only it is not half as wide as Broadway. It is +very narrow, like some of the old streets of Genoa, and paved, like +them, with huge slabs of stone. On either side it is lined with shops, +into which we had a good opportunity to look as we brushed past them, +for they stood wide open. They were of the smallest dimensions, most +of them consisting of a single room, even when hung with beautiful +embroideries. There may be little recesses behind, hidden interiors +where they live, though apparently we saw the whole family. In many +shops they were taking their meals in full sight of the passers-by. +There was no variety of courses; a bowl of rice in the centre of the +table was the universal dish (for rice is the staff of life in Asia, +as bread is in America), garnished perchance with some "little +pickle," in the shape of a bit of fish and soy, to serve _as a sauce +piquante_ to stimulate the flagging appetite. But apparently they +needed no appetizer, for they plied their chop-sticks with unfailing +assiduity. + +Our first day's ride was probably ten or twelve miles, and took us +through such "heavenly streets" as we never knew before, and did not +expect to walk in till we entered the gates of the New Jerusalem. +Besides the Street of Benevolence and Love, which might be considered +the great highway of the Celestial City, there were streets which bore +the enrapturing names of "Peace," "Bright Cloud," and "Longevity;" of +"Early-bestowed Blessings" and of "Everlasting Love;" of "One Hundred +Grandsons" and (more ambitious still) of "One Thousand Grandsons;" of +"Five Happinesses" and of "Refreshing Breezes;" of "Accumulated +Blessings" and of "Ninefold Brightness." There was a "Dragon street," +and others devoted to "The Ascending Dragon," "The Saluting Dragon," +and "The Reposing Dragon;" while other titles came probably a little +nearer the plain fact, such as "The Market of Golden Profits." All the +shops have little shrines near the door dedicated to _Tsai Shin_, or +the God of Wealth, to whom the shopkeepers offer their prayers every +day. I think I have heard of prayers offered to that divinity in other +countries, and no one could doubt that these prayers at least were +fervent and sincere. + +But names do not always designate realities, and though we passed +through the street of a "Thousand Beatitudes" and that of a +"Thousandfold Peace," we saw sorrow and misery enough before the day +was done. + +One gets an idea of the extent of a city not only by traversing its +streets, but by ascending some high point in the vicinity that +overlooks it. The best point for such a bird's-eye view is the +Five-storied Pagoda, from which the eye ranges over a distance of many +miles, including the city and the country around to the mountains in +the distance, with the broad river in front, and the suburb on the +other side. The appearance of Canton is very different from that of a +European city. It has no architectural magnificence. There are some +fine houses of the rich merchants, built of brick, with spacious rooms +and courts; but there are no great palaces towering over the city--no +domes like St. Paul's in London, or St. Peter's in Rome, nor even like +the domes and minarets of Constantinople. The most imposing structure +in view is the new Roman Catholic Cathedral. Here and there a solitary +pagoda rises above the vast sea of human dwellings, which are +generally of but one, seldom two stories in height, and built very +much alike; for there is the same monotony in the Chinese houses as in +the figures and costumes of the Chinese themselves. Nor is this level +surface relieved by any variety of color. The tiled roofs, with their +dead color, but increase the sombre impression of the vast dull plain; +yet beneath such a pall is a great city, intersected by hundreds of +streets, and occupied by a million of human beings. + +The first impression of a Chinese city is of its myriad, multitudinous +life. There are populous cities in Europe, and crowded streets; but +here human beings _swarm_, like birds in the air or fishes in the sea. +The wonder is how they all live; but that is a mystery which I could +not solve in London any more than here. There is one street a mile +long, which has in it nothing but shoemakers. The people amused us +very much by their strange appearance and dress, in both which China +differs wholly from the Orient. A Chinaman is not at all like a Turk. +He does not wear a turban, nor even a long, flowing beard. His head is +shaved above and below--face, chin, and skull--and instead of the +patriarchal beard before him, he carries only a pigtail behind. The +women whom we met in the streets (at least those of any position, for +only the common work-women let their feet grow) hobbled about on their +little feet, which were like dolls' feet--a sight that was half +ludicrous and half painful. + +But if we were amused at the Chinese, I dare say they were as much +amused at us. The people of Canton ought by this time to be familiar +with white faces. But, strange to say, wherever we went we attracted a +degree of attention which had never been accorded us before in any +foreign city. Boys ran after us, shouting as they ran. If the chairs +were set down in the street, as we stopped to see a sight, a crowd +gathered in a moment. There was no rudeness, but mere curiosity. If we +went into a temple, a throng collected about the doors, and looked in +at the windows, and opened a passage for us as we came out, and +followed us till we got into our chairs and disappeared down the +street. The ladies of our party especially seemed to be objects of +wonder. They did not hobble on the points of their toes, but stood +erect, and walked with a firm step. Their free and independent air +apparently inspired respect. The children seemed to hesitate between +awe and terror. One little fellow I remember, who dared to approach +too near, and whom my niece cast her eye upon, thought that he was +done for, and fled howling. I have no doubt all reported, when they +went home, that they had seen some strange specimens of "foreign +devils." + +But the Chinese are a highly civilized people. In some things, indeed, +they are mere children, compared with Europeans; but in others they +are in advance of us, especially those arts which require great +delicacy, such as the manufacture of some kinds of jewelry, exquisite +trinkets in gold and silver, in which Canton rivals Delhi and Lucknow, +and in the finest work in ivory and in precious woods; also in those +which require a degree of patience to be found nowhere except among +Asiatics. For example, I saw a man carving an elephant's tusk, which +would take him a whole year! The Chinese are also exquisite workers in +bronze, as well as in porcelain, in which they have such a conceded +mastery that specimens of "old China" ornament every collection in +Europe. Their silks are as rich and fine as any that are produced from +the looms of Lyons or Antwerp. This need not surprise us, for we must +remember the great antiquity of China; that the Chinese were a highly +civilized people when our ancestors, the Britons, were barbarians. +They had the art of printing and the art of gunpowder long before they +were known in Europe. Chinese books are in some respects a model for +ours now, not only in cheapness, but in their extreme lightness, being +made of thin bamboo paper, so that a book weighs in the hand hardly +more than a newspaper. + +Of course every stranger must make the round of temples and pagodas, +of which there are enough to satisfy any number of worshippers. There +is a Temple of the Five Genii, and one of the Five Hundred Arhans, or +scholars of Buddha. There is a Temple of Confucius, and a Temple of +the Emperor, where the mandarins go and pay to his Majesty and to the +Sage an homage of divine adoration. I climbed up into his royal seat, +and thought I was quite as fit an object of worship as he! There is a +Temple of Horrors, which outdoes the "Chamber of Horrors" in Madame +Tussaud's famous exhibition of wax-works in London. It is a +representation of all the torments which are supposed to be endured by +the damned, and reminds one of those frightful pictures painted in the +Middle Ages in some Roman Catholic countries, in which heretics are +seen in the midst of flames, tossed about by devils on pitchforks. But +the Chinese soften the impression. To restore the balance of mind, +terrified by these frightful representations, there is a Temple of +Longevity, in which there is a figure of Buddha, such as the ancient +Romans might have made of Bacchus or Silenus--a mountain of flesh, +with fat eyes, laughing mouth, and enormous paunch. Even the four +Kings of Heaven, that rule over the four points of the compass--North, +South, East, and West--have much more of an earthly than a heavenly +look. All these figures are grotesque and hideous enough; but to their +credit be it said, they are not obscene, like the figures in the +temples of India. Here we made the same observation as in Burmah, that +Buddhism is a much cleaner and more decent religion than Hindooism. +This is to its honor. "Buddhism," says Williams, "is the least +revolting and impure of all false religions." Its general character we +have seen elsewhere. Its precepts enjoin self-denial and practical +benevolence. It has no cruel or bloody rites, and nothing gross in its +worship. Of its priests, some are learned men, but the mass are +ignorant, yet sober and inoffensive. At least they are not a scandal +to their faith, as are the priests of some forms of Christianity. That +the Chinese are imbued with religious ideas is indicated in the very +names of the streets already mentioned, whereby, though in a singular +fashion, they commemorate and glorify certain attributes of character. +The idea which seems most deep-rooted in their minds is that of +retribution according to conduct. The maxim most frequent in their +mouths is that good actions bring their own reward, and bad actions +their own punishment. This idea was very pithily expressed by the +famous hong-merchant, Howqua, in reply to an American sea-captain, who +asked him his idea of future rewards and punishments, to which he +replied in pigeon-English: "A man do good, he go to Joss; he no do +good, very much bamboo catchee he!" + +But we will leave the temples with their grinning idols; as we leave +the restaurants, where lovers of dainty dishes are regaled with dogs +and cats; and the opium-shops, where the Chinese loll and smoke till +they are stupefied by the horrid drug; for Canton has something more +attractive. We found a very curious study in the Examination Hall, +illustrating, as it does, the Chinese manner of elevating men to +office. We hear much in our country of "civil service reform," which +some innocently suppose to be a new discovery in political economy--an +American invention. But the Chinese have had it for a thousand years. +Here appointments to office are made as the result of a competitive +examination; and although there may be secret favoritism and bribery, +yet the theory is one of perfect equality. In this respect China is +the most absolute democracy in the world. There is no hereditary rank +or order of nobility; the lowest menial, if he has native talent, may +raise himself by study and perseverance to be Prime Minister of the +Empire. + +In the eastern quarter of Canton is an enclosure of many acres, laid +off in a manner which betokens some unusual purpose. The ground is +divided by a succession of long, low buildings, not much better than +horse-sheds around a New England meeting-house of the olden time. They +run in parallel lines, like barracks for a camp, and are divided into +narrow compartments. Once in three years this vast camping-ground +presents an extraordinary spectacle, for then are gathered in these +courts, from all parts of the province, some ten thousand candidates, +all of whom have previously passed a first examination, and received a +degree, and now appear to compete for the second. Some are young, and +some are old, for there is no limit put upon age. As the candidates +present themselves, each man is searched, to see that he has no books, +or helps of any kind, concealed upon his person, and then put into a +stall about three feet wide, just large enough to turn around in, and +as bare as a prisoner's cell. There is a niche in the wall, in which a +board can be placed for him to sit upon, and another niche to support +a board that has to serve as breakfast-table and writing-table. This +is the furniture of his room. Here he is shut in from all +communication with the world, his food being passed to him through the +door, as to a prisoner. Certain themes are then submitted to him in +writing, on which he is to furnish written essays, intended generally, +and perhaps always, to determine his knowledge of the Chinese +classics. It is sometimes said that these are frivolous questions, the +answers to which afford no proof whatever of one's capacity for +office; but it should be remembered that these classics are the +writings of Confucius, which are the political ethics of the country, +the very foundation of the government, without knowing which one is +not qualified to take part in its administration. + +The candidate goes into his cell in the afternoon, and spends the +night there, which gives him time for reflection, and all the next day +and the next night, when he comes out, and after a few days is put in +again for another trial of the same character; and this is repeated a +third time; at the end of which he is released from solitary +confinement, and his essays are submitted for examination. Of the ten +thousand, only seventy-five can obtain a degree--not one in a hundred! +The nine thousand and nine hundred must go back disappointed, their +only consolation being that after three years they can try again. Even +the successful ones do not thereby get an office, but only the right +to enter for a third competition, which takes place at Peking, by +which of course their ranks are thinned still more. The few who get +through this threefold ordeal take a high place in the literary or +learned class, from which all appointments to the public service are +made. Here is the system of examination complete. No trial can be +imagined more severe, and it ought to give the Chinese the best civil +service in the world. + +May we not get a hint from this for our instruction in America, where +some of our best men are making earnest efforts for civil service +reform? If the candidates, who flock to Washington at the beginning of +each administration, were to be put into cells, and fed on bread and +water, it might check the rage for office, and the number of +applicants might be diminished; and if they were required to pass an +examination, and to furnish written essays, showing at least some +degree of knowledge of political affairs, we might have a more +intelligent class of officials to fill consular posts in different +parts of the world. + +But, unfortunately, it might be answered that examinations, be they +ever so strict, do not change human nature, nor make men just or +humane; and that even the rigid system of China does not restrain +rulers from corruption, nor protect the people from acts of oppression +and cruelty. + +Three spots in Canton had for me the fascination of horror--the court, +the prison, and the execution ground. I had heard terrible tales of +the trial by torture--of men racked to extort the secrets of crime, +and of the punishments which followed. These stories haunted me, and I +hoped to find some features which would relieve the impression of so +much horror. I wished to see for myself the administration of +justice--to witness a trial in a Chinese court. A few years ago this +would have been impossible; foreigners were excluded from the courts. +But now they are open, and all can see who have the nerve to look on. +Therefore, after we had made a long circuit through the streets of +Canton, I directed the bearers to take us to the Yamun, the Hall of +Justice. Leaving our chairs in the street, we passed through a large +open court into a hall in the rear, where at that very moment several +trials were going on. + +The court-room was very plain. A couple of judges sat behind tables, +before whom a number of prisoners were brought in. The mode of +proceeding was very foreign to American or European ideas. There was +neither jury nor witnesses. This simplified matters exceedingly. There +is no trial by jury in China. While we haggle about impanelling juries +and getting testimony, and thus trials drag on for weeks, in China no +such obstacle is allowed to impede the rapid course of justice; and +what is more, there are no lawyers to perplex the case with their +arguments, but the judge has it all his own way. He is simply +confronted with the accused, and they have it all between them. + +While we stood here, a number of prisoners were brought in; some were +carried in baskets (as they are borne to execution), and dumped on the +stone pavement like so many bushels of potatoes; others were led in +with chains around their necks. As each one's name was called, he came +forward and fell on his knees before the judge, and lifted up his +hands to beg for mercy. He was then told of the crime of which he was +accused, and given opportunity if he had anything to say in his own +defence. There was no apparent harshness or cruelty towards him, +except that he was presumed to be guilty, unless he could prove his +innocence; contrary to the English maxim of law, that a man is to be +presumed innocent until he is proved guilty. In this, however, the +Chinese practice is not very different from that which exists at this +day in so enlightened a country as France. + +For example, two men were accused of being concerned together in a +burglary. As they were from another prefecture, where there is another +dialect, they had to be examined through an interpreter. The judge +wished to find out who were leagued with them, and therefore +questioned them separately. Each was brought in in a basket, chained +and doubled up, so that he sat helplessly. No witness was examined, +but the man himself was simply interrogated by the judge. + +In another case, two men were accused of robbery with violence--a +capital offence, but by the Chinese law no man can be punished with +death unless he confesses his crime; hence every means is employed to +lead a criminal to acknowledge his guilt. Of course in a case of life +and death he will deny it as long as he can. But if he will not +confess, the court proceeds to take stringent measures to _make_ him +confess, for which purpose these two men were now put to the torture. +The mode of torture was this: There were two round pillars in the +hall. Each man was on his knees, with his feet chained behind him, so +that he could not stir. He was then placed with his back to one of +these columns, and small cords were fastened around his thumbs and +great toes, and drawn back tightly to the pillar behind. This soon +produced intense suffering. Their breasts heaved, the veins on their +foreheads stood out like whipcords, and every feature betrayed the +most excruciating agony. Every few minutes an officer of the court +asked if they were ready to confess, and as often they answered, "No; +never would they confess that they had committed such a crime." They +were told if they did not confess, they would be subjected to still +greater torture. But they still held out, though every moment seemed +an hour of pain. + +While these poor wretches were thus writhing in agony, I turned to the +judge to see how he bore the spectacle of such suffering. He sat at +his table quite unmoved; yet he did not seem like a brutal man, but +like a man of education, such as one might see on the bench in England +or America. He seemed to look upon it as in the ordinary course of +proceedings, and a necessary step in the conviction of a criminal. He +used no bravado, and offered no taunt or insult. But the cries of the +sufferers did not move him, nor prevent his taking his accustomed +ease. He sat fanning himself and smoking his pipe, as if he said he +could stand it as long as they could. Of course he knew that, as their +heads were at stake, they would deny their guilt till compelled to +yield; but he seemed to look upon it as simply a question of +endurance, in which, if he kept on long enough, there could be but one +issue. + +But still the men did not give in, and I looked at them with amazement +mingled with horror, to see what human nature could endure. The sight +was too painful to witness more than a few moments, and I rushed away, +leaving the men still hanging to the pillars of torture. I confess I +felt a relief when I went back the next day, to hear that they had +not yielded, but held out unflinchingly to the last. + +Horrible as this seems, I have heard good men--men of humanity--argue +in favor of torture, at least "when applied in a mild way." They +affirm that in China there can be no administration of justice without +it. In a country where testimony is absolutely worthless--where as +many men can be hired to swear falsely for ten cents apiece as you +have money to buy--there is no possible way of arriving at the truth +but by _extorting_ it. No doubt it is a rough process, but it secures +the result. As it happened, the English gentleman who accompanied us +was a magistrate in India, and he confirmed the statement as to the +difficulty, and in many cases the impossibility, of getting at the +truth, because of the unfathomable deceit of the natives. Many cases +came before him in which he was sure a witness was lying, but he was +helpless to prove it, when a little gentle application of the +thumbscrew, or even a good whipping, would have brought out the truth, +which, for want of it, could not be discovered. + +To the objection that such methods may coerce the innocent as well as +the guilty--that the pain may be so great that innocent men will +confess crimes that they never committed, rather than suffer tortures +worse than death--the answer is, that as guilt makes men cowards, the +guilty will give up, while the innocent hold out. But this is simply +trusting to the trial by lot. It is the old ordeal by fire. A better +answer is, that the court has beforehand strong presumptive evidence +of the crime, and that a prisoner is not put to the torture until it +has been well ascertained by testimony obtained elsewhere that he is a +great offender. When it is thus determined that he is a robber or a +murderer, who ought not to live, then this last step is taken to +compel him to acknowledge his guilt, and the justice of his +condemnation. + +But there are cases in which a man may be wrongfully accused; an enemy +may bribe a witness to make a complaint against him, upon which he is +arrested and cast into prison. Then, unless he can bring some powerful +influence to rescue him, his case is hopeless. He denies his guilt, +and is put to the rack for an offence of which he is wholly innocent. +Such cases, no doubt, occur; and yet men who have lived here many +years, such as Dr. Happer and Archdeacon Gray, tell me that they do +not believe there is a country in the world where, on the whole, +justice is more impartially administered than in China. + +I was so painfully interested in this matter, that I went back to the +Yamun the next day in company with Dr. Happer, to watch the +proceedings further. As before, a number of prisoners were brought in, +with chains around their necks, each of whom, when called, fell down +on his knees before the judge and begged for mercy. They were not +answered harshly or roughly, but listened to with patience and +attention. Several whose cases were not capital, at once confessed +their offence, and took the punishment. One young fellow, a mere +overgrown boy of perhaps eighteen, was brought up, charged with +disobedience to parents. He confessed his fault, and blubbered +piteously for mercy, and was let off for this time with rather a mild +punishment, which was to wear a chain with a heavy stone attached, +which he was to drag about after him in the street before the prison, +where he was exposed to the scorn of the people. The judge, however, +warned him that if he repeated the disobedience, and was arrested +again, he would be liable to be punished with death! Such is the rigor +with which the laws of China enforce obedience to parents. + +A man accused of theft confessed it, and was sentenced to wear the +_cangue_--a board about three feet square--around his neck for a +certain time, perhaps several weeks, on which his name was painted in +large characters, with the crime of which he was guilty, that all who +saw him might know that he was a thief! + +These were petty cases, such as might be disposed of in any police +court. But now appeared a greater offender. A man was led in with a +chain around his neck, who had the reputation of being a noted +malefactor. He was charged with both robbery and murder. The case had +been pending a long time. The crime, or crimes, had been committed +four years ago. The man had been brought up repeatedly, but as no +amount of pressure could make him confess, he could not be executed. +He was now to have another hearing. He knelt down on the hard stone +floor, and heard the accusation, which he denied as he had done +before, and loudly protested his innocence. The judge, who was a man +of middle age, with a fine intellectual countenance, was in no haste +to condemn, but listened patiently. He was in a mild, persuasive mood, +perhaps the more so because he was refreshing himself as a Chinaman +likes to do. As he sat listening, he took several small cups of tea. A +boy in attendance brought him also his pipe, filled with tobacco, +which he put in his mouth, and took two or three puffs, when he handed +it back; and the boy cleaned it, filled it, and lighted it again. With +such support to his physical weakness, who could not listen patiently +to a man who was on his knees before him pleading for his life? But +the case was a very bad one. It had been referred back to the village +in which the man was born, and the "elders," who form the local +government in every petty commune in China, had inquired into the +facts, and reported that he was a notorious offender, accused of no +less than seven crimes--five robberies, one murder, and one maiming. +This was a pretty strong indictment. But the man protested that he had +been made the victim of a conspiracy to destroy him. The judge replied +that it might be that he should be wrongfully accused by one enemy, +but it was hardly possible that a hundred people of his native +village should combine to accuse him falsely. Their written report +was read by the clerk, who then held it up before the man, that he +might see it in white and black. Still he denied as before, and the +judge, instead of putting him to the torture, simply remanded him to +prison for further examination. In all these cases there was no +eagerness to convict or to sentence the accused. They were listened to +with patience, and apparently all proper force was allowed to what +they had to say in their own defence. + +This relieves a good deal the apparent severity of the Chinese code. +It does not condemn without hearing. But, on the other hand, it does +not cover up with fine phrases or foolish sentiment the terrible +reality of crime. It believes in crime as an awful fact in human +society, and in punishment as a repressive force that must be applied +to keep society from destruction. + +Next to the Yamun is the prison, in which are confined those charged +with capital offences. We were admitted by paying a small fee to the +keepers, and were at once surrounded by forty or fifty wretched +objects, some of whom had been subjected to torture, and who held up +their limbs which had been racked, and showed their bodies all covered +with wounds, as an appeal to pity. We gave them some money to buy +tobacco, as that is the solace which they crave next to opium, and +hurried away. + +But there is a place more terrible than the prison; it is the +execution-ground. Outside the walls of Canton, between the city gate +and the river, is a spot which may well be called Golgotha, the place +of a skull. It is simply a dirty vacant lot, partly covered with +earthenware pots and pans, a few rods long, on one side of which is a +dead wall; but within this narrow space has been shed more blood than +on any other spot of the earth's surface. Here those sentenced to +death are beheaded. Every few days a gloomy procession files into the +lane, and the condemned are ranged against the wall on their knees, +when an assistant pulls up their pinioned arms from behind, which +forces their heads forward, and the executioner coming to one after +another, cleaves the neck with a blow. A number of skulls were +scattered about--of those whose bodies had been removed, but whose +heads were left unburied. In the lane is the house of the +executioner--a thick, short-set man, in a greasy frock, looking like a +butcher fresh from the shambles. Though a coarse, ugly fellow, he did +not look, as one might suppose, like a monster of cruelty, but was +simply a dull, stolid creature, who undertook this as he would any +other kind of business, and cut off human heads with as little feeling +as he would those of so many sheep. He picks up a little money by +exhibiting himself and his weapon of death. He brought out his sword +to show it to us. It was short and heavy, like a butcher's cleaver. I +took it in my hand, and felt of the blade. It was dull, and rusted +with stains of blood. He apologized for its appearance, but explained +that it had not been used recently, and added that whenever it was +needed for service, he sharpened it. I asked him how many heads he had +cut off. He did not know--had not kept count--but supposed some +hundreds. Sometimes there were "two or three tens"--that is, twenty or +thirty--at once. Rev. Mr. Preston told me he had seen forty cut off in +one morning. Dr. Williams had such a horror of blood that he could +never be present at an execution, but he one day saw nearly two +hundred headless trunks lying here, with their heads, which had just +been severed from the bodies, scattered over the ground. Mr. Preston +had seen heads piled up six feet high. It ought to be said, however, +that in ordinary times no criminal convicted of a capital offence can +be executed anywhere in the province (which is a district of nearly +eighty thousand square miles, with twenty millions of inhabitants) +except in Canton, and with the cognizance of the governor. + +The carnival of blood was during the Taiping rebellion in 1855. That +rebellion invaded this province; it had possession of Whampoa, and +even endangered Canton. When it was suppressed, it was stamped out in +blood. There were executions by wholesale. All who had taken part in +it were sentenced to death, and as the insurgents were numbered by +tens of thousands, the work went on for days and weeks and months. The +stream of blood never ceased to flow. The rebels were brought up the +river in boat-loads. The magistrates in the villages of the province +were supposed to have made an examination. It was enough that they +were found with arms in their hands. There were no prisons which could +hold such an army, and the only way to deal with them was to execute +them. Accordingly every day a detachment was marched out to the +execution ground, where forty or fifty men would be standing with +coffins, to receive and carry off the bodies. They were taken out of +the city by a certain gate, and here Dr. Williams engaged a man to +count them as they passed, and thus he kept the fearful roll of the +dead; and comparing it with the published lists he found the number +executed in fourteen months to be eighty-one thousand! An Aceldama +indeed! It is not, then, too much to say that taking the years +together, within this narrow ground blood enough has been shed to +float the Great Eastern. + +But decapitation is a simple business compared with that which the +executioner has sometimes to perform. I observed standing against the +wall some half a dozen rude crosses, made of bamboo, which reminded me +that death is sometimes inflicted by crucifixion. This mode of +punishment is reserved for the worst malefactors. They are not nailed +to the cross to die a lingering death, but lashed to it by ropes, and +then slowly strangled or cut to pieces. The executioner explained +coolly how he first cut out an eye, or sliced off a piece of the cheek +or the breast, and so proceeded deliberately, till with one tremendous +stroke the body was cleft in twain. + +Thus Chinese law illustrates its idea of punishment, which is to +inflict it with tremendous rigor. It not only holds to capital +punishment, but sometimes makes a man in dying suffer a thousand +deaths. A gentleman at Fuhchau told me that he had seen a criminal +starved to death. A man who had robbed a woman, using violence, was +put into a cage in a public place, with his head out of a hole, +exposed to the sun, and his body extended, and there left to die by +inches. The foreign community were horror-struck; the consuls +protested against it, but in vain. He lingered four days before death +came to put an end to his agony. There were about twenty so punished +at Canton in 1843, for incendiarism. + +We shudder at these harrowing tales of "man's inhumanity to man." But +we must not take the pictures of these terrible scenes, as if they +were things which stare in the eyes of all beholders, or which give +the fairest impression of Chinese law; as if this were a country in +which there is nothing but suffering and crime. On the contrary, it is +pre-eminently a land of peace and order. The Chinese are a law-abiding +people. Because a few hundred bad men are found in a city of a million +inhabitants, and punished with severity, we must not suppose that this +is a lawless community. Those who would charge this, may at least be +called on to point out a better-governed city in Europe. + +This fearful Draconian code can at least claim that it is successful +in suppressing crime. The law is a terror to evil-doers. The proof of +this is that order is so well preserved. This great city of Canton is +as quiet, and life and property are as safe, as in London or New York. +Yet it is done with no display of force. There is no obtrusion of the +police or the military, as in Paris or Vienna. The gates of the city +are shut at night, and the Tartar soldiers make their rounds; but the +armed hand is not always held up before the public eye. The Chinese +Government has learned to make its authority respected without the +constant display of military power. + +The Chinese are the most industrious people on the face of the earth, +for only by constant and universal industry can a population of four +hundred millions live. When such masses of human beings are crowded +together, the struggle for existence is so great, that it is only by +keeping the millions of hands busy that food can be obtained for the +millions of mouths. The same necessity enforces peace with each other, +and therefore from necessity, as well as from moral considerations, +this has been the policy of China from the beginning. Its whole +political economy, taught long since by Confucius, is contained in two +words--Industry and Peace. By an adherence to these simple principles, +the Empire has held together for thousands of years, while every other +nation has gone to pieces. China has never been an aggressive nation, +given to wars of conquest. It has indeed attempted to subdue the +tribes of Central Asia, and holds a weak sway over Turkistan and +Thibet; while Corea and Loochoo and Annam still acknowledge a kind of +fealty, now long since repudiated by Burmah and Siam. But in almost +all cases it has "stooped to conquer," and been satisfied with a sort +of tribute, instead of attempting roughly to enforce its authority, +which would lead to perpetual wars. Thus has China followed the lesson +of Confucius, furnishing the most stupendous example on the face of +the earth of the advantage to nations of industry and peace. + +The reason for this general respect and obedience to law may be found +in another fact, which is to the immortal honor of the Chinese. It is +the respect and obedience to parents. In China the family is the +foundation of the state; and the very first law of society, as well as +of religion, is: "Honor thy father and mother." In no country in the +world is this law so universally obeyed. The preservation of China +amid the wreck of other kingdoms is largely due to its respect to the +Fifth Commandment, which has proved literally "a commandment with +promise;"--the promise, "that thy days may be long in the land which +the Lord thy God giveth thee," having been fulfilled in the +preservation of this country from age to age. + +As a consequence of this respect to parents, which imposes an +authority over children, and binds them together, the family feeling +in China is very strong. This, however noble in itself, has some evil +effects, as it often separates the people of a town or village by +feuds and divisions, which are as distinct, and as jealous and +hostile, as the old Highland clans in Scotland. This interferes with +the administration of justice. If a crime is committed, all of one's +clan are in league to screen and protect the offender, while the rival +clan is as eager to pursue and destroy him. Woe to the man who is +accused, and who has no friend! But the disposition to stand by each +other manifests itself in many acts of mutual helpfulness, of devotion +and personal sacrifice. + +Carrying out the same idea, the nation is only a larger family, and +the government a patriarchal despotism. There is no representative +government, no Congress or Parliament; and yet there is a kind of +local government, like that of our New England towns. Every village is +governed by "elders," who are responsible for its police, who look +after rascals, and who also aid in assessing the taxes for the local +and general governments. By this union of a great central power with +local administration of local affairs, the government has managed to +hold together hundreds of millions of human beings, and make its +authority respected over a large part of Asia. + +This family feeling moulds even the religion of China, which takes the +form of a worship of ancestors. Those who have given them existence +are not lost when they have ceased to breathe. They are still the +links of being by which, and through which, the present living world +came from the hand of the Creator, and are to be reverenced with a +devotion next to that felt for the Author of being himself. Their +memory is still cherished. Every household has its objects of +devotion; every dwelling has its shrine sacred to the memory of the +dead; and no temple or pagoda is more truly holy ground than the +cemeteries, often laid out on hill-sides, where reposes the dust of +former generations. To these they make frequent pilgrimages. Every +year the Emperor of China goes in state to visit the tombs of his +ancestors. The poor emigrant who leaves for America or Australia, +gives a part of his earnings, so that, in case of death, his body +shall be brought back to China to sleep in the soil that contains the +dust of his ancestors. Thus the living are joined to the dead; and +those who have vanished from the earth, from the silent hills where +they sleep, still rule the most populous kingdom of the world. + +One cannot leave China without a word in regard to its relations with +other countries. In this respect a great change has taken place within +this generation. The old exclusiveness is broken down. This has come +by war, and war which had not always a justifiable origin, however +good may have been its effects. The opium war in 1841 is not a thing +to be remembered by England with pride. The cause of that war was an +attempt by the Chinese government in 1839 to prevent the English +importation of opium. Never did a government make a more determined +effort to remove a terrible curse that was destroying its population. +Seeing the evil in all its enormity, it roused itself like a strong +man to shake it off. It imposed heavy penalties on the use of opium, +even going so far as to put some to death. But what could it do so +long as foreigners were selling opium in Canton, right before its +eyes? It resolved to break up the trade, to stop the importation. As a +last resort, it drew a cordon around the factories of the foreign +merchants, and brought them to terms by a truly Eastern strategy. It +did not attack them, nor touch a hair of their heads; but it assumed +that it had at least the right to exercise its authority over its own +people, by forbidding them to have any intercourse with foreigners. +Immediately every Chinese servant left them. No man could be had, for +love or money, to render them any service, or even to sell them food. +Thus they were virtually prisoners. This state of siege lasted about +six weeks. At the end of that time the British merchants surrendered +all the opium, at the order of their consular chief, Charles Elliot, +for him to hand it over to the Chinese; it amounted to 20,283 chests +(nearly three million pounds in weight), mostly on board ship at the +time. The Chinese received it at the mouth of the river, near the +Bogue Forts, and there destroyed it, by throwing it overboard, as our +fathers destroyed the tea in Boston harbor. To make sure work of it, +lest it should be recovered and used, they broke open the chests and +mixed it thoroughly with salt water. As it dissolved in the sea, it +killed great quantities of fish, but that opium at least never killed +any Chinamen. + +This brought on war. Much has been said of other causes, but no one +familiar with affairs in the East doubts that the controlling motive +was a desire to force upon China the trade in opium which is one chief +source of the revenue of India. + +The war lasted two years, and ended in a complete victory for the +foreigners. The Bogue Forts were bombarded, and foreign ships forced +their way up the river. Canton was ransomed just as it was to have +been attacked, but Amoy, Ningpo, Shanghai, and Chinkiang were +assaulted and captured. The war was finally terminated in 1842 by a +treaty, by the terms of which China paid to England six millions of +dollars for the opium which had been destroyed, and opened five ports +to foreign trade. This, though a gain to European and Indian commerce, +was a heavy blow to Canton, which, instead of being the only open +port, was but one of five. The trade, which before had been +concentrated here, now spread along the coast to Amoy, Fuhchau, +Ningpo, and Shanghai. + +But the Ruler of Nations brings good out of evil. Wrong as was the +motive of the opium war, it cannot be doubted that sooner or later war +must have come from the attitude of China toward European nations. For +ages it had maintained a policy of exclusiveness. The rest of the +world were "outside barbarians." It repelled their advances, not only +with firmness, but almost with insult. While keeping this attitude of +resistance, as foreign commerce was continually knocking at its doors, +a collision was inevitable. Recognizing this, we cannot but regret +that it should have occurred for a cause in which China was in the +right, and England in the wrong. + +In the wars of England and France with China, Europe has fought with +Asia, and has gotten the victory. Will it be content with what it has +gained, or will it press still further, and force China to the wall? +This is the question which I heard asked everywhere in Eastern Asia. +The English merchants find their interests thwarted by the obstinate +conservatism of the Chinese, and would be glad of an opportunity for a +naval or military demonstration--an occasion which the Chinese are +very careful not to give. There is an English fleet at Hong Kong, a +few hours' sail from Canton. The admiral who was to take command came +out with us on the steamer from Singapore. He was a gallant seaman, +and seemed like a man who would not willingly do injustice; and yet I +think his English blood would rise at the prospect of glory, if he +were to receive an order from London to transfer his fleet to the +Canton River, and lay it abreast of the city, or to force his way up +the Pei-ho. The English merchants would hail such an appearance in +these waters. Not content with the fifteen ports which they have now, +they want the whole of China opened to trade. But the Chinese think +they have got enough of it, and to any further invasion oppose a +quiet but steady resistance. The English are impatient. They want to +force an entrance, and to introduce not only the goods of Manchester, +but all the modern improvements--to have railroads all over China, as +in India, and steamers on all the rivers; and they think it very +unreasonable that the Chinese object. But there is another side to +this question. Such changes would disturb the whole internal commerce +of China. They would throw out of employment, not thousands nor tens +of thousands, but millions, who would perish in such an economical and +industrial revolution as surely as by the waters of a deluge. An +English missionary at Canton told me that it would not be possible to +make any sudden changes, such as would be involved in the general +introduction of railroads, or of labor-saving machines in place of the +labor of human hands, without inflicting immense suffering. There are +millions of people who now keep their heads just above water, and that +by standing on their toes and stretching their necks, who would be +drowned if it should rise an inch higher. The least agitation of the +waters, and they would be submerged. Can we wonder that they hesitate +to be sacrificed, and beg their government to move slowly? + +America has had no part in the wars with China, although it is said +that in the attack on the forts at the mouth of the Pei-ho, when the +English ships were hard pressed, American sailors went on board of one +of them, and volunteered to serve at the guns, whether from pure love +of the excitement of battle, or because they felt, as Commodore +Tatnall expressed it, that "blood was thicker than water," is not +recorded.[12] American sailors and soldiers will never be wanting in +any cause which concerns their country's interest and honor. But +hitherto it has been our good fortune to come into no armed collision +with the Chinese, and hence the American name is in favor along the +coast. Our country is represented, not so much by ships of war as by +merchants and missionaries. The latter, though few in number, by their +wisdom as well as zeal, have done much to conciliate favor and command +respect. They are not meddlers nor mischief-makers. They do not belong +to the nation that has forced opium upon China, though often obliged +to hear the taunt that is hurled against the whole of the +English-speaking race. In their own quiet spheres, they have labored +to diffuse knowledge and to exhibit practical Christianity. They have +opened schools and hospitals, as well as churches. In Canton, a +generation ago, Dr. Peter Parker opened a hospital, which is still +continued, and which receives about nine hundred every year into its +wards, besides some fifteen thousand who are treated at the doors. For +twenty years it was in charge of Dr. Kerr, who nearly wore himself out +in his duties; and is now succeeded by Dr. Carrow, a young physician +who left a good practice in Jersey City to devote himself to this +work. Hundreds undergo operation for the stone--a disease quite common +in the South, but which Chinese surgery is incompetent to treat--and +who are here rescued from a lingering death. That is the way American +Christianity should be represented in China. In Calcutta I saw the +great opium ships bound for Hong Kong. Let England have a monopoly of +that trade, but let America come to China with healing in one hand and +the Gospel in the other. + +Nor is this all which American missionaries have done. They have +rendered a service--not yet noticed as it should be--to literature, +and in preparing the way for the intercourse of China with other +nations. An American missionary, Dr. Martin, is President of the +University at Peking, established by the government. Dr. S. Wells +Williams, in the more than forty years of his residence in China, has +prepared a Chinese-English Dictionary, which I heard spoken of +everywhere in the East as the best in existence. In other ways his +knowledge of the language and the people has been of service both to +China and to America, during his twenty-one years' connection with the +Legation. And if American diplomacy has succeeded in gaining many +substantial advantages for our country, while it has skilfully avoided +wounding the susceptibilities of the Chinese, the success is due in no +small degree to this modest American missionary. + +De Quincey said if he were to live in China, he should go mad. No +wonder. The free English spirit could not be so confined. There is +something in this enormous population, weighed down with the +conservatism of ages, that oppresses the intellect. It is a forced +stagnation. China is a boundless and a motionless ocean. Its own +people may not feel it, but one accustomed to the free life of Europe +looks upon it as a vast Dead Sea, in whose leaden waters nothing can +live. + +But even this Dead Sea is beginning to stir with life. There is a +heaving, as when the Polar Ocean breaks up, and the liberated waves +sweep far and wide-- + + "Swinging low with sullen roar." + +Such is the sound which is beginning to be heard on all the shores of +Asia. Since foreigners have begun to come into China, the Chinese go +abroad more than ever before. There is developed a new spirit of +emigration. Not only do they come to California, but go to Australia, +and to all the islands of Southern Asia. They are the most +enterprising as well as the most industrious of emigrants. They have +an extraordinary aptitude for commerce. They are in the East what the +Jews are in other parts of the world--the money-changers, the +mercantile class, the petty traders; and wherever they come, they are +sure to "pick up" and to "go ahead." Who can put bounds to such a +race, that not content with a quarter of Asia, overflows so much of +the remaining parts of the Eastern hemisphere? + +On our Pacific Coast the Chinese have appeared as yet only as laborers +and servants, or as attempting the humblest industries. Their +reception has not been such as we can regard with satisfaction and +pride. Poor John Chinaman! Patient toiler on the railroad or in the +mine, yet doomed to be kicked about in the land whose prosperity he +has done so much to promote. There is something very touching in his +love for his native country--a love so strong that he desires even in +death to be carried back to be buried in the land which gave him +birth. Some return living, only to tell of a treatment in strange +contrast with that which our countrymen have received in China, as +well as in violation of the solemn obligations of treaties. We cannot +think of this cruel persecution but with indignation at our country's +shame. + +No one can visit China without becoming interested in the country and +its people. There is much that is good in the Chinese, in their +patient industry, and in their strong domestic feeling. Who can but +respect a people that honor their fathers and mothers in a way to +furnish an example to the whole Christian world? who indeed exaggerate +their reverence to such a degree that they even worship their +ancestors? The mass of the people are miserably poor, but they do not +murmur at their lot. They take it patiently, and even cheerfully; for +they see in it a mixture of dark and bright. In their own beautiful +and poetical saying: "The moon shines bright amid the firs." May it +not only shine through the gloom of deep forests, but rise higher and +higher, till it casts a flood of light over the whole Eastern sky! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[12] As this incident has excited a great deal of interest, I am happy +to give it as it occurred from an eye-witness. One who was on board of +Commodore Tatnall's ship writes: + +"I was present at the battle in the Pei-ho in 1859, and know all the +particulars. Admiral Hope having been wounded, was urged to bring up +the marines before sunset, and sent his aid down to take them off the +three junks, where they were waiting at the mouth of the river. The +aid came on board the "Toeywan" to see Commodore Tatnall, tell him the +progress of the battle, and what he had been sent down for, adding +that, as the tide was running out, it would be hard work getting up +again. As he went on, Tatnall began to get restless, and turning to me +(I sat next), said: 'Blood is thicker than water; I don't care if they +do take away my commission.' Then turning to his own flag-lieutenant +at the other end of the table, he said aloud: 'Get up steam;' and +everything was ready for a start in double-quick time. When all was +prepared, the launches, full of marines, were towed into action by the +"Toeywan"; and casting them off, the Commodore left in his barge to go +on board the British flag-ship, to see the wounded Admiral. On the way +his barge was hit, his coxswain killed, and the rest just managed to +get on board the "Lee" before their boat sunk, owing their lives +probably to his presence of mind. It was only the men in this boat's +crew who helped to work the British guns. I suppose Tatnall never +meant his words to be repeated, but Hope's aid overheard them, and +thus immortalized them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THREE WEEKS IN JAPAN. + + +We left Hong Kong on the 15th of May, just one year from the day that +we sailed from New York on our journey around the world. As we +completed these twelve months, we embarked on our twelfth voyage. +After being so long on foreign ships--English and French and Dutch: +Austrian Lloyds and Messageries Maritimes--it was pleasant to be at +last on one that bore the flag of our country, and bore it so proudly +as "The City of Peking." As we stepped on her deck, and looked up at +the stars above us, we felt that we were almost on the soil of our +country. As we were now approaching America, though still over six +thousand miles away, and nearly ten thousand from New York, we thought +it was time to telegraph that we were coming, but found that "the +longest way round was the nearest way home." The direct cable across +the Bay of Bengal, from Penang to Madras, was broken, and the message +had to go by Siberia. It seemed indeed a long, long way, but the +lightning regards neither space nor time. Swift as thought the message +flew up the coast of China to Siberia, and then across the whole +breadth of two continents, Asia and Europe, and dived under the +Atlantic, to come up on the shores of America. + +The harbor of Hong Kong was gay with ships decorated with flags, and +the British fleet was still firing salutes, which seemed to be its +daily pastime, as the City of Peking began to move. With a grand sweep +she circled round the bay, and then running swiftly into a winding +passage among islands, through which is the entrance to the harbor, +steamed out on the broad Pacific. + +We had intended to go to Shanghai, and through the Inland Sea of +Japan, but we sacrificed even such a pleasure (or rather left it till +the next time) to take advantage of this noble ship, that was bound +direct for Yokohama. Our course took us through the Channel of +Formosa, in full sight of the island, which has had an unenviable +notoriety from the treatment of the crews of ships wrecked on its +inhospitable coast. Leaving it far behind, in six days we were running +along the shores of Japan, and might have seen the snowy head of +Fusiyama, had it not been wrapped in clouds. The next morning we left +behind the long roll of the Pacific, and entered the Bay of Yedo--a +gulf fifty miles deep, whose clear, sparkling waters shone in the +sunlight. Fishing-boats were skimming the tranquil surface. The +Japanese are born to the sea. All around the coast they live upon it, +and are said to derive from it one-third of their subsistence. The +shores, sloping from the water's edge, are sprinkled with Japanese +villages. Some thirty miles from the sea we pass Mississippi Bay, so +called from the flag-ship of Commodore Perry, which lay here with his +fleet while he was conducting the negotiations for the opening of +Japan; the headland above it bears the name of Treaty Point. Rounding +this point, we see before us in the distance a forest of shipping, and +soon cast anchor in the harbor of Yokohama. + +Yokohama has a pleasant look from the sea, an impression increased as +we are taken off in a boat, and landed on the quay--a sea wall, which +keeps out the waves, and furnishes a broad terrace for the front of +the town. Here is a wide street called "The Bund," on which stand the +principal hotels. From our rooms we look out directly on the harbor. +Among the steamers from foreign ports, are a number of ships of war, +among which is the Tennessee, the flagship of our Asiatic squadron, +bearing the broad pennant of Admiral Reynolds, whom we had known in +America, and indeed had bidden good-by at our own door, as we stepped +into the carriage to drive to the steamer. We parted, hoping to meet +in Asia, a wish which was now fulfilled. He was very courteous to us +during our stay, sending his boat to bring us on board, and coming +often with his excellent wife to see us on shore. It gave us a +pleasant feeling of nearness to home, to have a great ship full of our +countrymen close at hand. + +In the rear of the town the hill which overlooks the harbor, bears the +foreign name of "The Bluff." Here is quite an American colony, +including several missionary families, in which we became very much at +home before we left Japan. + +Yokohama has an American newness and freshness. It is only a few years +since it has come into existence as a place of any importance. It was +only a small fishing village until the opening of Japan, since which +it has become the chief port of foreign commerce. It is laid out in +convenient streets, which are well paved, and kept clean, and +altogether the place has a brisk and lively air, as of some new and +thriving town in our own country. + +But just at this moment we are not so much interested to see American +improvements as to see the natives on their own soil. Here they are in +all their glory--pure-blooded Asiatics--and yet of a type that is not +Mongolian or Malayan or Indian. The Jap is neither a "mild Hindoo" nor +a "heathen Chinee." His hair is shaved from his head in a fashion +quite his own, making a sort of triangle on the crown; and no long +pigtail decorates his person behind. We recognize him at once, for +never was a human creature so exactly like his portrait. We see every +day the very same figures that we have seen all our lives on tea-cups +and saucers, and fans and boxes. Our first acquaintance with them was +as charioteers, in which they take the place, not of drivers, but of +horses; for the _jin-riki-sha_ (literally, a carriage drawn by man +power) has no other "team" harnessed to it. The vehicle is exactly +like a baby carriage, only made for "children of a larger growth." It +is simply an enlarged perambulator, on two wheels, drawn by a coolie; +and when one takes his seat in it, he cannot help feeling at first as +if he were a big baby, whom his nurse had tucked up and was taking out +for an airing. But one need not be afraid of it, lest he break down +the carriage, or tire out the steed that draws it. No matter how great +your excellency may be, the stout fellow will take up the thills, +standing where the pony or the donkey ought to be, and trot off with +you at a good pace, making about four miles an hour. At first the +impression was irresistibly ludicrous, and we laughed at ourselves to +see what a ridiculous figure we cut. Indeed we did not quite recover +our sobriety during the three weeks that we were in Japan. But after +all it is a very convenient way of getting about, and one at least is +satisfied that his horses will not run away, though he must not be too +sure of that, for I sometimes felt, especially when going down hill, +that they had got loose, and would land me with a broken head at the +bottom. + +But Yokohama is only the gate of Yedo (or Tokio, as it is the fashion +to call it now, but I keep to the old style as more familiar), of +which we had read even in our school geographies as one of the most +populous cities of Asia. The access is very easy, for it is only +eighteen miles distant, and there is a railroad, so that it is but an +hour's ride. While on our way that morning, we had our first sight of +Fusiyama. Though seventy miles distant, its dome of snow rose on the +horizon sharp and clear, like the Jungfrau at Interlachen. + +Arrived at Yedo, the station was surrounded by _jinrikishas_, whose +masters were kept in better order than the cabmen of New York. Wishing +to appear in the capital with proper dignity, we took two men instead +of one, so that each had a full team; and fine young bloods they were, +full of spirit, that fairly danced with us along the street, in such +gay fashion that my clerical garb was hardly sufficient to preserve +my clerical character. We first trotted off to the American +Minister's, Mr. Bingham's, who received us with all courtesy, and sent +for the interpreter of the Legation, Rev. Mr. Thompson, an American +missionary, who kindly offered to be our guide about the city, and +gave up the day to us. With such a cicerone, we started on our rounds. +He took us first to what is called the Summer Palace, though it is not +a palace at all, but only a park, to which the Mikado comes once in a +while to take his royal pleasure. There are a few rest-houses +scattered about, where one, whether king or commoner, might find +repose; or strolling under the shade of trees, and looking off upon +the tranquil sea. Next we rode to the Tombs of the Tycoons, where, +under gilded shrines, beneath temples and pagodas, sleep the royal +dead. The grounds are large and the temples exquisitely finished, with +the fine lacquer work for which the Japanese are famous; so that we +had to take off our shoes, and step very softly over the polished +floors. Riding on through endless streets, our friend took us to a +hill, ascended by a long flight of steps, on the top of which, in an +open space, stood a temple, an arbor, and a tea-house. This point +commands an extensive view of Yedo. It is a city of magnificent +distances, spreading out for miles on every side; and yet, except for +its extent, it is not at all imposing, for it is, like Canton, a mere +wilderness of houses, relieved by no architectural magnificence--not a +single lofty tower or dome rising above the dead level. But, unlike +Canton, the city has very broad streets, sometimes crossed by a river +or a canal, spanned by high, arched bridges. The principal business +street is much wider than Broadway, but it has not a shop along its +whole extent that would make any show even in "The Bowery." The houses +are built only one story high, because of earthquakes which are +frequent in Japan, caused, as the people believe, by a huge fish which +lies under the island, and that shakes it whenever he tosses his head +or lashes his tail. The houses are of such slight construction that +they burn like tinder; and it is not surprising that the city is often +swept by destructive fires. But if the whole place were thus swept +away, or if it were shaken to pieces by an earthquake in the night, +the people would pick themselves up in the morning and restore their +dwellings, with not much more difficulty than soldiers, whose tents +had been blown down by the wind, would find in pitching them again and +making another camp. Some of the government buildings are of more +stately proportions, and there are open grounds in certain quarters of +the city, adorned with magnificent trees, like the ancient oaks which +cast their shadows on the smooth-shaven lawns of England, and give to +English parks such an air of dignity and repose. + +The Castle of the late Tycoon, which may be said to be the heart of +the city, around which it clusters, is more of a fortress than a +palace. There is an immense enclosure surrounded by a deep moat (whose +sides are very pretty, banked with rich green turf), and with +picturesque old towers standing at intervals along the walls. In the +rear of the grounds of the old Castle is the much less ambitious +residence of the Mikado, where he is duly guarded, though he does not +now, as formerly, keep himself invisible, as if he were a divinity +descended from the skies, who in mysterious seclusion ruled the +affairs of men. + +By this time we were a little weary of sight-seeing, and drew up at a +Japanese tea-house, to take our tiffin. The place was as neat as a +pin, and the little maids came out to receive us, and bowed themselves +to the ground, touching the earth with their foreheads, in token of +the great honor that had come to their house--homage that we received +with becoming dignity, and went on our way rejoicing. + +The pleasantest sights that we saw to-day were two which showed the +awakened intelligence and spirit of progress among the people. These +were the Government College, with two hundred students, manned in part +by American professors (where we found our countryman Dr. Veeder in +his lecture-room, performing experiments); and an old Temple of +Confucius which has been turned into a library and reading-room. Here +was a large collection of books and periodicals, many from foreign +countries, over which a number of persons were quietly but studiously +engaged. The enclosure was filled with grand old trees, and had the +air of an academic grove, whose silent shades were devoted to study +and learning. + +After this first visit to the capital, we took a week for an excursion +into the interior, which gave us a sight of the country and of +Japanese life. This we could not have made with any satisfaction but +for our friends the missionaries. They kindly sketched the outlines of +a trip to the base of Fusiyama, seventy miles from Yedo. It was very +tempting, but what could we do without guides or interpreters? We +should be lost like babes in the wood. It occurred to us that such a +journey might do _them_ good. Dr. Brown and Dr. Hepburn, the oldest +missionaries in Japan, had been closely confined for months in +translating the Scriptures, and needed some relief. A little country +air would give them new life; so we invited them to be our guests, and +we would make a week of it. We finally prevailed upon them to "come +apart and rest awhile," not in a "desert," but in woodland shades, +among the mountains and by the sea. Their wives came with them, +without whom their presence would have given us but half the pleasure +it did. Thus encompassed and fortified with the best of companions, +with a couple of English friends, we made a party of eight, which, +with the usual impedimenta of provisions and a cook, and extra shawls +and blankets, required eleven _jinrikishas_, with two men harnessed to +each, making altogether quite a grand cavalcade, as we sallied forth +from Yokohama on a Monday noon in "high feather." To our staid +missionary friends it was an old story; but to us, strangers in the +land, it was highly exciting to be thus starting off into the interior +of Japan. The country around Yokohama is hilly and broken. Our way +wound through a succession of valleys rich with fields of rice and +barley, while along the roads shrubberies, which at home are +cultivated with great care, grew in wild profusion--the wisteria, the +honeysuckle, and the eglantine. The succession of hill and valley gave +to the country a variety and beauty which, with the high state of +cultivation, reminded us of Java. As we mounted the hills we had +glimpses of the sea, for we were skirting along the Bay of Yedo. After +a few miles we came to an enchanting spot, which bears the ambitious +title of the Plains of Heaven, yet which is not heaven, and is not +even a plain--but a rolling country, in which hill and valley are +mingled together, with the purple mountains as a background on one +side and the blue waters on the other. + +As we rode along, I thought how significant was the simple fact of +such an excursion as this in a country, where a few years ago no +foreigner's life was safe. On this very road, less than ten years +since, an Englishman was cut down for no other crime than that of +being a foreigner, and getting in the way of the high daimio who was +passing. And now we jogged along as quietly, and with as little +apprehension, as if we were riding through the villages of New +England. + +On our way lies a town which once bore a great name, Kamakura, where +nine centuries ago lived the great Yoritomo, the Napoleon of his day, +the founder of the military rule in the person of the Shogun (or +Tycoon, a title but lately assumed), as distinguished from that of the +Mikado. Here he made his capital, which was afterwards removed, and +about three hundred years since fixed in Yedo; and Kamakura is left, +like other decayed capitals, to live on the recollections of its +former greatness. But no change can take away its natural beauty, in +its sheltered valley near the sea. + +A mile beyond, we came to the colossal image of Dai-Buts, or Great +Buddha. It is of bronze, and though in a sitting posture, is +forty-four feet high. The hands are crossed upon the knees. We crawled +up into his lap, and five of us sat side by side on his thumbs. We +even went inside, and climbed up into his head, and proved by +inspection that these idols, however colossal and imposing without, +are empty within. There are no brains within their brazen skulls. The +expression of the face is the same as in all statues of Buddha: that +of repose--passive, motionless--as of one who had passed through the +struggles of life, and attained to Nirvana, the state of perfect calm, +which is the perfection of heavenly beatitude. + +It was now getting towards sunset, and we had still five or six miles +to go before we reached our resting-place for the night. As this was +the last stage in the journey, our fleet coursers seemed resolved to +show us what they could do. They had cast off all their garments, +except a cloth around their loins, and straw sandals on their feet, so +that they were stripped like Roman gladiators, and they put forth a +speed as if racing in the arena. A connoisseur would admire their +splendid physique. Their bodies were tattooed, like South Sea +Islanders, which set out in bolder relief, as in savage warriors, +their muscular development--their broad chests and brawny limbs. With +no stricture of garments to bind them, their limbs were left free for +motion. It was a study to see how they held themselves erect. With +heads and chests thrown back, they balanced themselves perfectly. The +weight of the carriage seemed nothing to them; they had only to keep +in motion, and it followed. Thus we came rushing into the streets of +Fujisawa, and drew up before the tea-house, where lodgings had been +ordered for the night. The whole family turned out to meet us, the +women falling on their knees, and bowing their heads till they touched +the floor, in homage to the greatness of their guests. + +And now came our first experience of a Japanese tea-house. If the +_jin-riki-sha_ is like a baby carriage, the tea-house is like a baby +house. It is small, built entirely of wood with sliding partitions, +which can be drawn, like screens, to enclose any open space, and make +it into a room. These partitions are of paper, so that of course the +"chambers" are not very private. The same material is used for +windows, and answers very well, as it softens the light, like ground +glass. The house has always a veranda, so that the rooms are protected +from the sun by the overhanging roof. The bedrooms are very small, but +scrupulously clean, and covered with wadded matting, on which we lie +down to sleep. + +At Fujisawa is a temple, which is visited by the Mikado once or twice +in the year. We were shown through his private rooms, and one or two +of us even stretched ourselves upon his bed, which, however, was not a +very daring feat, as it was merely a strip of matting raised like a +low divan or ottoman, a few inches above the floor. The temples are +not imposing structures, and have no beauty except that of position. +They generally stand on a hill, and are approached by an avenue or a +long flight of steps, and the grounds are set out with trees, which +are left to grow till they sometimes attain a majestic height and +breadth. In front of this temple stands a tree, which we recognized by +its foliage as the _Salisburia adiantifolia_--a specimen of which we +had in America on our own lawn, but there it was a shrub brought from +the nursery, while here it was like a cedar of Lebanon. It was said to +be a thousand years old. Standing here, it was regarded as a sacred +tree, and we looked up to it with more reverence than to the sombre +temple behind, or the sleepy old bonzes who were sauntering idly about +the grounds. + +The next morning, as we started on our journey, we came upon the +Tokaido, the royal road of Japan, built hundreds of years ago from +Yedo to Kioto, to connect the political with the spiritual +capital--the residence of the Tycoon with that of the Mikado. It is +the highway along which the daimios came in state to pay their homage +to the Tycoon at Yedo, as of old subject-princes came to Rome. It is +constructed with a good deal of skill in engineering, which is shown +in carrying it over mountains, and in the building of bridges. +Portions of the road are paved with blocks of stone like the Appian +Way. But that which gives it a glory and majesty all its own, is its +bordering of gigantic cedars--the _Cryptomeria Japonica_--which attain +an enormous height, with gnarled and knotted limbs that have wrestled +with the storms of centuries. + +As we advance, the road comes out upon the sea, for we have crossed +the peninsula which divides the Bay of Yedo from the Pacific, and are +now on the shores of the ocean itself. How beautiful it seemed that +day! It was the last of May, and the atmosphere was full of the warmth +of early summer. The coast is broken by headlands shooting out into +the deep, which enclose bays, where the soft, warm sunshine lingers as +on the shores of the Mediterranean, and the waters of the mighty +Pacific come gently rippling up the beach. So twixt sea and land, +sunshine and shade, we sped gaily along to Odawara--another place +which was once the residence of a powerful chief, whose castle is +still there, though in ruins; its stones, if questioned of the past, +might tell a tale like that of one of the castles on the Rhine. These +old castles are the monuments of the same form of government, for the +Feudal System existed in Japan as in Germany. The kingdom was divided +into provinces, ruled by great daimios, who were like the barons of +the Middle Ages, each with his armed retainers, who might be called +upon to support the central government, yet who sometimes made war +upon it. This Feudal System is now completely destroyed. As we were +riding over the Tokaido, I pictured to myself the great pageants that +had swept along so proudly in the days gone by. What would those old +barons have thought if they could have seen in the future an +irruption of invaders from beyond the sea, and that even this king's +highway should one day be trodden by the feet of outside barbarians? + +At Odawara we dismissed our men, (who, as soon as they received their +money, started off for Yokohama,) as we had to try another mode of +transportation; for though we still kept the Tokaido, it ascends the +mountains so steeply that it is impassable for anything on wheels, and +we had to exchange the _jinrikisha_ for the _kago_--a kind of basket +made of bamboo, in which a man is doubled up and packed like a bundle, +and so carried on men's shoulders. It would not answer badly if he had +neither head nor legs. But his head is always knocking against the +ridge-pole, and his legs have to be twisted under him, or "tied up in +a bow-knot." This is the way in which criminals are carried to +execution in China; but for one who has any further use for his limbs, +it is not altogether agreeable. I lay passive for awhile, feeling as +if I had been packed and salted down in a pork-barrel. Then I began to +wriggle, and thrust out my head on one side and the other, and at last +had to confess, like the Irishman who was offered the privilege of +working his passage on a canal-boat and was set to leading a horse, +that "if it were not for the honor of the thing, I had as lief walk." +So I crawled out and unrolled myself, to see if my limbs were still +there, for they were so benumbed that I was hardly conscious of their +existence, and then straightening myself out, and taking a long bamboo +reed, which is light and strong, lithe and springy, for an alpenstock, +I started off with my companions. We all soon recovered our spirits, +and + + "Walked in glory and in joy + Along the mountain side," + +till at nightfall we halted in the village of Hakone, a mountain +retreat much resorted to by foreigners from Yedo and Yokohama. + +Here we might have been in the Highlands of Scotland, for we were in +the heart of mountains, and on the border of a lake. To make the +resemblance more perfect, a Scotch mist hung over the hills, and rain +pattered on the roof all night long, and half the next day. But at +noon the clouds broke, and we started on our journey. Dr. and Mrs. +Brown and Mrs. Hepburn kept to their baskets, and were borne a long +way round, while the rest of us were rowed across the lake, a +beautiful sheet of water, nestled among the hills, like Loch Katrine. +One of these hills is tunnelled for two miles, to carry the water +under it to irrigate the rice fields of some twenty villages. Landing +on the other side of the lake, we had before us a distance of eight or +ten miles. Our coolies stood ready to carry us, but all preferred the +freedom of their unfettered limbs. The mountain is volcanic, and on +the summit is a large space made desolate by frequent eruptions, out +of which issues smoke laden with the fumes of sulphur, and hot springs +throw off jets of steam, and boil and bubble, and hiss with a loud +noise, as if all the furies were pent up below, and spitting out their +rage through the fissures of the rocks. The side of the mountain is +scarred and torn, and yellow with sulphur, like the sides of Vesuvius. +The natives call the place Hell. It was rather an abrupt transition, +after crossing the Plains of Heaven a day or two before, to come down +so soon to the sides of the pit. + +Towards evening we came down into the village of Miya-no-shita (what +musical names these Japanese have!), where our friends were waiting +for us, and over a warm cup of tea talked over the events of the day. +This is a favorite resort, for its situation among the mountains, with +lovely walks on every side, and for its hot springs. Water is brought +into the hotel in pipes of bamboo, so hot that one is able to bear it +only after slowly dipping his feet into it, and thus sliding in by +degrees, when the sensation is as of being scalded alive. But it takes +the soreness out of one's limbs weary with a long day's tramp; and +after being steamed and boiled, we stretched ourselves on the clean +mats of the tea-house, and slept the sleep of innocence and peace. + +One cannot go anywhere in Japan without receiving a visit from the +people, who, being of a thrifty turn, seize the occasion of a +stranger's presence to drive a little trade. The skill of the Japanese +is quite marvellous in certain directions: They make everything _in +petto_, in miniature--the smallest earthenware; the tiniest cups and +saucers. In these mountain villages they work, like the Swiss, in +wooden-ware, and make exquisite and dainty little boxes and bureaus, +as if for dolls, yet with complete sets of drawers, which could not +but take the fancy of one who had little people at home waiting for +presents. Besides the temptation of such trinkets, who could resist +the insinuating manner of the women who brought them? The Japanese +women are not pretty. They might be, were it not for their odious +fashions. We have seen faces that would be quite handsome if left in +their native, unadorned beauty. But fashion rules the world in Japan +as in Paris. As soon as a woman is married her eyebrows are shaved +off, and her teeth blackened, so that she cannot open her mouth +without showing a row of ebony instead of ivory, which disfigures +faces that would be otherwise quite winning. It says a good deal for +their address, that with such a feature to repel, they can still be +attractive. This is owing wholly to their manners. The Japanese men +and women are a light-hearted race, and captivate by their gayety and +friendliness. The women were always in a merry mood. As soon as they +entered the room, before even a word was spoken, they began to giggle, +as if our appearance were very funny, or as if this were the quickest +way to be on good terms with us. The effect was irresistible. I defy +the soberest man to resist it, for as soon as your visitor laughs, you +begin to laugh from sympathy; and when you have got into a hearty +laugh together, you are already acquainted, and in friendly +relations, and the work of buying and selling goes on easily. They +took us captive in a few minutes. We purchased sparingly, thinking of +our long journey; but our English friends bought right and left, till +the next day they had to load two pack-horses with boxes to be carried +over the mountains to Yokohama. + +The next day was to bring the consummation of our journey, for then we +were to go up into a mountain and see the glory of the Lord. A few +miles distant is the summit of Otometoge, from which one obtains a +view of Fusiyama, looking full in his awful face. We started with +misgivings, for it had been raining, and the clouds still hung low +upon the mountains. Our way led through hamlets clustered together in +a narrow pass, like Alpine villages. As we wound up the ascent, we +often stopped to look back at the valley below, from which rose the +murmur of rushing waters, while the sides of the mountains were +clothed with forests. These rich landscapes gave such enchantment to +the scene as repaid us for all our weariness. At two o'clock we +reached the top, and rushed to the brow to catch the vision of +Fusiyama, but only to be disappointed. The mountain was there, but +clouds covered his hoary head. In vain we watched and waited; still +the monarch hid his face. Clouds were round about the throne. The +lower ranges stood in full outline, but the heaven-piercing dome, or +pyramid of snow, was wrapped in its misty shroud. That for which we +had travelled seventy miles, we could not see at last. + +Is it not often so in life? The moments that we have looked forward to +with highest expectations, are disappointing when they come. We cross +the seas, and journey far, to reach some mount of vision, when lo! the +sight that was to reward us is hidden from our eyes; while our highest +raptures come to us unsought, perhaps in visions of the night. + +But our toilsome climb was not unrewarded. Below us lay a broad, deep +valley, to which the rice fields gave a vivid green, dotted with +houses and villages, which were scattered over the middle distance, +and even around the base of Fusiyama himself. Drinking in the full +loveliness of the scene, we turned to descend, and after a three +hours' march, footsore and weary, entered our Alpine village of +Miya-no-shita. + +The next morning we set out to return. Had the day shone bright and +clear, we should have been tempted to renew our ascent of the day +before. But as the clouds were still over the sky, we reluctantly +turned away. Taking another route from that by which we came, we +descended a deep valley, and winding around the heights which we had +crossed before, at eleven o'clock reentered Odawara. + +And now we had done with our marching and our kagos, and once more +took to our chariots, which drew up to the door--the men not exactly +saddled and bridled, but stripped for the race, with no burden added +to the burden of the flesh which they had to carry. A crowd collected +to see us depart, and looked on admiringly as we went dashing through +the long street of Odawara, and out upon the Tokaido. Our way, as +before, led by the sea, which was in no tempestuous mood, but calm and +tranquil, as if conscious that the summer was born. The day was not +too warm, for the clouds that were flying over the sky shielded us +from the direct rays of the sun; yet as we looked out now and then, +the giant trees cast their shadows across our path. An American poet +sings: + + "What is so rare as a day in June?" + +Surely nothing could be _more_ rare or fair; but even the sky and the +soft Summer air seemed more full of exquisite sensations to the +strangers who were that day rolling along the shores of the Pacific, +under the mighty cedars of the Tokaido. + +Once more I was surprised and delighted at the agility and swiftness +of the men who drew our _jin-riki-shas_. As we had but twenty-three +miles to go in the afternoon, we took it easily, and gave them first +only a gentle trot of five miles to get their limbs a little supple, +and then stopped for tiffin. Some of the men had on a loose jacket +when we started, besides the girdle about the loins. This they took +off and wrung out, for they were dripping with sweat, and wiped their +brawny chests and limbs, and then took their chopsticks and applied +themselves to their rice, while we went upstairs in the tea-house, and +had our soup and other dishes served to us, sitting on the floor like +Turks, and then stretched ourselves on the mats, weary with our +morning's walk, and even with the motion of riding. While we were +trying to get a little rest our men talked and laughed in the court +below as if it were child's play to take us over the road. As we +resumed our places and turned out of the yard, I had the curiosity to +"time" their speed. I had a couple of athletic fellows, who thought me +a mere feather in weight, and made me spin like a top as they bowled +along. They started off at an easy trot, which they kept up, without +breaking, mile after mile. I did not need to crack the whip, but at +the word, away they flew through villages and over the open country, +never stopping, but when they came to slightly rising ground, rushing +up like mettlesome horses, and down at full speed. Thus they kept on, +and never drew rein till they came to the bank of a river, which had +to be crossed in a boat. I took out my watch. It was an hour and a +quarter, and they had come seven miles and a half! This was doing +pretty well. Of course they could not keep this up all day; yet they +will go thirty miles from sunrise to sunset, and even forty, if +spurred to it by a little extra pay. Sometimes, indeed, they go even +at a still greater speed for a short distance. The first evening, as +we came into Fujisawa, I do not doubt that the last fifteen minutes +they were going at a speed of ten miles an hour, for they came in on a +run. This is magnificent, but I cannot think it very healthful +exercise. As gymnasts and prize-fighters grow old and die before their +time, so with these human racehorses. Dr. Hepburn says it exhausts +them very early; that they break down with disease of the heart or +lungs. They are very liable to rheumatism. This is partly owing to +their carelessness. They get heated, and then expose their naked +bodies to drafts of cold air, which of course stiffens their limbs, so +that an old runner becomes like a foundered horse. But even with all +care, the fatigue is very exhausting, and often brings on diseases +which take them off in their prime. Yet you cannot restrain their +speed, any more than that of colts that have never been broken. I +often tried to check them, but they "champed at the bit," and after a +few vain remonstrances I had to give it up, and "let them slide." + +We did not stop at Fujisawa, where we had slept before, for it is a +large and noisy town, but pushed on three miles farther, across a +sandy beach to Enoshima, a little fishing village, which stands on a +point of land jutting out into the sea, so that at high tide it is an +island, and at low tide a peninsula. Indeed, it is not much more than +a projecting rock of a few hundred acres, rising high out of the +waters, and covered thickly with groves of trees, among which are +several Buddhist temples. As we strolled along the top of the cliffs +at sunset, there were a dozen points of view where we could sit under +the shade of trees a hundred feet above the waves, as on the cliffs of +the Isle of Wight, saying with Tennyson: + + "Break, break, break, + At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!" + +The next morning we rambled over the hills again, for it was a spot +where one could but linger. The bay was alive with boats, as + + "The fishers went sailing out into the West." + +On the shore were divers, who plunged from the rocks into deep water, +to bring up shells and coral for us, and a sort of sponge peculiar to +this country, with spicules like threads of spun glass. Under the +cliff is a long cave, hollowed out by the waves, with an arch overhead +like a vaulted roof. Thus under ground or above ground we wandered +hour after hour. + +But all things pleasant must have an end. The week was gone; it was +Saturday noon: and so reluctantly leaving both the mountains and the +sea, and taking to our chariots once more, we struck into the Tokaido, +and in four hours were rolling along the Bund at Yokohama. + +Three days after we made a second visit to Yedo, to visit an American +gentleman who held a position in the Foreign Office, and spent a night +at his pretty Japanese house in the Government grounds. Here being, as +it were, in the interior of the State Department, we got some European +news; among which was the startling intelligence of a revolution in +Turkey, and that Abdul Aziz had been deposed! + +In our second excursion about the city, as we had long distances to +traverse, we took two prancing bucks to each jinrikisha, who ran us +such a rig through the streets of Yedo as made us think of John Gilpin +when he rode to London town. The fellows were like wild colts, so full +of life that they had to kick it off at the heels. Sometimes one +pulled in front while the other pushed behind, but more often they +went tandem, the one in advance drawing by a cord over his shoulder. +The leader was so full of spring that he fairly bounded over the +ground, and if we came to a little elevation, or arched bridge, he +sprang into the air like a catamount, while his fellow behind, though +a little more stiff, as a "wheel horse" ought to be, bore himself +proudly, tossing up his head, and throwing out his chest, and never +lagged for an instant. C---- was delighted, nothing could go too fast +for her; but whether it was fear for my character or for my head, I +had serious apprehension that I should be "smashed" like Chinese +crockery, and poked my steeds in the rear with my umbrella to signify +that I was entirely satisfied with their performances, and that they +need not go any faster! + +While in Yedo we attended a meeting of missionaries, English, Scotch, +and American, in a distant part of the city, and in the evening paid a +visit to Prof. Verbeck, who has been here so long that he is an +authority on all Japanese matters. It was eight o'clock when we set +out to return to our friends in the Foreign Office, and we bade our +men take us through the main streets, that we might have a view of +Yedo by night. The distance was some three miles, the greater part +through the principal street. It was near the time of the full moon, +but fortunately she was hidden to-night by clouds, for even her soft +radiance could not give such animation and picturesqueness to the +scene as the lights of the city itself. The broad street for two miles +was in a flare of gas-light, like one of the great streets of Paris. +The shops were open and lighted; added to which were hundreds (perhaps +thousands) of _jin-riki-shas_, each with its Chinese lantern, glancing +two and fro, like so many fireflies on a summer night, making a scene +such as one reads of in the Arabian Nights, but as I had never +witnessed before. + +But that which is of most interest to a stranger in Japan, is not Yedo +or Fusiyama, but the sudden revolution which has taken place in its +relations with other countries, and in its internal condition. This is +one of the most remarkable events in history, which, in a few years, +has changed a whole nation, so that from being the most isolated, the +most exclusive, and the most rigidly conservative, even in Asia, it +has become the most active and enterprising; the most open to foreign +influences; the most hospitable to foreign ideas, and the most ready +to introduce foreign improvements. This change has taken Japan out of +the ranks of the non-progressive nations, to place it, if not in the +van of modern improvement, at least not very far in the rear. It has +taken it out of the stagnant life of Asia, to infuse into its veins +the life of Europe and America. In a word, it has, as it were, +unmoored Japan from the coast of Asia, and towed it across the +Pacific, to place it alongside of the New World, to have the same +course of life and progress. + +It is a singular fact, which, as it has united our two nations in the +past, ought to unite us in the future, that the opening of Japan came +from America. It would have come in time from the natural growth of +the commerce of the world, but the immediate occasion was the +settlement of California. The first emigration, consequent on the +discovery of gold, was in 1849; the treaty with Japan in 1854. As soon +as there sprang up an American Empire on our Western coast, there +sprang up also an American commerce on the Pacific. Up to that time, +except the whalers from New Bedford that went round Cape Horn, to cast +their harpoons in the North Pacific, or an occasional vessel to the +Sandwich Islands, or that brought a cargo of tea from China, there +were few American ships in the Pacific. But now it was ploughed by +fleets of ships, and by great lines of steamers. The Western coast of +America faced the Eastern coast of Asia, and there must be commerce +between them. Japan lay in the path to China, and it was inevitable +that there must be peaceful intercourse, or there would be armed +collision. The time had come when the policy of rigid exclusion could +not be permitted any longer. Of course Japan had the right which +belongs to any independent power, to regulate its commerce with +foreign nations. But there were certain rights which belonged to all +nations, and which might be claimed in the interest of humanity. If an +American ship, in crossing the Pacific on its way to China, were +shipwrecked on the shores of Japan, the sailors who escaped the perils +of the sea had the right to food and shelter--not to be regarded as +trespassers or held as prisoners. Yet there had been instances in +which such crews had been treated as captives, and shut up in prison. +In one instance they were exhibited in cages. If they had fallen +among Barbary pirates, they could not have been treated with greater +severity. This state of things must come to an end; and in gently +forcing the issue, our government led the way. As English ships had +broken down the wall of China, so did an American fleet open the door +of Japan, simply by an attitude of firmness and justice; by demanding +nothing but what was right, and supporting it by an imposing display +of force. Thus Japan was opened to the commerce of America, and +through it of the world, without shedding a drop of blood. + +The result has been almost beyond belief. A quarter of a century ago +no foreign ship could anchor in these waters. And now here, in sight +of the spot where lay the fleet of Commodore Perry, I see a harbor +full of foreign ships. It struck me strangely, as I sat at our windows +in the Grand Hotel, and looked out upon the tranquil bay. There lay +the Tennessee, not with guns run out and matches lighted, but in her +peaceful dress, with flags flying, not only from her mast-head, but +from all her yards and rigging. There were also several English ships +of war, with Admiral Ryder in command, from whose flag-ship, as from +the Tennessee, we heard the morning and evening gun, and the bands +playing. The scene was most beautiful by moonlight, when the ships lay +motionless, and the tall masts cast their shadows on the water, and +all was silent, as in so many sleeping camps, save the bells which +struck the hours, and marked the successive watches all night long. It +seemed as if the angel of peace rested on the moonlit waters, and that +nations would not learn war any more. + +The barrier once broken down, foreign commerce began to enter the +waters of Japan. American ships appeared at the open ports. As if to +give them welcome, lighthouses were built at exposed points on the +coast, so that they might approach without danger. A foreign +settlement sprung up at Yokohama. By and by young men went abroad to +see the world, or to be educated in Europe or America, and came back +with reports of the wealth and power of foreign nations. Soon a spirit +of imitation took possession of Young Japan. These students affected +even the fashions of foreign countries, and appeared in the streets of +Yedo in coat and pantaloons, instead of the old Japanese dress; and +ate no longer with chopsticks, but with knives and forks. Thus manners +and customs changed, to be followed by a change in laws and in the +government itself. Till now Japan had had a double-headed government, +with two sovereigns and two capitals. But now there was a revolution +in the country, the Tycoon was overthrown, and the Mikado, laying +aside his seclusion and his invisibility, came from Kioto to Yedo, and +assumed the temporal power, and showed himself to his people. The +feudal system was abolished, and the proud daimios--who, with their +clans of armed retainers, the _samourai_, or two-sworded men, were +independent princes--were stripped of their estates, which sometimes +were as large as German principalities, and forced to disband their +retainers, and reduced to the place of pensioners of the government. +The army and navy were reconstructed on European models. Instead of +the old Japanese war-junks, well-armed frigates were seen in the Bay +of Yedo--a force which has enabled Japan to take a very decided tone +in dealing with China, in the matter of the island of Formosa; and +made its power respected along the coast of Eastern Asia. We saw an +embassy from Corea passing through the streets of Yokohama, on its way +to Yedo, to pay homage to the Mikado, and enter into peaceful +relations with Japan. A new postal system has been introduced, +modelled on our own. In Yokohama one sees over a large building the +sign "The Japanese Imperial Post-Office," and the postman goes his +rounds, delivering his letters and papers as in England and America. +There is no opposition to the construction of railroads, as in China. +Steamers ply around the coast and through the Inland Sea; and +telegraphs extend from one end of the Empire to the other; and +crossing the sea, connect Japan with the coast of Asia, and with all +parts of the world. Better than all, the government has adopted a +general system of national education, at the head of which is our own +Prof. Murray; it has established schools and colleges, and introduced +teachers from Europe and America. In Yedo I was taken by Prof. +McCartee to see a large and noble institution for the education of +girls, established under the patronage of the Empress. These are signs +of progress that cannot be paralleled in any other nation in the +world. + +With such an advance in less than one generation, what may we not hope +in the generation to come? In her efforts at progress, Japan deserves +the sympathy and support of the whole civilized world. Having +responded to the demand for commercial intercourse, she has a just +claim to be placed on the footing of the most favored nations. +Especially is she entitled to expect friendship from our country. As +it fell to America to be the instrument of opening Japan, it ought to +be our pride to show her that the new path into which we led her, is a +path of peace and prosperity. Japan is our nearest neighbor on the +west, as Ireland is on the east; and among nations, as among +individuals, neighbors ought to be friends. It seemed a good token +that the American Union Church in Yokohama should stand on the very +spot where Commodore Perry made his treaty with Japan--the beginning, +let us hope, of immeasurable good to both nations. As India is a part +of the British Empire, and may look to England to secure for her the +benefits of modern civilization, so the duty of stretching out a hand +across the seas to Japan, may fairly be laid on the American church +and the American people. + +Our visit was coming to an end. A day or two we spent in the shops, +buying photographs and bronzes, and in paying farewell visits to the +missionaries, who had shown us so much kindness. The "parting cup" of +tea we took at Dr. Hepburn's, and from his windows had a full view of +Fusiyama, that looked out upon us once more in all his glory. We were +to embark that evening, to sail at daylight. Mr. John Ballagh and +several ladies of "The Home," who had made us welcome in their +pleasant circle, "accompanied us to the ship." We had a long row +across the bay just as the moon was rising, covering the waters with +silver, and making the great ships look like mighty shadows as they +stood up against the sky. "On such a night" we took our farewell of +Asia. + +The next morning very early we were sailing down the bay of Yedo, and +were soon out on the Pacific. But the coast remained long in sight, +and we sat on deck watching the receding shores of a country which in +three weeks had become so familiar and so dear; and when at last it +sunk beneath the waters, we left our "benediction" on that beautiful +island set in the Northern Seas. + +We did not steer straight for San Francisco, although it is in nearly +the same latitude as Yokohama, but turned north, following what +navigators call a Great Circle, on the principle that as they get high +up on the globe, the degrees of longitude are shorter, and thus they +can "cut across" at the high latitudes. "It is nearer to go around the +hill than to go over it." We took a prodigious sweep, following the +_Kuroshiwo_, or Black Current, the Gulf Stream of the Pacific, which +flows up the coast of Asia, and down the coast of America. We bore +away to the north till we were off the coast of Kamschatka, and within +a day's sail of Petropaulovski, before we turned East. Our ship was +"The Oceanic," of the famous White Star line, which, if not so +magnificent as "The City of Peking," was quite as swift a sailer, +cleaving the waters like a sea-bird. In truth, the albatrosses that +came about the ship for days from the Aleutian Islands, now soaring in +air, and now skimming the waters, did not float along more easily or +more gracefully. + +As we crossed the 180th degree of longitude, just half the way around +the world from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, we "gained a day," +or rather, recovered one that we had lost. As we had started eastward, +we lost a few minutes each day, and had to set our watches every noon. +We were constantly changing our meridian, so that no day ended where +it began, and we never had a day of full twenty-four hours, but always +a few minutes, like sands, had crumbled away. By the time we reached +England, five hours had thus dropped into the sea; and when we had +compassed the globe, we had parted, inch by inch, moment by moment, +with a whole day. It seemed as if this were so much blotted out from +the sum of our being--gone in the vast and wandering air--lost in the +eternities, from which nothing is ever recovered. But these lost +moments and hours were all gathered up in the chambers of the East, +and now in mid-ocean, one morning brought us a day not in the +calendar, to be added to the full year. Two days bore the same date, +the 18th of June, and as this fell on a Sunday, two holy days came +together--one the Sabbath of Asia, the other of America. It seemed fit +that this added day should be a sacred one, for it was something +taken, as it were, from another portion of time to be added to our +lives--a day which came to us fresh from its ocean baptism, with not a +tear of sorrow or a thought of sin to stain its purity; and we kept a +double Sabbath in the midst of the sea. + +Seventeen days on the Pacific, with nothing to break the boundless +monotony! In all that breadth of ocean which separates Asia and +America, we saw not a single sail on the horizon; and no land, not +even an island, till we came in sight of those shores which are dearer +to us than any other in all the round world. + +Here, in sight of land, this story ends. There is no need to tell of +crossing the continent, which completed our circuit of the globe, but +only to add in a word the lesson and the moral of this long journey. +Going around the world is an education. It is not a mere pastime; it +is often a great fatigue; but it is a means of gaining knowledge which +can only be obtained by observation. Charles V. used to say that "the +more languages a man knew, he was so many more times a man." Each new +form of human speech introduced him into a new world of thought and +life. So in some degree is it in traversing other continents, and +mingling with other races. However great America may be, it is +"something" to add to it a knowledge of Europe and Asia. Unless one be +encased in pride, or given over to "invincible ignorance," it will +teach him modesty. He will boast less of his own country, though +perhaps he will love it more. He will see the greatness of other +nations, and the virtues of other people. Even the turbaned Orientals +may teach us a lesson in dignity and courtesy--a lesson of repose, the +want of which is a defect in our national character. In every race +there is something good--some touch of gentleness that makes the whole +world kin. Those that are most strange and far from us, as we approach +them, show qualities that win our love and command our respect. + +In all these wanderings, I have met no rudeness in word or act from +Turks or Arabs, Hindoos or Malays, Chinese or Japanese; but have often +received kindness from strangers. The one law that obtains in all +nations is the law of kindness. Have I not a right to say that to know +men is to love them, not to hate them nor despise them? + +He who hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the +earth, hath not forgotten any of His children. There is a beauty in +every country and in every clime. Each zone of the earth is belted +with its peculiar vegetation; and there is a beauty alike in the pines +on Norwegian hills, and the palms on African deserts. So with the +diversities of the human race. Man inhabits all climes, and though he +changes color with the sun, and has many varieties of form and +feature, yet the race is the same; all have the same attributes of +humanity, and under a white or black skin beats the same human heart. +In writing of peoples far remote, my wish has been to bring them +nearer, and to bind them to us by closer bonds of sympathy. If these +pictures of Asia make it a little more real, and inspire the feeling +of a common nature with the dusky races that live on the other side of +the globe, and so infuse a larger knowledge and a gentler charity, +then a traveller's tale may serve as a kind of lay sermon, teaching +peace and good will to men. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of From Egypt to Japan, by Henry M. 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