IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) Y ^ i'^y^ i^/ A €/.. 1.0 IfrlM 2.5 3.2 1^ I 2.2 I.I lis IIIIIM 1.8 L25 IIIIII.4 IIIIII.6 V] ^ %. ^ % v: ^^ ''^ ;> ^ %. ^ ^^ O / >^ PhotDgraphir: Sciences Corporation '%^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. n Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur Covers damaged/ Couverture endommag^e Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur6e et/ou pelliculds □ Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque M n n D Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Reli6 avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distorti' n along interior margin/ La reli;ire serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge int6rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutdes lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 filmies. Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplimentaires: L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la methods normale de filmage sont indiquds ci-dessous. □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur □ Pages damaged/ Pages endommagdes □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restauries et/ou pellicul6es H Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es, tachetdes ou piqu6es □ Pages detached/ Pages d^tachdes id Showthrough/ Transparence I — I Quality of print varies/ D Qualitd in6gale de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du matdriel suppl^mentaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 filmdes d nouveau de fapon d obtenir la mailleure image possible. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est fiim6 au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X aox y 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X ails du idifier une nage The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanlts to the generosity of: Library Division Provincial Archives of British Columbia The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. L'exemplaire filmA fut reproduit gricn A la ginArosltA de; Library Division Provincial Archives of British Columbia Les images suivantes ont At* reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la net:etA de l'exemplaire filmA, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or iilustrated impres- sion, or the bacit cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier eat imprimie sont filmAs en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la derniAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmis en commen^ant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol —^ (meaning "CON- TINUED "), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la darnidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole —^' signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to be tom. as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmis d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. rrata to pelure, n d D 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 -??p^!H^!' \ f.h ^.^^ ji^y.^vrva-. (^{^A.w.pj w ^. <^(ro^ THE CRUISE OF THE ''ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. TO SEE THE WORLD. '^-e^o^ ;=S--SI r 18" ■iO 110 HI) i:!ii ll>l> T'r..l.iNoph>f^ L.-ai.l i stunt -y/iinffCitr*/ l'^ y, CTehrlvutleui . 1 M-^-^- .--^4 tiy - - c^ '/> f '. !».'''k^.T«.."i>«-''fi^.--\ i - "^-^/Seaor /ri Sen lOkluiliik ^~^B;a:ir;vi> ^tS; 1; X, • ~:i cm.i n k ,4 r.f V. M p 1 11 E /. / .fe-'f , _.^«^^jyiS„-,*4^ -.i> **!=i. p A <; |l F I c 4«v»>. ^"^^■^Jv- i i •7'-I»lia - , _ -jllfv.'^ P.J'fw If, .■■■'■■■■■ ■■•^'' O C lE A N 1nr*hni eateriJf E lA Ww».i/ij»fc. parnraip**^ r s r r a i. r aV r XSiSs^ Jm*Urda.-nI> , CriiUJ' ■ WHiniullsIf r\ A r ST RA.L I . \ ,. Q«e«|rw TurmkniV BtoMa/ (*n.iincnt ^vuid/mdl. MJetoquaiwL '■B^Mmjrff '7 CH) — I — lot. "I 1.1111,(1 1 1(10 lito J dicated Ihus. - w. »^M*Ata« ■»»**> The Cruise OF THE "ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. (E. J. Wythes, Esq., Bickley Park, Kent, owner) TO SEE THE WORLD, 1891-92. BY GEORGE FYFE, M.D. Wellington, Salop : John Jones, Printer and Publisher, 8, Church Street. mil r ------ l'K> la) I I .„. J O I C c K T 1 A ^' 7nl MA / }^ •'■•" \ tinnnrtny / \ .J t' !4nj Pta^ Tfra^Al- A ^\-^^^- I JTcirt/i Ci \^ § R ■ t'Aihtmhii flijvfx- l^ ! "XORTJi PA( Tr-opid o*^ (^mxitr 1 o cii nncjwirjii? A W u.t^.^ ^;.,»wi.v>-J';^ C B A Nil// -■»"""•'••"■•■—- . r«ij I*i-/. . — "- r _^ainoa or A» I : MartfUfOS If SIJkKDS Va^ .1^" iflMe/vr^r nueU'tA, GtJafH^M If QuitP(, _. ^v i:iytnie\ ^^ V I V ] I li ^5«!tmJ P A ^ire^^x Cof^ianhii ill««irt\>rjtr^ »//W>v-. T I, A N T I C .i tiw^ !T^»- Vi,i„, 57".'0? «' -^t"^". ''W Oo«\ H»< "-"•"7ui^. \ Ooaghfr O C iJ5 AS ,«() A N AttUij^otLC (HrdA, •V A R IC T r ;C tWra ix\ f ooJkVX- ^lUUL .Vtr. TiUrVn. 1 7^^ ■ I ■ f l.ilU.i ''*$ Qrkney.i O !C B A ^N ()\ MKliCATOK'S i'liO. 18(1 /"//f Course of the Yacht liD ■kO (to x-rrs^^ ' t — , - r -" hU 1110 120 iKi IIUI laii ! >V..I'>Huph jp^ l.;uul I I >v-^ ; A^.jii- c tI I r ! or rf i' . . . ; I i I r E ! A. If I I II.-. k . «Xl .-L E.JQ :/ /o /^ IT rr. 11 1? Xnjtlivf li :. ''ll. , . „■" Iwa^aj^^L ^ 'BismartSr 6UhtriJf HO -VO 20 " -Jx- $Jf%.^-Ts?<' ; .a>.ST\fa«M-,^. -- ,. . T---^ ■,Luo:iao~ f- '• f /a r\ tl rr ii )3^ is « .r.m,»r,./« fi- ,./s o r T H /*^ X^ ? lY'^io fv f O- C E Ia N A T I. A X T Ii C W# T„ ^ , ^—-. J" ecaine sheeted with ice in the vain attempt to wash them after the coaling ; and even the whistle steam pipe was frozen up. We had, however, a delightful run down the Channel, with a light north-easterly wind to Start Point, which we reached about 8-30 p.m. This would be Tuesday in the log book, as the nautical day begins at 12 o'clock noon. Our course was now shaped for Ushant; and we were in hopes, as a light north-east wind generally forecasts a favourable passage through the Bay of Biscay, that our first night at sea would be as comfortable as the previous day and merry evening had been enjoyable. Towards moining, however, the wind swung round to south-west — the prevail- ing wind of the Atlantic — and a sti'ong breeze sprang u}) with a very nasty choppy sea. Matters got rai)i(lly worse after ])assing Cape Ushant, and steering s.w. 1/2 West across the Bay of Biscay for Finisterre. During all Tuesilay, Wednes- day, and Thursday, the gale continued to increase in violence, scoui'ging the sea into fury, and making mountains and valleys of the waves. The St. George had now a lively time of it, as the big Atlantic rollers made her oscillate, according to the indications of the clinometer, from thirty degrees to port to thirtv-nine to starboard, and she came bv a good deal of damage by the heavy seas that from time to time broke over her. I hardly need add that nearly every man-jack of us suffered moi-e or less acutely fiom the gastric horrors of duiI de vier, and speaking for myself at least, by the end of my third day's antiperistaltic experiences I began to feel rather limp and woebegone, and probably, just then, sceptical ideas of the pleasures of yachting were not altogether absent from my mind. I am afraid I must here admit that 1 have lost all faith in medicinal remedies for sea-sickness, having tried several to no purpose — such as sodiumbromide, cocaine, antipyrin, &c. Some mitigation of one's miseries, however, may be derived from lying flat on your back, and living on dry biscuits and cold water, and probably, after the stomach 12 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. has become settletl euouii^h to letaiu it, a glass of champagne or braudy-aiul-soda water may be for.iid useful as a pick-me- up. Our progress throu^'h the bay was slow, especially during Thursday, wlieii the gale was at its worst, as her rate of going had to be slowed down to three knots an hour, to avoid driving her into the big seas that were unremittingly heading on to her, and to minimize the amount of damage they were inflicting upon her, Several fine bonitos and shoals of porpoises were occasionally seen disporting them- selves alongside the yacht with the natatory antics peculiar to each. The bonito is said to be very good eating, and the fishermen on the French coast come a long way out into the bay to fish for them, which they do with hooks baited with feathers or a bit of bunting. It was great fun to watch the bonitos from the bridge, rushing through the water at great speed, and so near the surface as to bo quite visible, and spring fairly out of it and then on again in their fleet career, as if to gather fresh momentum for their next spring. When we afterwanls got into the Mediterranean we were further entertained by noticing the beautiful phttsphorescent tracks they made at night on the surface of the water, and the rapidity with which they swam from side to side under the ship's hull, and then darting away with the speed of an express train, until their fiery trail gradually became lost to view in the distance. After passing Fiuisterre and getting into the " Portuguese Current," a considerable improvement took place in the weather. Our captain unintentionally gave the Spanish " Laud's End " an extra wide berth, as, on taking the Azimuth, he found he was seventy miles off the shore instead of twenty as he had supposed. Had it so hai)peued to have been foggy and cloudy weather, preventing observation being taken, as in h.m.s. ScrpenVa case, and the fifty miles of deviation been landward instead of seaward, we might have made a similarly disastrous aciiuaintance with the fatal Camarlnas. Our sail down the Portuguese coast was thorough- ly delightful, and \v^e not only quickly forgot our miseries of the three previous days, but were inclined to credit the mal de me?' with giving us an extra zest for the menu of the S'^. George, although that is at all times enticing by its quality and variety Deck games and " ragging," and rifle practice at extempoiised targets drifted out from the stern, or lounging in a deck chair with a favourite author, was now the order of the day. In this very pleasant if uneventful way, we passed the TO SEE THE WORLD. 13 next two clays— " sailing, sailing over the 'tranquil' main," and arriveil at Gibraltar at 2-30 a.m. on Sunday morning. In our uonrne southward from Finisterre we passed in succes- sion the Berlings — barren rocks, surmounted by an important coast light, and formerly used by Portugal as a penal establish- ment — then Capes dn Roca and Espichel, on either side of the estuary of the Tagus, where we saw numbers of fishing yawls busy at work, or on their way to and from their fishing grounds, and giving a very pretty effect to the placid sea view. Cape St. Vincent next came in sight, with its lofty headlan;!, surmounted at its highest part Avith a large white- walled '--onvent, which from its altitude of position can be seen a long way out at sea. Cape St. Vincent is memorable for the exploit of Sir John .Tarvis, whose family still hold the title of the " Earl of St. Vincent," that was conferred upon him in honour of his victory. Having rounded St. Vincent, we next sighted, late on Saturday evening, Ti-afalgar lights, at the, head of the bay of that name, where Nelson defeated the cond)ir.ed fleets of France and Spain, but with the loss of his own life, which the English nation valued almost as much as his victory. Having passed Cape Trafalgar, we now began to enter the Straits of Gibraltar, guided by Cape Spartel hght on the African, and Tarifa light on the Spanish coast. In the grey light of midnight the dim outline of the rock of Gib- raltar could now be noticed gradually coming into view, as the yacht drew nearer to Europa Point. The light on this point — the southern-most extremity of the rock, is of invalu- able service for safely making the bay on a dark night, inasmuch as it has a bay ward and a seaw^ard colour — the bayward red, and the seaward white— and by keeping the white light only in sight an approaching vessel can reckon on giving the coast betv.een Tarifa and Algeciras a safely wide berth, by not making the turn into the bay too soon. The St. (feonje having entered the bay, took up a position just inside the " New Mole," and having dropped her port and starboard anchors in spread-eagle fashion, and with a shore rope from her stern, lay as steady and motionless on the water as a tower on a rock. The heavy trundling rattle of the anchor chains running out at the hause holes, is very pleasant music to hear, I assure you, after you have been at sea for the first week in your life, and I required no wooing from Morpheus, when I "tumbled in" at half-past two on Sunday morning, 25th January. As we knew our time at "Gib." was to be short, we 14 THE CIIUISE OF THE " HT. OF.OIK'-E, U.\.H. 1 eiuleavoure ihe most of it ; and acc;tensiv(' forests of cork oak. The Avater of the bay is reniarkahl. foi- itsyiviit ch-ai-ncss, so much so, that a fisherman can see the iish at his baited hook over fifty feet down in the water. After taking a hurried look at the churches and public buddinj^s, \e. in the town, we i)rolonL,'etl our widk round the foot of the rock on the nortii si(h', as far as tlic Httle fisliing vilhige of Catahin on tlie east side. This enabled us to .see to advaidai:e the northern extremity of tho rock, which is 1,4.")(> feet high, and rise^ sheer out of tlie low lying ground forming the nari'ow ])enlnsula connecting th" llritisli and Spanish territories. Ilit^h upon the breast of this ])er- pendicular dill", you see mnnei'ous embrasures A\hich are connected with galleries, excavated out of tho solid rock, I'ehind these end:)rasures lie concealed from view, ordnance of grt'at power and range, and liavingsuch complete command of tile country all round that it would be certain destruction to any force that had the temerity to attempt an advance on tliat side. We were given to understand that important enitineei'inir works were at present in process of construction inside the fortress, and about which the utmost seci-ecy is observed, so that no one is now admittc'd inside, and the only parts you can see, with an order, are the Queen's and Union Ga'Vn-ies. Even a photograph is not allowed to be taken of any part of the rock, as we found to our surprise ; for when one of our ])arty had put liis camera into position on tlie quarter-deck of the yacht in order to take a i)hoto- graphic reminiscence of the place, an oflicial from the Mole immediately came on board and informed us that ''it was contrary to orders, and that we must at once desist." As the rock of Gibraltar is the only place in Europe where the monkey lives in a wild state, we were curious to see some of them, but although we ranged the AVJiole of the western side with our field glasses, we only succeeded in spotting a single group of three or four. 1 ac- cordingly asked the orderly, who showed us over the galleries, as to tJieir probalde number, and he told me tliey had lately decreased very much, and that not more than twenty-five wei-e now believed to be upon the rock. Families of plump little monkeys were occasionally seen, but after they get to a certain size they all mysteriously disappeared. Tliey must eitlier die or get trapped— probably the latter. On Monday, while tl e yaclit was replenishing her coal and 16 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, K.Y.S. water supplies, we took a drive across the so-called "neutral ground " — between the English and Spanish territory— to *' Spanish Town," to see the amphitheatre where the bull fights are held. The attendant who showed us over it and all the paraphernalia used in connection with this brutal amusement, appeared to take a ghastly pleasure in drawing our special atten- tion to the ambulance arrangements, and the cupboard of medicine and surgical appliances for the treatment of the wounded matadors. On our return to the yacht, all being noAv ready for leaving, we weighed anchor at 6-30 p.m., and steamed rapidly out of the bay and once more entered the Straits, with Europa light on our port-beam, and Ceuta light on our starboard. As we shaped our course easterly for Cape de Gata, we gradually lost sight of this grand looking pile of grey rock (and which on this its southern side rises to the height of over 2900 feet), and as we gazed back at it, we were irresistibly impressed with its being, what indeed it really is, an immense natural fortress of enormous strength. The skill and an of the military engineer so lavishly expended upon it, has now made it practically impregnable, aud such that it could only be re- duced '^y the starvation of a long siege ; and as three years' provisions are always kept in store, to be successful it would have to be a very protracted one. We had the calmest ot weather for the first night of our second week at sea, and the morning broke with the loveliest of clear blue skies, reflected in the beautiful dark sapphire waters of the Mediterranean. As we passed Cape de Gata we saw the snow-mantled and far stretching mountain range of the Sierra Nevada. We now lost sight of land for the next twenty-four hours, as we made for the African coast, passing Algiers and Bona, then between Serat and the small island of Galita, and after passing the Gulf of Tunis and Cape Bon we enter the Sicilian Sea, between the island of Pentalaria and the cost of Sicily, and arrive at Malta and come to anchor in the Senglea Creek of the Grand harbour of Valetta, at eight in the morning of Sunday, 1st February. The African coast is very uninteresting aud is formed for the most part of low barren hills and sand dunes. The fine weather, glorious skies, and sea of oily smoothness that we began our second voyage with continued all the way, and deck games, &c., were again the order of the day. The p. and o. steamer, Borne passed us on our way, aud it may be worth mentioning to s low the amount of travelling and mail accommodation this g' eat steam navigation company affords TO SEE THE WORLD. hts the illt, feu- of the 17 to the public, that we met with two others of their fine vessels during our short stay at Gibraltar, the Kcdim and the Ballarat — that is three in five days. My next letter will probably be from Aden, and as this one is already over extended, I will reserve my notes about Malta and its charming capital of Valetta to begin it with. of 'ht LETTER 2. MALTA TO ADEN. The repair of the damage which our " bonny new boat " as our captain dotingly calls the St. George had come by in her passage through the Bay of Biscay, took a much longer time to complete than was at first anticipated, so that we did not get away from Malta until the end of the fifth week of our arrival there. This prolonged detention, al- though latterly becoming somewhat wearisome from the uncertainty of its termination, had nevertheless the advantage of enabling us to enlarge our acquaintance with this charming and interesting island, or rather islands, for Malta's twin sister, Goza, has attractions of its own that well repaid us for visiting it. The climate of Malta at this time of the year is at its b^st, and barring an occasional " Gregale " (of which more anon) is pleasantly warm and yet refreshingly cool, es- pecially in the evening. Its moonlight nights ai'e lovelj' bevond description, and many a jolly dance the sailors used to have on the fo'castle deck to the music of a Maltese string band that came out to us whenever the weather was suitable. Our days were characterized by clear skies and bright sun- shine, relieved and refreshed with not too frecjuent showers of rain, which, however, had an inconvenient propensity to come on suddenly ; ar.a if at times they are sharp they are always short, and such a thiiig as an out-and-out wet day is 18 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.8. almost unknown in Malta. The Maltese winter is in entire contrast to that of England, for while in England vegetation is dead and dormant, Malta is clothed with the verdure of summer — the Avild flowers of the way side and the cultivated crops of the fields and gardens being all at their best by the end of May. Thereafter, however, except where artificial irri- gation is in use, all this array of green entirely disappears — the subtropical heat and absence of rain scorching and withering up nearly every kind of plant life, and this state of things viewed in combination with the light brown and yellow colour of the soil and the white limestone walls to be seen thickly interlacing in all directions, give the country a look of absolute sterility for the rest of the bUmmer. From November, however, until May, freshly gathered green peas and succulent salads, and every kind of culinary vegetables are to be had daily m abundance ; and as to the fruit, the orange and lemon groves of Verdala, Sant Antonia, Casal Li a, and other parts of the island are a sight to be remem- bered, the trees being closely crowded together and yet loaded with fruit in all stages of growth and ripeness. It is certainly due to Malta to say that there is no more delicious tasting fruit to be found throughout all the fructiferous domains of Pomona than a fully ripe and freshly plucked Maltese blood orange. The Malta " season " extends from October to May, and is very well indicated by the monthly amounts of the offertories at the only English Church in Valetta — the Collegiate Church of St. Paul, in the Strada Ponente, — at least according to the financial statement for last year placed in the pew^s for the infor- mation of those attending it. Thus the offertories for Januarv were .£20, February £25, March i;35, April £42, May £2(1, June £U, July £5, August £0, September £9, October £15, November £20, and December £23. Many of the visitors are regular Mediterranean winterers, who come to Malta because of the mildness of its temperature — snow neve^' having been known to fall — to avoid the rigour and irregularities of the English winter. The majority, however, consist of the families and visiting friends of the large number of officers of the Army and Navy stationed here, there being always about 7000 troops in garrison, and vari- able sections of the Mediterranean Fleet in the harbour. Society at Malta moves on a pleasant footing of free and easy affability, and acquaintances being readily made, invitations follow in abundance to all sorts of social gatherings, games. TO SEE THE WORLD . 19 Bud little gaieties. There are also public amusements of all kinds, a very good opera fi 3 nights a week, and the price 80 moderate that we only paid 25s. ^or a box for six ; balls, notably those given by the Army and Navy Union Club, regattas, military parades and reviews, polo matches, gym- khana, game clubs, and a good free library and news room, &c., so that no one temporarily residing in Malta need suffer from ennui. Malta has been styled Flor del Monde — the flower of the world — but although it has considerable claims to such an epithet, all of us thought that in strict propriety of definition this should only be regarded as a flower of speech excusable in Maltese patriotism. When, however, Valetta lays claim to the possession of one of the finest harljours of the world, all who have seen it will readily accredit it with this proud distinction. A good idea of the configuration of this fine harbour, and of the parts of the town that enclose it may be obtained by supposing the thumb of your right hand when turned back down with the fingers stretched well apart, to represent the position of the Quarantine harbour. The fore- finger would now represent the Grand harbour, and the other three fingers respectively the three creeks that branch off from it, namely, Senglea, Arsenal, and English creeks. On the outside of the thumb would lie the pleasant suburb of Sliema, with Fort Tigne at its northern extremity, lighting and defending the entrance into Quarantine harbour. Between the thumb and fore-finger will be Valetta, with Fort St. Elmo similarly situated, lighting and defending the entrance of the Graud harbour along with Fort Ricasoli on the opposite side of it. Between the fore and middle finger is the low hill of Corra- dino, on which are the military and civil prisons. Between the middle and third finger is Senglea town, with Isola Fort at its harbour end. Between the third and fourth fingers is the town of Vittoriosa, with its famous Fort Saint Angelo looking proudly over the harbour, and from which the twelve o'clock time gun is daily fired. It was so called in honour of the gallant defence it made under Lavalette against the Turks in the year 1565. Outside the fourth finger is Bighi, surmoauted by the splendid naval hospital. The Quarantine harbour takes its name from the- Lazaretto hospital on Fort Manoel, but the name has now no significance, as it has long since ceased to be used for quarantine purposes. It may, however, interest Boards of Health to know how precautions against the intro- duction of infectious diseases were managed in those days* 20 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST GEORGE, R.Y.8 Thus, all persons arriving in the harbour were compelled to make a declaration, ou oath, that they were not then suffering from, or had recently- suffered from any infectious complaint, which, if afterward ascertained to have been false, the party implicated was summarily hanged vv^ithout trial or right of appeal. Fort Manoel is at present garrisoned by the West Kent Eegiment (2nd Queen's own), and having been shown over it by one of the officers, I was much interested with the guaid room, the walls of which are adorned with a great number of '■'everly executed amateur sketches and caricatures by various officers who had from time to time been quartered there. On the west side of the harbour, as already mentioned, is the delightful suburb of Sliema, where many English people and officers' families reside. The p. and o. steamers always moor in this harbour, and land their passengers and mails at the Marsamuscet steps on the Valetta side. The town of Yaletta is built on an elevated tongue of land, known by the Arabic name of Mount Sceberras, and situated between the Quarantine and Grand harbours as already in- dicated. Streets or strada cross from one harbour to the other, ascending and descending in many cases by broad steps so as to look more like great staircases than streets. These steps are rather big and tiring to stride, which has given rise to the lines — " Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs, How surely he who mounts you, swears." These crossing strada are intersected at right angles by others running parallel with the harbours, of which the principal is the Strada Reale, about three-quarters of a mile long, and ex- tending from the Porta Reale at the southern end of the town, to Fort St. Elmo at its northern extremity. This strada has a very picturesque appearance from the variously designea and painted balconies that project from the windows. It has manj' excellent shops, where most things can be had both good in quality and moderate in price. There are also in this strada many places of great interest and well worth seeing, such as the Government Palace and the Armoury, St. George's Square and the Main Guard, the noble looking Opera House, Avith its handsome Corinthian portico, and many of the once famous Auberges of the Knights of St. John, now in use and occupation for various modern purposes and institutions. The Church of St. John, siding on the Strada Giovanni, is so well known that it would be superfluous for me to attempt any de- tailed description of it. Every person visiting Malta, as a TO SEE THE WORLD. 21 matter of course goes to see it, and I feel sure no one ever enters it without being struck with its magnificence. The eye is simply dazzled and dazed by the blaze of the decorations and the artis- tic wealth and grandeur by which you are surrounded, for, Avhether you scan the floor or the ceilings, the choir or the apse, the nave or the aisles with their side chapels of the knights, your eye everywhere beholds paintings and sculptures, mosaics and frescoes, rich draperies and artistic carvings, and bold and elaborate mouldings of strangely enigmatic devices, while every vacant niche and interstice is filled in with hand- some decorative gildings, and all looking as fresh and bright as if they had been furbished only yesteriay. In the reliquaries above the altar they profess to have an unequalled collection of Christian relics, some of which I may mention, but solely as a matter of curiosity, as I do not suppose anyone will believe in their genuineness, thus — one of the thorns of Christ's crown of thorns, a fragment of Christ's cradle, one of the stones that slew St. Stephen, the foot of Lazarus, and the hand of St. John the Baptist. I one day attended part of a service, and was much struck with the contrast between the elaborate ritual within so gorgeous a sanctuary, and the ignorant superstition of the worshippers prostrating and crossing themselves before images and pictures, and counting their rosary beads to the number of the repetitions of their Ave Marias. The priest is a very ubiqui- tous personage in Malta, there being one to about every hundred and twenty of the population, and as the Church is rich, owning about a third of the land— not, you may be sure, the kind that is said to be absolutely barren— it necessarily exercises great power and influence. A Liberal party however is fast springing up among the laity, and in the interests of popular education has already succeeded in getting English taught in the schools as well as Italian, which the priests were only in favour of. The English Church is only represented in Valetta by the Collegiate Church of St. Paul, in the Strada Ponente. It was originally called "Cathedral," but was changed into "Collegiate " in deference to Maltese views, or rather prejudices. Internally, it has a great resemblance to Gainsburgh Parish Church, without its galleries. The service was chaste and of the moderate type, without any attempt to imitate the high- falutiug sacerdotalism of the dominant Church. It may interest some to hear that there is a very pretty looking Methodist Chapel in Valetta. I had no opportunity of being inside it, and therefore can only speak as to its exterior, but I have been told that those working in connection 22 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. 6 quay, full view before us. with it do a great deal of good among the sailors visiting the pert, particularly an old niau-of-war's man, who has given his life up to evangelistic work among them. Leaving Valetta behind us, if we now descend from the Strada Eeale down one of those staircase streets, say the Strada Giovanni, proceeding by the " Nothing to eat" steps, (visited by Midshipman Easy, and so called from the number of beggars infesting them), and then down through the hand- some "Victoria Gate" to tli( Custom House lauding we will now have the Grand harbour in Lying nearly opposite, in the Senglea Creek, is the St. George, with half-a-dozen other yachts alongside of her, and riding at anchor here and there in this and the neighbouring creek (Arsenal) and in the south western portion of the Grand harbour are about a dozen of the largest ironclads of the Mediterranean Squadron, among otiiers the Trafalgar, the Victoria, the Colossus, the Pohjphemus, the Collingwood ; also numerous carsro steamers of all sizes and nationalities, and great troopships, such as the Serapliis, Orontes and Malaba?- — that called while we were there — are constantly coming in and going out, after coaling or undergoing indispensable re- pairs (as in our own case), and for which there are better facilities for effecting at Malta than at any other port out of England. A large number of " coalers " froir the north of England and south Wales are also to be seen busily debark- ing their cargoes, and a numerous fleet of small schooners engaged in local trading with Sicily, Itnly, Greece and the coast of Africa, while the number of Dysoe-boats — many of them smartly got up and picturesque looking, with their high prows at both ends, and rowed in the peculiar Maltese fashion of standing and pushing, instead of sitting and pulling the oars, as with us — that swarm at all the Uuidiug steps, and are ready to take you to any part of ^he harbour or out to the ships, for a few pence, increase the maritime animation of the scene. The harbour is well sheltered from all the winds that blow except the north-east, which occasionally conies in in great force, causing considerable damage to the shipping in- side. This north-east wind is not a true Levanter, but a local wind, called by the natives " Gregale," and is supposed to be the " Euroclydon " before which the Apostle Paul's ship drift- ed for fourteen days from Adria, and was finally wrecked in the Selmona Creek (the creek between two seas) at the entrance of the bay now known as St. Paul's Bay. The ship- wreck is supposed to have happened on the 10th of February, TO SEE THE WORLD. 28 just the time of the year when these Gregales most frequently occur, and the Maltese celebrate its anniversary by a festival and holiday in honour of the Apostle. Guns are fired and detonating crackers are let off all round the bastions ; the church bells are rung, flags hung out of the windows and across the streets, while all the statues of the Apostle are decorated with drapery and flowers, those of all other Apostles and Saints being covered for the day. Dramatic representa- tions of a shipwreck are also got up. This year, however, the festival demonstrations had to be postponed in consequence of the most violent Gregale that had visited Malta since the terrific one in 185G, when the merlons of Fort St. Angelo, weighing eighty to ninety tons were torn from their fixings and hurled some distance away. Nor was there any need on this occasi(m to "act" a shipwreck, as a real one actually took place at the entrance of the harbour, with a loss of five lives. This unfortunate ship, the Dclmonica, from Italy, was ladened with wines and cheese, and in endeavouring to make the hai'bour she had her steering gear torn away by a heavy sea, and was then driven helplessly against the rocks under Fort St. Elmo, and continued to bump along the rocky shore until she was literally pounded into matchwood. Much damage was also done to the shipping in the harbour, although fortu- nately none of it was of a serious nature. Our yacht had a narrow escape of coming in for a share of it. Indeed had the Morven — whose shore warp had snapped, and so let her swing round upon her neighbour, doing her some damage — not suc- ceeded just then in getting her steam up, and by slipping her cables got clear away from us, the whole five yachts would have scrimmaged together and been seriously disabled, if not totally wrecked. As it was, the Soprano, next but one to us, had her false keel broken off, and but for the timely assistance of a powerful Government tug in answ'er to her signal of distress, she would certainly have joined partnership with the Dclmonica in the matchwood business. If, therefore, St. Paul's ship encountered a great gale anything like the one that blew into Yaletta harbour on ihe 10th, 11th and 12th of Feb- ruary, especially at such a place as where the shipwreck is sui)posed to have occurred, and which I have seen myself and can therefore speak to — nothing short of a miracle could have saved any on board of the Castor and Polux from being drown- ed. There are many other points of interest in connection with our stay at Malta that I should have liked to refer to, but the limited space of a letter, especially as it is intended 24 THE CRUISE OF THE "ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. to cover the two thousand miles between Malta and Aden, as well as a land trip to Cairo and the Pyramids, forbids my doing so ; but in substitution for what I have left unsaid I will quote Lord BeaconbSeld's opinion about Malta and its fair capital of Valetta : " Malta," says he, "is certainly a most delightful station. Its city, Valetta, "equals in its noble architecture, if it does not even excel "any capital in Europe, and although it must be confessed "that the surrounding region is little better than a rock, " the vicinity, nevertheless, of Barbary, of Italy and of " Sicily presents exhaustless resources to the lovers of the "highest order of natural beauty. If that fair Valetta, with " its streets of palaces, its picturesque forts, and magnificent " churches, only crowned some green and azure island of "the Ionian sea- Corfu, for instance — I really think that the "ideal of landscape would be realised." On the Gth of March our numerous repairs and replacements were at last completed, and I may here mention some of them, by way of showing the amount of damage the yacht had the bad luck to come by in her passage through the Bay of Biscay : a new bow-sprit, a new gammoning — which, being too heavy a casting for any private firm in Malta to undertake, was made for us at the Arsenal works, through the kind permission of Admiral Buller, the Port Admiral — a new jibboom and boom whiskers, the bridge ladder, and a portion of her thick teak bulwarks, itc. Lloyd's surveyor now came on board, and having made his inspection and report, w'e got under weigh, signalled "leaving" to the port station, and dipping our ensign in reply to the signalled " good-bye " to each man-of-war we passed, steamed half -speed out of the Grand harbour in bright sunshine and a smooth sea. As we drew away from Valetta we were very much charmed with the view the island presented to us, looking back upon it from the sea, and it seemed to increase in loveliness as we drew furthei' awav, and the coast- line widened out and became more divers^itied. When Ave had got a few miles out, and the azimuth indicated twelve o'clock, the log was set and our course sha})ed s.e. by e. \ e. for Alexandria, at full speed. By mid-night the log showed a run of one hundred and eight knots. On the following day we witnessed a very remarkable sight. The water near the yacht seemed suddenly to become literally alive with fish springing out of the water and dartmg through it, while overhead soon gathered an enormous number <»f sea-birds, making a great clamour, and swooping down upon the poor fish. On enquiring TO BEE THE WORLD. 26 of our captain, he informed ns that a shoal of flying fish were being pursued by bonitos, so the poor fish must have had a bad time of it from their foes in the air, and foes in the water. Several of the flying fish dropped aboard, which the sailors cooked for breakfast. We only saw land once in our four days' steaming, namely, when off the coast of Barca, and it was here that some of our sailors saw the first shark of the cruise. As it was of great size, it would be a lamia or white shark, which attains a length of from twenty to even thirty feet and is a particular frequenter of this sea. We were told he now makes a convenience of the Suez Canal in his trips to the trop'.cs, and where he is known to follow ships for long dis- stances as if scenting food. The phosphorescence of the sea at this part of the Mediterranean was singularly bright and beautiful, and surpassed anything of the kind we had seen either before or afterwards in the Bed Sea. The ploughshare of the ship's cutwater as it went along through the smooth oily sur- face of the sea at night seemed to be turning up a tilth of diamonds and gold, and the sparkling luminosity of the broken water twisted and rolled itself into ever-changing forms of dazzling splendour as it passed aft along the hull sides. This phosphorescence is said to be due to a form of vital energy in a microscopic zoophyte, called noctilucamiliaris, and also to other larger forms of life, such as Medusae, for every now and then you could see great lumps of luminous matter like little moons turn up over the crest of the broken wacer and roll away with it. We arrived at Alexandria at 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, March 10th, and came to moorings inside the new harbour, and nearly opposite the Khedive's palace of Bas el Tin, from which he witnessed the bombardment of the forts n July, 1882, and when he had more than one narrow escape from the shells that accidentally hit the palace. This harbour, with its gigantic breakwater and mole, and splendid quays, was constructed by an English firm at a cost of two and a half millions, and is the outcome of English ideas since the occupation. The island of Phaios encloses one side of it, and the light on your left hand as you enter is on the site of the ancient Pharos, which was one of the seven wonders of the world. Lying next neighbour to us in the harbour was our old friend the Vettor Pisani, the Italian training ship that had been moored near to us most of the time we lay in Valetta harbour. Yesterday had evidently been wash- ing day with them, as every stay rope was crowded with garments of all sorts and sizes hung up to dry. There is not 26 I! t THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.8. a great deal to be seen in Alexandria, as it has now become considerably Europeanized, and a place of commerce, instead of the seat of learning with a library of a million volumes, such as it was in the time of its great founder, Alexander the Great. Our guide, however, took us through the Bazaars, but we did not make any purchases, as the prices asked for the things we fancied seemed extortionate. Perhaps they expected us to bid a half, but we had no time for haggling, and we knew we should have opportunities of buying any thing we wanted at Cairo, where the selection was also larger. We next went to see Pompey's Pillar, an immense column of red granite, and also the newly discovered tomb of Cleopatra. The obelisks called Cleopatra's Needles, which that once famous royal dame stole from the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis and erected at .Alexandria, are now, as everybody knows, the one in New York and the other on the Thames embankment, and where they are both quite out of place, and ought, in common sense, to be sent back again to where they were taken from. To the east of the harbour is the Bay of Aboukir, where Lord Nelson in 1798 attacked and completely destroyed the French fleet, the only two ships that escaped being afterwards captured. At its eastern ex- tremity and near the mouth of that branch of the Nile that debouches into it, is the picturesque tovv'n of Rosetta, notable for the discovery in it of the Trilingual Stone, that enabled Egyptian scholars to decipher the hitherto unintelligible hieroglyphics. Having now arranged to send the yacht round to Ismailia to await our arrival there about mid-day on Sunday, and to go ourselves to Cairo first train next morning, we called at Cook's office in Alexandria, and took tickets for Cairo and the Pyramids, first, however, having ascertained by telegraph that rooms would for a certainty be reserved for us at Shepheard's Hotel, a precaution which we after- wards found was very necessary, as Cairo was so full that good hotel accommodation was difficult to find. We were told by people we met at Shepheard's, that there was a similar difficulty in getting away from Cairo, as the p. and o. boats passing through the canal were always so full that passengers from Cairo had often to wait a whole fortnight before they could get berths either at Suez or Ismailia. We left Alexandria at 8 a.m. next morning, and after a very hot and dusty journey, arrived at Cairo, and reached Shep- heard's in time for lunch. Our first impressions of Cairo and its neighbourhood were those of extreme delight, and re- TO SEE THE WORLD. 27 called vei7 vividlj- to cm- minds what tho Jewish Physician in the " Arabian Nights " story of the Humpback says of it:— "He who has not seen Cairo, has not seen the world; its soil is gold, its Nile is a wonder, its women are like the black-eyed virgins of Paradise." I must here abruptly ter- minate this letter as the "General" — our nickname for one of our A.B.s. who attends to the posting and enquiry for our letters — has just come to say that he is going ashore for the last time preparatory to our sailing.— (Aden, 25th March). I will therefore reserve what I have to say about Cairo and the Pyramids for the next letter, and which will probably be from Colombo. LETTER 3. MALTA TO ADEN. — (Continued.) I HAD to close my last letter, dated from Aden, with unexpected abruptness, in consequence of the pilot coming aboard much earlier than I had anticipated, and when in the course of my narrative, we had just arrived at Cairo. This magnificent Mohammedan city and capital of Egypt, so rich in memories of the past, and surrounded with countless evidences of an advanced civilization of 6000 years old, and therefore long anterior to the eras of Moses and the prophets, is situated on the Nile at some distance above where it divides into its two main branches. The width of the Nile at Cairo is about twice that of the Thames at Westminster, and is a scene of incessant animation from the number of boats of various kinds and uses, aftd dahabiehs moving to and fro upon it. The character of the country on which the city stands, and by which it is surrounded is gently undulating, and from various positions many fine views may be obtained, which are much e.:!i«nced by the serenity and beauty of its 28 THE CUUlbE OF THE " HT. GEORGE, 11. Y. 8. tfkies iiiul luspleiuhuit HuiiHets. The populjition of Cairo is about 21)0,000, consistiuj^' chieHy of the true uiitive Egyptians. — that in, the Fellaheen and Nubians— but with a large admixture of many otht^r races, as is readily observable in the different faces, complexions, and costumeH which are everywhere to be seen. Cairo has l)eeu styled "The brightest gem in the liandle of the green Egyptian fan." That it should be com- l)ared to a " gt-m " will l)e readily appreciated by all who have seen it, and by what I have already said about it : but it may be necessary to explain, as well as useful from a toi)<»graphical point of view, the other parts of the similitude. Thus, by the handle, is meant that part of the Nile on which Cairo stands, and down to where it divides into the Rosetta, and Damietta branches, while the " green fan " is the rich alluvial soil of the Delta — nearly always green with growing crops of wheat, barley, maize, cotton, indigo dhurra, clover itc, — which these bifurcating branches of the river enclose, as they widen out in fan-like figure in their course northward to empty their waters into the Mediterranean. Having taken possession of our apartments at Shepheard's Hotel, and refreshed the outer man with a bath and the inner with some lunch, our first concern was a guide, and we had the good fortune to secure the services of a very intelligent one, by name Mr. Salvatore Patchy, who I must say did his l^est to make the most of our short stay in Cairo. Patchy could si)eak thirteen languages and tribal dialects, and having been courier to several notable personages travelling in various parts of the three contiguous continents, as well as having served on the intelligence department during the late Ashantee and Egyptian campaigns, he was generally well informed and had many strange experiences to relate. He first took us through the bazaars and mosques, the citadel, and other places of interest in Cairo ; and then to the Pyramids of Ghizeh and Sakkara, and explained everything as he went along aa far as his knowledge enabled him. He also acted as paymaster for us in our excursions, and managed all such matters not only cheaper but more to the satisfaction of the parties concerned than Ave could have done ourselves, and moreover relieved us from much of the annoyance of the everlasting demand for "backsheesh" which is so uni'>. ^.rcsal in Egypt thai 1 verily believe the babies are born squalling it. At least we saw lots of little brown brats by the doorsteps, hardly old enough to be toddlers, holding out their tiny hands towards us and shrieking " Sheesh, sheesh." Patchy was also useful in TO SEE THE WORLD. 29 helping ns to make our pnichases, and preventing onr being imposed upon both as to (juaHty and price. While on the subject of expenses, it may be "useful to others to mention that the final make-up for the four days' trip from Alexandria to Ismailia, including everything except personal extras, only averaged £.10 each. Shepheard's extra bill, included therein, was reasonable enough, but we all thought the wine tariff a " leetle " too high. The waiting, too, was not adequate to the number of diners (two hundred aud fifty). Several new hotels have in recent years sprung up in Cairo, but Shepheard's still maintains its old re})utation as the best all round fashionable hotel aud the one where you are most likely to meet with travelling friends, as, from its being known pretty well all thn world over, every new comer goes there almost as a matter of course. If you want to see the Cairo of Hirun al Rashid, it will be only wasted time and trouble to visit the Ismailian or west end, for it is all of modern construction bv French contractors, in feeble imitation of London aud Paris. The houses and shops, although pretentious looking, are so flimsily built that many of them are already tumbling to pieces, aud the streets are broad, dusty, hot, and glary. But make your way up the street called "The Muski," and it will take you into the genuine old Cairo district. Here you will find all the streets (or rather alleys, for you cannot drive along many of them) so narrow that with the quaint looking lattices projecting from the windows of the upper flats, scarcely a streak of sky is to be seen, and so effectually are the rays of the sun thereby excluded, that they are all comparatively cool even in the hottest time of the year. In some )f them the traffic is very congested, and what w'ith camels, horses, and donkeys, laden and ridden, they seem to be quite choked up and altogether impassable ; but with a little dodging, getting under h camel here, and into a recess there, along with the exercise of a little good-natured patience, everybody in the end gets safely along. Our guide here took us thrcugh the oriental and Turkish bazaars, where all kinds of metal working, moulding and casting, chasing and gilding, slipper, robe and cap making, silk and gold lace embroidery, &c., are all being performed before your eyes ; and again into still narrower sireets, where, on divans, on either side sit cross-legged the vendors of goldsmiths' work and jewellery, perfumery, drugs, &c. We made a number of small purchases to take home as presents, the favourite for female friends being some of the 30 THE CKUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," E.Y.S. very handsome-looking gold-embioideied Turkish jackets, and of which tlie divan salesman tc Id us that he sold £50 worth daily during the Cairo season, besides consigning large quantities to Liberty's and other ladies' mercers in London and elsewhere. We next visited several mosques, of which there- are said to be as many in Cairo as there are days in the year. In all cases we had to put on slippers before entering, obtainable at the porch for a small gratuity ; and much importance was attached to our doing so, for on one occasion one of my slippers having come off unnoticed by myself I was immediately accosted by several mosque sides- men, who, with a great display of concern, conducted me back to the entrance to have it replaced. The chief external features of the mosques are their domes and tall minarets, from which latter the Muezzin— the priest told off for the purpose — proclaims the hour of prayer five times a day. We happened to be inside a mosque, at one of the these callings of the faithful to prayer, and had thus an opportunity of seeing how they worshipped. They formed themselves in a line, with a " sheriff" or green turbanned descendant of the prophet Mohammet in the centre — all facing the "mihrab" — a niche or recess in the wall, decorated with mosaics of marble, ivory, mother o' pearl, &c,, and pointing in the direction of Mecca, then bowing their bodies so as to touch the ground with their foreheads, and again rising quickly upright, repeat these movements several times ; and while doing this, all mumbling together a prayer to the prophet. We also visited the Azhar University, where 2000 Mohamme- dan students from all parts of the world were receiving free education. We terminated our first day's sight-seeing by a visit to the citadel, and after looking over the gigantic mosque, with its pillars of variegated oriental alabaster, which Mo- hammet Ali, the founder of the present dynasty, erected in alleviation of his remorse for his treacherous massacre of the Mamelukes^ we went round to the back of it to see the celebrated view from the Mamelook's leap. Beneath us lay tje city, with its mosques and minarets, and stretching away up the valley was to be seen the green track of the river, studded here and there with clumps of palm trees, while in the distance were the sandhills of the desert and the Pyramids of Ghizeh, and further to the west those of Sakkara and Dashoor. As the sunset that evening was cxcepticnally lovely, I do not think that any of us are ever likely to forget the beauty and splendour of the scene. TO SEE THE WORLD. 31 Next day Patchy took us to see the Pyramids of Ghizeh, which necessitated a drive of some seven miles from Cairo. We crossed the Nile by the fine iron bridge of Karz-e Nil — with Hs two handsome bronze lions at either end — and thence nearly all the way to the Pyramids, along a very good driving road, bordered on either side with rows of the long podded acacia tree — their long, dark, dense leaves completely excluding the sun's rays and making the long avenue delight- fully cool and shady. This species of acacia is not an indigenous tree, but was introduced into Egypt from the East Indies only fifty years ago. It is so free a grower that a branch, or even a chip cut off the stem, struck into the ground and well watered will promptly take root and grow with vigour, and this fine avenue, over five miles long, and of well- grown trees has all been reared during the last forty years. By the assistance of the Arabs, plenty of whom are always waiting about for the purpose, and a frightfully howling clamour they make before they settle among themselves who is to have whom, we first ascended the " Great " Pyramid of Khufra, and were then conducted into its interior to see the king's chamber with its empty stone coffin, his mummy having long since been removed, no one knows by whom or where to. As the tenebrosity is absolute, each has to carry a candle while the guide uses a flare light whenever anything special is to be seen. Although the Pyramids are really only immense tomb cairns, the first half of each was alw^ays built during the life time of those whose names they bear, and were made use of, up to the time of their decease, as observatories for astronomical and astrological observations, for the reason, that they believed that not only their own destiny, but that of their dynasty, and people, was indicated and could be ascertained from the movements of the heavenly bodies. It therefore came to be a matter of religious belief with the Egyptians that as these kings (such as Khufra of the " Great " Pyramid, Khafra of the second, and Meukara of the third) kiKW the future, and could influence the stars to alter tiieir ^ ourses, and in that way avert impending calamities, they coald be nothing less than gods, and both during their lives and aite" their deaths, they wer« worshipped as such, and are paid to have had more priests than any of the original deities. The Pyramids were also built due east and west, because these ancient Egyptians believed the " land of souls " was in the west, and in conformity with this idea they always worshipped in that direction, anc all the pyramids, a2 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE, R.'X.S tombs, and burying places are all found on the west side of the Nile. The " Sphinx," however, which we next went to see —(a human head on a lion's body, to indicate their idea of a supreme being, namely a combination of intellect and power, the faculty to think, design, and originate, with the power to create, fulfil, and execute) — looks to the east ; because ac- cording to another tenet of their religion, all the good souls of the departed passed from the west to the east with the sun in its submundane course, the punishment of the bad being the time they had to wait until purified, and the object of mummifying the body, and preserving it as it was in life, and also of having " a double " or effigy of the deceased, was to enable the good and the purified spirit to recognise with readiness and to re-enter its old corporeal home. This being an essential point of their religious creed, they considered it a matter of cardinal importance that all the pyramids should be accurately oriented — that is, built true east and west — and in order to effect that object, the fol- lowing plan was adopted in the course of their construction. A passage was carried up from the centre of the pyramid opening out on the north side, and by keeping their north pole stir in sight through this passage as the building progressed, tb-: . were able to get a true north and south, and as a matter of course, also a true east and west. It is an interesting fact, and worth mentioning here, that the circumstance of their using the stars "a Draconis," and " a Centauri " for the north and south pole stars, under the mistaken belief that they were true fixed stars, has enabled modern astronomers to calculate the age of the " Great " Pyramid, by ascertaining and allowing for the amount of annual deviation, and which they thus reckon to have been built 3,300 years B.C. Next day we went to see the Pyramids of Sakkara and Dashoor, the first fifteen miles of the way being by train to Bedreshayn, and the remaining five miles on donkeys. The donkey riding was great fun, and we were much amused at their names. Just fancy being asked to " have a ride on Charhe Dylk," " have a ride on the Grand Old Man," or " Mrs. Langtry," or " Mrs. Cornwallis West," &c., &c. Our attention was first drawn to the " Step Pyramid," which is seven hundred years older than the " Great " Pyramid, of Ghizeh, that we had seen yesterday. It is therefore nearly 6,000 years old, and is believed to be the oldest human structure in existence. The tomb caves of the sacred bulls were next shown to us, and it excited our utmost astonishment 'm TO SEE THE WOBLD. 3a how such enormous masses of granite could have been got into such narrow underground passages. The Sacred Bull, or Apis, was regarded as a symbol of the incarnation of the Egyptian god, Osiris, and when it died its interment was attended with much ceremony, and cost about £20,000. On our way back, we passed over the ancient city of Memphis, now buried very many feet under the accumulation of centuries of the warpy mud left by the annual overflowing of the Nile. No capital in the world dates so far back as this, or kept its place in history so long, and none has so completely perished or utterly disappeared as Memphis. Founded by the first kings of Egypt, 4,000 years at least before our era, it beheld the rise and fall of thirty -one dynasties of Egyptian kings. It survived the rule of the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman, and was, even in its decadence, second only to Alexandria in population and extent. It was seventeen miles in circum- ference, and like some other great eastern cities, included gardens and compounds round the various palaces and houses of the citizens. It continued to be inhabited up to the time of the great Arabian invasion of a.d, G40. Here we saw the gigantic but mutilated statue of Ramases ii. (the Pharoah of the oppression), that has lately been exhumed by the English Government, and, for safety from the vandal hammers of curiosity hunters, placed in an enclosure face uppermost on a low pedestal constructed for the purpos3, a small charge being made for admission, which goes towards the payment of the keeper's \vages. We left Cairo next day by the eight o'clock a.m. train, on our waj- to Ismalia, and wlien at the station it may be of local interest to mention that I saw hanging up on its walls a placard of the ubiquitous firm of Marshall, Sons & Co., of Gainsborough. How useful a few of their traction engines would have been to the pyramid building Pharoalis, although *' necessity " must have been to them a cle\er and versatile " mother of invention " in those remote days, to have enabled them to convey 2,300,000 stones averaging two-and-a-half tons each — in the case of Khufra's pyramid alone — five hundred miles from the quarries in upper Egypt, and place them iu position on a structure nearly five hundred feet in height. From Cairo to Zagazig the country is everywhere green with luxuriant crops, and everywhere are to be seen moving about Arabs, camels, horses, donkeys, oxen, sheep, and goats ; while busy waterwheels, and shaft and hand-ladling shadoofs are unceasingly c.t work, irrigating the fields and meadows. In 34 THE CRUISE OF THE "ST. GEORGE, R.Y.8. the district round Zagazig was the old land of Goshen. A little beyond Zagazig is Tel-el-Kebir, and eight miles further, by the side of the sweet water canal, is Kassassin, where the engagements took place in the late Egyptian campaign, and it is a singular coincidence that the English army should have made its way into Egj'pt over the very same route by which Jacob went down into Egypt. As we gc eastward we come upon the large, square, massive underground warehouses or magazines which have been lately discovered and opened out, built by the slaves of Ramases ii., among whom at that time were the Israelites. These immense chambers were separated from one another by massive walls ten feet thick, made with Nile mud bricks, and of which there were three kinds — first, bricks made with Nile mud and mortar, mixed with straw ; second, when the straw was finished, the same combined with reeds or stubble ; and lastly, of Nile mud alone, and which required a great amount of kneading to make it adhere. This, therefore, is a singular confirmation of the Mosaic account that thr i.^raelites had to make their bricks " without straw." We noA led Ismailia, situated on Lake Timsah, the larger of the . er Lakes, where we found the yacht waiting for us. From the circumstance that exactly the same shells are found in the gravelly sana at the bottom of this lake as in the Eed Sea, it is supposed that the Red Sea at one time extended up to Ismailia, and that it was across this part of it that the Israehtes made their escape from their bondage in Egypt. Having got on board the indispensable French pilot we now began to drop slowly down the canal towards Suez, the regulation speed being limited to three knots, for fear of injury to the banks from the ship's way-wash. We had twice to " gare up " that is, *^ up to the side of the canal at certain " gares " or stations, to allow ships coming in the opposite direction to pass ; for although by the aid of the electric light the trafific goes on by night as well as by day, the accommodation is greatly inadequate, and as the trafiic continues yearly to increase, a new canal must soon be constructed, and indeed several schemes have already been proposed for the purpose. The electric light apparatus for night sailing is provided by the canal company at a hire of £10 for the journey, and is in the form of a square box, which is hung out over the ship's bows. When seen ap- proaching these lights have a singularly weird appearance, but have great brilliancy and lighting power, so that half-a-mile of TO SEE THE WOBLD. 35 the canal in front of the ship can be seen as well by night as in the day light. When passing Chalouf on the Arabian bank, we saw a very large caravan on the move, and which some of us thought consisted of pilgrims from Mecca ; but they now generally go by sea to Yembo or Jiddah, Having got through the canal, we remained all that night and part of the next day at Suez, having dropped anchor in the road- stead off port Ibrahim, and while our water tanks were being replenished, we amused ourselves fishing. Among other queer fish that were caught was a diodon. The skin of its abdomen is so lax that it can distend it at will with air and water till it looks like a pouter pigeon, and makes the papillae on it project like the spines of a hedgehog. When taken hold of, it emitted a funny barking sound, and spurted out some air and water, while making a snapping movement with its jaws, just as if it were in a great rage at you. One naturalist says of the diodon that he has found it alive swim- ming about in the stomach of the shark, and with its sharp teeth eating its way through the monster's stomach, and so killir. ^' it. " Who would have imagined," he remarks, " that a little soft fish could have destroyed the great savage shark?" The wells of Moses, where Moses and Miriam sang their song of triumph over the Egyptians are only a few miles distance from Suez, but our time would not admit of visiting them. We now left our moorings at 4-30 p.m. and steamed down the Gulf of Suez, which merges into tlieKed Sea at the Straits of Jubal. On our way down we saw Mounts Horeb and Sinai, far away to the left, and at its southern extremity the Shadwan Islands, where the p. ct o. ss Carnatic was wrecked in 187G. We now proceeded on our voyage down the Eed Sea, a distance of 1200 miles, to the straits of Beb el Mandib, and a pretty hot, thirsty time we had of it, for the temperature all the way ranged from eighty-five to eighty- nine degrees in the shade, and which we felt all the more from the absence of wind, and the necessity for constantly steaming. As the Red Sea has an average width of two hundred miles, and our sailing course was irearly iir mid- channel all the way, we did irot sight land again until near Perim Island, in the sti'aits of Beb el Mandib, except, of course, the several islands lying directly in the ship's track, such as The Brothers, Dadalus, Jebel Teei", Jebel Tiikar, and the Greater and Lesser Hamish islands, where another r. and o. ss, the Ahna was wrecked. We did not, however, lose any- r 36 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. ■4 thing that wna worth seeing, as the coast on either side is mostly barren hills and sandy wastes, and entirely uninhabited. Several dhows crossed our course, but whether they were engaged in honest trade, or had a cargo of slaves on board, we had no means of ascertaining. When off Suakin, about hilf-way down the Red Sea, several birds alighted on various parts of the yacht, such as hawks, o^ Is, hoopoes, and the beau- tiful duck-green bee eater. The sailors caught them very easily after dark, by climbing up to where they were and pouncing on them with their hands or caps. Of course we let them all go again, but I hope the hawk and the owl did not breakfast off the Rmaller birds next morning, as it was probably due to the circumstance that they had been pursued by the hawks and owls, that the smaller birds had come so far out to sea. After passing Perim Island, a barren rock in the Straits of Beb el Mandib, where many a good ship has been wrecked, we steered eastwards, and giving the dangerous and precipi- tous headlands skirting the coast of Arabia Felix a safely wide berth, we reached Aden about 12 p.m., Monday, 23rd March. The yacht is now at Colombo, 6703 miles from London, and is leaving in a few days for Singapore, from which place I hope to send you a further letter. LETTER 4. ADEN TO SINGAPORE. If you have once seen Aden, your curiosity may feel satis- lied, but I am sure you will have no desire to stay there, as the peninsula of barren rocks of which it is composed is as destitute of the elements of hviman interest -as a pile of furnace clinkers can well be. Its intensely volcanic aspect and characteristics suggest to th^ mind of even the geologically unlearned, that it mast have been formed from the disrupted n TO SEE THE WORLD. 37 interior of some vast crater, iu the geogenic age of terrestrial transformations, and that it remains now just as at its first upheaval, ghastly, hideous, and hopelessly barren. Very little vegetation is anywhere no be seen, as might be expect- ed, where the heat is so overpowering, the soil so scanty and rain so rare an occurrence, that it seldom falls oftener than once in two or three years, and even seven rainless years in succession have been known, although curiously enough it was raining at the time of our arrival. On the hill tops, a little verdure and some dwarf trees are here and there to be seen, but this ^s due to the heavy moisture from the occasion- ally overhanging clouds. In such an arid country, the " water question " is necessarily one of primary and indeed of vital importance ; and accordingly, in order to provide storage for the rainfalls, which are generally in proportionate abundance to their rarity, immense tanks of solid masonry had been con- structed, from a very early period, the first of them as far back as the year 600 B.C. In the lapse of so many centuries, these tanks had become dilapidated and useless, but a portion of them (fourteen in number) have now been restored, with a holding capacity of 8,000,000 gallons. They are situated in a narrow valley, near the town of Aden, and being one of the few sights of the place, are worth visiting, if your time on shore will admit of it. Distilled water — for which there is ample apparatus provided at Aden-— is chiefly supplied to the calling vessels, as in our case ; and when it is prepared with proper care, it ought, of course, to be absolutely pure. I think it vvorth mentioning, however, that although the distilled water supplied to us, stood the "Condy" test satisfactorily, was clear and inodorous, and tasted sweet and wholesome, allow- ing for the flatness peculiar to all distilled water, yet we had not been more than a couple of days at sea, when many of the crew began to complain of symptoms of gastric and intesti- nal irritation, characterised by sickness, coated tongue, cholicky pains, and diarrhoea, and which all the sufferers ascribed to drinking the Aden distilled water, and such of them as had been the same voyage before, declared that it had always served them in the same way. The Soumali diving boys, who paddle themselves out to all the ships ari^iving in the harbour, in their fragile skiffs, made of pieces of rough timber lashed together, are a source of much amusement to those aboard of them, by their expertness in diving after coins thrown into the water, and which they eagerly solicit you to do, by incessant- ly shouting " Have a dive, master, have a dive ? " or as the r 38 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.8. i little Colombo tamil boys phrase it, " Have a di, papa, have a di ? " When trade is brisk, the diver makes a temporary purse of his mouth for the coins he has caught, putting them inside his cheek as a monkey does liis store nuts ; but as soon as there is a lull in the money throwing, he gets on his skiff, and ties his gains with a secure knot in a corner of his loin cloth. One knowing little rogue undertook to dive under the yacht for a shilling, but finding what he did not expect, that she lay seventeen feet in the water, he swam round the bows and came up at the corresponding point on the other side, and claimed the shilling, asserting and sticking to it that he had swum under the keel. The sailors, however, were too sharp for him, and having seen his manoeuvre, refused to pay unless he did it properly. Some of these Soumali boys are rather nice featured, having pleasing, intelligent, and merry looking faces. We saw Arab diving boys at Malta, Tamil diving boys at Colombo, but the Soumali Aden boys far surpass them in dexterity of diving and swimming. "What's in a name?" and it may with equal point be asked " What's in a fashion ? '* for while we dye red and grey hair black, whenever we have a weakness that way, it is the fashion with the Soumali to dye his bushy mop of black hair — red ! Among some interesting objects of natural history that we met with at Aden, two at least are worth referring to, the tobacco pipe fish, with its spineless body and its long pipe-shaped and mouthless snout ; and the other, one of the ocean swimming crabs, called the " sea albatross," because, like the bird of that name, that can remain on the wing for several days without requiring to take rest, this swimming crab can move itself along the surface of the ocean with the swiftness of a swallow, for many days at a stretch, and a brief rest on apiece of floating sea- weed is all that it requires to enable it to resume its fleet career. We left Aden on the afternoon of March 26th, and were not sorry to do so, for although the thermometrical temperature was not greater than what we experienced in the Red Sea, or afterwards in the Indian Ocean, it was of a more trying and dangerous kind, requiring greater care against exposure for fear of sunstroke. The run from Aden to Colombo is over two thousand miles, and had to be all done under steam, as the north east monsoon, which lasts from October to April, was still on, and being a head wind, that is to say, when there was any wind at all, we had still no opportunity of use- lug the yacht's " White wings that never grow weary." On Sunday morning, we passed the island of Socotra on our 8tar« TO SEE THE WORLD. W :ying sure over n, as pril, hen. use- On tar- board beam. It is about twice the size of the Isle of Man, and is situated at the entrance of the Gulf of Aden, five hundred miles from Aden itself, and about one hundred and twent} from Cape Guardafui, on the African coast. It is trib- utary to the Sultan of Keshin, on the coast of Arabia, and he also receives a small annual subsidy from the English Govern- ment, on condition that he will never cede the island nor allow any settlement upon it without our consent. Its climate is more temperate than the mainland, and as some of its hills are over three thousand feet high, some parts of the island would make excellent sanitaria for the troops stationed at the oven of Aden. The yacht's course was now shaped for the Gulf of Manaar, separating the coast of Hindustan from the island of Ceylon, and which we entered on the following Sunday morning. Our seven days sail through the Arabian sea was of the uneventful kind, for, with the exception of see- ing a large sea snake, a few bowswain birds, and an occasional shoal of flying fish, pursued by their natural enemies, the dolphins, there was nothing else worth recording. To be sure, the heat was a sore subject with us, especially when we got into the eighth degree channel, between the Laccadives and Maldives. We, who were on deck, with double awnings, iced drinks, and idleness, felt it bad enough, but how the stokers and trimmers managed to live I cannot imagine. It must have been something awful to endure, to be doing hard work for a watch of four hours at a time, down in the well of the stoke hole, when the temperature on deck in the shade was ninety-one degrees. As it was, three of them were complete- ly knocked up, but their places were temporarily filled by volunteers among the sailors. We all slept on shakedowns on the quarter deck, for although our Cabins are roomy and well ventilated, the heat up to two or three in the morning was quiie intolerable, and your bed seemed to heat up under you till you felt as if in a frying pan over a fire. The usual hosing of the decks at sunrise obliged us to curtail our slumbers, but we were recompensed by seeing morning dawn- ing over a tropical sea, the sun, as it were heliographing his own approach, by silvering the horizon with so dazzling a lustre that defied you to look at it. We passed Cape Comorin — the most southern point of Hindustan — at ten o'clock on Sunday morning, and after a ple>i8ant passage across the Gulf of Manaar, we came to anchor inside Colombo breakwater a little after midnight on Monday, 6th April. We had not reckoned on a longer stay at Colombo than tea 40 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. OEOBOE," R.Y.8. days, or a fortnight at most, but in consequence of an unfore- seen delay in the arrival from England of some supplementary machinery required for the yacht, wo were unable to leave until Thursday, 7th May. Ceylon, however, is such a little " world of wonder " in itself, and nearly everything about it is so altogether new and strange to anything we had seen before, that we soon found that a month was all too short a time to make even a rough acquaintance with its many .md singular attractions. The chief drawback was the climate of Colombo at this time of the year, April and May being its two hottest months, and being also a moist heat, it appears to have some deranging effect upon the blood, so as to give rise to troublesome rashes, gatherings, and boils, — "Colombo boils" being a too well understood phrase among the English residents — and which we also had some slight experience of during our stay there. Most of the Europeans living in Colombo and the lowlying districts in the south and west of the island go to Nurellia during these months, a health resort up in the Central Ceylon hills, about one hundred and twenty-eight miles by rail from Colombo, and at an elevation of 6000 feet above sea level, to which 1 shall afterwards have occasion to refer. The first thing that attracts the attention of everyone arriving in Colombo harbour is the stupendous breakwater enclosing it, whicii was constructed from the i)laus of Sir John Goode, about ten years ago, at a cost of £700,000, notwithstanding that the work was all dowed us all the mysteries of tea growing and making, fro-i the picking to Ihe packing. We intended getting to the top of Adam's Peak,— but time would not admit of it,— in order to see the sacred "■ foot mark " so jealously guarded by the Buddhists on the one hand, who say 46 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.8. that it is the last foot mark of Buddha, when he stepped out of this world into heaven, and by the Mohammedans on the other, who believe with equal steadfastness, that it is the first footprint that Adam made upon the earth when he stepped on to it out of paradise. There are some temples on the top of the Peak, and pilgrims, many of them infirm and aged, keep coming in a constant stream from all parts of the countries profess- ing these religions to worship this sacred foot mark. On our return to the yacht, much to our amusement, we found an addition had been made to the ship^s company in the shape of a couple of monkeys, one of them with a young one clinging to her. The poor baby monkey, however, had the misfortune to get drowned only a few days afterwards, in the following way. Jacko, the male monkey, having taken a great fancy to nurse the little one, watched his opportunity and having snatched it from its mother, carried it up to the top of the fore-mast screaming most piteously. Although he brought it back again, none the worse for the dandling he had given it, the mother monkey would never let him come near her again, but always made off at his approach. On the fatal occasion, being hard pressed by Jacko, she ran along the warp attaching the stem of the yacht to the harbour buoy, and being still followed close up by Jacko, leapt into the sea, when her poor baby got drowned. They have now both got " very much at home " with the crew, and their froUca are a source of some amusement to them in idle hours. The female monkey has apparently a partiality ior finery ; for, if anyone holds out to her a hand with a ring upon it, she will take hold of the ring, feel it all over, and look at it again and again just as if she was saying «o herself, " how much I should like to have one, too." A few days before we left, some Indian juggler? came aboard and entertained us with a number of clever tricks. I will only refer to one of them — the instantaneous growing of a young Mango tree. The juggler first asked for some sand in a dish or basket, and into this he put a mango seed. After talking some gibberish to a puppet that he called " Ramy Samy," and that he took out of his wallet, and saying to it— "Ramy Saray make tree grow," a sprout made its appearance ; then on further appeals to Ramy Samy to " make tree grow big," some leaves showed themselves, and on a still further appeal to Samy "to make tree grow bigger," it quickly developed into a miniature Mango tree with stem and leaves. He now pulled it up to show the roots it had made, and broke off some of the leaves, TO SEE THE WORLD. 47 :he ito » a )Ut ree als ^ed ike )W and handed them round that we might examine them and satisfy ourselves, that it was no sham, but a real plant. We had in addition, the usual snake charming performances, but which I only allude to in connection with his explanation, as to how he rendered his performing snake harmless and of which he gave us some illustrations. The usual story is that the fangs had been extracted, but to be successful the secre- ting gland ought also to be removed, and I do not see how that could be done without at the same time killing the snake. His explanation is therefore not unlikely to be the correct one, that by irritating the snake to bite at objects poked at it, the poison is thereby exhausted and the bite of the animal becomes innocuous, until the sac refills, which takes about a fortnight to effect. Ou Thursday, 7th May, everything being ready for start- ing, we left Colombo harbour about noon and stood well out into the Manaar Gulf, before we turned south. We were abeam of Point de Galle about 8 p.m. and passed Dondra light about four o'clock next morning, steering due east across the Bay of Bengal. We had a dead calm all the 1,200 miles across it, but although the sea was of such oily smoothness that scarcely a ripple was to be seen, except what a flying fish had made, there was, nevertheless, a long ocean swell — said by the sailors to be a sign of fine weather, — making the yacht roll fifteen degrees to either side, and quite enough to cause some of us to feel a little uncomfortable. A huge sun fish; with its great fat round body, and its queer retrac- tible puffy eyes, was loitering rather than swimming directly in the ship's path, and it moved aside as languidly as if it thought the yacht ought to get out of its way. These sun fish are said to 1 so naturally lazy that they will sooner allow themselves to be captur<'d than be at the trouble of making an effort to escape. The flesh is said to be good to eat, and the oil of the liver — which contains great deal of it — is much prized by sailors as an external application for rheumatism, sprains and bruises. When about half-way across the Bay we passed many large pieces of driftwood, on some of which a great number of oceanic birds were clustered, probably resting themselves during their intervals of fishing. At 8-30 p.m. ou Monday, 11th May, we sighted Brasse light off Acheen Head, the north-western extremity of the island of Sumatra, and a bearing was taken from it as we approached, so as to be (juite sure that our distance out from the coast would enable us to clear the outlying islet of Rondo. This 48 THE CRUISE OF THE "ST. GEORGE, R.\.S. I is readily done by taking the angle of the light to the ship's course— say, four points on the bow, — and at the same time noting the log, and when the ship has run on her course until the angle is- doubled, again note the log, so as to ascertain the distance run between the t\vo observations, this distance run will be the distance from the light. After passing Rondo our course eastward was continued until Diamond Point was abeam at 1-30 p.m. on Tuesday, when it was altered to s.e. by E. f e. in the direction of the Straits. It was now decided that instead of going on straight to Singapore we should put in and spend a day at Malacca. Accordingly, after passing Jurra Island at 5-30 a.m. on Wednesday', Aroa Island at 3 p.m., One Fathom Bank at 4-50 p.m., and later on in the evening, guided first by Cape Rachatta light, and then by Rendan light, we made the roadstead of Malacca at 1-30 a.m. on Thursday, 14th May. From One Fathom Bank to Malacca it is rather ticklish work to navigate a ship safely, in consequence of the great number of shoals lying here and there along the ship's course, some of them hardly more than a couple of fathoms under the surface, and although they are all carefully — and certainly copiously — marked on the sailing charts, the curients are so litful and strong, that a shoal that was here to-day may be in some other place to-morrow. Navigating captains are therefore directed to pro- ceed with caution, and to take test soundings from time to time. Our captain (W. Tutton), who is as cautious a navigator as he is experienced and skilful, accordingly had soundings taken at short intervals with Sir William Thompson's machine. Curious to relate, our sailors did not at first take to this machine, but as soon as they became convinced of its uniform accuracy, its simplicity in working, and the expedition with which soundings could be taken without interfering with the ship's course, a great advantage over the hand lead, their opinion so entirely changed that the captain could hardly use it often enough to please them. It seemed suddenly to have acquired the interest of a newly discovered friend aboard, who was ready at a moment's notice to dive to the bottom of the deepest seas and bring up reliable information of the depth it had been to, and the nature of the bottom it had touched. In the course of the afternoon we came upon a large shoal of porpoises indulging in a most extraordinary kind of saltatory antics. Dozens of them at a time were leaping yards high, and by a wriggling movement when in the air, coming down flat on the water with a hard, clumsy TO SEE THE WORLD. 49 in lieir dly to lend Ithe [ion i\ it )on lary rere in isy smack and splash, like a bad diver trying to take a header. We were indebted to our intelligent first officer, Mr. Cobby, for the interesting explanation that they were suffering from a slimy affection of their skins, and that these aquatic gymnastics were being resorted to as a curative process. "What a contrast there is between the shores and islands of the Red Sea, and those of the Straits of Malacca. The one is nearly all barren rocks and sandy plains whereas every foot of land on the islands and along both sides of the other, is crowded with the most luxuriant vegetation. Malacca is a pretty little sea coast town, but as there is nothing about it which we shall not see to more advantage at Singapore, 1 need not further refer to it, except in connection with the Mount Ophir so often alluded to in the Bible as the source of a very pure kind of gold. It lies a long distance to the east of Mal- acca, but we could see it standing out in very clear and beauti- ful outline from the deck of the yacht. I am of course aware that several other places have been fixed upon as the source of the " Gold of Ophir," but this Mount Ophir is beheved to be the true one, on the high authority of Sir Emmerson Tennant. We left our anchorage in Malacca roadstead at 12 p.m. sharp, so as to get daylight for the navigation of the lower part of the Straits, which is rendered somewhat intricate by the large number of lovely little islets scattered about along both sides of the sailing track. Having passed Cape Boulas, the most southern point of land of the vast continent of Asia, we entered the Singapore Straits at 4 p.m. on Friday, the 15th May, and were soon thereafter snugly anchored about half- a-mile from the prosperous town of Singapore, about which I hope to give you some account in my next letter, and which I shall probably post from Yokohama, Japan. m^|«^ JLIhIl. lii iJ 60 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. OBOROE, R.T.S. LETTER 5. SINGAPORE TO HONG-KONG. The island of Siugapore, at which we had just arrived, at the conclusion of my last letter, is situated at the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from it by the narrow Strait of Tambrau. It formerly belonged to the Sultan of Johore, and formed part of the ten thousand square miles of which his territory is said to consist, although only about a two hundredth part of it is in occupation. It came into the possession of the Indian Government — now the English Government — by right of purchase in the year 1819, on the advice of Sir Stamford Raffles, who had the prescience to foresee the value and importance its acquisition was likely to become to this country, in a commercial as well as a stra- tegical point of view, on account of its being situated, at what has been described as "the crossroads of the great sailing highway " to and from the far east. At the time the purchase was effected, the present town of Singapore was only a small Malay fishing village, and the island generally — which is only a little larger than the isle of Wight- a dense virgin jungle. In the three score years and twelve of English occupation, however, it has undergone a transformation of growth and development hardly surpassed by any place in modern times. Its population from being only a few hundreds, is now about equal to that of Newcastle, and is increasing at a rate that is doubling itself every thirteen years ; and so great has been its material prosperity that the insular exports and imports from being nil, now amount to thirty millions a year, while the tonnage of vessels calling for coaling and other purposes, equals that of all the ships going in and out of the Clyde ; and the values of their cargoes, in English bottoms alone, exceeds two hundred and fifty millions, or about equal to the fourth part of the whole carrying trade of England. The name Singapore, which means in the Malay language " the place of waiting or meeting," would almost appear to have had a prophetical significance, for being the only coaling station TO SEE THE WORLD. 61 md les. a ion between Colombo and Hong-Kong, steam vessels of all kinds and nationalities are of necessity obliged to call there in order to renew their coal supplies. As the demand for coal is on that account both large and incessant, a stock of three hundred thousand tons is always kept on hand, half of which comes from New South Wales and the other half from Old South Wales. In a time of war this nice little pile would form a very tempting chance for an enemy to make a bou-fire of, and as a matter of fact, until quite recently, this important station lay entirely at the mercy of any passing cruiser, the armour piercing guns so long promised by the Ordnance Department — with its characteristic dilatoriness —having only just been sent out. A few years ago a pile of fifty thousand tons of coal caught fire, in a way so simple as to be almost incredi- ble. A lighted cigar end having been thrown down on the coals, where probably there were some dried leaves or other inflammable material, the coals ignited, and the fire having got good hold before it was noticed, spread with such rapidity over the whole pile as to set at defiance all efforts to ex- tinguish or even limit it, and it had to he left to burn itself out, taking several weeks to do so. Singapore is the seat of Government of the Straits Settlements, which is conducted by a governor, who is alone held responsible to the Colonial Office. He is, however, assisted by a council of eight official, and six unofficial members. The latter are selected from the leading citizens, and much deference is always shown to their views and criticisms, especially on matters of finance and local legislation. The various governors have all been men of considerable Colonial experience, governing tact and admin- istrative ability, and have always sacceeded in making them- selves popular with all classes of the community. The name of the first governor. Sir Stamford Baffles, is honourably associated with that of many notable institutions, such 'is the Eaffles Museum, and the Raffles Educational Institute, and the present governor, Sir Cecil Clemeuti-Smith, has in- itiated so many public improvements, works, and institutions, that his name cannot fail to be held in equal honour with those of his predecessors. Although the growth of Singapore is piimarily due to the two main causes, first, its geographical position, with its splendid harbour and roadstead, both safe and easy of access ; and second, the free trade principles of the Mother Country, in virtue of which it is a free port, open on equal terms to all comers, it has nevertheless been largely influenced and aided by the wise, enlightened and energetic 5a THE CRUISE OP THE " BT. aEGRQE, R.Y.S. policy of its successive governors, tinder this guidance a system of roads— as good as any to be seen in England— have been constructed all over the island ; law and order, and safety to life and property have been secured by an efficient police, and by the impartial administration of wise and just laws. Many noble looking public buildings have been erected, such as the palatial Residency, the Raffles Museum, the Sing- apore Club, the Cathedral, the Council House, and Law Courts ; and ample recreation grounds and gardens have been secured for the free use of the community at large. As Sing- apore is only seventy-two miles north of the equator (one degree seventeen minutes) we had an uncomfortable forebod- ing from what we had been told and seen in books, that the heat would be greater and more trying than anything we had previously experienced, and we were the more exercised on the matter, as we knew we must be there at least three weeks, in consequence of Mr. Wythes having decided to remove the donkey boiler, so as to make it cooler for the men in the stoke hole during the hot voyage we were about to start upon, up the Southern China Sea. To our agreeable surprise, how- ever, this was not the case ; as although the glass ranged from eighty-eight to ninety-two degrees, the temperature was so modified by the heavy rain squalls that came on once or twice, every twenty-four hours, that we felt it much cooler than at Colombo, which is six degrees to the north of it. To be sure the "pooches" were more troublesome than they had been anywhere else, and were more of the " tiger " sort, and seemed to have a special knack of getting at you in defiance of mosquito curtains and anti-mosquito soaps and lotions. It is curious how little some people are affected by them, where- as, to others they are a terrible tease. Indeed, speaking from personal experience, in the case of those with suscepiible and sensitive skins, a combination of prickly heat and tiger- mosquito bites, in a moist heat, above ninety degrees will produce an amount of darting, stinging, fiery irritation, enough to make a saint ,well — to drive a philosopher crazy. When we went ashore, we were struck with the rather washed-out look of all the Europeans we came across— espec- ially the women and children — yet they did not seem to mind or complain of the heat, for we saw many gentlemen in ordinary English sunnner attire and "bowler" caps, instead of the nearly universal white duck suitings and sun hats of the tropics. When we went to the Pavilion Cricket ground, we found lawn tennis and cricket in full swing, and both players TO SEE THE WORLD. 53 )le r- iU id in Id le re C8 and spectators enjoying it as heartily as you could see in England. The cricket ground is a rather pretty piece of bright green, and perfectly level turf, and is picturesquely situated, between the noble looking Cathedral Church and the sea beach, and surrounded by the Esplanade — which is the fashionable " row " of the Singapore well-to-do classes, and much frequented by them in the cool of the evening. There would seem to be no lack of "go " in the place, for a race meeting was on while we were there, lasting for three days, and was largely attended by " all sorts and conditions of men." The race course, grand-stand, saddling paddock, and general arrangements, were all first-rate, and would have done credit to any Enghsh racing committee. A mare named " Kitty O'Shea" was first favourite for the Singapore Derby Stakes, but she pioved a terrible .jilt to her backers. A few days after the races, the Sultan of Johore gave a big entertainment at his Istana or palace at Johore, on the occa- sion of and to celebrate his *' proclamation of his sou as his heir " and successor. The governor and " everybody who was anybody " in Singapore and the other parts of the Settlements, and his Rajahs, Datos, and friendly magnates from far and near, were all, of course invited, and elaborate preparations were made for their reception and entertainment. The little town of Johore was in full gala, the streets being covered in with awnings and decorated with flags and banners, and floral emblematical designs, and triumphal arches on light bamboo scaffoldings were here and there thrown across the roads, and at all the chief entrances to the pr^lace grounds with the word " Welcome " in English conspicuously displayed over them. Among the many and varied items of the programme of the entertainment, was a fight between a tiger and a wild buffalo ; but it did not come off, probably in deference to English view's, that such spectacles are brutal and demoraliz- ing. We saw the tiger, however, in a strong iron cage, and a right royal beast he Avas. The Sultan of Johore has a very fine steam yacht, which we oftdu saw in Singapore harbour as he comes frequently to Singapore having a great liking for it on account of its shipping animation and the business activity and bustle always going on in it. It is said that he expresses regret that an island that has now become of so much importance should have been sold away from his hereditary dominions, but if that is so, he must forget that the Singapore of the present day is entirely a modern creation, due to the maritime supremacy of England. He has a house u THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. OEOBOE, B.Y.S. at Tyersall, in the suburbs of Singapore, adjoining the Botanical Gardens, where his late wife, the Sultana, resided at the time of her death, and which he is now enlarging into a palatial mansion. The population of Singapore consists chiefly of Chinese and Malays in the proportion of two to one, with about two thousand English, and also — according to the Blue Booh — small numbers of twenty other nationalities. This prepon- derance of Chinese strikes you at first as remarkable, seeing China is twelve hundred miles away, but they are such enterprising emigrators that no sooner do they hear of a favourable opening, than they flock to it iu their thousands and tens of thousands. Some years ago no less than one hundred thousand landed in Singapore in a single year, of whom about a fourth, being under labour contract, went elsewhere, another fourth went to the main land and sur- rounding islands, but the remainder settled at Singapore. If the Irish could only imitate the Chinese in this respect, there need be no congested districts, nor any occasion for state-aided emigration. About twenty-three per cent, of the Chinese smoke opium, and if some of these do it immoderately, when you have seen the densely crowded slums of Canton, and the way the people live in them, you will cease to wonder that so many should seek refuge from the miseries and disgusting realities of their daily life, in the dreamy apathy temporarily produced by the narcotic. On the general question, however, of the opium trafiic, about which we hear and read so much in England, this much I can venture to say, that although I have seen many a Chinaman taking his whiff or two at his shop door, just as an Englishman does of his pipe when he is tired or bothered, I never came across a single instance of any one being the worse for it among the many thousands of Chinese I must have seen in Singapore, Hong-Kong, Canton, and elsewhere. I am inclined, therefore, to think that there are quite as many moderate habitual drinkers and habitual drunkards in England as there are moderate and habitual excessive opium smokers among the Chinese, and tlia^" the one habit in excess is quite as deleterious and demoralizing as the other, and hence any argument for the extinction of the one trade on the ground of excessive use and abuse, is e(j[ually applicable to the other. The Chinese are very industrious, and prefer constant to irregular employment, even it it is not so well paid for. When poor they are very parsimonious, so that out of his weekly earnings of six shillings he can live on two TO SEE THE WORLD. 65 he d« le er shillings, sending the savings home to his parents or to his wife, for they are nearly all married, it being a point of their religion to marry young. When, however, a Chinaman gets rich, as many of them succeed in becoming, he likes to cut a dash, and has the heart and the will to spend his money freely. The Malays, on the other hand, have no desire to acquire riches, but are quite satisfied if the day's earnings are adequate to its requirements, and prefer employment of an irregular or occasional kind, such as driving a gharry. Like the Singhalese, Tamils, and the inhabitants generally of the Eastern Archipelago, the Malays to a man, and indeed to a woman, all chew betel, which consists of several ingredients besides areca-nut, such as tobacco ; and a piece of moist lime or chalk is always added, but for what purpose I cannot imagine. All the ingredients are wrapped up in a betel pepper leaf, and chewed together. The masticatory stains their teeth and lips a dirty blood-red colour, and although it is said to do no harm to their health — indeed rather to benefit it — it seems to destroy all their teeth, so that few have any left at forty. The Chinese and Malays live in separate districts of the town, while the offices and go-downs of :iie larger merchants are all in Raffles Square and its immediate neighbourhood. Their residences, hosvev v, are mostly in the suburbs, and their size and style, and the well-kept gardens and pleasure grounds by which they are surrounded, bear very unmistakeable testimony to the commercial prosperity of Singapore. As the profusion of the vegetation is so notable a feature, not only of Singapore, but of the mainland and all the sur- rounding islands, clothing them from hill top to water edge with universal and perennial verdure, no one paying even a flying visit to Singapore should omit seeing the Botanical Gardens. They are situated about three miles from the town at the charming suburb of Tanglin, where are the English barracks, and the residences of many of the wealthier inhab- itants. These gardens cover considerable space (sixty-six acres, ten being retained as natural jungle), are well laid out, and kept in excellent order, Malays only being employed, although Chinese are said to make the best gardeners. They contain a large and very fine collection of tropical plants, shrubs, and trees, arranged, some for picturesque effect, and others in groups according to their natural affinities or scientific classifications. You will [not find many flowering plants in the gardens, for the general reason that there are very few of them, either wild or cultivated, in Singapore, on account (it is 66 THE CRUISE OP THE " BT. QKOUOE, R.Y.S. said) of the heavy and frequent rain storms Hterally beatiag them to death. In their place, however, you have many beauti- ful foliaged plants, such as calladiums, begonias, draccjenas, and crotons. That very curious puzzle of the vegetable world, the sensitive plant, is here the commouest of weeds, so that you can hardly walk a step along a grassy footpath without observing it folding up its leaves and cringing fiat down on the ground before you. These Botanical Gardens are especially rich in palms and flowering trees. Among many others, I saw some very fine specimens of the royal palm, the traveller's palm, the wine palm, the oil palm and the sago palm. Curiously, the date palm (phoenix dactylifera) that we saw so much of in Egypt, although it grows here very well as a tree, yet it never fruits. Of the flowering trees and shrubs, several of them were in the full glory of their bloom at the time of my visit, and had a strikiug effect — such as the beautiful Amhirstia nobilis — the gorgeous Spathodia compauulata, the gay Browuia cocciuia, and the stately Fagraea fragraus. In order to see the interior of the island, we drove across it to Kranji — the ferry station opposite Johore, and almost due north from Singapore. The distance is about fifteen miles along a splendid road, resembling in colour and character the gneiss roads that we saw at Colombo, that packed with rain and hardened with solar heat, and never got sloppy, dusty or weedy. The greater part of the country on either side of the road was under cultivation, chiefly with liberian coffee, tapioca, rice, gambler, pine apples, and cocoa-nut trees. At a part of it, however, called Bukit Timali, and only six miles from Singapore, there is a large area of the natural jungle which is still infested with forest game, such as tigers, cheetahs, bears, wild boars, deer, &c. As the hill of Bukit Timah is the highest point in the island, we made a special excursion to it, and from the top of it had a splendid view of the country all round. There is a small but very pretty and well appointed Govern- ment Rest House upon it, which shooting parties in quest of the bi^T game make their headquarters. From its elevated position watchers can often see the game moving about, and so get to know where a tiger or wild boar is to be met with. During our stay at Singapore we made a number of short sea excursions to places in its neighbourhood, of more or less interest. One of them was to the Dutch settlement of Rhio, and to see the so-called "Thousand Islands," and is I think of sufficient general interest to be worth referring to. Rhio is situated on the south of the island of Bintang, about fifty miles TO SEE THE WORLD. 67 south-east of Singapore, and is only twenty-three miles north of the equator. We were much disappointed with it, for it eeemed a poor dead-alive sort of place, having no resemblance to an English Crown colony. It has a small old-fashioned sort of fort, with the civil prison inside it, and armed with such antiquated ordnance that could be vhere throughout the Archipelago — were here more picturesquely situated than any we had yet seen, although they are all the same in character, having the houses built out over the water on stages, supported on bamboo piles, driven into the shallow shores or on mud banks further out into the sea.. At one part of our return passage the pilot got out of his proper track and ran our hired steam launch on a coral bank. It was soon, however, got safely off, but we were indebted to this incident for affording us the interesti'ig sight of what I may trul j' call a lovely coral garden ; for on looking over the side— helped by the bright sunshine and the translucency of the water — we could see the bottom with perfect clearness, covered all over with coral growths of much beauty, and of all sorts of fanciful and fantastic shapes. We came upon plenty of the same afterwards in the shallows between the islets off Singapore, among which Mr. Wythes took us many pleasant trips in his pretty steam launch. The Malays used to bring coral out to the yacht to sell, and offered it at so cheap a price that one of the ship's ofiBcers bought nearly a boac load for a dollar. The low price somewhat surprised us, but we ceased to wonder when we had seen the inexhaustible sources of its supply, and that it required no perilous diving to get it. The weather kept beautifully fine all the way back, until we came out of the strait between the islands of Bantam and Bintang into the Singapore Strait — about 15 miles from Singapore— when the sky became suddenly overcast, and was quickly followed by heavy rain and wmd, and a large watersijout, culminating in a terrific tropical thunderstorm so directly over- head, as to make some of us feel a little alarmed. We got back safely, however, to the yacht with nothing worse than a soaking. Soon after we got aboard a very sad accident occurred, only i ( TO SEE THE WORLD. 59 it a (6 Le g r la a short distance from ihe yacht, by wbich four or five lives were lost, and but for the prompt aotioti of Capt:iin Tutton in sending some of the yacht's boats to the scene of the disaster, the number might have been greater. A large lighter, that had been delivering goods to some vessel in the outer road- stead, was returning to the shore with fifty coolies in it, and in consequence of not carrying a light, according to the port regulations— as it was then quite dark—an outward bound steamer ran into it, cutting it in two, prolmbiy killing some of the missing men at the time, and upsetting all the rest into the svater. Our sailors succeeded in picking up a dozen, and the rest of the survivors were rescued by the steamer's boats, and some sampans, or native boats, that happened to be lying near. The missing men must have gone down to the bottom with the broken up lighter as nothing was ever seen or heard of either, during the remainder of our stay at Singapore. As all vessels at sea are more or less liable to sudden di<*astej-, it is a wise precaution to have some instructions drawn up for the information of all on board, as to what they are to do in the event of a grave emei'gency arising, in our case, should tlie worst ever come to the worst, and the terrible necessity arise of abandoxiing the St. George — wliich God grant never may— all the fil'ty -three aboarci know Avhat they are at once to do, and into which of the yacht's boats they are respectively to go. Thus, according to the notice hung up in the chart room, the following are to join the first cutter : Captain, W. Tutton, Wythes, Esq., Blenkowe. Esi]., Fell, Esq., myself, and ten others of the sliip's company. Second cutter : First officer Cobby, Longley, Esq., Walker, Esq., Capt. Smirke (late 15th Bussars), and nine other?^. Launch : Second ofiicer Rood and six others. Gi,cr : Waleot and six others. First 'te • dinghey ; Page and four others. Secoiul dinghey : Simmonds and four others. On Tuesday morning, June 9th, the chief engineer having notified the captain that he was ready to go to sea, final prepara- tions were immediately made for starting, and by 12 o'clock we were under weigh. We left Singapore Strait by the eastern entrance — opposite the one we came in at — and steaming full ahead, passed Horsburgh lighthoui'ie upon the rock of Petra Blanca, at the end of the straits, at 4-15 p.m., and at 5-35, when fairly out into the China flea, the ship's course was altered to n. by e. J e. en route for Hong-Kong, a distance of fourteen hundred miles. Although the Malay Peninsula and the Kingdom of Siam stretches all the way on our west, and eo THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. the island of Borneo and the Pliilipines similarly on the east, they lie so far apart from one another that we never sighted land again until approaching Hong-Kong. We had a terribly hot time of it during the whole of the voyage and it made all of us feel headachey and lifeless, and those, like myself, who suffered from prickly heat, had such a benefit that they are not likely to try another voyage up the south China Sea in June. How they got on in the stoke-hole I can't imagine, as the chief engineer told me that the temperature rose one day to 128deg. As typhoons occur chiefly in these seas, and most frequently in the month of June, a close watch was kept on the barometer, but fortunately for us the weather was undis- turbed all the way, with the exception of a rather stiff gale on the fourth day out, making the yacht roll enough to upset a few stomachs and spring a few spars and stays. All the way up the China Sea we were continually seeing sea snakes, chiefly of a yellow colour, from three to four feet long, and swimming on the surface of the water in the letter " S" land snake fashion. After seeing those sea snakes, I think it is not unreasonble to conclude that there may be others of a larger kind — corresponding to the boas and pythons on land — inhabiting the deeper sea, and that seldom or never come to the surface ; but as to the existence of the so-called " sea serpents," the dimensions ascribed to them are too prodigious to be credible, so that nothing short of actually seeing one would induce me to believe in them.* On the 15th of June we were gradually nearing Hong-Kong, and by 10-30 p.m. sighted Grass Island light. In another hour we made Lema, and then went dead slow, so as to kill the time till morning. At seven a.m. (Tuesday, 16th June) we were abeam of Tylon lighthouse, and soon afterwards at anchor off the Admiralty Pier in the Hong-Kong harbour, situated between Kowloou and Victoria City, the English alias of Hong-Kong. We stayed a week at Victoria, and while there, paid a flying visit to Cant(tn, and v^e are probably the Inst Englishmen who will visit it for the present, for I see in to-day's Hiogo news- paper that in consequence of the unsettled state of the country, • As to the size attained by soa Kiiakes, the Rev. W. Hanghtoii, Preston- on-the-Wikl-Moors, Wellington, author of several works on Natural History, has favoureil me witli the following remarks : " The greatest size "to which some species attain is, according to positive observation, about " twelve feet. They are known to live to a great age, and if they have " been known to attain the size of twelve feet, there is no reason to doubt " that, under favourable circumstances they may exceed that size." TO SEE THE WORLD. 61 and the spread of the present insurrectionary movement, all foreigners are warned not to go to it. 1 will reserve my notes about Hong-Kong and Canton for my next letter, which I will post at Vancouver. This letter will reach you in twenty- three days, as it will go by the new route from Japan to England, via Vancouver, and will betaken across the Pacific, a distance of four thousand miles, in one of the Empresses in ten and a half days. I LETTER 6. HONG-KONG AND CANTON. It was like a lovely English summer morning when, on the 16th of June, the St. Geo* r/c came to and dropped anchor in Hong-Kong harbour, about a cable's length from the Naval Yard pier. The green slopes of the hills looking towards the harbour, and at the foot of which lies the town of Victoria, were bathed in bright sunshine, and the bold and picturesque outlines of the hills beyond stood out against a clear and cloudless sky. The heat too, which was still tropical in name, as well as in character, for Hong-Kong hes just to the south of the twenty-third parallel, and is therefore within the tropic of Cancer, was tempered by a brisk breeze that was blowing, and that crisped the surface of the water with commotion enough to make the sampans and small craft in the harbour bob and wobble about with a comical jauntiness. Our first impressions of Hong-Kong, both as to scenery and climate, were of the most favourable kind, but with respect to the latter we were afterwards told that the fine weather we had during our short stay there, was quite exceptional for the time of tlie year, as mere often than not, and for many days together the whole district was immersed in a dense hot steamy mist that made v crything reek with moisture, and 62 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. QEOKGE, R.Y.8. was felt to be very trying and relaxing by all European residents. The island of Hong-Kong is only ten miles long, and from two to five miles broad, and consists of a ridge of hills broken and intersected by numerous valleys and ravines, and covered with such coarse herbage, heather and scrub, as to be little capable of any agricultural use. At the time of its cession to England in 1843, it was only inhabited by a few fishermen and pirates, and had never yielded any revenue, nor been of any commercial advantage to the Chinese Govern- ment. As to the pirates, they were speedily dislodged from the island and its neighbourhood, although at the present day plenty of these pests of the sea find safe lurking places in the more out-of-the-way creeks along the shores of the main- lan«l and the estuaries of the great rivers, and ply their nefarious trade whenever opportunity presents itself. In consequence of this liability to be thus attacked, all the junks engaged in the coasting trade that we saw in Hong-Kong harbour — and they form a considerable fleet amounting to several hundreds — were each of them armed w'ith about half a dozen canon, three to four feet long, and being mounted on wooden carriages high enough for their muzzles to project well over the gunwale, they presented ([uite a warlike appearance, that seemed strange to British eyes in a peaceful commercial port. It is said that every one «>f these, apparently honest traders, have no objection to turn pirates themselves when- ever a safe opportunity presents itself, and that they all sail by " The good old rule, the simple plan — that they should take that have the power, and he should keep who can." Only a few weeks from our arrival at Hong-Kong, some eighteen of the desperadoes, who were concerned in the piratical attack on the "Namoa,"— an account of which appeared at the time in many of the English newspapers — were executed at Chinese Kowloon, on the opposite side of the harbour to where we are lying. A photograph was taken of the execution- of which we succeeded in getting a copy — and shows the business-like way the Chinese manage such little affairs. The criminal's hands are tied behind him, and pulled high up his back, by the rope being brought round across his throat in front. He is then made to kneel in front of a hole, and the assistant taking hold of the pigtail and pulling the neck forward into position, the executioner mr.kes him a head shorter by a dexterous sweep of his scimitar. From such sme.li beginnings, by dint of British energy and enterprise, the City of Victoria has now accreted to itself a f TO SEE THE WORLD. 08 \ population of 160,000 inhabitants, and has an estimated property value of twenty millions, while the registered tonnage of the vessels entering the harbour is equal to what the port of London was at the time of its acquisition, being about five million tons yearly, of which four-fifths are in English hands. Victoria is essentially a commercial emporium and distributing centre, as it has hardly any products of its own, except granite to export, and cannot consume more than the merest fraction of its enormous imports. Indeed so wide is its area of contri- bution and distribution, that there is no place of any import- ance throughout the habitable globe that is not represented among the ships in the harbour. Its chief imports are Chinese tea and Indian opium, silk, tobacco, sugar, rice, cotton, woollen goods, &c., &c. The Indian opium trade is entirely in the handsof aParsee, who pays £40,000 a year to the Government for th 3 monopoly. About three thousand cases arrive weekly, each containing about a hundred weight, worth £140. After refining it, he sends one hundred thousand cases a year to the mainland, payinga duty of eight per cent, to the first province, and as each province has its own additional duty, it must become rather expensive before it arrives at the most outlying of the eighteen, into which China is divided. Smaller consign- ments also go to San Francisco, Australia, and wheresoever the " heathen Chinee" do congregate. It will probably be news to many readers that the objections of the Chinese Govern- ment to the introduction of Indian opium, are not of a moral nature, but purely protectionist, in order to encourage the larger production and improvement in quality of the native growths, and so well is this succeeding, that in a very few years our Indian opium trade with China must die a natural death. The Chinaman takes upon an average forty whiffs a day, costing 10^. if he uses Indian opium, and only 5d. with native growth, but he prefers the former, although double the cost. The visitor will get a very good notion of the business .'Activity and commercial prosperity of the colony by taking a stroll along the Praya, or quay-side road, and the Queen's road, running j)arallel to it, being the main street of the town and extendiug from end to end of it, and then up the Kennedy road to the top of the Peak. Most of the warehouses are on, or in the neighbourhood of the Praya, but there are altogether about four miles of them extending in all directions round the harbour. Queen's icad is a really fine street, being wide, faultlessly clean and sanitary, the greater part of it being well 64 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. shaded with trees on either side, and enlivened at different points with large public recreation grounds, surrounded by avenues of ornamental and umbrageous trees, while pretty- looking side streets and grove-like footpaths here and there strike off from it. The buildings along it are mostly European in style, and some of them not without architectural preten- tions, such as the Town Hall, and the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank. As the Kennedy road is rather steep, and it is a climb of eighteen hundred feet to the top of the hill, you can avail yourself of one of the many Seda?i chairs, with their green canopies and wicker work sides, that are on hire at every street corner, and either go all the way up in it, or to the wire-tram station, and so finish the ascent in the car. A short way up this road and on your right brings you to the English churcli, called St. John's Cathedral, a noble-looking Gothic structure, but Oh ! dear me, what a musty smell it had, especially the cushions, books, &c., and which gave us a good idea of the Hong-Kong steamy fogs, to which I have already alluded. Further up is the Residency on a commanding position, overlooking the whole town, and surrounded by beautiful gardens. Just above it are the Botanical Gardens, which contain an excellent collection of tropical and sub- tropical vegetation, and are tastefully laid out and kept in admirable order. The arrangement of these rather extensive gardens into terraces — to suit their situation on the slope of the hill side — and -which are separated from one another by hedge rows of bamboo and native shrubs, and connected by approach ste})s, partially concealed by pendulous branches — give them something of the seclusion of a series of private gardens, as well as ensuring a large amount of shade. It is probably due to these two attractions more than to the circum- stance of their proximit}* to the centre of the town, that they are oo much frequented by the public. Further up the hill are to be seen the residences of many of the wealthier inhabitants, large handsome mansion.*, surrounded by gardens and pleasure grounds, and which, with their white stone walls, and arcaded style of architecture, rising tier upon tier almost to the top of the Peak, have a charmingly picturesque appearance. We ascended the hill by the wire-tram, tlie gradient being one in two, and being curious to see the engine that had drawn us up so steep an incline, I was gratified to find that it had —at least from Lincolnshire, come, orouj 19 having been supplied by Robey and Co. On the top of the hill were a large number of private residences, like those on TO SEE THE WORLD. 65 i \he slope, as well as several large and fine hotels, commanding extensive sea views, and apparently much patronised. When making the further ascent to the flagstaff on Victoria Peak we came quite unexpectedly upon a very pretty little bungalow in a snug and well sheltered sylvan dell, in the hollow between the Peak, and another rocky eminence to the south of it. Here, about a hundred ladies and gentlemen were assembled, and eight sets of lawn tennis were being heartily engaged in on the fine piece of level and velvety turf in front of it ; and in an adjoining paddock were the sedans of the visitors, with the coolie bearers, mostly in livery of a picturesque character. It proved to be the headquarters of a lawn tennis club, with a tournament in progress, and with its surroundings was altogether a gay and pretty sight. The view from the Peak is a very extensive one, as, with a sweep of your eye, you can see all round the island, while beneath you lies the magnificent harbour of Hong-Kong, with all the varied and picturesque scenery surrounding it. The harbour, which is admitted to be one of the finest in the world, occupies an area of ten square miles, reaching from Kellett Bank at its western entrance, to Lyemoon Pass at its eastern. Eight opposite you is Kowloon, a part of the mainland, of about four square miles in extent, that was ceded to England in 1861, and where are the naval dockyards, &c., while beyond it are to be seen far away in the distance the tops of the White Cloud mountains of the Chinese mainland. From my coign of vantage the shipping in the harbour is a scene of indescribable animation, for I can see vessels of all sorts, sizes, and nationalities, coming in and going out, loading and unloading, several men-of-war of the English China-squadron, of which Hong- Kong is the base, and ships of war of several other nations. Near the St. George is a Portuguese armed cruiser from Macao (which lies about forty miles west from Hong-Kong, and is the oldest European settle- ment in the East, dating from 1542, and notable for Camoen's grave, its great gambling hell, and its opium farm). A little further oflp is a particularly smart-looking Spanish man-of- war. Besides these larger vessels there is the fieet of Chinese junks, to which I have already alluded, and the mighty swarm of fishing boats and sampans, having about twenty thousand people aboard of them, chiefly of the Tankia class — a sort of Chinese water gipsy — who live an entirely aquatic life, many of them never having been on shore in their lives, and who find a catch-penny subsistence by "youlyowing" people about the harbour,andby other ways and means, inconceivable to ordinary €6 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. QEORQE," R.Y.S. mortals. Looking at the scene around and beneath me I could not help thinking what a wonderful race we Anglo-Saxons are, that by dint of our inherent qualities of energy and industry, intelligent enterprise and commercial sagacity, we should have been able to achieve such marvellous results in so short a time as fifty years ; and that this youngest and most easterly of Her Majesty's possessions should have thus become one of the largest shipping and commercial centres in the world. Fifty million pounds a year of trade with China goes through it, and nearly the whole of it is in British hands. Descending the hill again and making your way to the east end of the town, a turn to your right will bring you to the Wong-nai-Chung, or " Happy Valley," whei-e there is a capital racecourse, with grand stand and usual accessories. Baces with ponies — not with horses— are held here twice a year, and draw together an immense and motley crowd, among whom Chinamen from Canton figure largely. On the hill side, flanking the valley on the right, are the Parsee, Moham- medan, Catholic, and Protestant cemeteries. The Parsees, not being allowed to dispose of their dead by exposing them in a " tower of silence" to be devoured by vultures, as they do in India, conform to European ways, and bury in a very pretty cemetery of their own. The Protestant cemetery is especially beautiful — indeed more like a pleasure garden, as the memorial tablets and sculptures are in great part concealed from view by a skilful arrangement of ornamental shrubs and trees — notably the funereal cypress and weeping willow, the poincetias (called also " the pride of the Barbadoes"), and the temple tree, that sheds its lovely waxy blooms while still in their perfection, and which remain fresh and un withered for weeks together on the turf of the graves beneath. Among many interesting memorial erections, I noticed several of massive proportions to the memory of the gallant officers and men of both services who had lost their lives in the China wars of 1841 and 1857. Some of the tomb designs were of a suggestive and touching character ; one particularly struck me by its simpUcity. It was situated at the sharp turn of a path, having the corner to itself, but in such a retired part of the grounds as few would think of going to, and consisted of a small white marble cross with a little grave-trough in front of it filled with broken pieces of the whitest marble, and on it were the simple words, with the year, " Our Little Ones." In a blind path towards the upper and hill side boundary of the cemetery, I came upon several rows of humbler graves, but k TO SEE THE WORLD. 67 each with its own descriptive headstoue, ami I was much struck by their being mostly oi EngHsh seamen, petty officers and engineers of vessels plying with Hong-Kong, one of which I may quote in illustration, " To John Humble, engineer, North Shields," &c. Probably they had been sub- scribed for by their fellow messmates, to lighten the communi- cation of the sad news to the relatives, by being able to inform them that such a mark of respect had been paid to the deceased. Overhanging the cemetery, high up on the hill face, is the magnificent aqueduct, to which you can ascend by con- tinuing the road along the beautiful " Happy Valley." It is about three miles long, extending along the front of the hill and following the sinuosities of its outline, and the promenade along the top of it is of unrivalled splendour, and commands fine views of town and harbour. Having had occasion to meet Dr. Cowie, the port surgeon and head of the native hospital, in consultation — in a matter to which I will allude further on— he kindly undertook to show me over the native hospital, and invited me to see his out patients with him on his next reception day. This I did, and while seeing many cases seldom within the range of British practice, such as beri-beri and tubercular leprosy, I was much surprised at the number suffering from that terrible affection, stone in the bladder, as Dr. Cowie detected five in the thirty patients. In answer to my enquiries as to its comparative frequency, he told me it was far from uncommon, and showed me a large tray full of specimens, some of formidable dimensions, which his colleagues and himself had successfully removed. As the water of Hong-Kong is soft and pure, being collected directly from the ravines of the hills into the aqueduct, to which I have just alluded, and as Europeans are not so affected, another cause must be looked for, and I was inclined to think that it was probably due to the profuse per- spiration induced by the high temperature, and the small quantity of water that the natives habituate themselves to drinking. I have myself always acted on my theory of drinking freely when perspiring freely, but on mentioning this matter to the Bishop of Hong-Kong, who along with his wife, Mrs. Burden, spent an afternoon with us on board the yacht, he told me that his habit during the whole forty years he had been in the east, was to drink as little fluid as possible, und that he found the less he drank the less he perspired, and that it evidently suited him, as he had enjoyed excellent ■health all the time. 68 THE CRUIBE OP THE " ST. OEORQE," R.Y.8. Having decided to go to Canton instead of Shangai, we engaged berths on the Fatshan, a large and fine steamer run- ning on alternate days with another of similar size to and from Canton, a distance of ninety-five miles from Hong-Kong. When aboard of her, we ascertained that she had been con- structed by Ramage and Ferguson, of Leith — the builders of the St. George — with special adaptation for river traffic, having her saloon and deck lounge on the bows— an arrangement advantageous both as to coolness and sight-seeing. The first part of the passage, as far as the Bogue Forts at the commencement of the Pearl river, on which Canton is situated, was very picturesque, having an ever-changing outline of bluff and creek, and hill and valley all the way up between the islands of Liutao and Liniin (where the opium ships used to anchor before the days of Hong-Kong) on the one side, and the coast of the mainland on the other. The rest of the way, however, up the Pearl river to Canton lay between fl".t and uninteresting country, consisting chiefly of a monotonous expanse of paddy fields. These Bogue Forts defend the en- trance of the Pearl river, and therefore the approach to Canton by water. The old ones were easily captured and dismantled by the British in the first China War of 1841, but their modern substitutes are of such formidable strength that any attempt at a repetition of the feat cannot fail to be attended with almost insuperable difficulties. The forts on the two islands of Anunghoy and Wantong on either side of the main channel, — and between which all vessels approaching the Fatshan's size must pass in entering the river— are constructed of granite with a backing of mud, have bomb proof casements and covered parallels, and are armed with Armstrong's and Krupp's of the most powerful type, and skilfully placed for effective cross-firing, some of which we saw as we passed, en barrette, notably, two twenty-five tonners. On our return passage we saw some artillery practice going on from the land batteries on the high ground to the left of the forts, and it is said that the Chinese artillerymen are becoming expert marksmen at long range. As the Fatshan is not timed to arrive at Canton until eight in the morning, she dropped anchor at the foot of the river until close upon daybreak. When again on her course, and about thirty miles up, we saw on our right (that is the left of the river), the Nine-storied Pagoda of Whampoa, then further up, the Fort of Macas island, which the English occupied during the second China War of 1856, and still further up, when within sight of Canton, we TO SEE THE WORLD. 69 had the Five-storied Pajjoda pointed out to us on the northern wall of the city, that was captured by the English and French troops in the same war, and made use of as the officers' quar- ters duriuj^' our four years' occupation of Canton, preceding the signing' of the treaty of Tientsin in 1861. After cautious- ly passing throu«;h the gap left in a barrier thrown across the river by means of stone filled sunken junks, and intended to facilitate its complete obstruction in time of war, the river becomes gradually narrower and the current stronger. About a mile from Canton the number of junks and sampans moving about in midstream or moored in densely-packed crowds along the bunks, and at many points reaching a good way out from them, oblij;ed our steamer to go dead slow and pick her way very carefully to avoid accidents, especially when approaching her moorings near the European settlement of Shameeu. During the latter part of our course, where the traffic was thickest and the current strongt^t, it was curious to see how those sampans that had got in the FatshaJi's way, made use of the current to clear her, and which they did by steering their stern outwards so as to catch the drive of the current, which wheeled them round on their bows as on a i)ivot, and then by a skilful use of their sculls at the right moment were able to swing away clear of the steamer by their boat's length. Among these sampans were some novelties we had not seen before, two of which I may mention ; one is called the. Slipper boat, and looks just like a large shoe in the water, bv having the fore part covered in and the covered prow tapered up like a toe. Many of them were lying po close to the steamer that we could see into them over her sides, and as their inmates were just then having their morning meal of rice and chou- chou, we noticed that in not a few of them w re "big small families," but how sleeping accommodation ^\ as found for all of them in so small a space would i)UZ2le " The old woman that lived in a shoe" to suggest. The other kind of sampan instead of being sculled was worked by a stern paddle wheel, either by crank handles or by treading on the paddle blades, and I was told that the ingenious Chinaman who invented it, originally intended it to be self-acting and driven by water power, from a tank placed overhead and which he innocently supposed would supply power enough to fill itself as well as propel the boat. What are those tall, narrow, tower-looking structures that we see so many of in different parts of the city and that look so very peculiar, standing up solitarily among surroundings of low houses ? Much to our amazement 70 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. OEORQE," I'..\'.8. they proved to be pawn shops, into which the Chinaman puts his winter clothing after the cold months of January and February are past, and where it remains until he requires it the following year. Unless well baked, or otherwise disin- fected when taken in, one would suppose that they were not unlikely to prove a fruitful source of infectious and contagious diseases. Canton — or the city of the Genii as it is also called — is the capital of the south east province of Kwang Tung, which is one of the eighteen provinces into which the Empire of China is divided, and is about equal in size to that of the United Kingdom. It is situated at the angle of the irregular- shaped Delta, formed by the junction of the three great con- fluents of the Pearl river, the largest of which is the Si Kiang and which is navigable by small steam-boats and junks for six hundred miles above it. These main streams ramify and intercommunicate in all directions by branches and canals, and by this free inland water communication with the vast expanse of fertile and highly cultivated country surrounding it, and its large coasting trade, Canton has acquired the undis- puted pre-eminence of being the wealthiest city and the greatest centre of trade and foreign conunerce in all China. From a very early period, Canton has shown a disposition to trade with the outside world, or "foreign devils" as they still call us ;► for it is on record that Arab traders visited it in the tenth century, and that it was a port of foreign commerce even at an earlier date. Including its suburbs, Canton covers a considerable area — extending for over four miles along the west side of the Pearl river — and has a population of a million and a half. The city proper is surrounded by the historically famous wall, which is six miles long, twenty-five feet thick, and forty feet high, consisting of sandstone and brick sides filled in with soil, and although it is now over fifteen hundred years since it was constructed, much of it still remains in a good state of preservation. Having engaged the services of an experienced city guide — a Mr. Ah Cum, in connection with the Oriental Hotel, who spoke excellent English — we hired ten jinrickishas, nine for our party and guide and one for our commissariat, as we intended pic-nicing in the five storied pagoda— to which I have already alluded — and started off to see the sights of Canton. Being nearest at hand we first took a stroll through the European concession of Shameen. It is all built upon except the French section — for France having no foreign trade with Canton, has TO SEE THE WORLD. 71 seen no occasion to maintain a Consulate there. The site of Shanieen was formerly a mud-bank, uncovered at low water, but wan reclaimed from the river by building a substantial granite wall round it, and filling it up to its present level. It is about a mile long, and a quarter broad, surrounded on its land side by a canal one hundred feet wide, and accessible only by a bridge with a guarded gateway, and through which no one is permitted to pass but the residents and those who have business with them. The houses are surrounded with gardens and com- pounds, with a wide open street in fror t of them and a double row of shady trees between it and the nver front, along the whole length of which there is a splendid i^ight of stone landing steps down to the water edge. Altogether there was a delightful spaciousness and airiness, quietntss and retirement about the place that contrasted strangely and strongly with the Bcene of congested Chinese life by which it was sur- rounded. Leaving Shameen, the first part of our way lay through a labyrinth of narrow streets in both new and old Canton, none of which seemed more than ten feet wide, and many hardly eight, and were so overcrowded that getting along them seemed to be a perpetual jostle and stand by. No animals or vehicles are allowed in them, and should a rickisha — and especially a Mandarin's palanquin — pass along,the people have to stand aside to make way for it. When our cavalcade — not of horsemen, but men-horses — was charging along these narrow streets with our rickishas at the rate of six miles an hour, and all closely following one another, they kept up a harsh barking noisy whoop, to warn the people of their approach, and to get out of their way, which they don't fail to do, as they know the rickisha man is not at all particular about colliding against them, and that it is not his custom to stop and apologise, or even to look back over his shoulder to see what mischief he may have done. We had some experi- ences of this nature ourselves in the various places we had been to, but fortunately were always on the uninjured side. Although the atmosphere felt close and stuffy, as one might expect where the streets were so narrow, and the roofs of the houses projected out so at to nearly touch one another, yet it was not so malodorous as we expected to find it, except when passing a butcher's shop, or a dried fish store, when — Oh my ! the best thing you can do is to hold your nose, and get past it as quickly as you can. There are no drains or public water supply, but that is all managed by coolies with buckets and shoulder poles. The red sign-boards of the shops, and 72 THE CRUI8K OF THE " ST. GROR"ce every twenty-four hours. The Examination Hall was uex. visited, and a strange sight it was, for it contains no less than se\enty-live hundreil ctdis or small shed compartments, three-and-a half feet wide, the same deep, and six feet hii^di, open behind, and with n<> (ttliei- furniture than two plain wo() sometime happens, from ai)o))i«'xy or heart disease, brou^jht on i)y the intense' excitement of the competition, the body is never removed until the examination is over, much tt.> the ineon- venienee and annoyane*' of those near it. The examinati(»n consists in writing an r-ssay on the text or sulijfct given out, bm it is of an impractical nature, as the (".say is con- sidered the l)est that contains the largi'->t number of quotations from the ri'j>ut«'d Chinese classics in illustration of its siibji.'ct. Tile memory tlilbculties, however, must l»e some- thing enormous, ioi' lie has* not only to master the thirty tii'tusand word signs of tin- lany:uage, but to have tin- whole of the volnmincjus Chin«'se classics at the tip of his tongue. How the ditViculties of a Cnmese prmtmg «»Hice are got over, I cannot imagine, iait in Japan where the word signs amount to only ten thousand, and as each letter for printing purposes nnist l)e in at least thrcr ni/es. re(piirin;^ thereftne thirty thousand >«cparatc boxes of t\peH, the compositoi' being unal)lo to tind I Iniii foi- hims(df,em|»loys a statt' of boys todoso.allotLing to eaJi a few word^ it a time, and it i^ a rather fmuiy sight to see these boys at work in the type-room, moving to and fro in search (>f them and constantly ninnming ovei eacdi (Uie to 74 THE CRUISE OF THE " BT. OEOBOE," ll.Tf.fl. Il himself — tho words lie is working on. The Chinese stndont, like many others of his f^enus, wonld "crib" at an examina- tion if ho dared, bnt if detected, he is not only punished hiiiis(>lf with the can^nie, but his tutor and fatlier alonj,' with him. Wo wore next taken to see the. Temple of TTorrors and the Common Prison, in one j)art of which models roj)roseiiting criminals undergoing; all sorts ot horrible tortures and punish- ments were exhibited, with the intention, no doubt, of " waniinu' t!ie law's transgressor of his fate," and in anf)ther part were a great many prisoners in chains, and in a sepai'ato compartment behind a partition of iron railings, wore about a hundred more undergoing the punishment of the cangue, that is, wearing a broad heavy wooden collar round tluiir nocks ^vhich nearly chokes them, and many of those poor wretches lookt'd (juitc! livid as they lay exhausted and iielpless on the floor. 5so food is su[)plied to any of the prisoners ; so that if they have no friend outside to bring them any, they must die of starvation, but we were told they were very good to ojie another; tho.se wlio had food brought to them, dividing', it with thos(! w))o had none. The whole place and noighboiu-hood of the tein))le and prison was a scene of squalor and misery ; full of hoi'rid sights and dreadful sounds, and tho criminal and dc^jierado looks of the iiK^thiy soot hing crowd by which we Were suri'ounded made us only too anxious to got; out of it, and back to our rickishas. The lu'xt jjlace wo stopped at was the execution ground for parricides. Tf \vv expected to sei* anything very ghastly we wr"c disai)point(Ml, as it was just tluMi being used as a geiKU'al store ya"d, but wIhmi our guide described the nature of death by liingChee, and pointed out the Hjjot where the last execu- tion took place, it nuide our blood curdle to listen, as it still docs to ihinkofit. Tho explanation was somewhat to this efTect : The worship of ancestors being an essential pait of every Cliimunan's religion — no matter to what " ism" he may ])rofess to belong -lihe murder of a parent, including a father-in-law, is (toMHJdcrod in the eyes of the law, as well as of the people!, to bo of sucli a heinous natmc that while decapitation may do very well for the ordinary murderer, the murderer <»f a parent deserves something very much worse, and he is accordingly eondemiujd to beexocuted by LingChee, which consists in tying the victim to a rough wooden cross stuck in the ground, and then the executioner deliberately begins cutting and chopping tho living being into twenty-four TO SER THE WORLD. 75 pieces, or until every bit of tlie poor wretcii has dropped down off the croKH into a heap of fi-agnients on the ^'roiuid. Ollicial and educated Chinoae woukl iiave ua believe that executions, attended with such aava^^) barbarities no longer occur in Cliina, but we heard on reliai)le authority that a LiuLf Cheo execution took place only a few weeks before the (Lite of our visit, and a jjliotograph of it, which was stealthily taken by an ofiicer of one of the tradinj,' ships in the river, and of which ■we o])tained a copy, puts the facts beyond doulit. If, there- fore, '* the i^iant" is at last bej^'inning to move, and to join in the nuuch of civilization, as some aie of opinion, like L(jrd Wolseley, the first thing it must do is to purge its criminal procedure of such atrocities. After a ''urther rather long ride through tlie same narrow stuffy streets, wo canu; to the city walls, and getting out of the rickishas, enjoyed the fresh air and exercise of a walk along them, ('oming at length to the five-storicfd Pagoda, built on to the iiortluu'ii wall - already alluded to — we mounted to the upper storey, where our much needed lunch was soon laitlout for us on tlie ver.mdah under its projecting roof, and which •we enjoyed all the more on account of the line view of the city, with its hundred ami twenty-live tem[)lt;., and the wind- ings of the ri\er in the distance, which lay stretclu'd out before u-.. Kesuming our I'ickishas, we maile a long detour through another part of the city,makijig a few more purchases on the w;iy, and got back to tin; FatsJuin in time for dinner, an*ort Surg*y/fj, .md on that account I had the coinultation l>r. (!owie, to which I previously referred. This poor *. ,,iy,, -wh^) had IMk'H taken on at Malta to replace another, % 76 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. I ■who had also become invalideil aud had been sent homo to Englaiul — liad an attack of heat apopK-xy in the Indian ocean, and \va« never right afterwards. What made it worse for him was that he coidd not speak a word of English, and no one aboard could sjjeak ^Ialtese, which is m<>re Arabic than Italian, so that the smattering of that language that our first officer liad, was of no nse to liim. To add to liis troubles, although his wife could write and read, and sent him letters, lie could neither read them himself nor could anyone do it for him. On the *23rd of June, all beinyr ready for a fresh start, we weiirhed anchor at H a.m. and steamed full ahead thi'ough the LyeuKton I'ass for the o])i'U sea, and were soon on our course for Japan. When about fifty-four miles from Hong-Kong a blinding rain and foi; came on, obliuin*^' the cai)tain to move along very cautiously at rc.hiced sjjeed, yet altliough a sharp look-out was constantly kept we got witliin half-a-niiic of the rock of Pedi'o lilanco licfore it was descried. Our coursi' lay np Formosa Strait, and on Thursday evening, when off the China coast between Amoy and Foochow, we sighted the Ocksen islan. of water otVthe ttiwn oi Nagasaki by 10-bOp.m. I will try to give some accoimt of these beautiful islands, the i>laces we visited and the sighis we saw, in my next; letter. ''¥iik.^ii- TO SEE THE WORLD. LETTER 7. lArVN AND TO VANCOUVEU. Japan Is tlie name by which the Empire of the Mikiulo i?5 known to us, but by tlie inhabitants it is called Dai Nippon. By Nippon is meant " The hind of tiie risini; sun," and this is expressed on the national ensi;,Mi hy the red sun on a white ground. Nipjjon is not really a name, but only ageograjjliieal exi)ri'ssi(tn similar to our use of the words Orient or Levant. By the cpuilifying word Dai, literally great, the intention is to indicate the belief of the Japanese as to their countiy being the centre and most imi»ortant part of the world. They are now beginning to droj) tlie Dai as they are finding out hy the nse of maps, liy travelling and by tin- teaching of the foreign professors, whose services they are employing in their S' )ols and colleges, tliat Nippon is after ail only a small part of the hal)itable ylolje. The .lupanese legendary story of the divine origin of tiieii* race, and of the creation of the world — meaninu' thereby their Nij)pon, or according to its original designation, Oyashima, that is, the land of the eight islands, and which every Japanese imjilicitly believes in as ])art of tlie authentic early history of his country— is worth ({noting here, as it is characteristic <.f nuiny others of tlujir national myths that avo siinllarly interwoven into their early history, and which (as every connoisseur of Japanese art is aware of) are worked into many of their wonderful fictile and carving art produc- tions in a myriad of lu'autiful and uniijuely fanciful wa\'^. Isanaj/i n\\i\ Isamimi — the parents of the sun goddess Amaterasu — HO runs the legend, when one day standing on tiie bridije of Heaven, as it reached our. and restecl on the clouls, and looicin^ down on the dark abyss of troubled water beneath them, drojjped a richly ornamented lance into them, where- upon the waters divided, and the drops that fell from the lance as it was drawn up agaiti jtetrified into eight beautiful islands, on one of which these deities descended, and became tlie Adam and Eve of the JapanetJe race. Their daughter's son became the first Mikado, and the present Emperor claims to be his linejd descendant, and that his dynasty lias thus lasted 1 78 THE CKUISE OF THE " ST. OEOROE," K.Y.8, I! 11 tvventy-fivo luuulred yo.u'H in unbrokcMi huccoshIoh. In conse- quence of tho popular belief in this mythical divine origan of the Mikado, his person is held sacred by all ranks of his subjects, and one of his titles is The Lord of Heaven, and by which ho is described in all State documents. In tho recent internaticmal treaties with this and oilier countries, however, it was objected to as inii)i()us, and had to Ix^ ex- punged. Jajian is about equal in area to tho United King- dom, with Jlolland and Uelgium joiiUMl to it, b,ut owing to its hilly conformation and other physical causes and conditions, only an eight part of it is cultivatable. Geographic- ally, the Empire; of .)ai)an consists of a long chain of islands, extending from south-west to north-east, and of which Hondo is the central and by far the largest, l«>ing al)Out ecjual in si/e to Ilungai-y, and contains tho modern capital of Tokio, tli(! Jincient capita! of Kioto, and the two cliicf treaty ports of Yokohama and ]\olie. To ilu- north of Hondo is jho large island of ^'e/.o, with tin; "thousand islands" of the Kui'iles, stretching away up tt> C'ape Lajjatka in Kamchatka, and to the south of it are the two considerable islands of Shikoku and Klushiu; with the Tioo C'hoo group. i'(\iching as far south as. ihtMioith of Formosa, ccjvcring altogethei-, fi'oni Od extremity to the otlu'r, a distance* of two thousaml miles, and lying V'etween the parallels (»f latitude, corres})onding to the south c(iaNt of Ijigland and the Canary Islands. This long line of islands, having the sea of Japan on the west, fee[iarati!,g them from Corea and .\siatie Ttussia, and the I'acitic Ocean on tht; east, forms a segment «>f the great Volcanic circle of coasts that siu'roimd the basin t)f tlu; racilic. Of the highly ^()lcanic character of .lapan general! \, wo saw ample evidenci,' in tlie course of our i!n(,'restiug and delightfu! cruise througli the inland sea and rouml the coasts, and in om* subsequent excursions iidand. Its annals to'« are sadly cheejucicd witli co[)ious records of terrible earthtjuakt ->. At tlie i)resent day, earth-tremors of a more or less marked character, occur once or twice every month — one of \\!ii
  • ach. In our raiid)ies )ip the valley of the Hayia-gawa, neai- Nikko, and among the neii^hhouring mountains, we had a closer view of many of tliese hills and of their wild and savage scenery, and of seeiiiT, how greatly V(»lcanic a,Lrency nnist have had to do with their tbrniation, as in some cases their steej)ly scarped peaks of trachyte had been forced up through the disrupted primary rocks, while others tei'minat(>d in crater cones, marked with the concentiic rin^s of lava tufa and scoiiiv, at increasing altitudes, which geologists tells us, indicate successive j)eriods of activity. The climate of .Ia])an is so often a subject of discussion by thost' who have been to it, and of iMuiuiry by those who may Ix; going to it, that a few remarks about it may be both us(>ful and interesting. To understand, however, its somewhat paradoxical nature, by which l)oth ai'ctic and tropical fauna and flora ai'e found in close ])roximity, the bear to the ape, and the palm and tlie bamboo to the pines and deciduous trees of our noithern forests, an<] that Japan, within its comparatively narrow limits, should be the richest and most comprehensive; lield of geographical botany in the world, a little knowledge of the physical con- ditions that pro(hice and all'cct it is absolutely necessary, and which 1 will now endeavour to sketch as brielly as possible. From its j)roximity to the Chinese mainland, Japan necessarily participates in the same kind of clinuite, HI 80 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. aEOUQE, R.Y.8. namely, moist heat in summer duriiij^ the south-west initnsoou, and clear cold durinj^ the north-east monsoon of tlie opposite season. This is very much modified, however, and anything like a uniformity of climate throu^diout the geographical limits of the country, rendered impossihle by a variety of cacises, such as its elongated shajjc, its environ- iiiont by the sea, its mountainous character, hut cliietly by the permanent cold and hot currents that wash along its shores. With respect to the first, namely, the i)ermanent coUl current coming down from the Arctic Sea, although it makes the winter on tlie north and north-east (»f Japan more protracted and severe than on the south, lasting seven months, whereas the otiier is only three and of much milder cliaracter, yet it has the advantage, as in the case of the corresixmding current of tiie Atlantic to the shores of Labi'ador, that it l)rings with it to Japan enormous (juanti- ties of splendid fish, Crustacea and molluscs, the supply ot which would ai)pear to be inexhaustible, if we may judge by the multitudinous Meet of lishing craft (one of the sights of Japan) that swarm in every bay and ofVmg ar..und her coasts, and which have Ixh'U plying their industries for centuries, and not only supplying all native wants, but exporting in a cured state numy shiploads aniinally to the mainland. With respect to the permanent warm current or Japanese gulf stream, it is first recognisable between the island of Lutzen, the northernmost of the I'hilippines, and the island of Formosa. Indeed we readily detected it when on our voyage to Japan, soon after we hail passed the northern extremity of the latter island, by an appreciable rise in the temperature, and by the restless, troubled, and hurrying look of the sea, and the deep daik-blue colour which it assumes under bright sunshine, and which is the occasion of its Japanese name of Ivuro Shiwo, or black current, as the Jap sailors are optically unable to discriminate between the two colours. On its way north, it si)lits upon the Loo-choo islands into two streams of unecjual dimensions, the smaller or westerly entering the Sea of Japan by the Corean Straits, follows the coast line only a short way, and then striking nortli- ward, loses itself in the Sea of Okhotsk ; the larger, and so far as the climate is concerned, by tar the more important, travels up the east side of Japan, until it meets with the cold current in the neighbourhood of Nambo (.'J'Jdeg. N.) where a difference of temperature of ten degrees TO SEE THE WORLD. 81 ^m between the two cunentH can bo detected, witliin a distance of (inly a few knotH. It then strikes eastward across the Pacific ocean— the narrowness of the Behrin^' Straits, pre- venting; its escape northward into the Arctic Sea —as in the case of the Atlantic (iiilf Stream ; and un(h'r the new name of the North Pacific Drift, alonjj: which we sailed when crossing — it reaches the shores of North America at Sitka, some distance to the north of Vancouvei- Island, and linally turning' S(»uthward along the coasts of ]^ritish Columbia and the United States, ceases to be further reco^^niisable after passin;,' Cape St. Lucas, on the south of lower (,'alifornia. Thes(! j)ermanent cun-ents iiavc the effect of s(j far modifying' the climate all over the empire that there are no real extremes of temi)erature, and with respect to those parts of it in actual contact with the equatorial cui'rciit, while line crops of Mandarin oran^^es are grown in the south during tln^ summer, the winters are so mild that the camelia flowers in the open, and so little frosty keen- ness is there in the air, that snow flakes and flowers may be seen on the trees at the same time. Shai-p frosts and heavy snow, akli(>uj.,'h of very rare occui'reiicc, are, however, not unknown in south and south-eastei'n Jajjan, which visitors chiefly refer to in speaking of its climate, in consequence of the chief ports of arrival and departure beiuL^ in that region. Indeed, in 18G7 the ice at Yoko- hama was thick enou'^di to skate upon, and which the European residents indulged in, much to the ama/ement of the .laps, who had never seen anything of the kind before. Visitors, therufoi-e, to Japan in Jamiai'y, Fe])ruary and March, who are not awaie of such facts, and wlio may have just come from the moist heat of Siu'^apore, or the mild winter ( runate of San Francisco (wiiic-h, along with ^lalta and Madeira, are in the same latitude as Tokio, and yet ne\er have any snow) are veiy nuich disa])i)ointed with the low temperature, esi)ecially in a eoimtry where the houses are of wood, and the partitions an; of wicker work, and where the rooms have neither open fires nor fixed stoves. Spi-aking generally, however, of the climate of Japan, so far as it affects visitors, it may be said that if you want to see the cherry, wistaria, pe<»ny and other flowering trees and shrubs in full blossom — such as the JapaiU'se take so much delight in — April and May are the best months, but they have the drawback 82 THE C3RUI8B OP THE *' 8T. OEOKOB," R.Y.8. of a prevalence of hi<,'h winds. June and the firaf, part of July are frequently very wet, as we found to bo the case during the first few days of our arrival iit Nagasaki ; thereafter, and to the middle of October it is always hot, and sometimes excessively so, as was the case during the whole of our stay at Yokohama. The remainder of the year, however, is clear, dry, still and mild, and is therefore considered the best time of the year for visiting Japan, and it has the additional attraction of those splendid displays of autumnal tints for which Japan is justly famed, "when her masses and combitiations of red and golden foliage have a brilliancy of effect hardly surpassed by anything of the kind that can be seen either in Canada or in the United States. The harbour of Nagasaki, at which we arrived on the 28th June, is one of the deepest and safest in all Japan, and is as beautiful as it is well known. It is surrountled on three sides by hills and mountain ranges, chiefly of volcanic basalt, all wooded to th'i top, and wherever a spring or mountain stream could be utilised for irrigation, the slopes were all under green crops by means of an ingenious system of terraces and distributing channels. On the fourth or west side, is the entrance to it, leading from the beautiful bay of the same name, and with the island of Papcnbcrg to the left of it. This island has a melancholy notoriety as having been the scene of the martyrdom of many thousands of Japanese Christians in KuM, who were given the alternative of trampling on a cross, which was used as a test of renouncing their religion, or being thrown over its cliffs into the sea, and who proved the steadfastness of their faith by accei)ting so terrible a death rather than do so. Looking round the harbour f'-oni the yacht wu could see, picturesquely situated, here and there several very pretty villages, and in the town itself and vicinity some Buddhist temples, near which were gntves of gigantic camphor trees, and on the hill face in front of us a large native cemetery. Besides some churches, European rcsiib-nces, and consulates on the south side of the town, and not far from where the old Dutch settlement of Deshima was situated, is now to be seen a Government ship building yard and naval arsenal, and an extensive coal depot, in connection with the coal pits that are in its nciglibourhood and at Karatsu. The recent discovery of the two coal basins, from which this coal is obtained, TO BEE THE WORLD. 88 is considered by some woll-wi.shers of Japan as Tikely to dev«'lo}) in the neur future, many now manufacturing industries, but the coal, unfortunately, is of very inferior quality, being what is known as " peat coal," and is unsuitable for smelting or coke making, and so smoky and ver he required them to do so. The Tycoon (or Shogun) had thus the entire military power of the country at his connnand, and made and carried on wars, and entered into treaties, ({uite irrespective of the Mikado. Indeed, this signing of treaties by the Tycoon instead of by the ]Mikado, was the technical cause of the revolution, for certain of the Damyos being desirous of again closing the ports that had been opened for foreign trade bj' Connnodore Perry's treaty, and which had been granted and signed by the Tycoon, with- 8G THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEOEGE, E.Y.S. drew their allegiance from him in favour of restoring the Mikado to his legitimate position and authority, in the hope that he would reveise the policy of the Tycoon, by closing the treaty ports and expelling all foreigners, but although they fought and conquered under this idea, the result in the end turned out quite different to what they had expected, as Japan is now more open to foreign trade ynd foreigners than it had ever been befoi-e. The populace sympathized with the revo- lution from a different motive, namely, that they might have the Mikado to appeal to against the territorial tyranny, in- separable from all feudal systems, and they have not been disappointed in what they aspired to. The resulting war was short, but bloody, and although the issue at times seemed dubious, the Tycoon was finally completely overthrown. The Mikado now no longer lives in a state of mysterious retire- ment, as an unapproachably sacred person, such as he had formerly been compelled to do, by the Shoguns, but appears among his people and takes an interest in their welfare and progress, and as he now rules as well as reigns, the entire organization of the old feudal system has been swept away. The ranks of Shogun and Damyo having been abolished, and their estates and incomes escheated at the same time, they no longer had the means to keep up their castles and mansions, and had no alternative but to dispose of their contents. As that had to be done with much precipitancy, the market at first became so glutted with these "genuine old" productions of Japanese art, that even the best of them only fetched clear- ance prices, and whole ship loads, so purchased, went to Europe and America, yielding a rich harvest of profits to their importers. "We left Nagasaki on July 2nd, after taking a pilot on board to navigate us through the intricacies of the Inland Sea, through which Mr. Wythes intended to go by short trips, moving only during the day time, and anchoiing each after- noon in one or other of the many pretty little bays along its shores, so as to ensure a good and full view of its scenery, which every one we had met, who had been through it, ex- tolled so much. Our first halting place was Karatsu, about sixty miles north along the coast, and where we arrived early in the evening, in a downpour of rain and a blinding mist, like the weather of our first three days at Nagasaki, and which revived our apprehensions that we were not yet out of the June rainy season and that we therefore stood a poor chance of seeing much of the beauties of the Inland Sea. Next day, \ TO SEE THE WORLD. 87 however, broke bright and clear, and the weather continued so, not only all our way through the Inland Sea, but during the whole of our stay in Japan, with the exception of an occasional shower and the rather trying heat during the latter part of our stay at Yokohama. Karatsu is situated among the many Wans or long arms of the sea that run far into the west side of the island of Kiushiu and make it the most broken part of the Japan coast. Karatsu rests on one of the two coal basins already referred to, and the traffic and work at the pits find employment for many of its inhabitants. Our next advance was to Shimonoseki, situated on the main island of Hondo and at the western entrance of the Inland Sea, called in the maps the Straits of Van der Capillen. On our way we saw seven large sharks sunning themselves on the surface of the water, and as we also had seen several when we were approaching Nagasaki there are probably a good many of these formidable fish in the seas round the islands. This town of Shimonoseki had the evil fortune to be bombarded by the combined fleets of England, France, Holland, and the United States in 1863, and to pay an indemnity of three million dollars for having fired on their ships, and attempting to expel " the barbarians" — that is, foreigners— from the " treaty ports" tliat had been conceded ten years previously to Commodore Perry. Our next run was to Tokiyama, a small fishing town situate in a picturesque and well sheltered little bay about a hundred miles down the Inland Sea. As it lay quite out of the sailing track for large ships, and judging by the great interest the inhabit.ants took in the yacht, it was probably the first smart looking schooner of the size they had ever seen. We remained there over the next day as it was Sunday, and soon after breakfast many scores of people cama out to the yacht in their long, shallow fishing boats, built of unpainted wood, but all looking as clean and white as if tiioy were subjected to as tliorough a dally scrubbing as our decks get. As they showed no inclination to return, but hung about the sides of the yacht as if they expected to be allowed to come aboard — which was really the case, in conformity with their own ideas and habits of social courtesies to strangers — Mr. Wythes, with considerate kind- ness oi'dered the yacht to be thrown open to all come" between certain hours, forenoon and afternoon. To our amazement about eight hundred came aboard from first 88 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," K.Y.S. to last, keeping up a coutiiiual stream all the time, and those who happened to arrive too late, and whom we were obliged to refuse admittance to, in consequence of our usual time for service aboard, went back apparently much dis- appointed. Our visitors were of both sexes, but with a decided preponderance qi the " fair," and included among their numbers a great many childrsn and some quite old people. The former were under the care of their parents, and we were much struck by the pains they took to show and explain to their children every thing they saw themselves ; the latter, especially the old women, were as curious to see everything, and appeared as pleased with what they saw as any who came (^n board. Taking them all round, they looked clean and wholesome in person, and neat and trim in attire, and as if they had put on their best holiday garments for the occasion. Indeed, the young Japanese women — some se musical instrument of that name. It is the largest lake in Japan, being sixty miles long and thirty- broad, and is situated between the watersheds of the two ceutral mountain ranges. Its water is of a lovely green, and its islands are tenanted by white storks. The little harbour and town of Otsu is at its lower end, and as. we passed through the latter, the spot was pointed out to us where the insane Japanese gendarme attacked the Czarewitch. To the left of Otsu is the historical White Castle of Hikone, and on the right is the celebi'ated nmshroom-shaped pine tree, of great size and age, and to w Llch the Japs make pilgrimages, to pray for long life. On the other side of the lake is seen the high mountain of Ibuki-Yauia, where the Japs believe the devil lives, but the myth has probably originated from the fast- nesses of the mountain having been at one time infested with robbers, who made themselves a terror to the neighbourhood. Tlioy, however, believe that all evil comes from the north- east, through Kimongate or " devil's gate," the name of a spur of this mountain, and on a hill to the north east of Kioto a temple and monastery was erected and richly endowed, and having as many as three thousand priests, whose office was to keep evil from coming to Kioto by constantly ringing bells, beitting drums, shouting and praying; and from the popular belief in their power to do so, they were able to exercise con- siderable political influence. We now took the lake steamer at Otsu, a very tiny affidr, and after an interesting trip round the south part of the lake, where we saw many picturesquely situated villages and small towns along the shores and up in the valleys, we landed at one of them and had lunch at a tea-house, charmingly situated by the water side. As usual, we brought the material wdth us, for if you trust to a Japanese tea-house for a hungry Englislnnan's meal you will be much disappointed with the result. Eice and chou chou may fill, but it won't satisfy, and the monotony of the diet would be unbearable to the Japs themselves if they did not begin their meals witli copious draughts of hot saki, a rice spirit, and which enables them to get down the staple commodity with- out any disrelish at its insipidity and want of variety. The day after our return from Kioto, being July 18th, the St. George started under steam for Yokohama. The weather TO SEE THE WORLD. 95 continued uninterruptedly fine, and the passage through the Linchoten Straits, situated between the main island of Hondo and the island of Shikoku, was especially enjoyable after the heat of Kobe and Kioto. We were in expectation of meeting the Chinese fleet on our way north, as we heard that it was leaving Yokohnma for Kobe about the same time we were leaving the latter place. It passed us, however, during the night, so that we did not get the opportunity of forming a judgment for ourselves, which we were rather desirous of doing, on the question that was just then agitating the Japan- ese mind and undergoing so much discussion, both in the native and English local press, as to the relative strength and fighting capabilities of their own and the Chinese navy. The Japanese naturally enough think their own the better, but the opinion of the local Anglican press was in favour of the Chinese fleet, for the reason that the ships were all new, having been built to order, chiefly by English firms, v^diereas the Japanese were partly second-hand purchases, and partly built by themselves. On onr way north w^e sighted Fuji-Yama, a famous Japan mountain, 12,400 feet high, for the first time at 7-20 p.m., and arrived in Yokohama roadstead at 7-55 of the following morning, entering it between the twi) lightships placed to in- dicate the deep water channel. As at Kobe, only in a much greater degree, we found the harl)our and roadstead full of shij)ping of all kinds and sizes, and amply vindicating the claim of Yokohama to be considered the first commercial port m the Empire. We had hardly setiled into place before our sailors were interviewed by a deputation from the crew of an American man-of-war, the Monocrasy, lying a little way off' from us, and "who brought a challenge to row them in the respective ship's gigs. This was duly accepted by our men, stakes and pre- liminaries arranged, and the event to come off in a fort. ight. When, however, the race came off, to the amazement of our fellows, the Americans had substituted a light racing gig, not belonging to their ship at all, for their ship's gig, and which was about half the weight of ours, narrower and shallower in build, and, of course, with such odds against them, our boat came in a long way behind. Our men offered to row them again for double stakes if they would agree to exchange boats, but as they refused to do so, there was an end to further in- tercourse with the Monocrasy. When the American Admiral, who was ashore at the time, heard of what had occurred, he expressed his disapproval by ordering the private racing gig to be at once sent ashore. If you are a curio hunter you will 96 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. find some excellent curio shops in Yokohama, where some really good things may be picked up, if you don't mind paying the price for them, but such prices as five thousand dollars for a pair of Cloisonne vases puts high class purchases out of the reach of all except the wealthy. As there was nothing specially interesting to detain us in Yokohama, while the heat was so oppressive (ninety to ninety-five degrees) that we were anxious to escape from it by getting up into the mountains, we left almost immediately for Miyanoshita, one of the best known and m'^st frequented watering places in Japan, and the yacht in the meantime went into dock at Yokosaka to have her bottom scraped and her copper sheeting overhauled. I I LETTER 8. JAPAN AXD TO \ M^covyE^.— (Coiitinued.) The first part of the journey was by rail to Kodsu, thence to Yumoto by horse tram, and the rest of the way by jin- rickishas, up the long, narrow and very romantic valley of the noisy,brawling and bellowing Hayiagawa,the river that is form- ed by the outflow of the pretty mountain lake of Hakone, at the top of the valley in which Miyanoshita is situated. We took up our quarters at the Fugia Hotel, where appartments had been pre-engaged for us by telegram. This hotel is delight- fully situated on the side of a wooded hill, facing the valley we came up, and is surrounded on all sides by the magnificent ranges of the Hakone mountains. Its locality indeed is ad- mitted to be one of the most charming mountain districts in all Japan, with merry streams, splendid woods, and numerous springs, including several that are medicinal and thermal. As ff^r Mr. Yamaguchi's hotel, too much cannot be said in its praise. Everyone we met there, and everyone we have since met who had been there, all speak of it in the same TO SEE THE WORLD. 97 terms of well-merited laudation. The apartments, public rooms, corridors and verandahs are all spacious and airy, the bath rooms and baths which are innocent of paint or varnish, are constructed of sweet smelling wood and are kept scrupulously clean and supplied by a continuous inflow of water from the springs. The food is first-rate, the cooking excellent, the waiting unexceptionable, and all done by Japan- ese maidens, under the kindly discipline of the proprietor's wife. Indeed these girls are quite a feature of the hotel, as, while they are most attentive, obliging and respectful to the guests, they are allowed the freedom, as they naturally have the playfulness of children, and thus impart that little ad- mixture of Japanese life to the management that gives it a homeliness much appreciated by the European guests. The neighbourhood of Miyanoshiia affords ample scope for many interesting and enjoyable excursions. Among many others, the one that we made to Lake Hiikone was very much enjoyed by all of us who took part in it. Although it is only eight miles from the hotel, the road to it is up such a rough, steep and narrow mountain path that it is quite hard work to walk it, and yet if you take a chair, what with the jolting, occasional upsets and the grunting of the overtaxed bearers, you will find it preferable to walk. Hakone lake is an ex- ceedingly beautiful sheet of water. On a peninsular projection, a handsome summer palace for the use of the Empress has been recently erected by the Mikado, and which com- mands all the fine views round the lake and of the mountains that encircle it, chief among which is the noble snow-capped dome of Fuji, which is only a little smaller than Mount Blanc. This mountain is said to be the youngest in the world, having only come into existence in the year 800 b.c, and according to the popular tradition or myth, its immense mass of earth was all thrown up in a single night, simultaneously with the formation of Lake Biwa, in the plain of Omi, already referred to. Fuji is one of the hundred extinct volcanoes of Japan, its last eruption having occurred in 1708, when according to the accounts that have come down about it, a hundred thousand lives were lost, and fifty towns and villages more or less destroyed. The snow upon its summit disappears for about eight weeks in July and August, except between the ridges, where the drifts have been heaviest, and during this short period cf its accessibility, thousands of Japanese pilgrims annually climb to the top of it, and perform some supposed act of homage or worship to the god or spirit of the mountaia. THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, K.Y.S. To understand why they should do so, it may be as well to ex- plain that according to the polytheistic tenets of Shintoism (formerly, along with Buddhism, the state religion of Japan, though at present Japan is without one, but is considering the point of adopting Christianity in one form or another) all the forms whicli nature assumes, such as mountains, woods, marshes, rivers and seas, and the powers which she exercises, such as in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, thunder and tempest, are either the embodiments or the manifestations of tutelary deities or spirits. The Jap therefore prays to the mountain to send rain in due season for his rice crops, and generally, that it will counteract the machinations of all the malignant spirits of nature that are inimical to human life and happiness. Oil our way back to the hotel we crossed over Ugoku-yania or Hell Mountain, and a very Tartarian looking phtce it was. Sulphur vapours, voluminous and strong were steaming up out of innumerable cracks and holes all over it ; heavy incrusta- tions of sulphur lay here and there on the surface, and all vegetation was killed. The lava tufa and surface rocks were bleached, and decomposing under the chemical action of the vapours, so that the gnnmd seemed rotten under your feet, and you could hear from many of the fissures a loud bubbling and jolting sound, as if ebullition of a very violent kind wus going on far down in the ground beneath you. This Solfatara supplies all tlie six or seven watering places along the valley of the Hayiagawa with the sulphur and thermal waters for which they re celebrated, and it is curious to observe the change, both in character and temperature, that takes place according to their i-espective distances from their conunon source at Ugokuyama. x\t first the temperature of the water is just under the boiling point, and is highly charged with sulphur. After travelling on the surface a short way, it dis- appears into the ground to reappear at Ashinoyia, half-way towai'ds Miyanoshita. At Ashinoyia, where there is a medical establishment for the cure of skin and other com- plaints, the temperature is found to have subsided to blood heat, although the sulphur is still strong. After again disappearing, it next reappears at Miyanoshita, where the temperature makes a further drop to about eighty degrees, but the whole of the sulphur has now gone, and a trace of iron has taken its place. Similar changes occur at all the other watering places in proportion to their distances down the valley. TO SEE THE WORLD. 99 On our return to the hotel, we found a professor of the art of tattooing, busily at work upon some of the visitors. Al- though tattooing has been prohibited by imperial edict, in consequence of the Nimsoku or coolies tattooing their bodies instead of wearing clothes, it is still extensively practised, and professors of the art wait upon all foreigners at the hotels, and apparently get so much to do and are so well paid for it that they make quite good incomes, this gentleman telling us that he made over a thousand pounds a year from the practice of his art. He certainly was very clever at it and produced quite artistic pictures on your skin. One of the visitors who had been operated upon at the hotel, had a couple ot cocks in fighting attitude, done on rather a large scale on his upper arm, and that were marvellously well executed, and for which he paid the sum of sixty dollars. On our return to the yacht, which we did on 4th August, after visiting Tokio and Nikko, some account of which I will now proceed to give, we found our sailors had also got infected with the mania for being tattooed, and had on board an artist of a less expensive sort, who was busily "jobbing" away at their arms and had produced tattooings on them of great variety of pattern, such as beetles, butterflies, flowers, birds, snakes, dragons, and a favourite one with them was a Japanese lady. Some of their tattooings inflamed and festered rather badly, and took about four weeks to get well from. This they were inclined to ascribe to some bad quality in the red dye, used by their cheap artist, but as what had been kept covered up did well enough, it was due apparently to some action of the sun's rays in the case of those working with their bare arms, that affected the red but not the black coloured parts. Having arrived at Tokio by rail, we put up at the Imperial Hotel, a handsome modern structure, elegantly furnished and well appointed throughout, but which does not appear to have got known to visitors, as not half a dozen besides ourselves were staying at it. Much of Tokio has been modernised of recent years, which the extensive fires it has been so often subject to (such as the one in 1872, which destroyed the castle with all the Government offices and about five thousand houses) have contributed, by clearing the way for doing so. Many of the houses are now built of stone and brick, instead of the low wooden kind as formerly, and still are in the old districts ; while the banks, hotels, public offices and buildings are now of European character. The main streets have been widened, some with paved footpaths, and bordered with trees. 100 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. The chief modernising agent however has been the change in the poUtical system, wliich has been acting not only on Tokio, but on the entire country. In the short space of twenty years Tokio has become the capital of a consolidated and real empire, the seat of a strong Government, with an executive Cabinet and an elective Parliament, having an army raised by conscription of a total available strength of two hundred thousand, and a fleet of sixty ships of war of modern type. But as it is old Japan that we are chiefly interested in, it was pleasant to hear from the windows of this grand modern hotel the clatter of the wooden clogs in the streets, to see the jinrickisha men rushing past with their fares, and the Japanese women and their dapper children walking about in their picturesque native attire, always elegant, and that can never become old fashioned. There is so much to see in Tokio that it is impossible in such a brief notice of it to go into any detail. It is of great extent, covering an area equal to that of Paris and has a population of about a million. Seen from the sea, out in the Bay of Yedo, at the north-west corner of which it is situated, it has a remarkably fine appearance, on account of its undulating character and the trees, gardens, and green open spaces interspersed among the edifices, streets, and districts, and by wiiicli the whole city is surrounded. Another good jJoirU-de-vue is from the top of the tower, recently erected on a hill in its centre, called Aatgo-yama, and I was much indebted to my friend, the Eev. T. Cholmoudely, chaplain to Bishop Bickeisteth, for a very interesting description of all the more conspicuous objects and places of interest to be seen from it. Tokio is full of temples, there being over a thousand Buddhist, and about two hundred Shinto, though most of them are now shut up in consequence of the Govern- ment having appropriated for State uses the large revenues that they formerly possessed. When we visited some of those at Sheba we found them locked up, and only after a good deal of knocking at the outside gate, did a shabby- looking old priest at length make his appearance, and after we had paid him a small fee, showed us over the tenantless oratories, chapels, and shrines. We were, however, much interested with what we saw in these temples, and also with the elaborate richness and grandeur of the tombs of the Shoguns that are within their precincts, although it made us feel sad to think that such unrivalled triumphs of Japanese art in lacquer, bronze, and painted carvings such as they possess, TO SEE THE WORLD. 101 and which would be of priceless value in any European capital, were fast going to decay for want of looking after. Among the many other places of interest that we visited, I can only afford space to refer to two or three of them. One was to the Maple Tree Club, and of which the members are all Japanese gentlemen of the highest class. It is severely simple in its furnishings and decorations, but everything is of the best class, and it is surrounded with gardens in strictly Japanese style, with ornamental fish ponds, rockeries, and cascades, and those arboreous eccentricities which Japanese gardeners are so skilful in producing, making trees grow in all sorts of unnatural and fanciful ways and forms. Next, to the British Consulate, where Mr. De Bunsen, the chief secretary, kindly entertained us and showed us over the grounds. Then to the Greek Cathedral, where Mr. Cholmondely hoped to find Bishop Nicholai at home that he might introduce us to him, but he was absent on some pastoral work. The priests-in- charge, however, great tall powerful men, who could speak English quite well, showed us over the edifice. The Cathedral is erected on a high projecting knoll of land, that is deeply scarped on three sides and lined with massive masonry like a fortress (which the Japs have a suspicion it is ultimately intended for), and inside there is a wonderfully rich, gorgeous, indeed almost meretriciously gaudy reredos, by the exuber- ance of its flashly gildings and ornamentation. And lastly, that nothing that was characteristic of Japan should be left unseen, even if it shocked us to look at, we paid a visit to and walked through some of the streets of that dreadful suburb of Tokio, called Yoshiwara, where women of a certain class are exhibited to public view in windows behind lattice work like birds in a cage, and to wiiich dreadful life Japanese parents sell their daughters, who thereby become the slave and legal property of their purchasers. It is to be hoped that modern Japan, in its eagerness to be considered a civilized nation, will take steps at an early date to wipe out this terrible blot on her national escutcheon. After paying a parting call at St. Andrew's House, the head quarters of the English Church Mission, to say good bye to Bishop Bickersteth, whom we found in a rather weak state of health, having only just recovered from a two months illness, and who was about to take a trip across the Pacific to recruit his strength at the Sanatorium of Banff, up in the Eocky Mountains, we next morning started for Nikko, which is situated about a hundred miles to the north of Tokio, and is 102 THE CBUI8E OF THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Tf.S. ■/ connected with it by rail. Nikko Hotel, at which we put up, is pleasantly situated on a {gentle slope on the left bank of the river Dayia, about three miles further up the valley from the station, and commands many good and comprehensive views of the conntry all round. It w&s very full while we were there, and amon<]f the visitors were some we had already met with at Miyanosliita, and who, like ourselves, were going the round of the chief sight seeing places of Japan. As they are situated quite close to the hotel, we went first to see the temples for which Mikko is famous, and the tombs in connec- tion with them of the two Shoguns, Jyeyasu and Jyemitsu, who founded the Tokugviwa dynasty, the most powerful that had ever ruled in Japan, and which lasted until the revolution of 1868 as already explained, when the Shogunate and the whole feudal system in connection with it was finally abolished. The temples are magnificent structures in them- selves, but contain some of the most splendid specimens of Japanese ait in black-and-gold lacquer, bronzes, painted carvings embroideries and wall paintings and decorations in all the empire. The grove of cryptomeria trees, by which they are surrounded, each of great size, have a solemn grandeur and stately di.'^nity in their appearance befitting the last resting place of the two most distinguished characters in Japanese history, and it forms the termination of the finest avenue of trees in the w'orld, extending for forty-four miles along the road from Tokio. The one of our excursions that is most worth referring to was to see Lake Chiuzengi up in the mountains, at the top of the valley, and at an altitude of four thousand feet. Its out- flow forms the magnificent waterfall of Kcgon-no-take, and further down some wildly leaping rapids, and thereafter, com- bining with other streams from the contiguous valleys, it forms the river Dayia, along which the one long-streeted town of Nikko is situated. Chiuzengi is a lovely piece of water, with a strange, solemn stillness about it, and from it rises the sacred hill of Naptai, wooded to its top, and which pilgrims are only allowed to ascend after performing certain penitential exercises, and of whom we met many hundreds on the way to it. Beside what has been thus specially alluded to, the scenery of this highly volcanic, but most pictuiesque district, may be generally described as including magnificent mountain forms and wall-like precipitous clifi's, charming waterfalls and romantic streams deeply buried in forest gorges, with struggling rapids and angry whirlpools at one part of their TO SEE THE WORLD. 103 course, and at others with placid lake-like expansions and torpid meanderings, while the whole country is covered with an exceedingly beautiful and luxuriant vegetation, including splendid conifers and the cryptomerias. With all this scenery to interest and delight us, in addition to its temples and mau- soleums, witii their ricii siore of Japanese art, Nikko is deserv(idly said to be the place in all Japan, best worth seeing. Its name means " the sun's splendour," and is not inappro- priate, and those who have seen it can alone appreciate the Japanese pn)verb that "He who has not seen Nikko cannot talk of the beautiful." On our return to Yokohama, preparations were pushed forward for starting on our long voyage across the Pacific. Those of us who had made bulky purchases of curios, had them packed and sent to England by Henry King & Go's agents. One of our party. Fell, Esq., who, at this time, had to return home for lamily reasons, now left by the^, and 0. steamer Bliio for San Francisco, intending to have a look at the United States on his way back. On deck, extra water was being stored in casks lashed to the bulwarks, or wherever there was a secure and snug place for it, as our voyage was of uncertain duration, and in case of accidents in such a barren sea, for, as a matter of fact we never saw a sail from the time we left the one coast to coming in sight of the other. While this was in progress, some of us who were desirous of seeing the world-renowned great bronze statue of the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha, took the train to Kamakura, the former eastern capital of Japan, near to which it is situated. It well repaid us for going, as it is an altogether marvellous production of barbaric art, and as a conception embodying the Buddhist idea of " Nervana," or the state of complete mastery over all human appetites and passions, and the attainment of that state of spiritual tranquillity which the acquisition of the knowledge of the light of truth can alone inspire, it is unsurp^^ssed by any other ideal figure in the world, except that of the Christus, of Thorwaldsen, in the Fru Kirke of Copenhagen. Buddhism, as many writers assert, may be only a philosophy, not a religion in itself, but leading up to one, going no further than inculcating the practice of goodness, so as to attain Nervana, when the light of trath will disclose the true religion, and they will then necessarily be of it ; but it certainly has taken a marvellous hold of the races of the east, and numerically it is the religion of the world, as its adherents number over four hundred million. The Daibutsu is in a sitting attitude, with the legs crossed, and •»»'T f" 104 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. the hands clasped as in meditation, and seated on a lotus flower the symbol of purity and rest. It in fifty feet high ; thirty feet from elbow to elbow ; face nine feet ; eyes three feet, and lias been made from separate castings of bronze, in sheets an inch thick, and braized together at the margins. Inside is a chapel, wliich is entered from behind, where there are two altars, surmounted by figures of Buddha ; and in front of them, stuck in small vases, we saw many joss-sticks burning, with their tiny wreaths of sweet smelling smoke, and which had been placed there by the hands of some pious native visitors, who had been in before us. It may seem strange that an idol should inspire in the mind of Christians, feelings akin ^o awe and solemnity, but I believe such is admitted to be the case by all educated strangers who gaze upon it for the first time. The expression of the face and attitude is that of passionless calm and dignified repose, and of unselfish beneficence, as if silently appealing to all the weary and heavy ladened, seeking rest. On Thursdaj', August 20th, all being ready for starting, we weighed anchor at five in the morning, and steaming out of Yokohama roadstead, between the lightships by which we entered it, had a pleasant run down Yedo Bay, and after turning Cape King at its entrance, about 10-30 a.m., the St. George was imt on her course for Vancouver, at first due east, and the following day east by north. We had very squally weather, and a good deal of rolling during our second day at sea, and at five in the morning the very extraordinary phenome- non was to be seen at some distance on our port bow of eight large water-spouts all in a row. They seemed constantly forming, breaking, and reforming, the formation apparently beginning from below by the water being whisked round into a cone, the top of which was then met by the apex of an inverted cone, coming down from the cloud, and when they disappeared, they either spun themselves out and so melted out of sight, or broke off abruptly, when the surface of the sea beneath looked like a mound of si)lash and spray by the falling water. The easterly current of the North Pacific Drift, tho nature of which I have endeavoured to explain in my remarks on the climate of Japan , now began to be very perceptible, and continued so more or less all the way across. The un- settled state of the weather, just referred to, was probably to blame for losing us our last acquired pet, in the shape of a young black bear, for Sancho, as he was called, having scrambl- ed up on to the gunwale unobserved, got jerked overboard by TO SEE THE WORLD. 105 a sudden lurch of the yacht, and although it was immediately turned back on the course, we failed to see anything of poor bruin, so he probably made a dainty meal for some hungry shark. A few days afterwards the sailors lost another of their pets — a Ceylon monkey — from consumption. The symptoms had first developed as the result of one or two cohlish days when going through the Straits of Formosa and now reappear- ed as the temperature began to fall, and as he could never be induced to wear the jacket the sailors had made for him, it took him off on the 10th day out, when the glass had fallen to sixty degrees, a difference of thirty since we left Yoko- hama. As the wind became favourable for sailing on the third day, the engines were stopped, and all possible sail set, and good progress was made until the 26th, when a dead calm supervened for ten hours, followed, however, by a fresh breeze, which sent us bowling along at a twelve knot pace. During the calm our sailors amused themselves with fishing for molly- hawks, with hooks baited with pieces of fat, and floated out to them. Dolphin harpooning from the martingale-guys of the yacht's bows was another recreation. Oil the 3rd September we crossed the hundred and eightieth degree of longitude, so the day was now put back twenty-four hours, that is, the twelve hours we had gained since we left England, and dis- counting the other twelve in returning eastward. Fogs about this time became troublesome, necessitating the constant blowing of the fog horn, not that there was much risk of collision in mid Pacific, but it was done because it ought to be done. The wind for several days having fallen away to a dawdle, so that very little way was being made, steam was got up again on the sixth, being our seventeenth day out, and was continued all the rest of the voyage. On the tenth we had quite a gale, carrying away our fore-trysail gaff, and as the wind and sea continued high on the twelfth and every sign of the approach of still dirtier weather, both top gallant and foretry-sails were taken in. Contrary to expecta- tions, however, the weather improved as the evening drew on, and at midnight, the wind having gone dead ahead, all canvas was taken in. At seven o'clock next morning, being September 13th, we made land about Nookta Sound, and by noon, Vancouver Island was plainly visible. Cape Flattery was abeam at seven p.m., and Kace Island light at J 0-30 p.m.. At 2 a.m. we sighted False Dungeness, and soon afterwards en- tering Port Angeles, anchored till daybreak in fifteen fathoms. At six we renewed our course to Esquimalt harbour, which 106 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. OBOROE," 1.. »r.8. we entered at nine o'clock on September 14th, being the twenty-sixth day since we left Yokohama. Space will not permit me to say anything at present about British Columbia, iibout the beauty and grandeur of its scenery, the frankness and hospitality of its people, their prosperity and enterprise, of the fortunes that have been made and are being made, but I hope to do so in my next letter. LETTER 9. BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA. The harbour of Esquimalt at which we had just arrived at the conclusion of my last le^^ter, is situated at the south- eastern extremity of the large island of Vancouver — three hundred miles in length — and is considered one of the best in the whole of the American Continent. It is two miles by one-and-a-half in area, has an average depth of forty feet, with a good anchor-holding bottom, and is surrounded by picturesque hills, covered with dense forests of splendid tim- ber, and is so completely sheltered from every wind, current and tidal swell, that it has a uniform placidity more like that of a quiet inland lake than an inlet of the sea, only a short distance from the heaving bosom of the mighty Pacific. It is the naval station of our North Pacific Squadron, and pos- sesses a dry dock of sufficient capacity to accommodate the largest of our fleet, constructed at the joint expense of the Imperial and Canp lian Governments, with arsenal, hospital, naval stores and re airing shops. Admiral Hotham's flagship, the Warspite, wa- in the dock at the time of our visit, getting overhaulet and H.M.S. Garnet, that had entered the harbour just b fore us, having come out from England by the westward rt ite round the Cape, was the only other TO SEE THE WORLD. 107 representative of the squadron there at the time. The St. Giorge berthed close to her, in that picturesque part of the harbour called Constance Cove. Wo had previously met the Garnet Skt Malta, and had special occasion to remember her from her dangerous proximity to us in the Senglea Creek of Valetta* harbour, during the terrible " gregale " of the 12th of Feb- ruary, to which I alluded in my Malta letter. After the usual interchange of courtesies between a ship of war and a yacht flying the white ensign, we all went ashore, and were glad to feel our feet again on terra jama after ou.- loug voyage across the Pacific. Our first impressions of British Columbia, I am fain to con- fess, were of the most agreeable kind, because of its many points of resemblance to the " tight little island " in the North Atlantic that we hailed from, and "little "' England is, from a geographical point of view, m comparison with British Columbia, which is a giant that could put the little pigmy of England — to use a colloquialism — into its pocket ; as England has an area of only fifty thousand square miles, whereas that of British Columbia is nearly four hundred thousand. Thus, we could not fail to recognise its resemblance, in climate, which is thoroughly English, but with more sunshine and with a bracing incentiveness to activity peeuHar to itself ; in the physical aspect and character of the country — indeed it is said that the reason why there are so many Scotchmen in British Columbia is owing largely to its resemblance to their own " Land of the brown heath and shaggy wood. Land of the mountain and the flood " — in the character of its vegetation and the productiveness of its soil, growing every kind of English cereal and green crop, fruit and flower ; in its use of the same language and liter- ature, laws and institutions, manners and customs, owning allegiance to the same sovereign and constitution ; and above all, in its irrepressible English Christian instincts to foster religion and education as the surest basis of national and indi- vidual prosperity and happiness. We found the climate most enjoyable during the whole of our short stay in the province, and we were informed that it had been equally good during the three or four previous months. It is a reasonable com- parison to make of it, to say that it is as good as that of the sonth of England. It was comfortably warm, clear and dry, yet cool and invigorating, and enabled us to take active exer- cise in ordinary Englisi' attire without becoming heated — a luxury we had not enjoyed since we left home. In winter. 108 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. the glass never falls below eight degrees above zero, and the snow rarely lasts long, at least so far as Vancouver Island and the western mainland is concerned. In these respects Brivish Columbia contrasts most favourably with Montreal and the other parts of eastern Canada, situated along the same parallel of latitude, the difference being due to the influence of the Chinook or warm landward wind, which is produced by the Japanese gulf stream, the nature and course of which I endeavoured to explain in my former letter. The city of Victoria, the capital of the ^province, is only three miles distant from Esquimalt, and is connected with it by an electric tram, making hourly trips. All along the way and on either side of it, we saw here and there, and getting more numerous as the city was approached, pretty villas, which, from their new appearance, had apparently only recent- ly sprung up. They were all surrounded by neatly kept and well stocked gardens and orchards in which were to be seen many of the more familiar denizens of our English flower borders, shrubberies, and orchards. The rose and pansy, the box and holly, and the " bonny rowan tree " with its clean stem, pretty foliage, and compact bunches of bright scarlet berrios, often ornamenting and sentinelling the garden gate, among many others caught my eye ; and as to fruit, the pear, apple, plum, and other English fruit trees were quite a sight to see, being weighed dow'n by their enormous crops of splendid looking fruit, and we were told that all the smaller English fruits were cultivated with equally satisfactory results. It was a further matter of observation as we proceeded along the tram way, that all the forest land between the termini had been staked out into building plots, and tracts had been roughly cleared, and even street-names stuck up of the streets that were in posse, though not at the time in esse, and if Victoria continues to enlarge its borders, as it has been doing during the past twenty years — its population increasing from a few hundreds in 1856 to six thousand in 1881 and to nearly tw^euty-five thousand at the present date — Esquimalt must ultimately become absorbed into it, and will then supply it with the deep water harbour that it lacks at present. Leaving the tram road and making our \s'ay to the shore down one of those in futuro streets, we continued our walk to Victoria, along its picturesque sinuosities of alternate gully and prom- ontory, and were much charmed by the many beautiful snatches of marine scenery that successively opened into view as we strolled on. A few grouse rose at one spot, and some TO SEE THE WORLD. 109 pheasants at another, the former, indigenous and plentiful, the latter introduced and preserved, and are said to thrive as well here as in England. An Irish gentleman whom we met on the beach, showed us in his boat about a score and a hal* of fine young salmon from five to ten pounds each, that he had caught during the previous two hours by trolling with a spoon- bait, made of Mother o' Pearl shell, and he told us that the waters all round these coasts offered splendid sport to the angler, as they teem with these fine fish, but that although they are readily caught in this way, they will neither rise to a fly nor take ground bait. The city of Victoria has the look of a thriving well-to-do place, and although it consists mainly of frame wood edifices, it has many handsome stone and brick buildings, such as the Government Offices, public institutions, and churches ; and these materials are also rapidly substi- tuting wood in the construction of places of business and the residences of the better classes, of which Dunsmuir Castle is a notable example. The streets are wide, clean, and well ar- ranged, with tramcar locomotion along the chief of them ; the water supply is p^ood and abundant, and effective arrange- ments are taken against fire, an important precaution where so much wood is about, by means of district Deluges, as the fire brigade stations are called. The hghting is both by gas and electricity, the streets at night being splendidly illumin- ated by about a score of what I may call great electric moons suspended from poles of great height. There is also an effici- ent system of police, as well as excellent postal, telegraph and telephone arrangements, and the healthful recreation and social enjoyment of the people has not been overlooked, as in addition to district open spaces and public drives, walks and gardens, Victoria possesses the splendid natural Park of Beacon's Hill. This magnificent park is the pride of the Victorians and the favourite resort of its youth and fashion, and well it deserves to be, because of its beautiful drives, redolent with the scent of its flov-er-planted borders, its sunny lawns affording such ample facilities for all kinds of games and athletic sports, its grassy slopes where the children may romp, roll and tumble to their gleeful hearts' content (and more healthy, clear-complexioned, rosy-cheeked children could no- where be met with, speaking much in favour of the climate), its bree;^y knolls where the jaded and depressed and the toil and careworn may renew th'^lr spirits and buoyancy, the con- valescent recruit his lost vigour, and the irritable dyspeptic forget his miseries and malaise ; and lastly, but not the least 110 M THE CRUISE OP THE "ST. GEORGE, R.TE.S. notable feature of Beacon's Hill Park, are its views of unsur- passed loveliness far and near, and all around. There are said to be no poor in Victoria, for while the inevitable few that become destitute from sickness or mislortune are privately cared for, everybody finds something to do, and labour is well paid for, unskilled labour 6s. to 7s. a day, and mechanics from 128. to 20s. a day. As a set off against this, however, every- thing is dear, especially rent, clothes, and furniture. Indeed we heard many people grumble that the import duties on all goods coming from England should be so high, when the freight of bringing them out already makes such a serious addition to their original cost. As to food, fisii is abundant, good and cheap, beef and mutton cheaper than in England, and of first-class quality, and the same may be said of all garden produce, but as to almost every thing else they are much above home prices. Victoria has a splendid landlocked and capacious harbour, but as the depth will not admit vessels drawing more than eighteen feet it cannot be entered by the larger ocean steamers, which must either discharge in the offing or go on to Van- couver. Indeed this was the reason in our own case why we put in at Esquimau instead of Victoria, which we would liked to have done. Since the opening of the Canadian Pacific Rail- way a keen jealousy has sprung up between Vancouver and Victoria, with some increase of tension when the three " Empresses " — Empress of Japan, China, and India (all built by the English Barrow Company) began to connect the former with Yokoliama in ten and a half days; but although the upshot will no doubt be that Vancouver will entirely supplant Victoria in connection with the transcontiniutal traffic in ocoan vessels like these " Empresses " (the through traffic of three continents, and embracing a distance of half the globe), Victoria will still hold her own in connection with the trade and coast industries, and as the distributing centre to the numerous ports along the islet-dotted straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca. Moreover, besides her natural sources of wealth in lumber, coal, minerals, fish and fur, she is rapidly becoming a> manufacturing centi-e, and the list that I have seen of her manu- factures already comprises a comprehensive assortment of modern requirements. The sealing ships and boats that were formerly built on the east coast of Canada, in England and at San Francisco, are now nearly all built in her own yards, and as her Douglas pine is the finest ship building timber in the world, standing a greater strain per square inch than oak, and never TO SEE THE WORLD. Ill warping, so that it may be used as soon as cut, there seems every probability that she will in time become a fonus of this important and profitable industry. The lumber of Vancouver Island, which includes many varieties of timber beside Douglas pine, is superior in quality to that of the mainland and the forests of Oregon, and as its supply is practically inexhaustible, while that of the United States in Oregon is rapidly diminishing, the lumber trade at present carried on by the latter with Japan, China, and Australia will necessarily drop hereafter entirely into her hands. Another of her natural sources of wealth is coal, of which over three hundred thousand tons are annually exported ; and as magnetic iron is also found in inexhaustible abundance in the island of Taxada, not far from Nanaimo, where the coal pits are, and is at present largely exported to the United States for smelting, she will no doubt soon take to smelting her own ore. "When she does 80 she will be able to provide herself with the iron plates at present obtained from England, and to carry on ship building in iron as well as in wood. Space will not permit me to refer in further detail to, what I will venture to style, this " noble and queenly " young city — a descriptive epithet, which, I am sure, all who have seen it and acquired their information about it from personal inter- course with its intelligent, vigorous, progressive, and most hospitable inhabitants, will readily acknowledge as not inap- propriate. She is deservedly " noble " in many respects, but I will merely mention the one that struck me most, namely, that amid all the struggles of competition and the eager pursuit of success and riches, inseparable from ail young com- munities, she has had the heart and the will during her as yet short lifetime to build and maintain many fine churches and schools, a splendid general hospital and asylum, and to initiate and foster many philanthropic and christianizing agencies and institutions ; and she is " queenly " not merely in name, but by her magnificent and commanding geographi- cal position, which points her out as destined to become, in the not very distant future, the successful rival of San Francisco, as the mistress of the Pacific. Victoria is situated on a penin- sula at the south eastern extremity of the island, on her own beautiful low green hills, with wooded mountain slopes, and peaks and ridges of romantic grandeur for a background. In front of her is the clear blue waters of the De Fuca Straits, with the diversified scenery of the opposite coast of Pugefc Sound — belonging to the United States — and away far inland, ■i 112 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. on the south-eastern sky Hne, is to be seen the noble range of the snow-crested Olympian Mountains. On her right and left are marine views and coast scenery of indescribable beauty, especially eastward, over the tranquil waters of the Straits of Georgia, with its numberless sunny islets basking on its breast, and the white cone of Mount Baker, although a bun- dled miles away, standing out cold and clear, and lone and peerless, fir above its fellows. If we superadd to these com- mercial advantages of position and attractions of scenery, a climate of unimpeachable salubrity, and where the kindly and invigorating sea breezes, by which it is perpetually fanned, make it one of the healthiest places on the face of the globe for a person to live at, I think this city of Victoria is not unworthy of being regarded as noble and queenly. We left Esquimau on the 17th, and had a pleasant run down the Haro Straits, but failed to get further that day than Henry Island, in consequence of so dense a fog coming on aa to render further progress unsafe in such a narrow sea, with so many twistings and turnings of the sailing course, among the numerous islands that lie scattered about that part of it. We anchored for the rest of the day and night in one of its small bays, marked on the chart as Open Bay. This bay was full of fish and water-fowl, and as the fog cleared a little towards evening, some amusement was afforded by the net and gun. Just before reaching Henry Island, we passed on our starboard the island of San Juan, the ownership of which was at ouo time a subject of dispute between England and the United States, but was ultimately awarded to the latter by the Emperor of Germany, to whose friendly arbitration it had been referred by mutual consent. Next morning, the fog having cleared off, we renewed our course for Vancouver, steaming up tlie Straits of Georgia by Swanston's Channel and Active Pass. The scenery on all sides of us, both far and near, was here marvellously beautiful, while the sea was so perfectly calm that the Indian's red cedar canoe and the crazy-looking stern paddle-wheel steamers engaged in the river and coasting trade, were just as safe aw the stoutest ocean screw propeller could be. I am here tempted to quote Lord Dufferin's description of the scenery of these beautiful straits and coasts, as it delineates as accurate a word photograph as language could depict of what we had ourselves seen, and which, judging from our own im- pressions of it, is neither exaggerated nor over-coloured: " Such *' a spectacle as its coast line presents is not to be paralleled by *' any country in the world. Day after day for a whole week. TO SEE THE WOELD. 113 ** in a vessel of nearly two thousand tons, we threaded an inter- " min able labyrinth of watery lanes and reaches, that wound *' endlessly in and out of a network of islands, promontories, " and peninsulas for thousands of miles, unruffled by the " slightest swell from the adjoining ocean, and presenting at ** every turn, an ever-shifting combination of rock, verdure, "forest, glacier, and snow-capped moun:ain of unrivalled " grandeur and beauty. When it is remembered that this " wonderful system ot navigation, equally well adapted to the " largest line of battleship and the frailest canoe, fringes the " entire seaboard of your province, and communicates at points, " sometimes more than a hundred miles from the coast, with " a multitude of valleys stretching eastward into the interior, " while at the same time it is furnished with innumerable " harbours on either hand, one is lost in admiration at the "facilities for intercommunication which are there provided *' for the future inhabitants of this wonderful region." One would hardly have expected that the seas along the shores of the mainland of British Columbia would be in such a state of perpetual tranquillity, exposed as these shores apparently are to the storms and hurricanes, the huge swells and the per- manent drift current of the Pacific Ocean, yet so it is, and the phenomenon is explained by the fact that the numerous islands of the Archipelagic fringe along its seaboard, of which Van- couver and Queen Charlotte Islands are the chief, act like a mighty breakwater, seemingly saying to the monarch of oceans " hitherto but no further." On reaching English Bay at the entrance to Burrard's Inlet, a pilot was taken aboard to navigate the yacht the rep'o of the way up to Van- couver City harbour. Between the bay and the inlet there is a considerable contraction of the waterway, called The First Narrows, caused by a rocky prominence on its south side, and which reaches out at such a sharp angle that a vessel coming either way could not see beyond it until fairly up to its point. Accordingly all steamers have to blow their whistles on approaching, so as to warn vessels coming in the opposite direction ; and it so happened that almost immediate- ly after the St. George had complied with the port regulation, a counter whistle was heard, to be soon followed by the Yosimita steamer that plies daily between Vancouver and Victoria. By two o'clock p.m. we had taken up our position in that part of the inlet formerly called Coal Harbour, opposite the city, this name having been given to it seventeen years ago, when the black diamond was being prospected for in its neighbourhood^ 114 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.8. and although found, for some unexplained reason was never worked, so that the name was the only result of the large expenditure that had been incurred. Vancouver is said to be the youngest city in the world, having only come into existence six years ago, when it was decided to make Coal harbour the western terminus of the great Canadian trans-continental route. The first town had a short lived existence, as whrii barely a year old a fire broke out, and in a few hours laid it in ashes. Nothing daunted, however, its plucky population set to work at once to rebuild it, and in two years it was resuscitated on a much larger scale and with an increased population of seven thousand, and which has now more than doubled itself. At the time of its incorporation the Government proposed to call it Quadra, after the Spaniard whose name was originally associated with, that of Vancouver as the name of Vancouver Island, both having agreed to enter it in their respective charts as " Van- couver and Quadra Island," although the Spanish Commis- sioner's name has long since been struck out of all charts. The residents, however, insisted on its being called after the great English navigator who was the first to circumnavigate Vancouver Island and make the discovery that it was not a j)art of the mainland, as was at that time supposed, and who also gave the name of Georgia (in honour of his sovereign) to the beautiful straits separating it from the mainland. Van- couver has now all the advanced development of a modern town, such as I have already described in the case of Victoria, and I need but mention in proof of its vitality and progres- siveness that it possesses a commodious and elegantly fitted up Opera House, and while we were there Sarah Bernhardt, Avitli her travelling company, fulfilled a, short engagement, having travelled thitherward, as is her wont, in her special train of four connected saloon carriages, in which she holds her rehearsals. As further evidence in the same direction, I may also mention that Vancouver has no less than four rowing clubs, the chief of them, to which we were introduced, having over a hundred members, and a large number of splendid and expensive boats by the best makers in Ontario and elsewhere. Vancouver, like Victoria — and, indeed, everywhere else in tliese regions — is surrounded with dense forests of pine, cedar and other kinds of timber, and many of the trees, such as we saw in Stanley Park — a perpetual reservation of tile C.P.R. as a public park in the immediate vicinity of the city — are of enormous L^ize of both height and diameter. Some of the TO SEE THE WOBLD. 115 lumber mills are the largest in the province, and export annually over fifty shiploads, in addition to supplying local wants. Salmon canning is also extensively carried on, and already it has many manufacturies, foundries and smelting works. It has a number of very fine hotels, the C.P.R. Hotel rivalling the Palace Hotel of San Francisco, and what with a semi-weekly communication with China and Japan, and the Canadian Pacific Railway keeping this northern-most city on the Pacific coast in daily communication with the eastern world, Vancouver shows many indications of being destined to become a great and populous city. We had the good fortune to have letters of introduction to Mr. Henry Abbott, general superintendent of the Western Pacific division of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and received at his hands and that of his farming wife and amiable family, so many acts of kindness and hospitality as we are rot likely soon to forget. Mr. Abbott also kindly offered us the use of his official car and servant for our contemplated trip to Banff and to see the Rockies, and which we had much pleasure in availing ourselves of, aiter first paying a short visit to New Westminster. This was carried into effect on the 23rd by taking the yacht round from Burrard Inlet to Eraser River (the chief river of British Columbia), fifteen miles up which this town is situated on a steep slope on the right bank. The following notice of some of tlie incidents of our visit appeared in a local newspaper called "The Columbian," and which I quote in preference to describing them myself : " A Notable Visit. — Shortly after ton o'clock this morning the large steam yacht St. George came into port flying tlie Royal Yaclit Squadron ensign. The vessel, as she was brought to anchor ahnost oi)i)ositc the C.P.N, dock, was watched with much interest by crowds of spectators on Front street and the wharves. The St. George lias been Ijing in Burrard Inlet for a few days, and left Vancouver early this morning. Slie is owned by Mr. Wythes (a cousin of Captain W. S. Jemmott, of this city), who, with a number of friends, is making a voyage round the world. This beautiful vessel is one of the largest yachts afloat, her disi)Iacement being one tliousand tons. Mr. Wythes has kindly consented to tlu'ow olio yaclit open to the public on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 10 o'clock a.m. till 12 o'clock noon, and from 2 to 4 p.m. A large number of citi;^ens and visitors are sure to avail themselves of this unusual opportunity of in- specting one of the finest private vessels afloat. During the afternoon all the bunting of the yacht was spread, and she presented a beautiful appear- ance. Ilev crew numbers forty-six all told. The vessel will remain in port several weeks. At three o'clock this afternoon, at the invitation of Mr. Wythes, His Honor Lieut-Governor Nelson, Mrs. Nelson, His Worship, IMayor Brown, M.p.p., and Mrs. Brown paid a visit to the St. Gcor^je. The party embarked at the C.P.N, wharf in the ship's launch and were taken aboard. Tho 116 THE CEUI8E OF THE " ST. GEORGE, E.Y.S. moment Governor Nelson stopped on board the ensign was unfurled and a salute of fourteen guns fired. The visitors were shown over the vessel, and after enjoying the hospitality of Mr. Wytheb, returned on shore." The Roytal Agricultural Society's anDual exhibition was just then being held at New Westminster, and as the district is con- sidered tlie most fertile in the province, we paid several visits to it, and were much interested by nil we saw, especially the agricultural, fruit, and floral exhibits,and also the different kinds of live stock in the showgrounds. The roots and vegetables were something quite prodigious, and nothing could be finer, both as to qualicy and size, than the display of apples, pears, plums, and other fuits, and to show how prolificly tlie trees yield, a branch of an apple tree was exhibited, with the fruit upon it, covered all over with large fine looking fruit, as thick as there was room for them to stick on. Altogether, whr.t we saw at this exhibition amply sustained the reputation of the deltalauds of the Fraser River for productiveness, a reputation which has been well and cleurly established by carefully pre- pared statistics, and of which the following is a summary : Average yield of oats per acre, 75 bushels : barley, -lO ; hay, i^^ tons ; parsnips, 40 to 50 tons ; potatoes, 30 tons. It may interest some readers to hear that in this district, lying east (tf the Fraser River and in the southern portion of the Province there are at least a quarter of a million acres of prairie and an area of ten thousand square miles of mixed forest and open land, capable of yielding as good and bountiful returns, that could be easily utilized and is only wait- ing occupation. With a soil so generous, with a climate so delightful, " ensuring," as the Marquis of Lome has so truth- fully and beautifully expressed it, '• at all times of the year a full enjoyment of the wonderful loveliness of nature around you," with free grants of a hundred and sixty acres of land wherever you may choose to pick it, or three hundred and twenty acres in more eastward districts, with a thoroughly settled state of the country, and free education, a school and schoolmaster being provided by the Government wherever it can be shown that there are fifteen young people between the ages of six and sixteen within a radius of three miles, I feel confident from what I have seen myself and heard from the people on the spot that there is no more inviting field for the young agriculturist, having a little money, to go to, than British Columbia, and the sooner the move is made the better, as the Chinaman and the Jap are rapidly taking possession of the land that the Anglo-Saxon ought to have, and for which as regards climate, he is best adapted. Next to agriculture, TO SEE THE WOULD. 117 the most thriving and lucrative industries of New "Westminster are the lumber trade and salmon canning, the former being favoured by the waterway of the river, facilitating the transport of the rough timber to the saw-mills, and the latter, by the enormous quantity of fish that throng the river and its con- fluents, and which is far in excess of the requirements of local consumption and exportation. A floating cannery called Sprait's Ark, was pointed out to us in the river, that is moved about from place to place, wherever the fish are ascertained to be in greatest abundance, and having on board a complete set of apparatus and machinery for fish canning and for extracting oii from the offal, as well as providing accommoda- tion for the hands employed. Most of the work of taking and treating the fish is done by Indians, who, to my surprise, are paid higher wages than the whiteman, not only because they are stronger and can get through more work, but also because they are found to be more reliable and steady. The Indians, one way and another, make a good deal of money and spend it as freely in luxuries and finery. They are somewhat musical and have no less than three brass bands in New West- minster. In the public procession, styled in the programmes by the whimsical name of Calithumpian, that paraded the streets of the town in celebration of the opening of the exhibi- tion, they played in turn with the Canadian bands, and discoursed quite as good music. Some of them took part in the athletic sports and engaged in canoe contests on the river. They are all Eoman Catholics, and we were told, were such obedient sons of their church that they consult t^^eir priest on everything, and would not even join in the procession until they had first asked and obtained his permission to do so. Before quitting New Westminster, I must not omit to mention that our sailors enjoyed the visit to the place as much as we did ourselves, entering heartily into the spirit of the occasion by joining in the procession and taking part in the sports, one of them. Quarter-master Marsh, getting the prize for wrestling, They were the object of many attentions from the inhabitants, who " seemed " as one of our sailors expressed it " as if they could not do enough for them." After bidding a cordial good-bye to the many pleasant friends we had made at New Westminster, we got "aboard" — as the railway oflicial expressed it— the local train at two p.m., picking up the eastward bound C. P. K. train at the junction station, eight miles from the town, that was to take us to Banff, a distance of five hundred and sixty-two miles from I 118 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. OEOIIGE," B.Y.8. Vancouver, and where we duly arrived at eleven o'clock on the following eveuin^^ the yacht meanwhile returning to Van- couver to have some repairs done and to take in coal, water, and stores, so as to be ready for sea, when we rejoined her. "We found Mr. Abbott's oflicial car a great advantage by enabl- ing us to keep altogether, as well as being most comfortable, and indeed luxurious. Its commodious and handsomely up- holstered compartments, were convertible at night into sleeping arrangements, with toilet accessories, and the car being at the end of the train, with a railed in platform behind it, we could sit out in the open air and enjoy the scenery, sheltered from wind and dust from the moving train. What with his servant to wait ujion us, who was thorougldy familiar with the route, and drew our attention to many of its points of interest that we might otherwise have missed, and the yacht's steward, whom we took with us to cook and look after the larder, combined with the exhilaration of spirits inspired by the bracing mountain air, and perpetual change of scenic combi- nations, exciting fresh bursts of admiration and wonder ab every turn of the way, we had a most delightful railway journey both going and coming. Tlie return journey presents so many new combinations and fresh aspects of scenery as to have much of the novelty of an extension of the original trip, and S(j great are the contrasts, that I have heard many people discuss whether going east or coming west affords the finest views, the preference being generally given to the latter. To get an adctjuato notion of it, however, you ought to make the journey both ways, and no finer scenery is anywhere to be witnessed all the world over, than along this route. As the iron horse rushes you along from station to station, awakening the echoes of the valleys by its shrill neighings and lifting you higher and higlier as you i)roceed until you are a mile in perpendicular height above where you started from, many of the grandest sights of the physical world appear before you in rapid succession. The tii'st part of the way runs for two hundred and fifty miles along the Fraser river, through some of the most fertile and best settled up lands in the province, and from the train we saw many well-to-do farmsteads and extensive tracts under crops. At many parts of the river we saw large numbers of Indians engaged in aalmon catching, "which is done in a very simple way by scooping them out of the water with a landing net, the fish being so numerous as to admit of this being easily done. Five different kinds of salmon are said to frequent the Fraser, each having its own. TO SEE THE WORLD. 119 spawning season, when many of them succeed in making their way up it as far as eight liundred miles. During tlio running periods their numbers are so prodigious that at the narrower parts of the streams they actually shoulder one another out on to the banks, and many get fatally bruised in the squeeze and struggle to get along, and the dead fish line the banks in such numbers that the farmers in the neighbourfeood make use of them for manure. Most of the salmon so caught are canned, thousands of tons going every year to England, but a large and increasing quantity are now being sent eastward in a fresh state in refrigerator waggons, and yield a good profit at four- pence a pound. A great deal, too, is also exported in a dried state. The Indians hang the dried fish intended for their own consumption high up on trees to prevent bears and other climbing animals getting at them. We saw this done at Yale, which we now reached, where there is an Indian village, and it had a strikingly odd appearance. The famous canyons of the Fraser river end at Hope, next station to Yale, where its waters that have been so long tossed and tumbled about down its rapids and falls, deploy into a wide shallow and placid stream, depositing sand bars that contain small quantities of gold in very minute particles, and where we saw numbers of Chinamen busily engaged in washing for it. The living they get by doing it is but a poor one, yet it has been enough to attract a considerable Chinese settlement at this place, which we saw as we passed. What an industrious enterpris- ing race the "heathen Chinee" is, for all round the Pacific Ocean, wherever there is the smallest chance of his getting a living, there he is sure to be found. Besides being industrious, he possesses considerable physical capacity for toil and endurance, for he was largely employed in making this railway, and without him it is doubtful if it could have been made at all. We now got a splendid view^ of the canyons, as the line runs by the side of them and we were much interested in watching the savage fury with which the water leaps, dashes, struggles and fights against its rock- ribbed barriers. The railway here threads a devious course along the mountain sides of the Cascade Range, while the river, which it now crosses by a high steel bridge, is seen far beneath in a deep black gorge. After traversing long trestle viaducts, and through tunnels in projecting spurs of the mountain, the line follows the shore of the Kamloops Lake for an hour before arriving at the little town of that name, and which is interesting as being the chief town of the interior 120 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. OEOROE," R.Y.S. of Britisli Columbia. Tlie ftn-tilo valley of the Thompson, river now comoH into view, with farms and ranches from end to end of it ; and on ahead are the snow-clad monutains of the Golden range, being the second of the four ranges that we are to cross. For the next forty miles the line traverses a deep narrow gorge between almost vertical cliffs, gigantic and beetling, and is pushed into cuttings in their sides, to avoid the deep lakes that fill nj) the interspace between them. Further on, for a considerable distance, the view is much obscured by the shade of trees of great dimensions, many of them, however, being only the charred ghosts of their former umbiageousiiess, having become the victims of the forest fires, produced by the carelessness of the Indians in not properly extinguishing their camp fires, and the embers getting blown about among the dry infianmiable undergrowth, or by fires accidentally produced by sparks from the passing engines. A case of the latter kind occurred some time ago, where the fire produced by one train set on fire the train that followed it with very disastrous results. The pine trees do not appear to suffer so much from these fires as the cedar trees, for although stripped to brown bare poles, they retain vitality enough to start growing again, whereas in the case of the cedars, the fire quickly gets into the heart of the trunk, which then roars and burns like a blast furnace until nothing is left but the charred exteriors. We saw many of these great black, weird looking funnel stumps as we went along. Revelstoke, which was now reached, is the centre of the mining districts, and has smelting works for the silver ores that are brought down from the mines situated high up in the mountains, the tracts and tram lifts, to some of which we could see as we passed along. The Columbia river is next crossed, and will be recrossed further on. It takes its rise fnnn the western end of the Summit Lake, situated at an altitude of over five thousand feet, at the foot of Mount Stephen, and after a long and rainbling career of two thousand miles, findy its way into the Pacific Ocean past the town of Portland, in the United States territory of Washington. We now enter the Selkirk range ol mountains, the third of the series, and find ourselves over) /here surrounded by moun- tains of j^iuantic size and majest\, and carrying glaciers on their shoulders of such vast dimensions that the largest of the Alpine glaciers are puny beside them. Then we came upon several remarkable canyons in fissures of the solid rock, the walls on both sides rising perpendicularly for several hundred TO SEE THE WORLD. 12L feet. One of the most striking is that called the Albert Canyon, the sides of which are throe hundred feet high. The train always stops for a few minutes to allow passengers to view it ; and it certainly was a remarkable sight, with these ever thundering waters leaping with furious impetuosity from ledge to ledge, and making the banks reverberate and quiver with the violence of their struggle with the rocky impediments of their tortuous channel. The railway has now a steep ascent to make before reaching Glacier House Station, at the foot of the sublime pyramidal mountain peak of Sir Donald, which rises eight thousand feet above it. The engineering difficulties of this ascent are overcome by a remarkable series of loops and curves along the mountain slojas!, the line seeming to be continually doubling on itself, out of one valley and into another, getting higher and higher, but never much farther ; for you can see far below you many of its windings and turn- ings, its gigantic trestle bridges (the largi st in the world, one of them two hundred and eighty feet high, and another six hundred feet long), its viaducts and embankments, and the mountain side cuttings and their avalanche-defying snow Bheds, that you had previously come along. All the scenery in the neighbourhood of Glacier House and Donald and Golde i, is of extreme grandeur. It is quite awe inspiring by the immensity of its mountain masses and the sublimity of their heights. Some parts of it have a look of terrific wildness, and others a mysterious gruesome weirdness, that can be felt but not described. On all sides of you, and stretching far away up to the snow line are trackless pine forests of immense extent, desperately scarred in places, occa- sionally as much as fifteen miles in length, by forest fires, with deep gloomy ravines and far reaching mountain fastnesses of primeval solitude. Close beside you are steep-walled and beetling crags, and sky piercing mountain peaks towei/ig thousands of feet above you, looking terrible in the sheerness of their height, and proudly defiant, as if conscious of their everlasting inaccessibility. But under whatever aspect you contemplate this magnificent scenery, you cannot fail to be impressed with its uniquely romantic grandeur and its truly poetical sublimity and beauty. We now begin to leave the Selkirk range behind us and enter upon that of the Rockies, and the majestic peak of Mount Stephen, the highest of this part of the range, being eight thousand feet above the railway, comes boldly into view. Summit Lake, at the foot of it, to which I have already alluded, i ...T. ■■\ 122 THE CRUISE OP THE " BT. GEORGE, R.Y.S P '.« is spoken of as the summit of the Eocky mountains, but it is merely the engineering summit, being the greatest altitude reached by the line along its entire length, and beyond which it beghis to descend towards the level prairie land of: Alberta. Wapta Lake and Eiver, and Kicking Horse Pass and Canyons are now :JOon reached, and are all characterized by scenery of the most bewildering grandeur and romantic beauty. We are now within a few hours of Banff ; and as we continue our journey through scenery of even greater magnificence and sublimity than any we had seen before, if that were possible, onr attention is attracted by a new and highly picturesque river i-lowing in the opposite direction from the Columbia. This is the beautiful Row river, which forms such a feature of the great National Park at Banff. Like the Columbia it takes its origin from the Summit Lake, but from its opposite extremity, and following the eastern watersiied of the Rockies, ^fter beautifying and irrigating many of the most fertile dis- tricts of the north-west territory, it empties its waters into Hudson's Pay, a distance of 1,500 miles from its source. Oil arriving at Banff station, we found the omnibuses of the C.P R. Hotel and Dr. Brett's sanatorium were in waiting to take passengers to their respective establishments. Mr. Wythes and all the party, except myself — as I intended going a hundred and fifty miles further east, and about which more anon — went to the former, and found the accommodation very satisfactory, and the scenery and other attractions of the place in full harmony with the following descriptive account of it, which I have extracted from the railway " Annotated Time Table " : " Banff is the station for Rocliy Mountain'' Park, and tlie Hot Springs, a medicinal watering place and pleasure resort. This park is a national reservation 2C> miles long, n.k. and s.w., hy 10 miles wide, cmhracing parts of tlie valleys of the ]^)OW, Spray and Cascade rivers, Devil's Lake, and several noble mountain ranges. No part of the llockies exhibits a greater variety of sublime and pleashig scenery, and nowhere arc good points of view and features of special interest so accessible since many good roads and bridle paths have been made. The village of Banff is two miles uouth west of the station, on the other side of the 13ow. A steel bridge takes the carriage road across to the magnificent new hotel, built by the Railway Company, near the fine falls in the Bow, and the mouth of the rapid Spray river. This hotel, which has every modern convenience and luxuiy, in- cluding baths, supplied from the hot sulphur springs, is kept open during the summer months. It is most favourably placed for liealth, ])icturesque views, and as a centre for canoeing, driving, walking, or mountain climb- ing. Trout of extraordinary size occur in Devil's Hchd Iiake, and deep trolling for these affords fine sport. \Vild sheep (the big-horn) and moun- tain goats are common on the neighbouring heights." TO SEE THE WORLD. 123 My object in going further east along the line was to visit a ranche in which I had the misfortune to become the chief c-hareholder, and which is now in process of liquidation, and as some of the information, which I thereby' acquired from personal observation of the country, its agricultural capabilities and its general adaptation for colonization, may be both useful and interesting to some readers, I am induced to add a few notes upon it. After leaving Banff the line passes through Anthracite, where good coal of that name is mined, then Can more, where an observation car is added on to the train that passengers may be better able to view its singularly beautiful scenery. Next, the Gap, the outlet from and the termination eastward of the Rocky Mountains, a narrow opening between two vertical rocks of immense height, and through which the Bow river escapes to the plains below. After descending the Foothills and River Benches, as they are called, on the uppermost of which are to be seen tens of thou- sands of sheep, while the middle and lower are resi)ectively occupied by extensive cattle and stud ranches, first Cochraue and then Calgary are reached, both in the centre of the ranch- ing district, the latter being a charming little town of about foui thousand inhabitants, chiefly males, and likely to become a big city bye and bye. I passed the night at Calgary where there are excellent hotels, and next morning drove about twenty miles along the valley of the Bow river to see a horse ranche owned by three brother^ of the name of Rawlinson — young English gentlemen who had all been educaied at Cambridge, but had now settled here as ranchmen, and who told me that they thoroughly enjoyed the life. The stud consisted of fifty brood marcs of goo(l stamp, two fine looking English sires and their produce, bringing the number up to two hundred. I returned to Cal- gary in time to catch the train to Gloichen, about eighty miles further east, and having stayed what remained of the night at tiie small station inn, having the pretentious name on its signb(; a'd of The Palace Hotel, I drove next morning to QuecL/lown, the name of the ranche I was in quest of, and had tile good fortune to make the acquaintance and have the company oi a Mr. Frank Ritchie, the son of a doctor at Otley, in Yorkshire, who had been living in Alberta during the three previous years, and who, I found had acquired a considerable knowledge of the country and of farming and ranching matters. Queenstown ranche is situated about thirty miles to the south of the station, and the road to it —which was only an. ^1 124 THE CRUISE OF THE "ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. Indian trail, and a little troublesome at times to follow, be- cause of its many diverging tracks— lay through the large reservation of the Blackfeet Indians. We had here to cross the Bow river, which flows through it, and were ferried over it by an Indian, who rejoiced in the name of " Many shots." He pointed out to us on the top of a low hill to our left, the grave of his late chief Crowfoot, who remained so loyal to us during the late Indian rebellion, and he told us that his horse and dog together with all his paraphernalia were buried with him. We met many Indians as we drove through the reserva- tion, and they all seemed very friendly, often stopping their horses and insisting on shaking hands with us. They always seemed much pleased by the offer of some tobacco or a few cigarettes. It is rather a curious fact that formerly, when one tribe declared war upon another, it made the announce- ment by sending to it a present of tobacco. These Indians live iu a kind of canvas bell tent, called teepees, which are left open at the top to allow smoke to escape, a necessary arrange- ment, as a fire is always kept burning in them, summer as well as winter, and no matter how hot the weather may he. When passing near their village, we saw some strange look Ing objects hanging on low trees, which turned out to be bodies of young children or papoose that had died, and which they hang up in this way for the birds to peck at, instead of interring them. No Indian is allowed to leave the reservation and if any did so they would be arrested by the mounted police. In compen- sation for this restraint on his liberty, in consequence of which he cannot provide for himself as formerly by hunting, ample rations are supplied to him by the Government, consisting of two pounds of beef daily, besides an allowance of flour and other tilings to each individual, down even to the youngest papoose. It so happened that the supplies were being distributed when Ave were passing which afforded us a good opportunity of see- ing these Blackfeet Indians to advantage, as they all go to receive them dressed in their best, with their bead-worked mocassins, belts and ornaments, the bucks and squaws riding, and taking all their property in horses with them, for they like to show what they are possessed of. Many of them had also " travoys " for conveying their children as well as their goods in. The " travoy " is the Indian conveyance, and is of the simplest and most primitive construction, consisting mere- ly of two long poles, one end of them being attached to each side of the " cayeusc " or Indian horse while the other ends (m TO SEE THE WORLD. 125 P^ drag on the ground, and are kept more widely apart by cross spars ; and between these cross spars, stout netting is sus- pended, and in its hammock-shaped folds the children lie apparently comfortably and secure. Many of the Blackfeet that we saw were grand looking men, and we were much struck by the intellectual type of their heads and faces. Their chief occupation seemed to be herding their horses; for al- though the Government try to teach them arable farming, they do not seem to take well to it, for we only saw squaws working in the fields, never any of the bucks. All the vast extent of prairie land round this district was formerly the natural home of the buffalo, but they have now become entirely extinct, having all been killed off by the Indians for the value of their skins. Their whitened bones which we frequently met with, and the hollows in the ground called " buffalo wullows," are the only evidence now left of their ever having existed. We reached the ranche early in the afternoon, seeing on the way great numbers of prairie fowl, and of that funny little creature, called a goafer, that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a rat, and which the Indians catch to eat; a few kit-foxes, and a coyote or native wolf, but not a human face or habita- tion since we parted from the Indians about twenty miles back. After partaking of some refreshment which we very much needed, three or four hours of daylight were still left for driving over the ranche and seeing the stock upon it. It consisted of eleven thousand acres enclosed in a post and wire fence — a needless expense — of rich rolling prairio and with unlimited scope of similar quality all round as yet entirely unoccupied. Of this fenced-in area, only eight hundred acres had been purdiased by the Company — the rest being on nominal tenure and open to be taken up in pre-emptions. Indeed, Dawson, the late manager, who had been dismissed for his misdeeds, had taken up one within the boundary, and as it included the only spring on the ranche, it enabled him to retaliate upon the Company by interfering with the chief source of its water supply. As to the stock, there was only a hundred and fifty horses, and about the same number of cattle. The buildings comprised merely a frame-wood house for the manager's residence, and a similar kind of structure for the Btockherds — and just then also occupied by the sheriff's officers. There were no other houses, nor were there any settlers, or ever had been. As I saw nothing in all this to represent the shareholders' capital, I enquired as to what profits had been made since the ranche was first started, and H ) ;■ I i;*n I HI 126 THE CKUTSE OF THE " ST. GEOEGE, R.Y.S. was told that only one bull calf had been sold off for fifteen. dollariL', and as to all the cattle then on hand, that they would not fetch the price that had been paid for them, as they were all old cows when they were bought, by the blunder of the director who had bought them and who had come out from England for the purpose. When this state of things is contraste«d with th3 following data, which I have culled from the Company's prospectus, and with the representations in the subjoined letter o':' Canon Hayman, the effect is simply ludicrous, but it is sad t') think, that of the lifty clergymen who were induced to take shares in this company by the guarantee of Canon Hay- man's name as president and chairman, as well as such names as the Very Rev. J. -T. Stewart Perowne, Dean of Peterborough; the Eight Rev. the Bishop of Moonsouee, Canada ; and a dozen other gentlemen of rank and position as vice-presidents, there were doubtless several who could ill afford to lose the money they had tlius beon induced to put into it. The Company is stvled the " Canadian Pacific Coloniza- tion Corporation, ' \ a capital of five hundred thousand pounds, professedly o found the town of Queenstown in North Western Canada," and the prospectus states that " Tlie Company arc in possession of Government Concession leases and lands equal in extent to about a hnndred square miles of the most fertile territories in all Canada, as vouched for by the land surveyors, who have surveyed the district for the Government ; among these arc large tracts secured from the Canadian Pacific Railway, Hudson's Bay Company and others, by purchase or option for this Corporation; and that the estimated annual income therefrom will be twenty thou- sand, eight hundred pounds." With reference to the issue of a hundred thousand pounds, eight per cent, gi ; r^anteed dividend, it goes on to say — " Guaranteed Dividends at the minimum rate of eight pounds per cejit. per animm, or four pounds each half-year's dividend, are payable half-yearly on these shares until 1891, before which date it is anticipated that the town will be ready for settlement. This dividend will be secured by deposit with trustees of a sufficient amount of Government securities and first-clsss bank and insurance stock to cover same ; any profits made in the meantime by the Company are open to distribution on these shares in addition to the guaran- tee." As a matter of fact the last half-year's dividend was never paid, for the reason that Canon Hayman, who was. trustee for the deposit had appropriated it for other uses of the Company. His letter just alluded to runs thus : — TO SEE THE WORLD. 127 •' From Canon Hayman, d.d., Chairman of Directors of the Canadian Pacific Colonization Corporation, Limited. Aldingham, Lane, January, 1889. Dear Sir, In forwarding you Prospectus of the above, the Board would draw your attention to it as a means of bringing together the numbers of better educated settlers who annually emigrate, as also of relieving the suffering agriculturist. To be successful, an enterprise like ours should remunerate not only the assisted, but those who assist. On this basis the above Corpor- ation has been founded, including the moral and spiritual welfare of the settler, which is, and will continue to be adequately provided for. The region selected is superbly endowed by nature alike with agricultural and minei'al resources, with superabundance of the purest water, a climate less rigorous than the Canadian, and plenty of good and cheap labour to de- velop them all. A large proportion of the capital has been subsribed, but more is required. I myself am a large shareholder. Even one or two shares taken, will enable the investor to watch with interest the progress made. It is proposed to publish half-yearly reports to be sent free to sha^-oholders. I am, Yours faithfully, Henry Haymam, d.d., Hon. Canon of Carlisle, formerly Headmaster of Rugby School, Chairman of Directors, c.p.c.c." The three statements in this letter (1st) as to settlers (2n(l) that a large proportion of the capital had been subscribed when it was written (3rd) that Canon Hayman was a largo shareholder himself, in any other sense tlian that ho held pro- moters' shares for which he had never paid a shilling, are nothing short of deliberate untruths, intended to influence investors, and I can speak feelingly on the matter, as I was induced thereby to take up shares to the tune of eleven hundred and fifty pounds in cash actually paid. As to the merits of the ranche itself, I asked Mr. Eitchie if he thought it could be made to pay, to which he replied thac "it would pay and pay well Avitli the right kind of stock, namely horses and steers, and that he himself would not hesitate to undertake the management of it at a renmneration based on profits," but he added, " if managed (?) by a board of guinea-pig directors in London, who have no practical knowledge of ranching, and where, as you tell me, the office expenses according to the official liquidator's financial statement amounted to nearly seven thousand pounds out of a subscribed capital of nineteen thousand pounds, and the rest so injudiciously laid out that 123 THE CP.UI8E OF THE " ST. GEORGE," E.Y.8. i the assets are now valued at only a fourth, it would be sure to end disastrously sooner or later, as this has done.'' * All the country round here is splendidly adapted for ranch- ing or mixed farming. It is entirely different in character froi^ that of British Columbia, having no timber except along the banks and hollows of the rivers, the afore requiring no cle. '-ring, a ad is covered everywhere with rich and nutritious grasL'^s or. which sheep, cattle and horses thrive well. It is fast becoming settled up, and the time cannot be long before every foot of it will be in occupation. My young friend Ritchie has taken up a pre-emption of three hundred and twenty acres at a place called Beaver's Dfctm in the Red Deer Valley, which will be in full profit and his own property in three years. He speaks with great en- thusiasm of the country and the prospects it holds out to young settlers, and he told me that taking all circumstances into consideration, he would not exchange Alberta for any part of England he had ever been in. If any young farmer, with two or three hundred pounds in his pocket, should be induced by these remarks to go out to Calgary, which is only fifteen days from England, and follow his example, I am sure Mr. Ritchie on being communicated with, will be pleased to give him the best advice in his power, where to settle and how to set about it. Having stayed the night at the rauche, I re- turned the following day to Banff, where 1 rejoined my friends, and travelling as before in Mr. Abbott's car, we reached Van- couver on the eighth day from leaving New Westminster, and all much gratified with our trip. After paying off some debts of hospitality to our kind friends at Vancouver, we started en our voyage to San Francisco on Monday, 6th October. We did not, however, get further that day than the adjoining bay, in consequence of a dense fog coming on, obliging us to keep a fog bell constantly ringing. Our sailors in the meantime amused themselves with fishing over the ship's side, and among other kinds, cauglit a great number of large dog fish. This ugly shark-looking fish is taken in large quantities in these waters, and has a commer- cial value tor making lubricating oil from the liver, which is said to be of the finest quality, and as much as forty * All the proceeds of the assets have since been absorberJ in liquidation expenses, and Canon Hayman, after a s'erdict against him, in a law suit brought by an exasperated shareholder, has found it necessary to go through the bankruptcy court, so all the shareholders' money, like MacGregor has now " Vanished for ever and aye." TO SEE THE WORLD. 129 thousand gallons of it are obtained annually and sold into the States. Another oily fish is also got here in enormous quanti- ties, called the colachan, and which is also called the " candle fish," because when dried and lighted it burns hke a candle, and is so used by the Indians. Thf.y also get a fish lard from it by boihng and expression, and which they use as butter. At 10-30 on the following morning the fog had sufliciently cleared off to allow us to get again under weigh. At 1-20 p.m. Active Pass was reached, at five o'clock Discovery Island, and after a pleasant sail down the straits of Juan de Fuca, and taking a " last fond look " of noble queenly Victoria as we passed her on our star-board beam, we made Cape Flattery, at the entrance of the straits on the United States side, about midnight, and then turning southward, steamed all the way to San Francisco, where we arrived on the morning of the 10th October, after a pleasant if uneventful passage. LETTER 10. SAN FRANCISCO TO HONOLT^LU. At the close of my last letter we had just then arrived in the Bay of San Francisco, and the pilot wlio had navigated us through The Golden Gate — the name of the short cliff- flanked strait that connects the bay with the Pacific — had settled us in a suitable anchorage in the roadstead abreast of the city harbour. The pilot came aboard when the yacht got near The Farallones, a group of desolate jagged rocks, tenanted solely by sea birds, whose eggs are collected in large quanti- ties and sent to San Francisco for sale, and by great numbers of sea lions. These islands are situated about twenty-five miles to the west of the Golden Gate, and in their vicinity the port pilots are always to be found cruising about in their smart looking cutters on the outlook for vessels making for wp'W ^^^■»^«^?!"BP*^^w^?pwffp!fm»i \[y ■ •«■■ I. kiJ I ^ JP*"***™' .T ' '" ^f*" 130 THE CRUISE OF TKE "ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. II 1 1 1 i'SU f i l8i the bay, and are in constant requisition by the large number that are continually entering and leaving it, as it is obligatory on all of them to have a pilot by the port regulations. Although access to the bay is ordinarily safe and easy — the land marks being conspicuous, and at night and in fogs the sailing course being Avell lighted and supplied with fog bells and steam sirens — yet it is not free from dangers, especially at the Bar — a shoal bank extending outwards in a horse shoe shape from Point Bonita to Point Lobos, the two high cliffs that form the northern and southern entrance pillars of the gate — and also from some sunken rocks along the south shore of its narrowest part, where eddies are formed by the strong tidal currents that drive over them at a six knot rate. The Golden Gate is also called " the keyhole," in consequence of its being the onlj' gap in the Contra Costa coast range of mountains, and through which the wind constantly blows, as through a keyhole, and which is therefore called " the keyhole breeze." The scenery that opened out into view as we passed through the Golden Gate was both interesting and beautiful. Its some- what wild looking land-jaws of abrupt cliffs, at first contracted upon us as we entered, but after passing the narrowest part of it at Fort Point, they expanded again into a wide and varied landscape of softer and more placid type. The rock and islet studded bay of San Francisco, with its secondary bay of San Pablo branching off from it to the north east, and into which the large and partly navigable Sacramento Eiver debouches, lay extended before us in a blaze of scenic beauty under the dazzling rays of the morning sun ; and the long and sinuous line of gently sloping shores that surrounded them, along whose graceful sweeps of bulge and bend your eye de- lights to wander, were here and there adorned with several charmingly situated towns, and many pretty wood-shaded and garden-bedecked villages. A not uninteresting feature of our passage through the keyhole was the flights of pelicans that were constantly passing and repassing us, going to their feed- ing grounds in the coast creeks, or returning to their nesting haunts on the Bird Eock in the bay, and of which they hold a privileged tenancy ; also the nun.eroussea lions that we saw disporting themselves in the water around us, and which con- gregate in such large numbers on the rocky islets opposite Point Lobos. They form, there, one of the sights of San Francisco, and are seen to most advantage from the balcony of the Cliff Hotel, which almost overhangs the rocks, and where their loud harsh yelping bark may always be heard above the TO SEE THE WORLD. 131 noise of the wildest seas that ever break on the coast. The Golden Gate is defended by two powerful batteries, which we saw on our way through it, the one being at Fort Point, where the passage is narrowest and which was formerly a high bluff, commanding the finest views of the harbour, but now cut down to a few feet above high water level to suit the require- ments of the fortification, the other on the island of Alcatras, just inside the bay, and in the central line of the passage. The powerful ordnance by which these batteries are mounted and the effective lines of firing, which their positions com- mand, must make a successful attempt at forcing them well nigh a naval impossibility. Of the three natural harbours possessed by the United States on the coast of California, that of San Francisco Bay is by far the largest and finest ; the other two being Humboldt Bay, in the north, and San Deigo Bay, in the south. It is enclosed on its western side, and separated from the Pacific by a long and narrow peninsula (twenty-six miles by six), that termin- ates northwards in the hills, forming the southern shore of the Golden Gate, and on v\^hose eastern slopes the large and populous city of San Francisco now stands. The physical character of this site, in its original state, was not very favour- able for the erection of a large city upon, consisting as it did of sand ridges and gullies and vertical cliffs, but the ridges were levelled, the gullies filled up, and the cliffs blasted away and literally thrown into the sea, so that the harbour, where large vessels had been moored in 1843, was completely filled in, and is now occupied by the chief business streets, while the barren and loose sand of their upper and western aspects have been converted by a skilful adaptation of soil-holding plants and grasses, into splendid parks and gardens, like the Golden Gate Park, a free public resort, and Adolf Sutro's Gardens, which are said to contain one of the finest collections of flowering plants in the United States. San Francisco is not, as yet, rich in public buildings, but th- City Hall, the Palace Hotel — which cost seven hundred million dollars — and some of its Cathedral Churches have some pretensions that way. Higher education has been well provided for by the establishment of two Universities in its vicinity, the State University at Berkeley on the other side of the bay, and the Leland Stamford University, established and endowed by the gentleman whose name it bears, in memory of his only son. The rapidity of growth and expansion in population, com- merce and wealth of some of the places we have already 132 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. visited has been remarkable, but they are all eclipsed in these respects by San Francisco. In 1847, ■when it first took its present name, it was only a small straggling village called Yerba Bueno, or good herb, from a species of wild mint having some medicinal properties that grew in great abundance in its vicinity, but as soon as the gold discovery excitement of the following year began, its handful of inhabitants suddenly increased to a thousand. Three years later it rose to twenty- five thousand, and continuing to increase by similar leaps and bounds, it has now a population of three hundred thousand, besides the residential suburb of Oakland, across the bay, and in hourlj' communication with it by ferry steamer, having a population of fifty thousand. The material prosperity of San Francisco in trade, manufactures, ship building and shipping has developed at a corresponding pace to this phenomenal in- crease of population, so that in the short period of forty years, from such meagre antecedents as I have above referred to, it has risen to become the fourth city in the United States in exports, the eighth in population, and the commercial capital of the Pacific ; and is doubtless destined in the future to be one of the greatest centres of commerce and civilization in the world. This extraordinary exuberance of growth and prosper- ity is mainly ascribable to the following three causes. First, the immense and continuous immigration from the east and elsewhere, consequent on the gold discovery and the subsequent settling up of vast tracts of the rich grain bearing and fruit growing land, more particularly in the south-eastern counties of the State. Secondly, the construction of the three exten- sive railways of the North, South, and Central Pacific, placing San Francisco in connection with the entire railway system of North America, and bj- the last, through New York with Europe, while a splendid fleet of mail steamers do similar duty in the opposite direction by connecting it with all the chief ports of the Pacific, and thereby adding a new and equally expeditious mail and passenger route to that of Brindisi, between our Australasian Colonies and the mother country ; and thirdly by the natural advantages of the physical configuration of the magnificent bay-harbour, and its unrivalled geographi- cal position for becoming a great commercial centre. Among the places of interest that we visited in San Fran- cisco, was the Museum of Mineralogy, which, along with a library and reading room of the literature and journalism of the subject, is open to the public, and is in connection with, the Mining Bureau, or State department for collecting informa- TO SEE THE WORLD. 133 tion and statistics about the mines and mineral resources of the State, and for carrying on various kinds of field v/orlc in con- nection with its geolofjfy and lithology, as well us chemical, metallurf,'ical, and other cognate scientific enquiries apper- taining thereto. On writing our names down in the visitors' book of the museum, the curator introduced himself to us, and politely undertook to show us over it, and we thanked him on leaving for a very interesting description of its arrangements, and of many special objects among its contents. Its collection of minerals, earthy and metallic, scientifically curious and economically valuable, is the finest in the world, and there- fore worthy of a State that is said to contain nearly every mineral substance known in nature, and as regards the precious metals, has a record of having produced more in a similar area than any other country. The siJecimens of gold ores were re- markably rich and numerous, and were arranged in groups to represent the mines of different gold yielding districts. Our attention was drawn to a model, represented by a gilt scjuare block, of all the gold that had been got in California (having an estimated value equal to half the English'. National Debt), since the first nugget of the value of about a sovereign, was found in Sutter's Milldam by James Marshall, and to whose memory, as the first discoverer of gold in California, a statue has been erected by the State, at Caloma El Dorado. This museum is apparently much appreciated by the Californians as no less than twenty thousand recorded their names in the visiters' book during the past year, in addition to those who omitted to do so. As information and advice is given gratuitously by the Bureau to applicants on all matters connected with mines and minerals I took advantage of this privilege to make inquiries about a gold mine situated near Jackson in Amador County, in which I have the misfortune to be a considerable share- holder, and to which I intended to proceed to make independ- ent enquiries as to the truth and accuracy of the reports that had been from time to time issued to the shareholders. Although a stnaiger, and not therefore entitled to participate in such a privilege, I was received and treated Avith the utmost courtesy by the heads of the Bureau, and supplied with printed matter and maps and a plan i:l the mining loca- tions on the Mother lode of the Sierra ^Nevada, and had the exact position of the mine pointed out to me, with informa- tion how best to get there, and was also invited to a further interview on my return. 134 THE CUUI8E OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.^.S. Armed with the iuformation I hud thus obtainer'., I now proceeded to carry out my projected expedition to the mine in. question. There being railway as far as lone, about a hundred and forty miies from San Francisco, leaving only fourteen miles to be done by road, I travelled by the Southern Pacific line, via Niles, Stockton, and Gait, in going ; and in returning, by the Central Pacific via Sacramento, Benicia and Oakland, thereby making a circular trip of it, so as to get a more extend- ed view of the country. The princijjal feature of the former route was the large grain farms to be seen all along it ; -Nvhilst that of the latter, especially in the Sacramento valley, was fruit growing on an extensive scale, such as field viticulture. The graiH's, i)oars, and other fruits, that were offered for sale to the passengers in the cars and at the stations along this part of the way, were as delicious in flavour as they were prime in ai)poarance and cheap. Curiously the Californian viticulturist has not yet been successful in wine making, notwithstanding the splendid quality of his grapes. It is probably an art de- ponding upon sucli nicety ol' manipulation as can only be acquircul by long cx})crieiiCo, and which he has not yet arrived at. At any rate, none of the samples of Californian wines that ^Ye lasteil came up to the Eurojjean standard, and on that account tliuy are largely exported to France, where, after undergoing some process of "doctoring" and blending, they re-enter 'lie market as Fi-ench wines. Throughout my entire railway journey I was much sti-uek by the indications of agri- cultur.il pios])eri(y t hat was overyw here visible, and the thrivin and well-to-do :ip})earance of all the towns and villages througn which wo passed, and whicli seemed to give am])lo support to the statement, madt.' on (iovernmout authority, that California is capable of siipi)orting six times its present population by its agricultural capabilities alone, exclusive of its mineral resources. On arriving at lone railway station I found the United States mail coach \\aiting to take? on niails and passengers to Jackson. ]t. was a large, heavy, lumbering, four-wheel vehicle, something like the one in BulTalo DilTs Wild West Show, drawn by four sti-oug horses, and bj' the side of the driver sat a man of power- ful physique (as indeed was also Clint, the driver) with a loaded double-barrelled rille between his kuees. On enquiry as to the occasion of this singular escort, I was informed that the district through which we had to pass was still infested with desperadoes, who had often before stopped and robbed the mail, and would do so again but for such precautions, which were always taken whenever there was bullion aboard, as was TO SEE THE WOULD. 135 the case on the present occiision. The driver told mo that only a short time affo a mounted highwayman, disguised under g^mask, suddenly made his appearance at a turn of the road, and presenting a revolver at his head, compelled him to deliver Tip Wells, Fargo and Company's express hox, in which the bullion is always carried. The mail stage between lone and Jackson runs through a very rough and somewhat wild-looking country, and as to the road, it was of the worst possible des- cription, with steep dips and sharp ascents, abrupt turns perilously near the edges of precipitous banks, and the water courses that crossed it bridged ovei ■..ith loose and broken planks. It was cut out of such a rotten kind of mud stone that the ruts were at places nearly hub-deep, and the whole of it from end to end covered with about six inches of fine dust, which, when stirred up by the trampling of the advancing team, envelopec) everybody and everything in a dense and stifling cloud, and that left a long trail behind it like the smoke track of a steamer ex sea. There was nothing, however, to be uneasy about, for Clint, the driver, was a master with the ribbons, and tooled his way along the tortuosities and difTiculties of the road with consummate dexterity, so that we arrived in Jackson all right, although as dusty as millers. The first courtesy shown you on arriviTig at the hotel was to be taken to the back verandah and be well broomed, beaten and shaken, for brushing was out of the question under Buch an entombment of dust. After the toils of the toilet were over, the wants of the wanting were duly catered for by a com- fortable dinner, which, although not refined and varied enough for a stalled monarch, was very acceptable to a hungry traveller. Tea and coffee were served with the repast, accord- ing to the general custom in the States, for Americans seldom take alcoholic beverages with their food. Meals, with them, are for eating only, but "drinks" may come in between, at the " bars." This hotel's cook and kitchen drudge were both Chinamen, and according to my experience and information. Chinamen are pretty largely employed in the Western States in these capacities, and also as laundrymen and gardeners, notwithstanding all that "our cousins" have to say against them as intruders, and about their being allowed to sneak into the States through Canada. I spent the remainder of the evening chatting with the miners who frequent the hotel bar room, and endeavoured to get from t-''-.ui all the information I could about my gold mine, and having succeeded in making the acquaintance of the Editor of the local newspaper, the 'P :Mif li! 136 THE CItUISE OF THE " ST. GEOEGE," E.Y.S. " Amador Ledger" and also of the late superintendent of the mine, arranged with them to meet in the morning, and drive over to it, and also to visit several of the mere interesting- mines in the dictrict. It may be as well for me here to explain that this town, of Jackson is situated in the centre of the mining districts, of Amador County, where it is crossed by the so-called " mother-lode " of gold-bearing quartz. In its vicinity, and within a radius of seven miles of it, are to be found about twenty-five large quartz mills, of which at least twenty are fully equipped with the best machinery and in constant and more or less, profitable operation. This " mother-lode" is not limited to Amador County, but is of great extent, running for, from three hundred to four hundred miles and with a width of thirty-five miles, along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and constitutes the chief portion of the "gold fields" of California. Next morning, according to arrangement, the trio got under weigh in a two-horse buggy, and first visited the Zeile and Kennedy mines, two of the low grade quartz mines of the dis- trict, which after some vicissitudes of fortune in their develop- ment stage, are now making splendid returns, especially the latter. The invention of automatic acting and labour saving machinery, and the discovery of chemical processes for the economical working of these low grade ores, which are subtile enough to extract from ninety-two to ninety-nine per cent, of the gold, have enabled many mines that had formerly been abandoned as worthless to be now worked at a profit. "When going over t)ie works, it was ex})Uiined to me that the ere was only once handled, namely, in filling the trucks at the workings, down in the mines, and that it was then brought to the surface by water power, dumped automatically over into the rock breaker, distributed to the bins and stamps, ^lassed over the amalgamators, the sulphurets collected, roasted, chlor- inated, and precipitated, and all as regular as clockwork, and r(M]uiring the minimum of superintenclence. Althougli the value of the gold per ton in tliese low grade ores is small, still, if there is ever so small a margin of profit left over after paying working expenses, the quantity dealt with, may yield large totals, and it is generally the case that the supply of ore is in proportion to the lowness of the grade. Thio is very well illustrated in the case of the Plymouth mine, another of the low grade mines of this neighbourhood, where the gross amount of gold got out of each ton of ore, is only TO SEE THE WORLD. 137 ily 7'59 dollars, but as the entire cost of extracting it is only 3'07 dollars, the profit per ton is 4-52 dollars, which, when multiplied by ninety-seven thousand, the number of tons treated during the course of the year, gives a net profit of four hundred and thirty-eight" thousand, four hundred and forty dollars or allowing five do]' .rs to tbc pound, an English equivalent of eighty-seven th usand, six hundred and eighty- eight pounds. The Plyraoutn has been making annual returns of this kind for many years back. We next proceeded to inspect the mine that I had specially come to inquire about, namely, the Amador Gold Mine, Limited, London, and I obtained a good deal of information of an extraordinary and very unsatisfactory character as to its ore and operations and its financial affairs by my visit to it, but as it is more adapted for laying before the shareholders than the public, 1 will merely express a caution to readers against allowing themselves to be advised in the matter of in- vestments, by advertising stock brokers, or influenced by circulars and prospectuses reaching them through the post.* A few days after my return to the yacht, namely, on 31st October, a pilot having been taken aboard, we left our moor- ings in San Francisco Bay, and at 12-20 p.m. began to steam out of the Golden Gate on our voyage to our next halting place at Honolulu, the capital of the Sandwich Islands, and wliich is situated on the lee side of Oahu, the central island of the group. The pilot left us at 2-50, near to where we had i)icked him up when coming in, and at 4-30 we passed the Farallones, bearing six miles to north-west. On the following day, November 1st, a fine fresh breeze having sprung n\), the engines were stopped, the funnel telescoped, and all possible sail made, and the yacht went gaily along, passing several outward bound vessels as she sped on her south-western course of two thousand and eighty miles, while all of us were vejoicing again in " The sea, the sea, the open sea, The ever fresh tlie ever free." fjut alas ! it was not to be for long, for only next day a strong head wind and sea got up, doing us some damage, and the wind freshening to almost a gale, compelled us to take in mizcn stay sail and all small canvas. On Tuesday, tlie 3rd, the wind and sea continued to increase, and as evening drew on, the weather having what sailors call a dirty appearance, with a * For history of Amador Gold ;\Iitio Liniitt-d, see letter in Appendix from " Weekly Sun," witli P^diLorial comments. Ji»l 138 »» THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEOBOE, R.Y.S. falling barometer, all canvas was closely reefed, and everything secured about the deck, a necessary precaution as it proved, for towards midnight the wind increased to a full gale of great force, and terrific squalls of wind and rain made the yacht labour throughout, the sea also running high and breaking frequently aboard. Wednesday, the 4th, proved as bad as the previous day. The jib- headed mizen trysail was set at 2-30 p.m., and the storm fore trysail at 4 p.m. Later on the ship's head was " reaching " under very small canvas, and she laboured violently, straining decks, mast and riggings, and chafing heavily. The captain now "wore" ship, to have the sea on another tack. At midnight it was very dark and thick, with heavy rains and sea running high. At four in the morn- ing a tremendous sea struck the yacht, causing her to labour heavily and breaking the goose-neck of main boom, which took to running, and smashed accommodation ladder, ventilator on top of deck house, bridge lails, and doing several other damages. On Thursday, the 5th, the gale having moderated, an observation was obtained, and the position of the yacht ascertained. A strong swell, however, continued all day, and throughout Friday, the 6th, causing the ship to roll heavily so that all sails were clewed up to avoid chafing. On the 7th a strong swell rolling from north-west obliged the stowing of all sails and starting engines. Next day, 8th, the swell subsiding and the wind moderating to a fine breeze the fires were put out and all plain sail set, and durirg that day and the follow- ing, 9th, we had a temporary and gratifying surcease to our nautical sufferings. How the seamen ca watch got through their duties on that awful 4th of November night I cannot imagine, with the weather as "thick as a hedge," and as " dark as the inside of a cow," " blowing like steam," raining in sheets and the sea running mountains. The quoted simili- tudes are the sailors', which, like Sam Slick and his opinions, *' I sticks to, 'cos they answers." Disturbed weather with heavy squalls began again at midnight on the 10th {& tremend- ous staggerer at two a.m. of the 12th) and continued until mid-day of the 13th, when it finally settled to light airs and a calm sea. Steam was now got up, and we made land right ahead at two pin. on Sunday, the 15th November. At 5-25 Point Makafa was on our starboard bow, at 6-25 Diamond Head, bearing north-west two miles, and at seven o'clock we let go anchor in Honolulu harbour. I need hardly remark, that a few of us, some of the sailors as well, were more or less upset by the asperities of the voyage, and speaking for myself ^ TO SEE THE WORLD. 13& I made the discovery that I was not so good a sailor as I was beginning to think myself, and was very glad to feel the yacht once more at rest beneath me. We are to stay in these beauti- ful islands for a few weeks, and then visit Fiji on our way to New Zealand, all of which I hope to tell you something about in my next letter. LETTER 11. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. Mr. Wythes did not at first intend staying longer than a fortnight in the Sandwich Islands, but their attractions proved too many and too strong to be resisted, so that it was the day after Christmas before we got away — about six weeks from the date of our arrival — and even then, so thoroughly did we enjoy our sojuru at these charming and most interesting islands that it was not without some twinges of regret that we at last said good-bye to the many kind, sociable and most hospitable people — indeed, liends, for we never can forget them — that we had met and made there. To those readers who have only what I may call a school boy's notion of the Sandwich Islands, namely, a the place where the great English circumnavigator. Captain Cook was barbarously murdered in 1779, and that the inhabitants are still the wild and naked savages that they then were, such re- marks will appear strange, but they nevertheless truly indicate the impressions we formed of the islands and their inhabi- tants, and the feelings by which we were swayed on leaving them. Nor are we at all peculiar in this respect, for all the large and increasing number of tourists who annually visit the group invariably express themselves in a similar way, and which is not to be wondered at, for besides the social attrac- i T ■ ^^Tif^tr^wt^trrf^ ■J* w^wm* ' -''"j^,**"mji.nu p»^i'^" •'«" 140 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. tions of the European residents, the Sandwich Islands are unsurpassed by any country in the world for the fascinations of its perfect climate, its splendid and varied scenery, en- hanced by clear skies, blue seas and gorgeous sunsets, its rich and diversified tropical and subtropical vegetation clothing the face of the country with a perennial verdure ; and lastly its extraordinary volcanic phenomena, characterized by some of the most wonderful displays of active volcanic force any- where to be seen throughout the world. The majority of these tourists come for the sole object of seeing the latter, but many are also attracted by the pure physical enjoyment of living in such a delightful climate. With a temperature of eighty degrees by day and seventy-five degrees by night, even the most delicate may clothe in the lightest possible way, without the least fear of catching cold, and its greatest heats, such as occasionally happen, are never felt to be oppres- sive, being dry in character and always tempered by the cool winds that continually blow across the Islands. Indeed so impressed did I feel with the salubrity of the air, the equa- bility of the temperature and the general restorative and invigorating qualities of the climate, that I could not help thinking that no place we had as yet visited, probably none in the world was better adapted for those to go to, who are suffer- ing from incipient lung affection or are convalescents from any acute malady. " In Honolulu," to quote the opinion of another medical visitor, "the invalid throws off his heavy wraps and basks in the lovely atmosphere. He lounges in the verandah through the live long day, and at night watches the rising of the Great Bear without the suspicion of a chill ; with the windows of his bedroom open, he needs only a coverlet and blanket, and in the early morning rises with the sun, re- freshed and hungry for his breakfast." If any would like to test the matter for themselves, they could not take a more delightful holiday trip than to Honolulu, which is no longer one of " the uttermost parts of the earth," as by the modern facilities for overcoming time and distance, you can be there in three weeks from leaving England; namely, a week crossing the Atlantic to New York, a week by rail through the United States to San Francisco, and a week to Honolulu by one of the Oceanic Steam Ship Company's fine steamers that ply once a fortnight between the two latter places, and when you get there you will find first-rate hotels and plenty to amuse in the way of sports and pastimes, and if properly introduced, in the way of social gaieties. TO SEE THE WORLD. 141 Honolulu harbour and its surroundings on the evening of our arrival presented to our view one of the most charming scenes we had ever beheld. As the shades of evening closed in, a full moon beamed down in silvery splendour upon us, and enabled us to take in at a glance the entire sweep of the bight, in the centre of which the town and harbour is situated. On its extreme right was to be seen the couchant lion-shaped mountain ridge of Diamond Point (native, Leahi) a prominent landmark in making for the harbour, with Waikiki, the Brighton of Honolulu, where are many charming marine resi- dences of the wealthier classes skirting the shore and reaching towards the town. At the opposite extremity on the left is the promontory of Moanolua, separating Pearl from Hono- lulu harbours, and directly in front is Punchbowl Hill, with its well marked volcanic features of an extinct crater, and with Tantalus Peak and the mountain range it belongs to, towering magnificently in the background. Between Punchbowl and the shore, and reaching up into the valley east and west of it, lies this charming town of Honolulu, the paradise of the Pacific, and capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and so em- bowered is it in umbrageous groves of palms, and algarobas, monkey pods and tamerisks, eucalyptus and guava orange trees, bananas and cocoa nut, screw pines and tree ferns, and indeed an almost infinite variety of indigenous and imported tropical trees and shrubs, us to look more like a collection of detached villas, buried up to the eaves in green, than a methodically arranged town of twenty-five thousand inhabit- ants. As night drew on, the air seemed to get balmier, the harbour and shore lights began to wane, and glimmered more and more faintly under the brightening moonbeams, the hum of the busy town gradually subsided, and was finally drowned by the ceaseless and melancholy booming of the sea breaking over the long coral barrier reefs that bound the deep water of the harbour ; and a night of serenest loveliness was fast melt- ing into dreamy repose, when hark ! what sweet and melodious sounds are those that we hear floating fitfully out towards us from the shore ? By degrees they become more and more audible, and soon a couple of boats are seen approaching, and as " their voices keep tune and their oars keep time," we recognise the former to be musical and well trained, and sing- ing in concert to an accompaniment of guitars. At one time the sounds are those of a melancholy ditty, like a highland coronach, at another of a lively character, but all of so novel and peculiar a cadence as to suggest their insular origin, and 142 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. SO it proved, for our visitors were the Hawaiian Glee Club, who had come out to entertain us with a serenade of welcome to the islands. As they rowed slowly round and round the yacht, song and glee followed freely on oqe another, and iu the soft stilly moonlight their skilful rendering produced a very charming effect. Eeturn songs having been called for from our sailors, they responded by striking up some familiar sea songs, in the choruses of which both parties heartily joined. After giving us the Hawaiian national hymn of ** Lil-e6 woke a iany, (spelt here as pronounced), long may she live and happy may she be," &c., they returned to the shore amid hearty rounds of cheers from the yacht, singing as they went the pathetic Hawaiian farewell song, " Aloha oe Aloha nei." Thus closed the first day of our arrival at Honolulu, and which formed a suitable forecast of the delightful six weeks we were about to spend there. When we went ashore next day, the first things to attract our attention were the ubiquity of the trams, the copious- ness of the telephone wires, and the number of the churches, schools and colleges. Trams run along all the main streets and out to the suburbs. As to the telephone system, it la simply perfect, nearly every private residence having its wire, and even the ships in the harbour. Nor is it confined to Honolulu alone, but extends all over the island, the other islands of the group being also extensively supplied with it. This general use of the telephone is said to contribute largely to the sociality of the residents, as chats can be held between friends at a distance, and arrangements made for social ameni- ties. As to churches, schools and colleges, they seemed to be everywhere, and their number irresistibly impressed you with the thought that the Hawaiians must be a highly religious people, and that they greatly appreciate education ; and, as a matter of fact, such is really the case. They are now no longer the savages and cannibals that tore Captain Cook's body to pieces, cooked and ate it (although they deny the latter part of the allegation, and that their ancestors ever were can- nibals) ; nor are they the heathens of a degraded worship of demons, with human sacrifices and lubidinous dances, such as they then were, but are now all Christians, many of them both sincere and earnest, two-thirds being American Presby- terians, and the other third about equally divided between the English and Koman Churches. In the matter of educa- tion, every Hawaiian can read and write his own language, and many of them speak, read and write in English. They TO SEE THE WOBLD. 143 have a vernacular press and literature, free public library and news rooms, equal political rights with the whites, and, through the organization of their political clubs, exercise them 80 effectively as to be well represented in the legislature and executive of the Queen's Government. Our first contact with the natives strongly impressed us with the genuine frankness of the Hawaiian disposition, and with their thorough friend- liness, especially to all English-speaking whites. We now set to work to get a general notion of Honolulu and its environs, and among our first drives were included "Waikiki, already alluded to as the Brighton of Honolulu ; the Manoa Valley, so picturesque, cool and breezy, and resembling a quiet glen in the Scotch Highla'^'ls : Kapiolani Public Park, where there is a very pretty racecourse and a well laid out recreation ground, and where we saw an excellent game of baseball played by the Hawaiians, a game they have a great liking for and excel at ; the Queen's Hospital, with its splendid avenue of royal palms, one of the sights of Honolulu. This noble institution was erected by the patriotic munificence of the late Queen Emma, and is supported by a tax of two dollars a head on all persons arriving by the ocean steamboats. It is free to all sick poor^ irrespective of race or religion, al- though a small charge is made upon foreigners, who are only temporarily in the islands. The wards of this hospital are large and airy, the sanitary arrangements satisfactory, every- thing scrupulously clean, and all the patients appeared to be very kindly treated and well cared for. I was shown over it by the two honorary physicians, Drs. Macgrew and Wood, and was exceedingly pleased with everything I saw. The Punchbowl Hill was next visited, from which we got a magnificent cowp d'ceil of the town and harbour. Our next drive was to the Pali, or precipice, as its name implies, about six miles up the Nuuanu Valley. The road to it runs through the best street of the town, Nuuanu Avenue, where are all the finest houses, with their tasteful and ornamental gardens, such as Mr. Charles Bishop's, the banker, whose late wife. Princess Bernice Pauahi, has D(3en such a munificent benefactor to her race by building and endowing the Kamehameha Schools. Farther on we came to the Royal Mausoleum, where the Hawaiian Royal Family are interred, and immediately beyond is the European cem(3tery, beautifully kept, and containing many interesting monuments. Then the Lunalilo Homes for aged Hawaiians, erected and endowed by the late Hawaiian king of that name. Some rlistance up the valley we came 1 144 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. upon the reservoirs of the Honohihi public water supply, and from thence, all the rest of the way up to the Pali, was one continuous panorama of charmin previous six weeks, and with whose captain and office's we had exchanged many courtesies and hosi)italities, having si-^nalled a, " prosperous voyage;," and the other siiips dipping ensii,'ns as we passed, we soon were clear of tho reef, and oegan to steajn full ahead on our southward track for tho Fiji Islands. L w ij wmt I TO BEE THE WOBLD. 163 LETTER 12. FROM OAHU TO NEW ZEALAND. Fkc Honolulu to Suva, the capital of the Fiji Islands, and which is situated on the south-east comer of Viti Levu, the central and largest islaud of the group, was a run of two thousand seven hundred and eighty knots in a south south- westerly direction. We thus crossed, somewhat diagonally, nearly the entire inter-tropical belt of the Pacific, that is, from entering the Tropit. l>^* Cancer to leaving the Tropic of Capri- corn, as Honolulu is situated on the twenty lirsv". parallel north of the Equator, and Suva on the eighteenth south of it. When approaching Suva we crossed for the second time the hundred and eiglitieth meridian and liad to give back to Chronos the twenty-four hours we had borrower, when we previously crossed in the oj)posite direction on our voyage from Yoko- hama to Vancouver. This hundrol and eightieth meridian, that is the imaginary line dividing the Eastern from the Western Hemispheres on this side of the globe, runs through some of the smaller islands of the Fiji group, and among others the lov'ly and luxuriant island of Tavimii, whicli we passed on our way down through the Nanuka Passage. Tavinui, along with the others, therefore, laboured under the chrono- logical difhculty of having the days of the week differently named on the o})posite sides of it, and so "idiculous was the re- sulting state of things that, w", heard of a Yankee resident, ■wl.o used to boast that as his liouse lay right athwart the huLidri'd and eightieth degree he could always dodge the Sun- days l»y stepping from one side of his house to the other on the Saturday night, when Ik.' passed at once out of Saturday into M(»nday. This dual time wum subsequently fomid to be such an inconvenience to commercial arnmgements and legal notices that it was assimilated by ordinance to that of Austra- lia, so that now the days are simiiar all over the entire group, of wh'ch there are a hundred inhabited islands, out of a total of two hundred and iifty, part being in the one hemisphere and part in the other. 161 THE CRUISE OP THE " BT. GEORGE," R.Y.8. Our sailinf? track lay through the central group of tbt Pacific Islands, and is considered the most dangerous for navi- gation througliout this ocean on account, of its numerous coral reefs and low islands 8.nd its cyclonic storms. All the islands of these groups — with the exception of the larger ones, such as Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, Sec, wliich are of volcanic orij^dn — and also all the submarine reefs, are coral formations and rise perpendicularly from the bottom of the sea at great depths.* Indeed, soundings for reefs from the ship's side, often give no indications of their presence, as deep water is met with until you are actually over them, and therefore should a ship be wrecked on one of them and afterwards blown off, it would be like falling over a precipice, thousands of feet in height, and it would sink at once " Full many a fathom deep." The possibility of coming npon reefs not marked in the charts, as well as those that are, nmst always be a source of anxiety and perplexity to navigators in these seas ; and in our own case, whenever a patch of greenness was seen in the distance on the otherwise blue surface of the ocean — a colour effect pro- duced by coral reefs even at a depth of three fathoms— or when disturbed or broken water was observed, exciting suspicions of breakers, a man was sent to the mast head to keep a sharp look out. These ai)pearances, however, are often deceptive, as tliey may be simulated by a variety of other causes, and a want of accurate investigation on the spot, as to their true nature, by those who hav(> reported them, has led to many reefs being entered on the charts whicli never had any exist- ence. Among the causes Ihat have been mentioned as produc- ing these deceptive ajipearanees, are, rellectionsfrom thrciouds, volcanic dust in the water, marine animalcula', the confervoid algjo (oscillatoria) called by sailors " sea sawdust," of which we saw a patch several miles long in the Bay of Bengal, and the thick white scum, tin-own off by that curious little creature, the sea worm, or baloh), as the Fijians call it; while reef- breakers may be simulated by the commotion produced by fish, (which sometimes collect in large (piantities where a cold and warm current meet), and espocially when they are attacked by * Altliougli tho coral produciug polypes cannot exist at a greater depth tlian one hundred and eighty feet, still, according to the theory of Darwin —now generally atcepted i)y natiualists-the gradual subsidence of tho sea bottom has enabled these tiny toilers of tho sea to continue upward their colossal buililing operations, and thus account for the depth to wliicli many of these reefs extend. TO SEE THE WORLD. 165 their piscine enemies; also by the splashing ;ind leaping of the larger kinds (instances of both we have seen several times in the course of our cruise), and lastly by volcanic disturbance at the bottom cf the sea. The sea worm, to which I have just alluded, is so peculiar to the islands of this part of the Pacific, and has so much that is curious and interesting about it, that the following i)arLicu- lars are worth mentioning. It is quite different, however, from the sea slug, or boche de mer, which is collected in largo quantities among these and other islands, cured and exported to China as an article of food, under the name of trcpang. One of tiie strange things about the sea worm is that it makes its appearance on tlie Fijian coasts only once a year, generally in the month of November, when it comes to the top of the coral reefs fringing the shores, by wriggling its wny up through the fissures and openings, and in such enormous quiM'.t'.ties as to quite blacken the water : but where it has come from and where it goes to is equally a mysterj*. Another curiou.s feature of its natural history is, that it only does so at three o'clock in the morning, never at any other time of the day, when, having remained until daybreak and thrown off the ■white scum referred to, it disappears again as conipletcl} and suddenly as it came, and is never seen again until about the corresponding date of the following year. The natives know about when to exp(M't it, and are on the watch for it, and as soon as it is seen beginning to come, a cry of " IJalolo, balolo" is passed about, when yoimg and old of both sexes immediate- ly rush to the reefs, with scoups, buckets and boats, to catch as much as they can. The balolo is I'cgarded as a great dainty by the Fijians, biung eaten both raw and cooked, and it is a custom with tliem to send presents of it to their friends living away from the coast, or who have been unable to join in the taking of it. As Fanning and Christmas Islands, which arc; British, lay almost in our way, and Samoa not far out of it, Mr. Wylhes at one time intended taking a passing look at t!' two former, and making a short stay at the latter, in order to see somethiui,' of its inhabitants, who are spokcMi of so highly by all who have visited the Navigator Group, and who are said to be so hospit- able and friendly to strangers, and especially so to the Jhjglisli. Th'Cy are said t'> be the finest lo(»kin^' race in the Pacific, and y(r. James ^'' hward, who was four years at Apia, the capita'l, as l>r,:.,, '"onsul, says of the Samoan women, in his iatfirotiti'iig work, My Consulship in Samoa," " that while none 166 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEOKGE, B.Y.8. of them are ujjfly, some of the dusky fair ones are really lovely." As, however, we were now in the hurricane season, which ex- tends from December to the end of March, and as one hurricane at least of more or less severity occurs every season, Mr. Wythes decided that no extra risk should be incurred, but that we should steer a strai^^ht track for Fiji, and after a short stay at Suva, get out of the hurricane area as soon as possible. Some of these rotatory storms are terrible afifairs, and are fre- quently accompanied by a storm-wave, sometimes ten feet high, that sweejjs over and utterly devastates all the low islands and shores in its remorseless course. The disastrous cyclone that occurred at Samoa in February, 1881), is a sad illustration of what they can be, when, it will be remembered, that in Apia Harbour the United States ships of war, Trenton and Vandalia were wrecked and the Nipsic stranded, the German ships, the Eher ai.id Adlcr also wrecked, and the Olga stranded ; and one hundred and thirty lives lost, while the English man-of-war. Calliope, only escaped a similar fate by making for the open sea before the storm had reached its height, having acted promptly on the warnings of a falling barometer, violent squalls and sudden changes in the wind. When we were at Honolulu I met Dr. Woods, who hai been the surgeon, and several American naval oflicers who were serving aboard the T?c;//o?i when she was wrecked, and I asked how it was that they did not try to leave the harbour at the same time with the Calliope, seeing the indications of the ap- proach of a cyclone were so unmistakable, namely, barometer beginning to fall on the 13th, wind s.s.w., with vioh^nt squalls and rain ; on the loth, barometer dropping to 29'1, and the wind suddenly shifting to n.e.e., and then to n.n.w. on the 16tli ; and they told me ihat they were all well aware of this and of the risk they were running, bi't owing to the strained relatious existing at the time between their respective Govern- ments, U])o)i the question as to which should annex Samoa, neither felt inclined to be the first to move out for fear of com- promising their national interests, and that but for this cir- cumstance, therti was no reason why all six should not have escaped as well as the Calliope. I don't know if tlie captain of the TreJiton's pini on the name of the c:«.ptam of tiie Calliope got into the n((wspapers at the time, but as it was made at tlio terrible and critical moment when the one ship was a wrecks and the other was gallantly forging her way — at times with doubtful success — tlirough the tremendous sea that was rush- mg into the harbour, I will venture to give it on the authority TO SEE THE WORLD. 167 of Dr. Woods, who told it to me. As the Calliope was thus passing the Trenton, cheered by the survivors of the ship- wrecued crews, the one captain shonted to the other " You seem in a hurry Caine." As we had the good fortune to have tlie wind in our favour all the way, we only steamed three days out of the nineteen that the voyage lasted, namely one at starting, so as to leave the land well astern before getting under sail, and two when Bearing and steering among the islands of the Fiji group. This was the fewest number of days under stream of any run we had yet made, and at an expenditure of only thirty out of tlie hundred and twenty tons of the rather dear Welsh coal that we filled our bunkers with at Honolulu. This coal was five pounds a ton, if you please, and which at our steaming con- sumption of ten tons a day, would be three hundred and fifty pounds a week, making a not inconsiderable item in Madam St. Gconje's domestic expenses. Of course Welsh coal could not be otherwise than high priced in tlie Sandwich Islands, as there is freight and shrinkage to be allowed l"(n, but five pounds seems unreasonably high, considering tliat excellent steam-generating coal, burning without clinkers, and pro cing hardly a shovelful of ash to the ton, can be had in New Zealand, delivered at the wharf at thirteen shillings and six- pence per ton, and a fourteen knot coal tramp could land it at Honolulu in three weeks. For naval purposes, Welsh coal will always be in request, on account of its producing so little smoke, and therefore leaving no tell tale track behind it. Taking the voyage all through, it proved a very etijoyable one, with the exception of the first four days after gettinir under canvas, when we encountered a rather stiff gale that tossed and tumbled us about a good deal, and among other damages. Blackened all our fore and main riggings. Tl)e climate of this part of the Pacitic, in the open sea, is very difi'erent from what we found it in Suva harbour, being pleasantly warm, yet comfortably cool, and the atmosphere for the most part clear and dry, though occasionally marred ])y heavy rain sipialls — and pretty dusters some of them w(!re south of the line— wliureas the latter was simply an unceasing alternation of scorching sunshine and deluges of rain, with an exhausting moist heat, worse than that of (Jolondx), and that brought our prickly heat all back again. Sfjuall-J are among the most dangerous of the atnuispheric disturbances that the navigator has to contend with, both on account of the force and violence of the wind, and the suddenness with wliicli they il 163 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. QEORQE, B.Y.S. come on, often at times, when to all appearance they ought to be least expected. As 1 saw one of the worst of those we en- countered dnrint,' this voyage from heginning to end, I will try to describe it, as it impressed me as to their formidable nature, and enabled mo to see liow many a gallant ship may have foundered at sea, without leaving the smallest trace be- hind, of her terrible fate. When one day standing on the bridge, enjoying the seascape and tlie fine weather, our first officer, Mr. Cobby, drew my attention to a small black cloud on the horizon to windw^ard, saying that ho thought it would turn out to be a rain squall, and from its position would make Btraight for us. This seemed tome highly improl)able, for the cloud was just then, so to speak, " no larger than a man's hand," and the sky overhead had a perfectly settled and stormless appearance, while the sea was quiet, and the wind hardly enough to keep the sails full. On de;;k, fine weather work was going on ; ropes and siiils were being overhauled, and tackle rove, and the men ofT duty were watching from the bow a school of dolphins racing in front of the stem, whilst one of them, standing out on the martingale guys, was trying to capture one by striking it with a liarpoon. The small black cloud now rapidly develo])ed into a big and still bigger one, until it blotted out sun and sky, and rushed towards us with the impetuous velocity of Mazci)pa's " tartar of the Ukraine breed, "Who looked as though the speed of thought Was in his limbs." Then came a transfoi-mation scene from our former halcyon tranciuillity, to one of indesciibal)le bustle and exertion. A few words arc shouted from the bridge, and pronqjtly replied to by the boatswain's cheery " Aye, aye, sir ! " and awa> goes evei'vthing under CO'. er that required keeping dry ; skylights, jiort-holes and companion-way hatches are closed and secured; down comes the yacht's big mizen sail, and all the rest of the canvas, both alow and alofr, is either furled or closo-reefed, and just as evei-yihing has b(»en nuule safe and snug, and the ship's head put off from the wind, the squall bursts on us with the savage fur\ of a wild beast on its prey, straining spars and riirj^ing to t\w utmost, whihi tin; rain camci down in such torrents as flooded the deck from fore to aft, and made the waists look as if a big green sea had just been shipped. Fortu- nately it did not last long, and the sky soon began to clear again to windward, and the s(|uall cloud that liad just n<)W enveloped us in its wrathful embrace was seen rushing on with TO SEE THE WORLD. 169 the Kauie wild iinpotuosity far to leeward, until it dwindled down to the iiiwij^niificaut black cloud on the oi)posite horizeu as when lirst seen to windward. We crossed the equator on January 6th, and the time- honoured custom was f^one through of making all on boai'd " sons of Neptune " win; had not been over it before. After sunset on the previous night, " ship ahoy" was heard shouted on the starboard bow ; a blue light was burnt over the side, and Father Neptune and his wife w(!re supi)osed to have come aboard, both excellent get-ups, and having shaken hands with all tln;ir sons aboard, that is, all who had already b(>on across the li'ie, left with the promise to come again next day and adopt all the rest of us. The paraphernalia of the ceremony consisted of a tank made out of the forecastle rain awning, and filled whh about three feet of sea water, and a i)latform in fi'ont with steps up to it. On one end of this platform sat Neptune (Turtle) and his wife (Willor-k) and on the other the Doctor (G. (ireen) with his medicine chest, and the barber (J. Williams) and his assistant (Graham), with a sign board overhead to this effect: "Look her(^ ! Shaving, shampooing and bathing, only 3s. Gd. each — cheap ! " Father Neptune's retinue also included three marine ixdice (Ward, Calloway and Tlarwood), whose duty it was to arrest all aboard who could not prove to their satisfaction that they had already crossed the line, and to bring them uj) on the ])latform before him. The doctor, Avho affected to look very wise and knowing in his 'vig and brobdingnagjan spiu'tach's and stetli(3scope, proceeded to sound you and feel your pulse, and give his opinion as to your fitness to undergo the treatment. He generally found that you were wanting in tone, and prescribed some of his "infallible pick- me-up mixture," which he administered by thrusting the neck of tlie bottle into your mouth , eiiire nuns I believe he had different sorts of nu'diciiu', wine and water for the deck house, aud salts and seima for the forecastle. The barber ami his assistant now took yoii in hand, the latter fii-st swathing you in the usual hairdresser's sheet, and then, having bound a handkerchief over your eyes, began lathering your chin with some black composition, which he applied with a big long- handled sash brush. .Vhem ! When any of the fo'castle were under hand, he applied it with ungrudging liberality, slapi)ing it on, not only all over their faces, but sometimes over their heads as well The master barber now conmienced operations upon you, and with an exaggerated display of the liberties a barber takes with his customer's features, tweakmg your nose, ;i! 170 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEOUOE," R.^.S. and pnlliui; it up iiiid down and from side to side, proceeded to shave you, cleiiniuyf the l;ithor on your shoulder or head. The razor was a fornii(hihle lo()l<;inf? instrument, about three feet loiif^, of the ship cai'penter's best wo:)den cutlery, which the barber ever and anon frantically stropped, exaniiuiui,' its edu'c and testint,' it on a grab of liair from the head of his as- sistant. You are now tumbled, head over heels into the tank, over the back of the ])latfonn, where Neptune's two " bears" (Smith and Cottcl) are waiting' for you, to bathe and shampoo you, and who take care to do their work thorouj^hly, and give you a good roll about in the water, while another of his marine majesty's rt^tiuue (Woolcot the boatswain) perched uj) in a corner of the tank, with the director of the deck hose in liis hands, plays upon you until you have succeeded in scrambling out of it. When all had been thus duly shaved, shami)ooed, and bathed — and as no exceptions are made, Mr. Wythes and all the rest of us had to take our turn — Father Neptune, with his wile and myrmidons, returned to his watery domain, that is, all got into the tank, and then beiran the jolliest rumpus of splashing and lloundering, wrestling and tumbling, like a bed- lam of mad dol[)liins broken loose, and creating roars of laughter by their comic antics a)id i)ra('tic-al jokes and tricks upon one another. The hydraulic artist in the corner now plied his hose with redoubled energy — and " (juite by accident on purpose " giving an occasioiuil sly swish of it among the laughing specta- tors — until he seemed gradually to extinguish the fire of the humorous turbulence and comic energies of the Nei)tunian troupe. The mysteries of our initiation into the sonship of the Sea (tod were brought to a close by three cheers being pro- posed by the first oflicer for Mr. Wythes, and then the same for the captain, both of w^hich were heartily accorded by all abv)ard. After an hour and a half of as hearty laughter as we had ever enjoyed in all our " born days," we dispersed to our re- spective cabins to change our wet clothes, aiul on re-assembling in the saloon for our usual live o'clock tea, the evening post was announced to have just arrived, when letters were handed to each of us from his marine majesty to notify, under his sign manual, that we had been duly initiated, and to express his gratification at having received us into the bosom of his family. Mr. K. E. Walker, one of our party, who is rather clever with his kodak, in catching comic situations and ridiculous atti- tudes — we think sometimes too clever, as he has "snapped" some of us unawares when in ij'nominioub deshabille or in- TO SEE THE WORLD. 171 gloriously iiidulgiu;,' in an aftornoon snooze — succeeded in taking some amusing groups and views of the ceremony. (Continuing our voyage, south-west a half-west, Ave passed Home island at four p.m. on the 12th, bearing thfee miles to port, and on the following day at 11-50 a.m. the island of Naitambol was abeam, and at 2-30 that of Nukulolu. Shortly after passing the latter island, some little e.vcitennMit was oc- casioned by one of the crew (Page) falling overboard. He had been standing on one of the gripes of the port dingey, when it gave way under him, and he dropped clear of the side of the yacht into the sea. As we were steaming full ahead at the time, he was soon a long way behind, but knowing that he was a good swimmer, as soon as we saw his head above water •we had no fears for his safety, excejjt on account of the sharks which infest these inter-island waters in great numbers. The engines were promptly reversed, a life buoy thrown out astern and a boat lowered, and in twenty minutes he was safely aboard again, none the worse for his di]) and swim— indeed, professing to feel very much refreshed by it. During the 1-ith we steamed all day through the Goro Sea, and arrived about six a.m. the following morning ofF the entrance to Suva Har- bour, but owing to a dense fog bh^tting out the coast line, wo had to wait outside until it had cleared off, so that it was 10-30 a.m. before we got in and had dropped anchor. If you want to see sharks, Suva Harbour is the place to come to, as it fairly teemed with them. We had no sooner got settled in our anchorage than about a score of them came round the yacht, crowding together here and tumbling and splashing there, and making such a disturbance in the water as if they were (juarrelling amoiig themselves which were to wait upon us during our stay in the harbour. They seemed at last to have settled their little diirerences, as six of the largest took exclusive possession of the yacht's hull, and could always be seen lying there, on a clear day, fi-om a boat alongside. One or two pilot fish could also be seen resting on their backs or on the roots of tiie pectoral fins, and as soon as any galley otTal was thrown overboard, they would dart otf after it and examine and report to the shark whether suitable for him to eat, and when the shark had gobbled up all but what was too small for his capacious mouth to take in, the pilot lish re- galed themselves with the crumbs, and then both retired again to their former place of outlook under the hull. We also saw in this harbour numbers of sea snakes, the first we had seen since we were in the China Sea, and were here told that they 172 THE CKUISE OF THE " ST. OEOROE," Il.Y.S. were all more or less poisonous, whereas none of the Fiji land snakes arc so. Mr. F. Sponce, the private secretary of Sir J. B. Thurston, the (iovenior of the Fiji Ishiiuls, called (hu'iiig tlie course of the (lay, and Ijrouj^'ht an invitation from the (Jovenior to Mr. \\'yth('s and some othei's of us to dine at the Jlesidency on the following evening, and at the same time expressing his regret that he had not heon aide to c-all upon us himself in conse- (jUL'nci'of slight indisj)osilion. The oarsmen of tlu! (lovernor's gig were remarkahly line specimens of the Islanders — having not unpleasing features an\lr. Spence if he knew of any real cause for it, to which hi? replied that to the best of his knowledge there was m)ne, l)ut that it was im- possible to i)lease everybody. es[)ecially the white trader and planter, who look at everything fiom the sole })oint of view of their personal gain. The})olicy of the present Governor, how- ever, had ^n\'en such complete satisfaction to the luitives, that law and ordei' were maintained throughout tlu; whoK? grou[) by a nieie handful of military ]»olice, nor was it a new ami untried policy, for it was merely a continuation and amplilication of that of his predecessors, Mr. Des V to ta,lk of Fiji as an Fn.udish Crown Colony. liy tint system at ju-esent in operation, the chiefs i-eta,in all their old powei- aiul authority ovcsr their respective tribes and village commmiities, and are sup]ioi1ed in (he exercise of it by the law. This ho consi(h'red an unprogressive and niiscliievous policy, and as far as all other l'jiiL;lish ('I'own Colonies are conctu'ned, was alto- gether anomalous, as it was sanctioning and sui)[)oiling savage institutions that ol)struct(Ml civilization and progress. The chiefs were no doubt re(]uir<'d t^) maintain law and order in their respective districts ui\der i>ain of removal, but in enforcing it, what a Fijian chief's ideas of law, justice, and humanity may beat thepreseiU day, can be infi'ri'ed from what tlu^y were only fifty years ago, even after making' ample allowance for the beneliceiit and civilizing'' influences of Chi'istianity. whicdi they bav(^ since adopted. At that date they not only ate tlieii- slain and captured enemies but when the lardei' of human flesh got empty, they w«(re in the habit of poaching on one another's subjects foi' a fresh supply ; and King Thackombau — who \)q- titioned for the annexation, not certainly for the homiur of being coniuicted with tlu! higher civilization of k^igland, but to save himself from being concpiercd by his rival kinu and being made into roast meat for the victor's table — was in the babit of collecting a tribute of bal)ies from bis subjects, and when returning fi'om his tribute cruise amon^"- the islands, had these dainty and aj)petising Jioinics hoiiclii's displayed from the masts and rigging of his war canoo. Nor was theii- humanity tothoirown "kith and kin" loss infamous and devilish than this horrible cannibalism, for whenever a chief died, his wives were innnediately strangled; fathers, when they got beyond a IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) // >/ ^ /-^ j^% 1.0 I.I 1.25 IM 12.0 1.8 U IIIIII.6 ^ /; <^ /; v^ ^^ ^h ?> > '/ /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WES If MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.V. 14580 (yl6) 873-4503 174 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. certain age, were announced to be dead by their sons, and then deliberately murdered, that they might, figuratively speaking, " step into their shoes ;" and the sick ones of the family were buried alive to get rid of the encumbrance and trouble of at- tending to them. From what we heard while at Suva, and from various sources, it would not appear that cannibalism is even yet extinct, for we Avere told that in the outlying districts, when a man gets killed in a tribe fight, they will sometimes oven him and eat him, keep- ing it however, a strict secret among themselves. If this is true, pandering to native institutions capable of such things is surely wrong in principle, and discreditable to any form of Govern- ment. Moreover, it almost indicates an ineradicable racial pro- pensity to cannibalism, as the old excuse can now no longer apply — that they resorted lo human flesh because their country provided them with no other kind of animal food, the only forms of animal life formerly in the islands being small rats, bats, and lizards, whereas sheep and oxen now exist in abun- dance. What the white settlers complain most about with respect to this chief -rule, is its effect on the supply of native labour, for as the chiefs will not allow the natives to leave their respective districts or hire themselves to the white settlers, an arrangement that would have been advantageous to both, but compel them to stay and work for the common use and benefit of their tribes and communities, the whites have to import Polynesian and Coolie labour, and at a cost that makes cotton and sugar planting, &c^ almost unremunerative, whilst the moral effect of thisexchisive system upon the Fiji natives is to make them lazy and thriftless, by depriving them of all motive for personal exertion. A ball was got up in our honour by the ladies of Suva, which we attended and enjoyed very much, and Mr. Wythes gave an " At Home " on board the following day which was largely at- tended. On another occasion, three of the principal chiefs, Eatu Epili (who would have been king, and was chief of the chiefs), Lakiosa and another, called on Mr. Wythes and asked to be shown over the yacht, which Mr. Wythes had much pleasure in doing, taking them round himself, and they ap- peared to take a very intelligent interest in all that was shown and explained to them. We afterwards visited some of their houses, when among other things of interest we saw Queen Victoria's ^;ortrait hung up in the centre of the main wall of the rooms, and of which they seemed very proud and drew our attention to it as " Queenie." . TO SEE THE WORLD. 175 , One of the Australian United Steam Navigation Company's steamers, the Birksgate, arrived at Suva while we were there, bringing the mails from Sydney, to be sent on by the 'Frisco mail route by connecting steamers. She took in a large cargo of native produce, such as sugar, cotton, coffee, copra, bana- nas, &c. A labour contract ship, named Me.rt of the South Island, some of us availed our- selves of Cook's tourist tickets (this most obliging and useful firm to the tourist, seems to be nearly ubiquitous) for Lake Wakatipu, and were much gratified with what they saw not- withstanding that the weather proved most unpropitious, being cold, wet, and dull all the time. Those of us who did not go to the lakes had some excellent rabbit shooting at a place called Blue Skin, and when there, had an opportunity of seeing what a terrible pest this rodent has become to the New Zealand farmer. Pheasants, we were told, have become so thoroughly acclimatized in some parts of the North Island that they have also become a nuisance, but nothing like the rabbit, which in certain districts has taken absolute and entire possession of the land, converting the fields into veritable warrens. It was very pleasant no doubt for us to hear the acclimatized black- bird, thrush, and lark, mingling their notes with the native tui and bell-bird, and to see the hare, pheasant, and partridge in I If u TO SEE THE WORLD. 189 I 4. i» the stubble fields, but the havock the fecundity of the rabbit had made with this poor farmer's pastures, and his apparent utter helplessness and hopelessness to cope with it, was an aspect of acclimatization that was saddening to contemplate. Laws have now been made, compellint? owners and occupiers of land to keep their numbers down, and when on our way by train to Blue Skin we met a number of attorneys, who told us that they were on their way to conduct prosecutions against some such who had neglected to do so, and had been^com- plained of by their neighbours. We left Port Chalmers on the fifth of March at three-thirty p.m., and steamed round the south of the island, through Foveaux Strait, on our way to the west coast sounds, where Mr. Wythes contemplated spending a fortnight in cruising in and out of the principal of them, and as our coal would be about expended by that time, had arranged for an Invercar- gill steamer to meet the yacht at Milford Sound with a fresh supply for our twelve hundred miles voyage across the South Pacific to Hobart. After passing Waipapa Point at the east- ern entrance of the Foveaux Strait, and which we did at five o'clock next morning, the wind began to freshen, and by noon had increased to so strong a gale, with a high sea run- ning, that the yacht's course had to be altered for Tewaewae Bay, which she reached at three p.m., and found excellent shelter. At five-thirty on the following morning (March the seventh), the weather having improved during the night, although still pretty rough, she resumed her course for Pre- servation Inlet, the most southerly of the sounds (or fiords), and which she entered at eleven -twenty a.m. We were no sooner fairly inside than the water became as still as a duck- pond, and as clear and reflective as a mirror. The banks enclosing the picturesquely tortuous passages of the inlet were often of great height and sheer with the water's edge, and along with the numerous islets that lay scattered in delightful irregularity at the various parts of our progress, were thickly clothe i with forests of the characteristic glossy fohage of New Zealand irees and shrubs ; and their intermixed light and dark- green masses, contrasted effectively with the scarred brown faces of projecting rocks, and the huge, bold and defiant look- ing abutments of the higher cliffs. As the yacht threaded her way further and further inland, we became more and more enchanted with the ever varying conformation of the outlines and the picturesque evolutions of fresh viow^s and scenes. Our first anchorage was the Cascade Basin, at the head of J 190 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. the inlet, about eight miles from the entrance, and as we had finished mooring by one o'clock, there was a good long after- noon before us to enjoy the shooting and fishing, which the neighbourhood supplied in lavish copiousness. As to the diilerent kinds of fish that we caught in these sounds (Milford Sound yielded most in quantity and variety) they consisted chiefly of groper, mackerel, pilchard, soles, and crayfish. A shark was also cauglit, eight feet long, and schools of dolphins were frequently seen hunting the shoals of the smaller fish. The groper is a large species of cod, called by the natives " liapuku," and is found in great abundance in deep water off the headlands all round the islands, and the sounds, averaging in depth from eighty to two hundred fathoms, are also much frequented by them, more than a score having being caught on this occasion over the ship's side, each weighing from forty to seventy five pounds. Curiously, the firemen and trimmers were the keenest fishermen among the ship's hands, and used to have their lines over the gunwale almost before the anchor was down. Among the birds that we met with in the sounds were the black swan, excellent to eat and in great abundance, nor indeed is that to be wondered at, if it is the case as we were told, that it hatches three times a year, each brood being from five to eight ; ducks, which were also plentiful and of several varieties ; the large native pigeon, which is so tame that it will almost let you put salt on its tail ; woodhen, an indigenous bird, called by the natives "weka," not suitable for the table, al- though some of the sailors fancied it ; the kakapu, or ground parrot ; the kiwi, a wingl'^ss bird, and a pretty paroquet. All the small birds we met witli on shore surprised us by their great tameness, perching within a few feet of you, and flitting about near you, as if they wanted to get acquainted. Leaving Preservation Inlet, we next day entered Chalky Inlet, which, about three miles up it, branched off into two sounds of remarkable loveliness, called respectively Cunaris Sound and Edwardson's Sound. x\fter cruising up and down the former, we turned into the latter, and moving slowly up to the head of it, anchored at what is called on the chart Freshwater Cove, barring Milford, the most lovely spot in all the sounds. The water was of such absolute stillness and marvellous transparency, that when the sun in its declining course began to throw the shadows eastward athwart the cove, the reflections of the surrounding scenery and the skies over- head on its surface were of that extraordinary purity and fidelity, and had a pictorial effect and beauty, as no poet's pen . 4 '• TO SEE THE WOULD. 191 could adequately depict in words, nor artist's brush reproduce in colours. We now proceeded to visit in succession, Dusky Sound, Breaksea Sound, Doubtful Sound, and George Sound, spending an afternoon and night in each, and enjoyed the beauties of their scenery, as well as the sport they afforded, and at noon March seventeenth, arrived in Milfoi-d Sound, the most north- erly of the series. There we found the Invercargill steamer waiting for us with the coal that had been ordered, and as we were under penalties of twenty pounds a day for detention, the coaling process was begun at once. The scenery of Milford Sound very properly comes last, as it surpasses that of all the others in beauty and grandeur. It was a pouring wet day when we entered it, but the thousand and one long wliite ribbons that streaked the steep sides of the green hills flanking the passage, and descended from out of their unseen and mist-clad summits, was a strangely novel sight, and a scene to be remembered. When at the head of the sound, we moored to a buoy — for Milford actually possesses such a commodity — not far from Bowen Fall, and were completely snrroundetl by mountains of great height and magnificent aspect. If " a thing of beauty is a joy for ever," the Bowen Waterfall is such a surprisingly beautiful sight that it ought to be so, and was certainly a never-failing pleasure to us to look at all the time we lay in its neighbourhood. It is produced by the waters of the Bowen river leaping over a ledge seven hundred feet high. Its first flight is broken, however, on an intermediate ledge about one bundled and twenty feet down, and from the momentum of the dash of the as yet solid mass of water, aided probably by a cup-shaped depression in the lodge, the water rebounds a considerable height into mid air, and the great white foaming curl that it then forms, as it turns downwards to fall the remaining five hundred and thirty feet, shakes itself out into myriads of snow white tresses, that break up as they Continue to descend into showers of spray of filmy delicacy. When the sun's rays gleamed tlirough this veil oC falling spray, the most lovely rainbow iridescence was produced upon the ad- jacent rocks and vegetation, suggesting some such fanciful thought as a water nymph's bower in a bit of faii-yland. Of the mountains surrounding us, that on our left looking westward was of singularly grotesque outline, holding in its embrace a weird looking valley that sloped towards us down to the shore. It is five thousand five hundred and sixty feet in height, and called Mitre Peak, from a fanciful resemblance . 192 THE CRUISE OF THE *' ST. GEOKG E," B.Y.8. to the ecclesiastical head dress of that name. On our right was the snow covered mountain of Pembroke, six thousand seven hundred and ten feet high, with an extensive glacier in a ravine between its ridges, the valley leading from it trending down towards Harrison Cove, a picturesque incurving of the head of the Sound ; and as the whole scene lay well in view from the yacht, it presented a very striking spectacle both in sunshine and by moonlight. A lunar rainbow was seen to great advantage one night up this valley, its arc resting on its sides, and producing a singularly beautiful effect. Three other moun- tains within a radius of ten miles of us were conspicuous by their altitude, namely, Toto-ko Peak, nine thousand six hundred and forty ; Castle Mountain, six thousand eight hundred and seventy; and Lawrenny Peak, sixty-five hundred. The Sutherland Falls, which have a drop of one thousand nine hundred and four feet, and therefore rank as one of the highest in the world, are situated about fourteen miles up a narrow valley to the east of our moorings. The Scotchman after whom they are named, came aboard and offered his ser- vices as a guide to any of us who would like to go to them. Sutherland, who has resided fiiteen years in the Sound (the greater part of the time entirely alone), has now built a small hotel at the head of it for the accommodation of visitors, and hopes that it will be patronized when the Government over- land road to Milford is completed, and upon which we saw the convicts of the prison in the neighbourhood at work. Mr. Longley, who is an indefatigable explorer and mountain climber, was the only one of our party to make use of Sutherland's offer, all the rest of us preferring to remain where we were, and enjoy the sport and scenery of the Sound, especially as we understood that the excursion involved a toilsome tramp along a dripping bush track, much of it knee deep in mud and rotted vegetation, and having to pass the night on a shake-down of fern fronds on the floor of a damp hut, which was all the hotel accommodation the Sutherland Falls provided for its admirers. The visit to the Sutherland Falls, however, was successfully accomplished, Mr. Longley having induced the captain and some of the officers and quartermasters to go with him, but al- though they all professed on their return to have been much gratified with what they had seen and to have enjoyed the trip, their bedraggled and road-weary looks, some of them without soles to their boots rather belied the sentiment. Whether these south-west Sounds of New Zealand surpass in grandeur and beauty of scenery the Fiords of Norway is a moot I- . ^h c O CD CO Hi. TO SEE THE WORLD. 193 question ; but Mr. VVytlies who Ims seen both, unhesitatin^^ly gives the pahn of preference to the former. Be that however as it niuy, it is certain we shall all look back to our vinit to them as one of the most delightful episodes in the cruise of the St. Georije. Fortunately too, for seeing the Sounls to advantaj^e, the weather had proved most propitious, so that instead of being locked up for days, and some of the best scenery obscured by fogs, as we were told was not unlikely to happen at this time of the year, it continued excellent throughout, with the exception of a iew hours fog when leaving Preservation Inlet, obliging us to grope our way into Cuttle Cove and remain there until ir lifted ; a rather violent squall on passing from Acheron Passage into Breaksea Sound ; and on two occasions, when attempting to pass out of one Sound into another, being obliged to put back again owing to the state of matters out- side. While according to the Sounds the praise they are entitled to, I must not omit to mention that a great drawback to their attractions is the attacks of that insignificant black dipterous insect, the sand-fly, which proved an ubiquitous pest and persistent disturber of our peace and comfort all the time we were in them. They bite as badly as mosquitos, indeed sometimes much worse, and being a thousandfold more numer- ous, are so much the more troublesome, although to give the devil his due, they have the negative virtue of marauding only in the daylight. They sw.irmed everywhere on shore, especi- ally among the bushes by the water's edge, and before we had been a couple of hours at anj' anchorage they would come off to pay their respects to us. When rowing along the banks after water fo" ', especially up narrow creaks and streams, they would literally blacken us with their numbers, and swelled up the faces of some of us with the venom of their bites until there was hardly a recognizable feature. At eight-thirty on the morning of the twenty-first of March, we cast loose from the Milford Sound buov, and at nine-thirtv, being then clear of the entrance, the ya.'ht's log was set, and she stood w. by s. on hei" course for Ilobart. We were under canvas most of the way, and although the weather was a little rough occasionally, the voyage on the whole was a pleasant one. Scores of albatross followed us all the way, on the out- look for any oifal that might be thrown over the ship's side, and we were much interested in noticing how their strong and state- ly flight was maintained with hardly any movement of their wiuijrs, except a slight quiver at the extremities. The first land of Tasmania that we sighted was Cape Pillar, at seven-forty 194 THE CKUISE OF THE " ST. OEORGE," R.Y.F a.m., twenty-fifth March, bearing n.w. by n., ami at ten-tea Capo l^iioul was abeum ; and steaminf,' past some very pictur- esque scenery through Storm Bay and tlio entrance of Derwent Kivor we came to anchor at two-fifteen p.m., in the beautiful harbour of Ilobart, the cai)ital of the island, tiio land, it is said, of the prettiest women and the finest apples in the world. Tasniania was first discovered in 1012, the same year as New Zealand, by the Dutch navigator whose name it now bears, but who had calletl it Van Dieman's Land, after his father-in-law, the Dutch Governor of the East Indies. It is somewhat heart shaped, and about the size of Ireland, equally fertile, but with a much bettor climate, which, indeed, is so healthy that more people live to bo octogenarians in Tasmania than in any other country of the world, and it is the paradise of children, as thoy either escape altogether the maladies pecu- liar to theii' time of life, or have thoni in the mildest form. All the horticultural and agricultural products of England flourish luxuriantly in it, and such is its excellence as a fruit country, that its gooseberries and strawberries, its apples and pears, in size and quality, surpass anything of the kind that the mother country can produce. The mineral resources of Tas- mania are undoubtedly groat and are only just beginning to be discovered, such as the valuable tin mines of the Bischoff district, while it has inexhaustible supplies of coal of good smelting and steam-generating quality. The Aborigines of Tasmania have now become completely extinct, nor is this to be regretted as they were of the most savage and untameable character, and like the South Australian natives, entirely incapable of being either christianized or civil- ized. The same fate is evidently awaiting the forest animals of Tasmania— namely the tiger cat, the hyjcna and the Tas- mauiau devil— which are now only found in the higher moun- tain regions, and are being gradually hunted down. As we were only five days in Tasmania, I am unable from personal observation to give an adequate description of its physical features, but the following account of it so entirely harmonizes with all I saw of it, that I quo*-.e it in full confi- dence of its fairness and accuracy. " Tasmania is a beauti ul well watered island, rich in harbours and inlets, traversed by high moui ain chains, full of crags, glens, and ravines of commanding appearanc the basaltic cliffs of some being several hundred feet in perpendicular 1 ght. Everywhere on the coast there are good anchorages and many t jellent harbours. Altogether the coast offers the most manifold chang <, and generally charming scenery, being for the most part of a bold and ocky character. The interior especially is de- , TO SEE THE WOULD. 195 lightful, and horo aro united so to speak the climate of Italy, tlio beauty of tho Apennines and the fertility of England. Mountain and vallny, hill and dale, crowned with high forests, and rich pasture grounds in tho plains alTord tho most pleasing variety." As the population of this tiiio country is ;it present only one hundred iind twenty thousand, there is ample room for many thousands more immigrants and all that I have said about New Zealand as a field for colonization is equally applicable to Tasmania. The Governor, Sir Robert Hamilton, with Lady Hamilton and dauf,diter, came to lunch with us on the second da_y of our arrival, and gave us some interesting accounts of tho progress tho Colony had made during his five years of ollice just then expiring. We visited several places of interest that he sug- gested to us, two of which I may refer to as being charactL'r- istic specimens of the local scenery. The first was Fern Tree Gully, about half-way up the front of Wellington Hill, at the foot of which lies Hobart, while from the top, a magnificent view is obtained of the surrounding country. The tree fern grows to a great size in Tasmania, chiefly in the gullies and ravines, and represents the palm trees of the latitudes nearer the ecjuator. On the way to the gully, we saw some gigantic specimens of the blue gum tree (Eucalyptus globulus), the Huou pine (Dacrydium Franklinii), the Wattle and King William ^ ine, and several other timber trees, valuable in com- merce. Tho other, was an excursion up the Derwent river to New Norfolk, and where Mr. Wythes took us in the steam launch. The scenery all the way up the river was very fine, the first part of it reminding us of going through a chain of picturesque lakes, and on both sides, extensive ti-acts were seen under cultivation, some of it w'ith fruit and hops, with substantial looking lioniesteads, built of stone, having gardens and lawns and a thorouglilv well-oil' look about tlieni. The St. Oeorge left Hobart at eleven a.m. of March 31st, answering as she passed, the "good-bye" signal of H.M.S. Royalist, whose captain (Davies) had been several times aboard of her, and had also shown us nuich hospitality on his own ship. As we steamed out of Hobart's beautiful har- bour — almost rivalling that of Sydney in beauty, safety and commodiousness— our gaze lingered as long as the view would last on this picturesque city of these southern seas, until one by one its most prominent buildings and features disappeared out of sight, such as the palatial Residency, built of white free stone, and of castellated architecture, the Houses of Par- liament and various public buildings and churches, Mount 196 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, B.Y.S. Nelson and Mount Eumney on opposite sides of the river, and finally Mount Wellington. We passed Cape Raoul and Cape Pillar as before, but now turned northward for our next destination of Melbourne. We had fine weather and a pleasant passage until we got through Banks Strait, at the north-east corner of Tasmania, and got into Bass Strait, which separates Tasmania from Australia, when we came in for a mild edition of its usual " rough and tumble " weather. At three-thirty a.m. 2ud April, Cape Schanck, on the Australian main- land was sighted, and by eight a.m. Port Phillip Head was abeam. When midway in the Rip, the narrow entrance to Port Phillip, the yacht came to a standstill, owing to the strong ebb current exactly neutralizing her reduced speed of eight knots. Fresh stoking soon put matters right, when we entered the capacious bay of Port Phillip, at the head of which Melbourne is situated, on a subsection of it, called Hobson Bay, and where we came to anchor at two p.m., near the Railway Pier, Melbourne, being two and a half miles dis- tant, but accessible by trains running every half hour. Port Phillip is of great extent, covering an area of eight hundred squa. . miles, and its shores all round are studded Vvitli numerous thriving towns, the largest of which is Gee- long, almost immediately to the left on entering it, having a population including suburbs of twenty-three thousand, in a harbour of its own, rather shallow but improvable, and is forty- five miles distant from Melbourne, which I purposely mention, both to give an idea of the extent of Port Phillip, and to ac- count for the time we took to reach it after entering. The Colony of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, occupies the south-east corner of the island-continent of Australia, of which it forms only a thirty-fourth part, although it is as large as Great Britain, a fact that conveys a very good rough notion of the vast superficial area of Australia. For a period of thirtj* years, namely between 1804 and 1834, although the English Government's attention had been drawn to the dis- trict, and nommissioncrs had been sent out to report on its suitability for colonization, it had been invariably discarded as unfit for the purpose, but its merits as a splendid grazing and agricultural country were at length discovered by some emi- grants from Tasmania, and it has never looked behind since. The gold discoveries at Alexander and Ballarat in 1851 gave it a tremendous lift forward, and proved, " the tide, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ;" for, from having in 1835 almost no domestic animals, except the five hundred sheep ■■I fir-A- 'J ' ' ■^^r'*T^/TT^TV^ TO SEE THE WORLD. 197 , and fifty cattle that these Tasmanian immigrants brought over with them, Victoria now possesses, according to the census re- turns of 1891, nearly half a million horses, two million cattle, and thirteen million sheep, and the total exports from the Colony for 1890, comprising gold, vvool, tallow, hides, bread- stuffs, minerals, bark, timber and manufactured goods, amount- ed to thirteen million, two hundred and sixtv-six thousand, two hundred and thirty-two pounds, while the total population of the Colony, from being only fourteen whites in 1885, now amounts to eleven hundred and forty thousand, four hundred and five. As io Melbourne, it has had a career of growth and development unequalled by any cicy in the world, ancient or modern, not excepting San Francisco, which when wo were there, and had seen wliat forty years had done for it, we thought could not be surpasse*!. It has a population inchid- ing the suburbs of four hundred and seventy thousand, and without going into any descriptive details it will be enough to say that it is perfectly equipped with every appliance of modern civilization, and has all the appearance of a city of great wealth and immense commercial resources. We went to one of the race meetings for which Melbourne is so famous ; heard a very good operatic performance at the Opera House (one of its six theatres) ; attended a ball at Government House ; heard an organ recital in the Town Hall, which seats twenty-five hundred people ; visited tlie n:useum and art gallery, the Botanic and Zoological Gardens ; and per- sonally 1 went over the Hospital, and was much gratified with what I saw. Externally it is not ornamental, but its wards are large and airy, and the mai^agement admirable. We left Hobson Bay at eleven-thirty a.m., 14th April, and by four p.m. stood clear of Port Phillip Head, and steering S.E. until Wilson Promontory was rounded at four a.m. on the loth, the yacht's course was altered to n.e. half e. for Sydney. At three p.m. of the IGth, we passed St. George's Head, and hoisted our number, and at eight p.m. Port Jackson outer light— of great brilliancy, seen twenty-five miles away, and one of the finest in the world — was abeam. Having entered the Port, we dropped anchor in Watson Bay at eleven-thirty for the night, and moved on into Farm Cove in the morning. We had often heard Sydney harbour spoken of as the finest in the vvorid, and now that we have seen it we believe it to be so, for nothing could excecl the picturesque beauty of the scene by which we were sui rounded, in addition to the essen- tial qualities of every good harbour, safety and capacity, both ■'S deep gold bullion fringe, and loosely draped across the front in diagonal folds. ]\Irs. Pilcher's handsome black toilette was of striped silk, lace, and jet ; Miss Pilcher wo- ' white corded silk trimmed with beaver fur, a drapery of white chiffon, m Marie Antoinette style, arranged below the fur trim- ming on the bodice, violets on the corsage and in the hair. The group with ^Irs. Pilcher included the Misses Austin, the elder wearing a trained gown of deep gold bengaline full sleeves and zouaves of white lace edged with pearls, and carrying a fragrant posy of roses and daphne ; the younger in an Empire frock of soft white silk, the bodice draped with white chiffon ; !Miss Caird, whose pink-silk gown fell in soft graceful folds, and anotliei young girl wearing cowslip-coloured surah with braces and Watteau streamers of brown velvet. Lady Innes wore black silk and lace, with diamond ornament ; INIiss Innes, a gown of amethyst silk, with corslet bodice of full chiffon. ]Mrs. C. B. Fairfax's pink brocade would have de- lighted a lady of Louis XV's Court. The floral design was charming, and the combination of tl\e lily-leaf green very artistic. Miss Mitchell's helio- trope satin was veiled with net of the same shade and decorated across the front of the skirt and on the bodice with clusters of velvet pansies. Mrs. Browning's white silk gown was trimmed with gold passementerie. IMiss Lamb's simply-made pink silk was very becoming. Miss Dight and her sister wore pretty gowns of white cashmere, with silk bodices. Miss Gow- land's toilette of black and yellow lace over black silk, with bands and streamers of yellow velvet, suited the wearer admirably. Miss Nellie Hill's fair complexion was heightened by contrast with her black dress, upon the bodice of which a richly tinted passementerie of silk and jewels was effectively arrangtjd. Mrs. Erbsleh's rich white brocade had soft folds of Liberty silk introduced. Miss Cox wore white, with blue in her hair. Miss Maggie Cox was also dressed in white. Miss Stephenson (Melbourne) wore pink silk. The Misses Sutter (Eurolas) chose white and pink re- spectively. IMiss Paul's white satin slip was veiled with white Tosca net; her sister's toilette was similarly carried out in pale blue. Miss Clara* Manning wore white. Miss Simpson grey and gold. The company in- cluded the host's party, Captain Smirke, Mr. Walker, Mr. Blencowe, Mr. Longlcv, Dr. Fyte, the Earl of Ancram, Captain the Hon. Rupert Lee, the Hon. C. E. Pi'lehor, Mr. C. B. Fairfax, Mr. Erbsloh, Captain Clayton, Lieutenant Abdy, IMr. W. B. IMitchell, Mr. R. ,T. Browning, Mr. H. Darley, ]\Ir. Innes, T\Ir. Gordon Burnside, Mr. E. Fosbery, Mr. A. W. Nathan, Mr. C. Austin, Messrs. R. and C. Laidley, Mr. Cobham Cox, Mr. Arthur Cox, Mr. George Forbes, Mr. Edgar, and Mr. E. Blomfield. The saloon was arranged for supper, which was of the daintiest and most varied kind. The carving was deftly accomplished at a separate table in the centre. The tables were beautifully arranged with flowers and the soft light from the acorn-shaped electric lamps was increased by the rosy tints of the shade which protected the wax candles on the silver-plated candelabra. Every relay of guests found delicious hot soup awaiting them, brought down in the lift as if by magic, and during the evening, at a well ^ \ fyi c o o a 0) '_v_ui'_X!^ TO SEE THE WORLD. 201 laden buffet, all needs in the matter of refreshments were continually available. It war. a memorable evening, and will long be remembered by the guests. On Sunday, Professor Anderson Stuart, Dr. A. Murray Oram, Dr. M'Cormick, Dr. Hull, and Dr. Jenkins were the guests of' Dr. Fyfo on board at luncheon, Mr. Wythes, through a previous engagement, being un- able to be present. On Tuesday a small party including Lord Ancram, Mr. Frank Lee, and Mr. H. Darley, lunched there for the last time ; and at three-fifteen o'clock the St Oeorge steamed down the harbour, bound first for Auckland and leaving many fiiends wishing for a second visit of the yacht to Sydney." Some necessary repairs to the yacht having been completed, and an evaporator put in to distil fresh water, should it be required during the long voyage that was before us from Auck- land to Valparaiso — the greater part of which must be done under sail, owing to the yacht's limited coal carrying capacity — we weighed anchor at three-fifteen p.m., on the thirty-first of May, and were clear of Port Jackson Heads by four o'clock, and by midnight the log showed seventy-two knots o i our course e. by n. for Auckland. H.M.S. Hinayiioa, with Lord and Lady G lasgow aboard— his lordship being on his way to New Zealand as Lord Onslow's successor— had started for Wellington a few hours before us, and we afterwards heard that they had a very rough passage, which we did not wonder at if they got as bad weather as we did, because the Hinamoa is much narrower and shallower in her build, and could not be anything like so good a seaboat as the St. George. Indeed, when they were lunching with us, along with Lord and Lady Jersey the day previous, they were wishing they were to make the voyage with us, as they had heard something about the Hinamoa s bad sea-going qualities. We reached Auckland early in the morning of June seventh, and as the yacht had to go into Devouport dry dock, to have her bottom scraped —the six weeks in Sydney harbour having coated it so heavily as to make a difference of two knots an hour — we made our home for the time at the Auckland Club, of which we had been made members. Among others that we met there was Sir George Gray, la^e Governor of New Zealand, under whose auspices the constitution was framed, on lines that had been suggested by him. His conversations on. subjects connected with New Zealand history were very inter- esting, and he made Mr. Wythes a present of a copy of his interesting and learned work, " Polynesian mythology and ancient traditional history of the New Zealand race." We bade a final adieu to the " Brighter Britain " of the future at three-fifteen p.m. of June fifteenth, and started on. 202 M THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, R.-S.S our long voyage of nearly six thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean to Valparaiso. We began by steaming s.e. by e. i e., until we got to the fifty-first degree of soutL latitude— the temperature becoming very cold after the third day out and continued so for about three weeks. The object in going so far south was for the double purpose of shortening the distance by great-circle-sailing and to get into a good steady wind, which Mr. Eldred — the Chilian consul at Sydney, who came aboard the yacht to ask us to take the Chilian mail bags across with us — assured us as the result of his experience, having frequently made the voyage, we would be sure to do, and that would take us across in twenty-three days. No such luck how- ever, was in store for us, for when we had wind it was terrific, doing more or less damage, and making it very trying and uncomfortable for everybody. Half the crew fell ill with influenza, and I myself was so utterly ill from the same cause that I could hardly be of any medical use to them. And anon, when the wind abated, it would die away to a dead calm, obliging us to get up steam, and run on under it, until we picked the wind up again, and creating an alternate anxiety about delay and provisions, and of expending more coal than was wise, where there was a coast to meet, and the hundred and one possible contingencies of so long a voyage. We did not sight a ship of any kind until about five days off Valparaiso, when the Wallacetown, a large bark from Cardiff, bound for ihe Gulf of California with coa) , passed so close under our bows, that the two captains were able to converse with one another from their respective bridges, and the only forms of animal life seen aP the way were albatrosses, cape pigeons and occasionally a few whales. Towards evening on the seventeenth July a good look-out was kept for land, and at two a.m., the following morning a lofty barren rock called Mas-a-Fuera was abeam, and at noon the island of Juan Fern- andez, about one point on the starboard bow, and twelve miles off. Having come round the north side of the island to Cumber- lR"d Bay we let go anchor at three p.m. of the thirty-fourth day since we left Auckland. I will begin my next letter from Robinson Crusoe's Island, and hope to give some account of Chili and the recent seat of war, and our interesting cruise through Smythe's Channel and the Magellan Straits. T TO SEE THE WOELD. 203 LETTER 14. JUAN FERNANDEZ TO MONTE VIDEO. Alexander Selkirk was not the only individual who had spent some years of solitary existence upon Juan Fernandez, as several others are known to have done so, but his name is alone associated with it in connection with De Foe's charming romance of Robinson Crusoe. The only other facts of any historical interest in connection with this lone isle of the sea are, that it was at one time a resort of the buccaneers who used to prey upon the Spanish commerce; that the colony that Spain established upon it after formally taking possession of it, to prevent any other nation doing so, was entirely destroyed by an earthquake, and that when it fell into the possession of the Chilian Government, as a result of the War of Independ- ence in 1810, it was made a convict establishment of (as many as five hundred Chilian prisoners being there at a time), and continued so until they mutinied in 1835, and the prison '>rs having thereafter been removed, it remained again uniuhabi ed for many years. It is at present rented by a Chilian merchant for pastoral uses, for which some of its grassy plains and valleys are well adapted, although the great bulk of its superficial area, twelve miles by four, consists of bare rock, scrub and forest. The general physical aspect of the island is strikingly volcanic. This is notably observable in the valley in front of our anchor- age in Cumberland Bay, which is enclosed on its land sides by broken mountain peaks of fantastic shapes, such as the one called the Anvil, from its resemblance to the smith's imple- ment of that name, and by jagged and sharp-edged ridges that extend on both sides to the shore, where they break off abruptly — a comforraation suggesting that it had been at one time a part of an immense crater that had burst away to seaward. 204 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. Our explorations on shore were very much interfered with by the state of the weather, there being frequent and sudden squalls of rain and wind from the south south-east, their violence at times making the yacht strain so badly that in ad- dition to the forty-five faihoms of cable already out, forty more had to be paid to each anchor to mitigate the jerking. We managed, however, in the fine intervals, to see nearly all that was interesting in the neighbourhood, such as the old fort of St. Juan Bautista, where there is now a flag-staff flying the Chilian ensign ; the Caves, about a dozen in number, though some of them have got closed up by land-slips, excavated out of a soft friable rock — a formation characteristic to the district — and facing the shore but a little back and up from it. In size, they are large enough to allow a loaded waggon to back into them, and are 8Ui)posed to have been excavated by the con- victs, and used as dormitories and store chambers, the present inhabitants making use of some of the dryest of them for the latter purpose. The interior of some of these caves presented a singularly beautiful appearance by their walls and roofs being completely covered by a tiny maiden hair fern of a delicate green hue. Then, the site of the old Spanish colonists' gardens, a good way up the valley, and indicated by the remains of the walls that separated them ; and near to them we came upon an old graveyard, where some comparatively recent interments had taken place, and which were marked by clumps of the white arum lily, with a border of large stones, enclosing a me- morial stone or wooden cross. On the horizontal slab of one of them, was the following inscription : " Here lies the body of S. B. Groom, aged twenty-seven years, blacksmith, of H. M.S. Chanticleer, who was killed by the accidental discharge of a rifle, December 2ud, 1869." The weather, much to our re- gret, prevented us from getting up to Selkirk's look-out, which is at an elevation of two thousand feet and commands exten- sive views north and south, and where the lonely " monarch of all he surveyed " must have spent many a weary hour scanning the horizon in the long deferred hope of sighting the ship The Duke privateer that at last took him off on February second, 1709. Cumberland Bay had a somewhat Robinson Crusoe look about it when we were there, owing to the stranded wreck of a large coal ship, her cargo having caught fire by spontaneous combustion, as occasionally happens in the case of these ships, especially with certain kinds of coal, and the captain knowing that he must be near Juan Fernandez, by a great effort sue- ■ ' i!fwi«l»<^an:> TO SEE THE WORLD. 205 , ceeded in keeping the fire in abeyance until ho had gained this bay, and then beached her, saving all lives and what else he could. During our short stay, I had an opportunity of making myself medically useful to the inhabitants of this bay village, as a great many of them were sufTeiiiig from influenza, and not having any doctor, they asked assistance from us. This was readily granted, and Mr. VVythes having accompanied me, offered to supply them wiih any medical comforts that their cases might require. They told us it had been brought to them by a Chilian ship of war The Abtao that had been there a fort- night before, and had it very badly on board, quite half being down with it. Their houses, however, were such poor misera- ble hovels, letting both wind and wet in as to be enough to give them influenza without requiring a ship of war to import it to them from the mainland. Their number all told, was about thirty, the greater part being children, and they appear to derive a scanty subsistence from the sale of such supplies as the island produces, to calling vessels. As they have no use for coin, they do business by bartering for such goods as they are most in want of. In our case they took soap, soda, bread and flour, in exchange for poultry, eggs and milk, but the ox carcase that we also had was paid for in gold, as it belonged to the owner of the stock on the island, and had to be account- ed for to him. Fish of various kinds are very plentiful in Cumberland Bay, but the quantity of craw fish was quite phenomenal. They certainly must be crawling about the bottom in large numbers, for whenever the baited basket-net was pulled up, although it had only been down but a few minutes, there was always one or more, and sometimes four in it. We left our moorings in Cumberland Bay on the morning of July twentieth, the port pilot and general factotum of the island dipping the Chilian flag to us as we moved away, and which we duly responded to ; and after a pleasant voyage, with a smooth sea and clear sky all the three hundred and eighty knots of the way, we arrived in the open semi-circular bay of Valparaiso on the morning of the twenty-second, with a few tons of coal still left in the bunkers, which was a satis- iaction, after all our uneasy apprehensions that what we had taken in at Auckland might not outlast the requirements of so long a voyage. After several hours delay and the annoyance of having to shift twice from the buoys that a sham pilot, who had sneaked himself on board, had tethered us to, the port captain at length turned up, and found us a good position at one of the man-of-war buoys. He had been unable to be with us 206 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," B.Y.S. sooner, in consequence of having to attend in his official capacity, the funeral of Admiral Molini, of the Chilian Navy, and which was taking place at the time we entered, as was apparent by the minute guns, and the long procession of blue jackets that we saw moving along the streets. As in the case of all the other ships in the harbour, the yacht was secured fore and aft, and with her stem to seaward, to facilitate her escape to the open sea in the event of a " Norther " coming on — a wind to which the roadstead of Valparaiso is peculiarly exposed, and which sometimes proves very destructive to the shipping, as many as nine on one occasion, we were told, having been wrecked in half an hour after it began to blow. "We were very much disappointed with the appearance of Valparaiso, with its long line of barren, red sandstone hills, that form the coast fronting the bay. The chief part of the city, through which the main " calles" or streets run, is situ- ated on a narrow strip of level land skirting the shore, but the greater portion of it is built along the faces of several project- ing spurs of the hill range immediately behind it and the sides of the gullies running up between them. Many parts of the city are disfigured by the miserable looking hovels of the poorer classes, which are often stuck in conspicuous places, or in the near vicinity of some of the nicest looking private resi- dences. I saw many of these dwellings that were ingenious master-pieces of patchwork made out of old boards and beams, discarded doors and sashes, and sheets of old tin and iron, tied together with old ropes or anything that would hold, and plastered over with the red mud of the roads. Some of them were stuck high up on the nearly perpendicular sides of the gullies and hill fronts, supported in position on long, slender poles, but how they managed to maintain their hold in a gale of wind, is a puzzle. The Bay, as seen from the hills is cer- tainly a very fine sight and is said to rival in beauty that of Naples. The amount of shipping that it contained and the loading and unloading that was ceaselessly going on, greatly astonished ue. Valparaiso is the port of the capital, Santiago, and is in frequent communication with all parts of the world, by several splendid lines of steamers. Looking from the same elevatid position in a north-easterly direction, on a clear day, a fine view is obtained of the volcano moratain of Aconcagua, twenty-three thousand feet high, and the highest of the Andean range. As we were anxious to hear and see all we could about the late civil war, the enquiries that we made on the subject of k TO SEE THE WORLD. 207 L some of the gentlemen that wo met at tlie Union Club, of which we had been miulo mombors, led to an excursion beiuj? arranged for us to go to Placilla, wliero the decisive action was fought thiit decided the fate of I'almaceda. It is situated about seven miles to the cast of the citj', and can be reached either by carriage or saddle, the latter being the best for seeing the country, and is moreover very enjoyable, if you can ride, as the Cliilian horses are so sure of foot, and have such a free springy action. Among the party that accompanied us was Bishop Stirling of the Falkland Islands, and the Eev. Air. Weatheral, theincutnbent of the English Church at Valparaiso, both of whom delighted us very much with their conversation, the former from his large knowledge of ihe whole of South America, but especially of Patagonia wher'^ lie at one time established a mission and lived among i,he uati\es for some years, and the latter, from his having a thorough knowledge of both the politico! and military aspects of tb^ late war, and being able to describe to us the positions of tie opposing armies and many interesting incidents of the tight. While viewing the positions with him we picked up various mementos of the action, among others, some unexploded cartridges of the " Mannlicher " repeating rifles, that the opposition forces had been armed with by General Sterner, the German military in- structor to the Government, but who had joined the opposition on the outbreak of the war and acted as tactician throughout the campaign. The materials for a substantial lunch having been sent on before hand, we adjourned to partake of it to the farm house that had formed the Government head quarters and the hos- pital. As the day was rather raw an I cold, although it may be unromantic to confess to it on the scene of so recent a battle- field—we greatly appreciated a hot dish of the Chilian soup, called Cazuela, that was supplied to begin upon. The nt tive wine called Chica, was also on the table, that we might tar 'a it as a curiosity, but our generous entertainer had provided a copious supply of a prime brand of fizz, to wash down the delicacies of the repast. Along the roads in the neighbour- hood of the house, our host, Mr. Morrison, told us that large numbers of the Government troops got killed — chiefly owing to the circumstance that the Government cavalry having gone to attack Stone, General of the opposition cavalry, instead of doing so, joined with him, and then returning, the change not being suspected, the Government Infantry and artillery got knocked over like nine pins. Mr. Morrison and his two sisters I 208 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE, R.Y.S. having gone with the ambulance corps to the relief of the •wounded, immediately after the news of the victory had reach- ed Valparaiso, was able to speak to this large fatality from what he had seen himself, and further mentioned that the bodies were got rid of by an impromptu kind of cremation, effected by piling them together — saturating the clothes with kero one and setting fire to them, when incineration was- rapidly effected. On enquiry at our entertainer and fellow guests what would have been the result to them and other sympathizers with the opposition, had the Government scored, they said that no European's life in Valparaiso would have been worth an hour's purchase, and that as they all knew this, they had been making clandestine preparations to defend the European quarter (as that part of the city is called where foreigners chiefly reside), and that they had their valuables all packed up in readiness to escape on board ship should the crisis arise and the channe offer itself. All this, and much more to the same effect was eye-opening news to us, who had become very much biassed in favour of Balmaceda and his cause, from reading Hervey's — the " Times " correspondent— book, " Dark Days in Chili." But the more we enquired the more convinced we became, that Hervey's representations, as to the political difficulties that led to the strife, and the charac- ter and conduct of Bahnaceda, were entirely erroneous, but whether wilful and mercenary, as we invariably heard asserted, or only an error of judgment on his part, I cannot pretend to judge ; and that Balmaceda, so far from being the amicable, kind-hearted, and misunderstood enthusiast in the cause of good government within the limits of the constitution, was an unscrupulous and ruthless tyrant, whose deliberate intentions were to suppress popular rights and liberty, and close the country against European enterprise, and who did not shrink from straining both the laws and the constitution, and making a free use of bribery and chicanery, and arbitrary injustice and even atrocious cruelty to attain his ends. To show what he was capable of, the following two instances were quoted to us. One was, that after his death a list w^as found among his papers of all the leading people on the opposi- tion side, who were to be executed and their estates confis- cated ; and the other, that of the murder of the hundred and twenty children at Santiago, many of them sons of <;he best families. These misguided schoolboys, all between J'ourteen and seventeen years of age, in a freak of playing at soldiers. TO SEE THE WOELD. 209 and to air their anti-Balmacedist sympathies, had armed themselves and marched out of the city and encamped. They were all speedily arrested, and when Balmaceda was informed of what Lad occurred, and asked for orders as to what was to be done v;ith them, he sent instructions that they were to be all executed, but first forced by cruelties, to disclose impU- cating information about their fathers and relatives, and sad to say his instructions were only too faithfully carried out, with details too horrible for repetition. The Eev. W. Weatheral, we understood, is at present engaged in writing a refutation of Hervey's book, wherein these and other kindred matters will be referred to, and which will show up Balmaceda in his true colours. A few days visit to Santiago having been decided upon, Mr. Wythes and three others left by train on the morning of the thirty-first, but as I did not go with them, I am indebted to Mr. Wythes for the following account of it. " Santiago is reached by rail one hundred and thirty miles from Valparaiso. The track is an ordinary gauge and well laid, engines EngHsh or Scotch, carriages Chilian or American Pullman. You start seven forty-five, first going through the Customs, where the man in possession has the usual difficulty about under- standing what a piece of soap is, which he re.i^ards as either dynamite or tobacco ; then you pass through Vina de Mara, a pretty suburb where the business people of Valparaiso live. Near here is a fort, which was shelled during the war — the only piece of fighting proper in Valparaiso itself, though there w^as plenty of rioting. The Consulates of England, America and Germany were guarded by their man o'warsmeii, but the rest of the town, especially the pawnbrokers' shops, were plundered by the mob. Then through a very fertile country about Timache, which produces a nice white wine called Um- bello, like Sauterne, and other red wiues, besides lager beer. You breakfast at Hai-Hai. Tiiey have little or no breakfast on rising, but a heavy meal with wine at eleven or so. This will effevitualiy give you a head, or make you sleepy for the rest of the day. /ou climb gradually up one of the offskirts of the Andes, and tlicn descend to Santiago, a city of one hundred thousand inhabitants. A long drive through the Alameda, which is a long broad street with an avenue in the middle planted with trees, bandstands and statues— two noticeable ones being, one to the City of Buenos Ayres on the completion of the trans-Andean telegraph, the other to a mysterious charac- ter. General O'Higgin, who must have been from his name a j»V' "^i" T"»:' •'^ 210 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. OEORGE,' R.Y.S. il pure-bred Chileno, and from his exploits a genuine home- ruler. At the end of this Delicias, as it is called, is the fine back ground of the snow-capped Andes. One safe thing about this country is, that any mountain you see is part of the Andes. We suffered from the Hotel Oddo, kept by a Frenchman. I say suffered because it lies under these snow mountains, and there is only one fire place in it, in the dining room, the heat of which is carefully led up the chimney, and only serves to increase the icy gale, which speeds through the room. Your bedrooms open c»n to corridors " sub Jove frigidissimo," the walls are very thin, the doors loose, and if a white man does not catch cold he ought to be painted black. There is a com- fortable club, the " Union," having a good many European members, Chilian in its ways however, hospitable to strangers after the manner of the upper classes of the country. The sights are, the Cathedral, a nice warm toned old build- ing outside, inside very painted ! gilded ! rouged 1 The finest sight in the city I think is to climb up St. Lucia, a peculiar natural rock-fort on the n.e. side of the city, with a chapel, a time gun, flowers, and a statue of Don Pedro Valdivia, who with one hundred and fifty men occupied the rock in 1541 and founded the City of Santiago at its feet, but the inscription does not say with whom he disputed possession. The pano- rama seen from the top of this rock is perfect. The whole city lies beneath you on all sides, unmarred by fog or trace of smoke. The little courtyards, two or more, belonging to a house, give glimpses of palms, or tell-tale orange trees, and the pure air and colours, softened by the height at which you stand, give an edge to the moving living picture below. The Park, a track laid out with trees and scarified with roads, haunted in the proper season by the rank and beauty of San- tiago, nov/ represented by ourselves, the driver driving us round and round in a well-horsed, well-got-up carriage, top hat and etcetras, until we urged him on our knees to take us away. Apropos of the Park, two English people were riding there a short lime ago, when they -were surprised by a volley and a humming of bullets. They dismounted and each propped up a tree from the opposite side of the unwelcome interruption, and afterwards learnt that a picket of soldiers had been sent to arrest others who were said to be rioting ; and to them, the most expeditious way of doing this seemed to be to march into the park just outside their barrack gate, and without consult- ing the convenience of the innocent spectators, empty their repeating rifles. The Chilian has happily no rej^ard for his owa f^ TO SEE THE WORLD. 211 life, but unhappily also no regard for the lives of others. There are some good shops, especially in an arcade, a market, and tram line crowded with trams. The Moneda, which is the fountain of Government, contains the various departments of the State, and is also the President's dwelling, a very old Spanish building, but they have successfully sham marbled and white washed every trace out of it. We went to the Opera, a nice house inside, and the meeting place of society on one night of the week, namely, Sunday. An Italian Company gave us two scenes of " Ruy Bias" and a new piece called '* Cavaliera Rusticana," rather of the squeally order, also to a Theatre Comic, where a Spanish company gave " El Misino Demonis " {i.e. the same devil) which turned on people being concealed in cupboards, under tables, &c. This was followed by " Carmella," a skit on " Carmen." They were both great fun in spite of not understanding a word. Of course the actors were not dressed much, but they were acting, not grinning at the audience, or looking like tailors' dummies, as I have seen them in the theatres further north. The streets are of course interesting and amusing. There are very few beggars, and these cripples, for the Chileno get excellent wages, every man has a horse, the best, cost thirty-eight dollars or three pounds. He saves nothing, his bourne in life is to get drunk on chico ('grape cider) or aguardiente (live-fire, kills at a mile). The people of the upper classes are very civil to strangers. They care only for trading or politics. They have some fine and large houses in Santiago, one in particular, being electric-lighted, built in the Italian style, but when they go to their country hovels, live like pigs. The climate encourages this. It is just warm enough not to insist on having fire places. They will not improve their estates by planting any trees except poplars, which grow quickly and sell well, and a person who ought to know tells me that any English farmer has better taste in household decoration than the whole crowd put together. Of the country itself, it is better to speak mercifully at the present time. The fact is, inland, it is unsafe, forty thousand Iroops were disbanded after the late revolution, and as the army now is only six thousand, very few could have been re- enlisted, and these cut-throats, armed with their repeating rifles, revolvers, and as much ammunition as they could carry off the battle field, can go and do go, and " stick up " any house they like. A Chileno will shoot any man who has a better sombrero (broad-brimmed hat worth a dollar at most) ^T"- 212 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. than himself, in order to possess that hat. A state of affuirs like this is fostered by taking the poHce out of the Governmeni's hands and naking them municipal. The towns may be able to pay the police but the country cannot, so the country goes without. Everybody tells you that the country is a silver mine, fore and aft. It vnW grow good grapes, coin, and every- thing that has been tried has done well. It could be made a grand shooting country, and is a good grazing one ; in fact if it had not been for their victory over Peru and the sudden accession of weaUh which came from it, bringing about the unsettling of the country with its results last year, Chili would now be doing well. The hopefuls say all is going to be well now, but others say everyone is armed and a revolution could be formed in five minutes. The constitution which brought about the last revolution is unaltered. The banks, in fact all trade de- pends on paper forcsd on the country. The answer to this is that the figurehead, Admiral President Monte is a steady man and used to discipline, vid thafc behind him are others who really work for the goo the country. The result is that the English pound is woi. i lot, and the rest, time will show. I asked our minister if he thought it a good place for a young man to start in, and he said "if he understood farming, had five hundred pounds, and meant to work himself, he thought so ; but he must not follow the careless example of other Euro- peans he would find in the country." The sprung jibboom and foretoprnast having been replaced, and the other damages incurred in our voyage across the the Pacific made good, and coal, water, and stores got aboard, the St. George left Valparaiso I3ay on the morning of August 8th, bound for Monte Video, by the Gulf of Penas, Smythe's Channel, and the Straits of Magellan, and w»^ to put in for a day at Coronel, to replace the coal she had expended on the way. We had a very good passage until noon of the fol- lowing day, when, according to the entry in the log book, " the weather became very bad, a heavy gale blowing from the northward, high sea and heavy rain, and thick atmos- phere." We arrived safely, however, in Coronel Bay, and by two ip.m. had dropped anchor in ten fathoms, although the weather continued in a very wild state until midnight. One of the Cosmos steamfjrs passed us when opposite Concepcion. Bay, on her way north to Valparaiso, but finding it impossible to make much progress against such a strong head wind and sea, in addition to the damage she might get by persevering in the attempt, returned to Coronel in the course of Uie after- i-^^^v -H!i^»!.?'^jWr-«» F'^¥TW,'-'«»^P"jpiPV*-* K'^f^^m^Km^- TO SEE THE WORLD. 213 noon, where she found a telegram waiting that had arrived immediately after she had left, advising her not to start, as a severe "norther" had come on. It was therefore hicky for us that we got away from Valparaiso Bay when we did, although we had not heard up to the time we left Corouel, whether much damage had been done. We got under weigh again on the morning of August 1 1th, and continued our course southward for the Gulf of Penas, but owing to tlie wind and current, being now from the opposite direction, the yacht rolled heavily at intervals. To make matters still more uncomfortable, when at four p.m. wc had got into the Gulf of Penas, the weather became so thick that Cape Tres Moutes was barely visible, and the captain found it impossible to proceed further towards his intended anchorage at Port Otway. Accordingly the yacht's head had to be put about, and the open sea again made for, and a nice lively time we had of it until noon of the following day, when Trcs Monies was again abeam and about five miles off. After entering the gulf, th ^ weather completely changed, to still, bright, and clear, ai;a ^he sea gradually settled down as we approached Port Otway, which we entered at two-fifty in water as smooth as a duck pond. As soon as the anchor was down the pi-ivate dingey was lowered, and a couple of hours rowing and rambling along the shore thoroughly enjoyed ; and in the evening, after dinner, Mr. Walker entertained the crew^ in the saloon with a lantern exhibition of the scenery we had visited in the course of the cruise, slides of which he had been collecting as he went along. Soon after six o'clock of the following morning (August 16th) we steamed out of Port Otway, and after a run of eighty miles across the gulf in a south-easterh' direction in the most brilliant weather, and with a magnificent view of the snow-capped range of the Andes all the way on our left, we arrived at Hale Cove in Messier channel at thiee-twonty, leaving time for a couple of hours shooting, Mr. Wythes securing a specimen of the large and handsome kingfisher, peculiar to the straits. Our next anchorage was in Gray Harbour, sixty-six miles further down the channel, and here, as at all the other places we stopped at, sign boards innumerable were to be seen — generally nailed high up on tree stems — on which were re- corded the names of the ships that had visited them, along with their captains' names, and the dates. Our crew, of course, soon became infected with the craze, and left similar mementos 214 THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. of the St. George at all the places we stopped at, although it is nothing uncommon to visit such places now-a-days, as steamers are constantly going through, three having passed us in the channel and two more in the Straits, and the Cosmos Company's captains i ^e now so well accustomed to the route that if the "weather is only clear enough for them to see they steam night and day ad the v ay through. Next mc>-ning we passed through the English Narrows, se- lecting the time of slack tide, as the navigation at other times is somewhat dangerous from the strength of the current, and the double turn that has to be made in a short and narrow passage. The scenery about here was strikingly rich in pic- turesque beauty. Indeed the same remark applies to a great deal of what we saw all the way from entering Messier Channel, until we passed out into the Atlantic at Cape Virgins at the eastern extremity of the Magellan Straits, and as the weather we got was almost uniformly bright and fine — a contrast to the usual experience of mist and rain squalls, — the snow -covered mountains of the Andean range running parallel all the way ■with our course, w^ere silhouetted to their highest peaks against clear blue skies, and presented a constant enchantment of the sublimest grandeur. At noon we passed Grappler Eeach, where the snow lay heavily on all the adjacent hills, and as large quantities of ice were floating about, having come down from the glacier at the head of Eyre Sound, the yacht was stopped and enough taken aboard to fill her ice chamber. "We had a fine view of this magnificent glacier as we passed. Its immense transparent light blue mass, occupies the con- verging and far-hailing gorges of the very lofty mountains of this neighbourhood, whose sides were clothed with the accumu- lated snows of untold ages that gleamod with dazzling whiteness in the sunshine. Ringdove Inlet was our next resting place, and where wo were detained all the following day by a dense fog that completely blotted everything out of sight. It cleared off, however, in the afternoon and some very good shooting was obtained, including oyster-catchers and steamer ducks, and & fine specimen of the perigrine falcon fell to Mr. Wythes' gun. Churua Bay, Landship Bay and Mayne Harbour, were in daily succession our next halting places. When approaching the latter place we were visited by some of the Channel natives, about whom Mr. Wythes has made the following re- marks in his journal, and has kindly allowed me oo transcribe into this letter. TO SEE THE WORLD. 215 ^ " We fell ic with the bottom stratum of humanity this morn- ing. Smoke was seen on Cardell Point at eleven-thirty, and when we blew the syren, two canoes rowed off, containing fourteen Channel Fuegeans. The oldest woman continually bales with a bark scoop, while three men row with rough oars —a bit of board lashed to the end of a pole, not paddles— and the rest of the boat is taken up with dogs and a fire. They have no matches, so they keep their fire burning by taking it about with them not only for the sake of preserving the fire, but its warmth, as they have no clothes. Their boat is built of a few planks, a long one being keel, stem and stern-post in one. The other four planks form the sides of the canoe and are caulked with moss. They had no weapons with them, but exchanged their already scanty clothing of fur for tobacco (tabak), and biscuits (galitas), and some old clothes. These last will probably follow the fate of a pair of trousers one of the men was wearing round his neck ai« a sort of comforter, the legs having been cut off. Four of the men came aboard, reminding one by their actions and gibbering of the late lamented "Jacko" (the ship's monkey). They all shivered with cold, and two of them who penetrated the galley, reached out their skinny, coloured arms to catch the welcome heat, but presented a great contrast to the second cook who is a very fine Englishman. Their height was, I judged, about five feet four inches, hair unkempt, and in a condition to fill their spare time with " head-hunting," noses flat, and with little hair on the face. OuB slovenly spat on the cook's clean floor, and was summarily ejected by him. As they got for their skins, necklaces and a fresh killed otter, about four pounds of biscuits, some tobacco and pipes, besides a hauling line some " sodgjr " let go, they must have been pleased with their visit. We ulti'nately " cleared " our visitors by steaming full ahead. Since then we have met with more civilized Fuegeans, who had not for us the charm of their uncivilized brethren, as what they gained in clothing they lose in cleanliness and interest." Our course was now shaped down through Sarmiento Channel, and we reached Isthmus Bay at three p.m. on Wednesday, the 24th August. At different places on the way we came upon some shag rookeries, and shags innumerable, penguins clustered thickly wherever there was a low isolated rock well out in the water, the handsome kelp goose, the male bird being pure white, the female black, doubtless a provision of UP ture to protect her during the hatching process, numerous seals and sea otters, besides large quantities of the various birds 216 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.i'.S. I have already mentioned. At several of the places we stopped at we came upon the frames of native huts, which consist of slender branches of trees, stuck by their thick ends into the ground in a circular arrangement, and fastened together at the top so as to assume a hay-cock shape. Over this frame work are thrown skins laced together, when the dwelling is completed. As they live a nomadic life they take the skins with them, but leave these skeleton huts standing, so as to be ready for use at their next visit. By the side of all these skeleton huts we in- variably saw heaps of mussel and other shells, shell fish — especially the mussel, which line the shores nearly every- where, and are of large size — being their chief article of food. "We also came upon several " portages," that is, a kind of slip, formed by pieces of wood laid parallel to one another like sleepers on a railway, and by means of this primitive specimen of engineering, these most primitive of all the varieties of the human family are able to slide or drag their boats over from one bay to another, where they may happen to be closely ad- jacent by land, but would be a long way round by water. On August 26tli we entered the straits of Magellan — Desolation Island being right in front, and Cape Pillar at its western entrance from the Pacific away on our right — and steaming across ii, entered Port Churrucu, and anchored in a very narrow landlocked cove at the head of it. The cold of this weird looking place was very keen, but it did not deter the shooting men from landing, although they got nothing for their pains. It is as well they did not meet with any of the natives, as we were subsequently told that they were here a very savage class and would always attack strangers whenever they saw a chance of overpowering them. Our next destination was Port Gallant on the south coast of Brunswick Peninsula, and as it was a run of ninety miles, we were off as soon as it was daylight. The scenery all along this part of the Straits was chiefly characterised by wild grandeur, but many pretty and picturesque views were constantly turn- ing up as we steamed along. Port Gallant was just as full of wild fowl as Clierruca was destitute of it, and a large bag was made of the brow'n and the crested duck, snipe and sandpiper, and other members of the feathered species. As next day was Sunday — Mr. Wythes never depriving the sailor of his day of rest when the yacht is in port — we remained in this charming place until the Monday morning, anj all the hands that could be spared were allovi^ed to land, and they spent a very enjoya- ble afternoon, rambling in the woods along the shore and the ^ TO SEE THE WORLD. 217 island adjoining it, every one bringing back with him some memento of the place according to fancy, such as queer shaped sticks, curious stones, shells, &c. Our next run was to Sandy Point (Puncta Arenas), passing Cape Froward on the way, the former being the most southern <^own in the world, and the latter the most southern point of all the Continents. Having taken in coal enough for our voyage to Monte Video, we left next morning, and were soon again in the Atlantic Ocean, and with the exception of a rather stiff blow, throughout the first day, we reached our destination without any noteworthy incident. LETTER 15. MONTE VIDEO, BUENOS AYRES, AND HOME. Our anchorage at Monte Video was over three miles from the shore, as there is no harbour in the proper sense of the term, but only an open roadstead ; and this being fully exposed to the prevailing local winds from the south-east and south- west, made it desirable to give the shore and the shipping so wide a berth. The wind from the latter quarter, called pam- pero, from its coming overland across the pampas, sometimes blows with terrific violence, and the wild turbu'ence that it quickly stirs up in the sea, owing to its shallow d^pth over all that part of the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, is often the cause of much damage to shore works and shipping— some vessels occasionally foundering at their anchors. This shallowness of the water, not only over a large extent of the estuary, but also for a long way \*ound the contiguous coasts, is occasioned, and is being gradually increased and ex- tended by the immense amount of alluvial deposit brought down by the great rivers, Rio Uruguay and Rio Parana, that 218 M THE CRUISE OP THE " ST. OEOROB, ' R."8.S. I combine to form the Plate river a short distance above Buenos Ayres, and drain the vast area of the country to the north and west of it. And just as these low level regions of the pampas have been formed in the remotely prehistoric past, by a com- bination of this silting up process, and the gradual elevation of the sea bottom, of which evidence is not wanting both as to the past and the present, so in a similar way all this exten- sive area of shallow mud banks — at present a fruitful source of maritime disaster, as may be seen by the wrecks of ships that have gone aground upon them in fogs and foul weather, or from the banks themselves having shifted their position — will, in course of time, be also converted into similar pampas country. A very good harbour could easily be made at Monte Video, and at a comparatively small outlay, by running out a break- water. The opposition, however, by the steam launch owners, lightermen, and others who consider their interests concerned in maintaining things as they are, have always prevented any- thing being done in the matter, just as was the case for a long time with the Boca of Buenos Ayres, and the proposed break- water at Maldonado. Monte Video is certainly as much in need of a well sheltered harbour as Colombo in Ceylon was before the present splendid breakwater was constructed ; and would com- mercially be as much benefited by it, for the delay and damage at present incurred in transhipping during the frequently disturbed state of the weather, are often very considerable, and of which we had some experience ourselves during the first three days of our stay there, delaying coaling, &c., and making it difficult and even hazardous to get off and on the yacht. The city is somewhat picturesquely situated on a whale- back-sbaped peninsula on the north side of the river, and as the distance to the opposite side is about a hundred miles, it looks more like facing the open sea than a river. Its drainage ought to be perfection, as it has a natural fall to the sea on both sides — the streets being arranged rectangularly to the ridge of the peninsula, and to do it justice, so far as we saw and smelt, its sanitary condition appeared to be blameless. We were all rather charmed with Monte Video, because of its clean, trim, and tasteful look, even the commonest houses and shops having some attempt at artistic embellishmant. Its pubhc buildings — chiefly in the plazas or squares — have a handsome and substantial appearance, and many of the resi- dences of the better classes in the suburbs, built in the Italian TO BEE THE WORLD. 219 style, are not devoid of architectural elegance, and are sur- rounded with prettily laid out gardens and ahrubberies. Among the sights of Monte Video, we were particularly struck with the cemetery, which was certainly the most ornate thing of the kind we had anywhere seen. It was adorned with many artistically executed sculptures and me- morial emblems, and which seemed to be taken as much care of as the contents of an art gallery. On expressing our eiurpiise to the native gentleman who accompanied us, he re- marked that it was characteristic of the Monte Videans, that however badly they may have got on with their relatives and public men during their lives, they made up for it after their deaths by giving them splendid funerals and expensive tomb- stones. In illustration of his remark, he drew our attention to a memorial structure of massive proportions and costly workmanship, adorned with skilfully executed medallion por- traits of the leaders of an abortive attempt at a revolution, who, having surrendered on the promise and condition of a pardon, were nevertheless executed, and then, to make amends for the treachery, were honoured with tliis imposing tribute to their private worth and public virtues. The last place we visited was not the least in interest, though of a peculiar kind, namely, the new swimming bath, and the large hotel in connection with it, the former, perhaps, the most pretentious thing of the kind in existence, and the latter an imposing five storey block, facing seaward, and forming a conspicuous object in the view of the city as seen from the roadstead. They were both in liquidation and shut up, and the interest to us lay in the illustration they afforded of the worthless and wasteful uses, to which much of the lost Baring capital was applied. Our time v :)uld not admit of more than a short trip into the interior, to a place called Santa Lucia, about forty miles by rail from Monte Video, but it lay through a district sufficiently characteristic as to give us a good notion of the general aspect of the country. Uruguay, or Banda Oriental— of whicli Monte Video is the capital — consists of low undulating plains, in contrast to the adjoining country of Argentina, which is all on a dead level. It has hardly any indigenous trees, although many imported kinds grow with p'trt vigour and .luxuriance, but its soil and climate are ad* li- ably adapted for agricultural and pastoral purposes. With respect to the latter, it is stated that Uruguay possesses live stock to the extent of ten million cattle, twenty million sheep, and two J« K 220 THE CRUISE OP THE ** ST. GEOBOE,'* R.Y.S. million horses. Although the smallest of the South American Eepublics, it is nevertheless the richest, and would be very- much more so, but for the constant recurrence of political revolutions. With every change of Government the country gets more and more burdened with debt and taxes, each dominant party considering it the legitimate privilege of office to help themselves while they have the chance, knowing they will speedily be superseded by a fresh set of pohtical adven- turers, who will follow the beaten track, and ask no questions as to the peculations of their predecessors in office. Uruguay's two powerful neighbours, Brazil and Argentina, would each like to annex her, but between the two she is quite safe, as neither will let the other take what it cannot get itself. From the train, as we proceeded towards Santa Lucia, pro- digious quantities of cattle were to be seen grazing over the plains as far as the eye could reach, enabling us to realize where the various meat priiservhig establishments obtained their supplies from, for their enormous annual consumption, and of which the Leibig's Company at Fray Bentos alone uses annually ovei ivvo hundred thousand head. Not a tree or shrub was to be seen anywhere throughout these vast grassy plains, except where they had been planted round the Estancias, which as a rule are low roofed dwellings, and situated from one to two miles apart. Indeed, beside the herbage, the only other form of vegetation to be seen was the " giant prickly thistle," and even that became scantier as we proceeded and altogether disappears further inland. In the dearth of timber and shrubs for fencing, it was a curious sight to see the hedge rows, when any were used, formed of plants of aloe and cactus. Besides cattle, great numbers of horses, mules, and sheep were also to be seen ; and moving about among them were numbers of cape ostriches, and which we were told were allowed to run wild and unheeded, as the cost of ^ farming them was found to exceed the profit from the feathers. A notable feature of the country was the equestrian habits of the inhabitants — everybody riding, the peasant as well as the ranche owner. The keep of a horse costs nothing, and a very good one can be had for a few dollars, and hence Uruguay can boast of having what is not possessed by any European country — namely an equestrian peasantry. We can scarcely venture to say that we saw any gauchos ; for in the first place they are hardly distinguishable from the mounted peasantry ; and secondly, we were told that in recent years they had boen almost entirely suppressed, and which is neither to be TO SEE THE WORLD. 901 wondered at nor regretted, because whatever admiration they were entitled to for their consummate horsemanship, their hardihood and pluck, they were, as a class, only nomadic highwaymen and adventurers, who lived honestly, when that could be done easilj-, but never scrupled to rob and murJer when the exigencies of the situation pressed their honesty too closely. On arriving at Santa Lucia, we adjourned to the station hotel, where an excellent dejeuner (the customary first meal of the country), consisting of native dishes, was jjartaken of. While waiting for the return train, we eiajv^ycd a saunter under the long avenue of eucalyptus trees in front of the hotel, whose tall stems were crowned with leafy branches that interlaced tree with tree, and afforded a delightfully cool and refreshing shade from the glare and heat of the solar rays. Treeless region though Uruguay Js, these eucalyptus trees, in elegance of form and profusion of foliage, excelled any we had seen in Australia, whe:e they are indigenous. On September 12th, having decided to visit Buenos Ayres, we took berths in the Platense Company's paddle steamer Eolo^ which starts at six p.m., and therefore makes the pas- sage up the river during the night. The Company's boats represent English capital ; are splendidly fitted up, and can go fifteen knots, drawing seven feet. The captain, who is English, as are also the engineer^, has a very easy time of it, as he has only to unmoor the ship and ring the engines ahead, when his work is finished, the pilots doing all the rest, while a host of other officials look after the cargo, &c. Some of the following remarks may be thought to reflect too severely upon the Argentines and their ways. It may therefore be as well to state that they are not derived from our short stay — short stays always bringing the faults of a people more before one's notice than a longer one — but from what we heard from those who lived there. The entrance to the Buenos Ayres docks, in which we moored, is still unfinished, after the manner of the Argentines. Its wharves are built on land reclaimed from the river, but there are interspaces of marshland left unfilled in, that look ad- mirably adapted for mosquito and fever hatcheries. We got through the Customs about seven in the morning, and being met by two residents, drove first along the wharf fronts, by a good road, and then turned up for the town Ly another just as execrably bad, the cobbles offering eight-iach obstacles to the horses, and which they could not face in spite of much whip- 222 THE CRUISE OP THE ** ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. ) & n f t ping. This, however, might have been as much due to the wretched way the poor brutes are treated as to the barbarities of the road, as they feed them but once a day, beginning work at day-break, and giving them nothing until they have finished in the evening. In the end, our convej/ance was towed up by a boy, mounted, who waits about for such contingencies. On our right we passed the Old Custom House, built by the Spaniards, and which is in the form of a circular fort. During the English occupation it was held by our troops under Beres- ford, but they were driven out of it, and eventually compellerl to capitulate in the Calle (street) Ruonquista, owing to the combined exertions of the Argentines at either end of the street, and their women pouring molten lead and boiling water from the roofs. The captured flag (seventy-first Highlanders) is in one of the churches, and the possession of it is very sooth- ing to the Argentines, who hate the English because they have so successfully swindled them. "We went to the Strangers' Club, formerly English, but now fast becoming German, as the trade also tends to do. As no breakfast could be had there until twelve, we breakfasted at the French Cafe (more French is spoken than Spanish), and then started on a tour of exploration to find where the English loans have gone to. The streets have fine shops, but are narrow and dirty, and are traversed by numerous trams for which Barings had the first concession, and placed their line in the middle of the street. The Argentine Government, how- e\or, to squeeze the P.B.P. (poor British public) gave another concession to others, who cut out the former trams by running at the sides of the streets (also made by British money), and the Government now insists on this second English company (the first having gone bankrupt), charging only eight cents for five miles— the double injustice being that there is no change to represent that amount except stamps — (all the copper cur- rency being exported by Italians as soon as issued — siib lege sed contra legem — for the value of the copper)— and that this fare won't pay a dividend to the English shareholders, whereas a ten cents would. This treatment is analogous to a tram com- pany in England being compelled by law to charge only a three-farthings fare, which would be inconvenient as to change, and would not pay, instead of a penny, which would be satis- factory in both respects. We are r?ow on our way to the suburb Belgrano, the driver keeping as much as possible on the tram lines as the roads are so bad, because of the road staff not getting paid. We TO SEE THE WORLD. 223 pass splendid looking, expensive houses, which stand there solely through the handling and misappropriation of the P.B.P's loans. You notice the streets are lit with gas, while the electric poles gape empty of fittings. A peep behind the scenes shows that the Electric Li^ht Company (x\merican) stopped lighting when they foun- no pay coming to them. Thereupon the governors of thi^ land of freedom tried to force them to do so, but tlie United States sent down men of war, and the American Company retired with the honours of war. The Gas Company, however, belongs to the P.B.P., but their supine Government refuses to protect its subjects, who t^ade in this den of thieves, and they have to go on supplying the gas and receive nothing for it. At the entrance of the Prada (park), down which we next drove, is the house of the notorious Rosas, where many of liis barbarities were committed. This prada has many very pleasant avenues, one very pretty one of weeping willows, others of palms and subtropical trees, and all of them affording a grateful shade when the thermome- ter stands at a hundred and three degrees, as it often does in the summer. We returned by another road, where, judging by the sur- rounding squalor, the P.B.P's money had not yet percolated, and made our way to that Temple of folly, the Buenos AyreFi Waterworks. If the crash had not come when it did, the P.B.P. would have had this also on their hands. It is a five- storey building, which would make a town hall or public buildings for some rich municipality not endowed with econ- omy, or a distaste for glaring colours. The inside shows some good engineering, countless columns of iron with ingeni- ous derricks for counteracting seismic shocks or lateral expan- sions of the girders, support huge iron tanks to contain the water stored there at this enormous expense, for the purpo'jo of supplying houses, the inhabitants of which do not wash or if they inclined to try an experiment so hazardous to their health, would satisfy thtir desire from the wells in the court yard. T/rom the top of this whitest of elephants, we might have obtained a fine view, but the custodian said that some journalists having been up and abu,~'-d the progress of the works in print, we were not allowed to go up. He was, how- ever, quite open to corruption — mor; Argentinorum — but was afraid of one of his subordinates reporting him. We Imiched at the club, and then drove to see the docks, which ace really a suprise by the immense amount of shipping they contain. On the Boca is a large warehouse, called a fruit market, well . ■■ IftrW'iai^'W*?' 224 THB CRUISE OF THE *' ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. arranged and efficiently managed by an English company, where the produce of the country can be stored and run along the wharves to the ship's side for transmission. After dining at the club, we went to the opera, but our Italian being out of repair, soon adjourned. Next day, Wednesday, 14th, we started for Ensenada and La Plata, passing through undeniably good grazing land, and seeing some ostriches, which in the rich days, were brought from the Cape of Good Hope to start ostrich farming. The docks of Ensenada are really splendid, and are capacious and of substantial construction, and to get a good view of them we first walked down along the quay side and then rowed up through them. They were constructed in 1883 with English capital, though much of it seems to have been expended in forming useless canals, having in some cases neither entrance nor exit. These docks suffer from native management and the competition of the new Buenos Ayres docks, where costly rai'way freights have not to be paid. ^e went next to La Plata by another line, and which is typical of the country, being built with English money and handicapped by the enormous number of free passes that are given, we being about the only people in the train who had paid for their tickets. This town, which was built on a very ambitious scale, with grand public buildings, theatre, museum, railway station, &c., and intended to become the capital of Argentina, is now nicknamed " Cuidad de Los Muertos," because grass grows in its streets. The houses are untenanted, the market empty, and the schools have never been r.sed, its history being, that a former president wishing to have some English money pass through his hands, designed the town, with the docks at Ensenada, to be the port of Argentina. Commerce, however, cannot be created by wishing. The president fell, and the party now in power are interested in Buenos Ayres, being the port of Argentina, hence the change that has given rise to such an epithet. The future of Ensenada docks depends on the hope of getting English management, and the country to the south being opened up and requiring a corn port. The docks at Baenos Ayres will always take the other trade of the country, subject, of course, to the pocket filling tendencies and eccentricities of its owners. Argentina is a garden, which, v.'ith well directed labour, will produce food sufficient for itself and half Europe as well. In fact only a naturally rich country could stand the abuse it indures. It has an excellent code of laws, but which are only TO SEE THE WORLD. 225 observed in the breach. Thus, our friends told us of a case, and of which they had a personal knowledge, where a client was advised by his lawyer, that it was useless to go to law, as the other side had " squared the judge." And as for murder it is a most trivial offence, a month's exile of the murderer, at Monte Video quite appeasing the majesty of the law. A case in point occurred only a few weeks ago. An Italian opera singer, being incensed at an editor's criticism, requested an apology in his paper, which by an oversight was omitted, whereupon the Italian challenged the editor, who declined, as the former was a skilled duellist. The Italian then having threatened to insult the editor the first time he met him in public, the editor went to the police and informed them in the most naive manner, that if the Italian did so he would shoot him, the result being that the police, having delayed taking any precautionary steps in the matter until "mauana," (liter- ally, " to-morrow " but which in Argentine parlance, has no chronological definition, and may mean any time between now and doomsday) the editor was met in the theatre by the Italian, who slapped his face and is shot dead. Although the rest of the performance was suspended, the paper appeared next day, as usual, and nothing has been done to the Editor. The strong tide of European immigration will of course remedy much of the utter and surprising barbarism that at present exists, but no cure can be effected until the Government shows a vigorous determination to keep the law itself and make others do so too. We made our return passage aboard the Plateuse steamer for the day, namely the Saturno — not quite so sumptuously fitted up, or so good in its cuisine as the Eolo— clearing the docks at six-fifty. As in the u] trip, the run down the river was made in the dark, a distance of a hundred and twenty miles, but even if it had been made by day light nothing could have been seen of either bank, as the Eio de la Plata is fifty miles wide at the narrowest part, and all the con iguous country of Argentine bounding it on tlie south, and that of Uruguay on the north, is low lying. A farewell look at Monte Video (population one hundred and twenty-five iliousand), after seeing Buenos Ayres (population three hundred thousand) strengthened the favourable impressions we had already form- ed of it, and made us admire more than ever its bright hioking streets and plazas, and fashionable promenades, siu I as the calle (street) called 25th of May street (many of ilie streets being named with the dates of important national events), .A'^ 926 THE CRUISE OF THE ** ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. where its reputedly handsome and well-dressed ladies take their passeos (strolls), or sit at their windows or balconies in the cool of the evening. The Monte Video Sunday bull fights have now been given up, not on account of their barbarities, but because they were generally followed by disturbance and free fights. The pernicious lottery system, however, goes on as flourishingly as ever, the tickets being hawked every- where, in the streets, in the trams, in the trains, and you are fairly pestered and irritated by the ubiquitous importunity of the vendors of them. The Caridad Hospital is said to be en- tirely supported by its proceeds, but the moral injury that it does to the poor, who put every dollar they can get hold of into it, is commensurately great, as it tends to make them thriftless and idle, by trusting to luck rather than to honest labour for a livelihood. The St. George weighed anchor from Monte Video on 17th September, and we were not sorry to leave so exposed an anchorage, but we were sorry to lose a bright companion, in Mr. Blencowe, who had been telegraphed home aau ]eft the day before in The Tagiis, thus reducing the number fc.t the saloon table to five. We were soon clear of the roadstead — into which as many as four hundred large steamers enter every year, half being British — and began gradually to lose sight of the low lying coast of Uruguay, with its bare, treeless land- scapes, unrelieved by hill or bluff, valley or gulley. The coast lighthouse and Lobos Island also in time disappeared, the former of which ought to have been on the latter, but as it would disturb the seals that frequent it, ships are wrecked and lives lost, rather than the owners of the .^eal rookeries should incur any diminution of their profits. We arrived at Bio Janeiro on the morning of the 24th, after an uneventful but very enjoyable passage, losing for good the albatross, both white and sooty, that had been the yacht's companions and fellow travellers during the previous eight months, on the fourth day northward, and on the fifth and sixth days making the acquaintance of the large sphynx moth, that came on board in great quantities and bespattered everything with their presence. We had to wait outside the fort of Santa Cruz at the entrance of the harbour, until an official from it came alongside and made enquiries as to where we had come from, &c. Our replies being satisfactory, permission was given to enter and we took up an anchorage under fort Villagagnon, and in the immediate vicinity of several Enghsh ships of war, namely, Beagle, Basilisk, Sirius, and Magpie. TO SEE THE WORLD. 227 Now that we had seen Rio harbour, we were unanimous in awarding it the place of merit, as the most picturesquely- beautiful in the world, and perhaps the finest in every respect. Sydney harbour, which runs it very close for first place on the score of natural beauty, certainly excells it as a shipping port, by having deep water close in to the shore, so that ships of the largest class can lie along-side the wharves, whereas at Rio they have nearly all to lie out in the water. The view on entering Rio harbour — allowing for the enhanced charm it must have to eyes just coming in from a long sea voyage — is particularly striking and beautiful. The fort of Santa Cruz, with its double tier of heavy guns, is on the right, and the comical looking *' Sugar Loaf " Hill (1270) on the left. Further in are other forts, and here and there, lovely green islets, some surmounted by Government buildings of rather showy archi- tecture, such as the Harbour Guard House. In the fore-ground is spread out on one of the most picturesque of sites, the capital city of Brazil, enshrined among grotesque-looking hills, of which Corcovado (2272) is the most conspicuous and tantas- tic in shape. Away to the right, where the largest portion of the harbour is situated, is to be seen a maze of interlacing shores, formed by the numerous sinuosities and indentations, inclosing this noble sheet of water (fourteen miles by sixteen miles) and which is surrounded by a chain of isolated low hills. Moreover, wherever your eye may turn, it is refreshed and charmed with the richness and profusion of the tropical vege- tation that clothes and adorns all the varied aspects of this comprehensive and truly magnificent scene. Our time being short the sights of Rio were quickly got through, such as (1) the market with its queer looking fish — some of them hideous looking creatures— its monkeys and parrots, aud ferae naturae of various kinds, brought in from the country and here offered for sale, the negro vendors and hangers on, and last, but certainly not the least striking feature of the market — enough to knock you down — was its awful, overpowering, pestilential stinks ; (2) the shops in the Rua Ouvador (the principal street), in which are a great display of costly goods. The shopkeepers complained to us that the trade in ohjcts de luxe, had greatly fallen off, since the abolition of slavery four years ago, as so many of the coffee and sugar planters had been ruined through it, owing to the cost and scarcity of labour, because the liberated negro, although well paid for his free labour, will only work when he chooses ; (3) The botanical gardens, with their splendid avenue of royal 228 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.S. palms — the finest sight of the kind in the world, and where also we saw the largest known meteorolite — five tons in weight, and composed of iron and nickel, that fell at Bahia some years ago, and is now placed on a pedestal on an arti- ficial islet in the aquatic plant pond of the gardens ; (4) The railway up Corcovado, wath its ascent of from twenty-five to thirty degrees, on the Riglii system, with central rail and cogged wheel ; (5) The magnificent view you get from the top of it ; (6) The Jesuit aqueducts ; (7) The trams to the suburbs — everybody goes by tram — and the stylish looking Quintas, or suburban mansions of the weathier classes, em- bowered in palms — Brazil is the natural home of the palm — and various tropical flowering and ornamental trees and shrubs. I intended visiting the large Misericordia Hospital, with its eighteen hundred beds, but with the bad reputation of Rio for " Yellow Jack," it was not considered advisable by my com- panions to do so, although this is the healthy season. Rio and the other coast cities of Brazil are quite healthy, as much as London or New York, from the beginning of May to the end of November (the country inland is so all the year round) but from the latter date to the end of April, yellow fever is always prevalent and sometimes to a terribly fatal ex- tent. The climate is especially dangerous to Europeans during these five summer months, and we heard of a melancholy illustration of this in the case of eleven clerks, sent out by a London and Ih-azil Bank, and of whom, no less than seven died in the course of the first year. All the Consular repre- sentatives reside at Potropolis, about twenty miles out, which has the reputation of being exempt from the endemic malady, but they say of it tliat it is a very dull place to live at, possess- ing neither the amusements nor the society of Bio. At present the Brazilians are in as great a state of dread about cholera from Europe as ever Europeans could be about yellow fever, and to such an extent is this the case, that ]\Ir. Wythes, wlio understands these matters, told me that all British vessels should be cautious on entering the port at the present time, for in the first place the signal staff (m Santa Cruz, on which the signal, " Heave to " is displayed, is in so obscure a position, that it might easily escape being noticed ; and secondly, if the too enthusiastic individual in the Fort is afraid that his orders are not going to be obeyed, having first fired two blank charges, but without safficient interval to atti'act attention, he will quickly follow them with a shot. Only a short time ago, Lambert and Holt's boat was 'holed,' TO SEE THE WORLD. 229 ^'^^Z filling her fore compartment. Beside the damage thereby done to the ship and cargo, this was a high-handed act, because in this case the signal " Heave-to " was not even dis- played. Vessels, when leaving the harbour, are given a " pass-word" (the word when we left was " Balia," and which we chalked on a piece of black painted canvas and hung out over the ship side), which is to be shouted or displayed on a board, &c., and it is extremely probable that the same extra- ordinary courtesy would be extended .to a leaving vessel, should the Colonel of tlie Fort happen to be suffering from temporary deafness or blindness. Brazil has but a small army, only fourteen thousand for a country as large as the whole of Europe ; but then its popula- tion is small, being only ecjual to twice that of London. One of its gallant defenders, a major in rank, tried to commit suinide wliile we were in the harbour, by jumping into the water from off a harbour ferry steamer, and but for our men in the yacht's launch, which happened to be passing near the spot just at the moment, he certainly would have been success- ful. Having picked him up in an vmcoiiscious state, they brought him on board the yacht, where everything was done for him that Immanity and science could suggest, with the happy result that he came quite round and was able to leave in a few hours apparently none the worse for iiis self-inflicted sousing. He told us that domestic unhappiness was the cause of his trying to drown himself, but ho now felt thankful that his life had been preserved. When one of our (|uartorniasters (Marsh) passed the barracks the following day, the guard turned out and saluted the uniform of the St. George in recog- nition of what had been done for their rescued ollicer. The Brazihan navy is on a much larger scale thau the army, as they have a long line of coast to defend, and of which we saw two large ironclads, built at IMackwall, lyinu in the harbour, as well as some smaller representatives of their Heet. We left Kio Janeiro on the 28th, and after 2-1 hours steam- ing eastward to clear the coast, the St. Gcorjc hooked on to the south-east trade wind, and sped on her -•ourse for St. Vincent under full sail. The northerly limit of this wind, on which depends the region of etiuatorial calms and squalls, was favourable to us on the present occasion, as it carried us gaily on to the sixth degree north. In the dead calm that then supervened the advantage of an auxiliary screw, became strong- ly apparent, as it enabled us to hold on our way, whereas sailing vessels are often detained weeks l)efore they can get 230 THE CRUISE OF THE " ST. GEORGE," R.Y.8. wind enough to carry them through, so as to catch the trade from the opposite quarter. Our first officer tells me that when formerly in the South American Mail Service he has often passed sailing vessels becalmed in this region, and fell in with them again nearly at the same spot on his return voyage three weeks afterwards. When north of the line the wind at one time began to show signs of slackening, whereupon all avail- able canvas was crowded on, such as stun sails and balloon sails. And a prettier sight human eyes could scarcely gaze upon than what the yacht then presented, especially by moon- light, as she floated majestically down the wind, like a great white sea bird on outspread pinions. It was the poetry of motion to be going ten knots an hour, with hardly any percep- tion of movement, as she leant over steadily to leeward under the friendly propulsion of the travelling breeze. On our second day out we were again visited by our old friends, the sphynx moth. It was curious to see with what avidity two Brazilian monkeys that had been purchased at Eio, devoured them, grasping the moth in their hands, much as a child would a stick of sweetmeat, and always eating them head first. Of the surface feeding ocean birds, the petrel was the only one that followed us all the way to the Cape Verd Islands — distant from Eio, two thousand, nine hundred and fifty-three miles. Whenever the galley bucket was emptied over the ship's side, they collected in astonishing numbers to feed, and amused us by their strange way of standing and walking on the water — a habit that is said to have given rise to their name from the incident in the life of St. Peter. We arrived at Porto Grande, Sc. Vincent (sixteen degrees, forty-five N.) on the morning of October 16th and took up a position in the harbour, on a line between the Bird Eock, which is sur- mounted by the tall white tower of the port entrance lighthouse, and the small innocent looking fort at the east side of the town. Eio having been our last port of call, we were afraid from what had been told us, that " practique " would be re- fused us, but on showing a clean bill of health from Eio, backed by my personal assurance that all on board were in good health, permission was promptly given to haul down the yellow flag from the foretruck. St. Vincent has a volcanic aspect — indeed so have all the Cape Verd islands — that reminded us very much of Aden. There were about a hundred and twenty English in the island, and among those of them whose acquaintance we made, were a number of pleasant young gentlemen, forming the staff TO SEE THE WORLD. 231 of the Brazilian S. M. Telegraph Company, who all live to- gether in a very comfortable bungalow of the company's. Although our stay was so short they good-naturedly got up a cricket match for our amusement, batting off cocoa-nut matting as the ground was sandy and loose, and we had the pleasure of their company on board the yacht in the evening. The natives are very fond of the English, saying that but for us they would be starving, and we were told that when the late difficulty with Portugal occurred, they were for hoisting the British flag, and would have done it, if they could have induced any of the ships to sell them one, and for which they offered as much as ten pounds. On Wednesday, the 19th, havint? taken live stock on board as our ice was exhausted, we started for our last caUing place before reaching home, nr.mely Funchall Madeira. The quantity of flying fish that we saw during the first part of this voyage was something quite amazing, and they appeared really to fly, fluttering their wings and turning in their flight such as we had never seen before or thought a flying fish capable of. On the evening of the 20th the Pejak of Tenerife was distinctly visible far away on the eastern horizon at an estimated dis- tance of a hundred and twenty miles. After as delightful a run as we had ever made, we arrived in the afternoon of Monday, 24th October, in Funchall Bay. As at St. Vincent we had our fears about being quarantined, especially as we under- stood that the Funchall authorities were extra particular on the point, in the interest of the good name of the island as a health resort. On presenting a clean bill of health, how^ever, from Porto Grande, it was accepted as satisfactory, and as no question was asked as to our previous port of call we of course did not volunteer to mention it. Most of the consumptive cases that formerly went to Madeira, now go to Tenerife, and we were told that this was not regretted by the Funchall people, because the sight of so many invalids, coughing and spitting as used to be the case, de- terred the tourist and holiday taker and tno^e seeking thorough change and rest, from coming to it. Thit: may be only a sour- grapes explanation, but there is certainly much to be said in favour of Madeira in the latter capacity as it is only a four days run from Southampton, and is well adapted by its delightful and salubrious climate, to refresh and renovate the brain- fagged and physically overtoiled professional or business rnan. The island affords ample scope for many enjoyable excursions such as to the Grande Corral. Do not however be tempted 232 THE CRUISE OF THE *' ST. GEORGE," R.Y.8. by the charms of the scenery and the exhilaration of the atmos- phere to do too much in one day, or you may repent it as we did. Having only one entire day at our disposal, we en- deavoured to make the most of it by {?oing to the Corral, but although we were recompensed by what we saw it was a very toilsome journey. As I did not go all the way myself, I am indebted to Mr. Wythes for the following extract from his diary, describing it : " We started on horseback at seven a.m., and by half-past nine had done a third of our journey up the steep road leading from the town, passing quintas (country houses), with their pretty gardens and carefully worked vineyards, the grapes being grown on lattice work, and after various adventures with cows and pigs in the narrow lanes, began to mount the hills which bound the Corral on the west. Three ranges of hills converge, and when you have reached the head of the watershed, you have a wonderful view of the Corral Valley, the sides offering a drop of four thousand feet, and a view which from its own peculiar loveliness and the mellowing effects of distance, defies description. We next proceeded up paths, which though suited to goats, makes a stranger wonder why he brought a horse there — and oh ! — such places to go down ! — slippery as a company promoter and steep as the dome of St. Paul's. Lovely views are to be seen — in the in- tervals of wondering how far you would go, if your horse fell. The horses, however, are really wonderful — seldom requiring the groom's assistance, who always accompanies them. At two o'clock we reach the place where the horses return, and then walked an awful walk — seven miles of good road, so we were told — more like twelve of the most execrable, and which delayed our start bank from Eibeira Brava, a fishing village about ten miles west of Funchall, wdiere the yacht's steam launch had been sent to meet us, so that it was eight-thirty before we got back on board." Having taken in coal enough to steam, if necessary, the whole of the thirteen hundred miles still separating us from dear old England, we left Funchall Bay on the morning of Wednes- day, 26th October ; and with a south west wind in our favour the yacht tore along at her best pace, as if impatient to be home again. This, however, only lasted until we entered the Bay of Biscay, when the wind changed to north east, and blew so fiercely, that all Sunday little or no progress was made. Matters began to mend, however, on Monday morning, and continued to do so as the day wore on, so that the yacht was TO SEE THE WOELD. 233 he atmos- b it as we 1, we en- lorml, but ras a very self, I am from his half-past id leading Nith. their tie grapes dventures Qount the ranges of lad of the 111 Valley, id a view nellowing ceeded up ir wonder aces to go ep as the -in the in- horse fell. requiring ;hem. At sturn, and )ad, so we a,nd which ing village it's steam .ght- thirty the whole n dear old Wednes- )ur favour lent to be atered the , and blew vas made, ning, and yacht was again in her best form all through Tuesday and succeeding night. The Lizard's double light showed up at eight-thirty on Tuesday night, the Start light at two a.m. on Wednesday, the Needles abeam at eleven, and we arrived in Cowes harbour at one-thirty p.m., tlms bringing to a close a delightful social cruise ot nearly twenty-two months duration, during which the globe had been circumnavigated and over forty-three thousand geographical miles of its seas and oceans traversed, without a death or case of serious illness, or accident, and all of us return- ing in as good health as when we left the shores of England on the 19th day of January, 1891. APPENDIX. Of "The Amador Gold Mine, Limited," referred to at page 137, the following remarks appeared iu the Weekly Sun of .the undermentioned dates, and are here reprinted as a caution to investors, by showing up the subtle and far reach- ing machinerj' by which such nefarious schemes are worked. — 23rd April, 189^.— Tho first report by the Inspector-Gonoral in Com- panios' Liquidation, under Section 29 of the Companies Winding-up Act 1890 remarks that the voluntary form of winding up lias in many cases been adopted at the instance of promoters or directors for the purpose of stifling investigation. We are inclined to think that the real reason why voluntary liquidation is preferred to compulsory winding up is that it is so much cheaper and quicker. At the same time there are companies where it is highly desirable that the fierce liglit of public examination by the Official Receiver should be shed on the methods of promoters. Such a case now exists in the Amador Gold ]Mine, Limited, of which Colonel Francis Lean, Major R. A. Brutton and ^Ir. F. M. Eden are the Directors. The company was formed in 18S9, the ^i" moters being the English, and Foreign Debenture Corporation, and the Capital is £250,(X)0, of which £50,dol8. was due from hini, and that lie liad 'eft behind him quitt £5,000 of gold in the plates, and that botli of those, when realised, would bo distributed to the share- holders as a second dividend. The cliairman went on to saj that it was quite true thnt the mine had stopped working for a time, but it was only until Mr. Wlu'/akcr \Vrij,dit could moot with honest servants, as he found he was l)oing robbed of the gold as %st as it was turned out. This story was confirmod by the managing diccctor of the Knglish and Foreign Debenture Cori)oraLion, who said at the meeting that during all the time ho was in Jackson (the ncnghbouring town in California) ho liad never »■■ Appendix. mot with an honest man, with one exception. At the last annual moet- mg anoth.^- story was told us- that instead of getting tho 30,()(i(i dols from Mr W. Wnght, they liad to pa,y hiui over :t:2,00ii a.^ compensation for being disturbed in his lease. As to the disputed title we were then told that It need give the shareholders no anxiety, as it liad boon properly rogistored, and that as American laws were based on the s une principle of justice as our own, the validity of our title would certaiuly be nmiutained by our Law Courts. The truth about the title at last came out at the meeting on the ;.>2nd inst., wh>Mi it was admitted that the company had no title, nor ever had one, to the Amador Hold Mine property, and that the American vendors, having established their claim to the restitution of the property, refuse all propostvls for amab^aniation and reconstruction." We may remark here that the entire property of the Amador Gold Mine, Limited, in Amador County, Califoruia, wa.s sold bv the sheriff on January 30, I BOH, and bought by parties adverse to the company. To go back a little to the history of the mine. My correspondent says that it was bought by a man named Minear from the" original owner, and capital- ists were found who spent about i;5(i,0()0 on it in erecting a GO-,tamp mill and machinery, and about a mile and a quarter of tunuelling. iUit with the exception of a small lode th.U would keep a five-stamp mill employed, none of the rest of the rock would pay for milli)io. " After trying isi vain to raise more capital in the States, Minear was sent t- TiOndon to'sell it to an English company on certain specific tenns—uainely, tl27,()oO— of which £/)0,000 wab to be paid in casli and the bn.lance in .s'lares. Uiiving duly arrived in London, .Minear sold it to the Englihh and Foreign Deben- ture Corporation, that is the Cochranes." We had something to say about this corporation in the Suiulni/ Sun, of October, 30, 1892, for it is really nothing more than the promoting agency of the Cochiane group. To con- tinue our correspondent's story : — "Now the English and Foreign Contract Corporation, having purchas- ed the mine and plant for £ll.'7,noo, paid for it in shan'fi on!//, a,nd pro- fess to say that Minear never told them that i'oo.doO was to be paid in cash, and that they trusted his word as he was ai'med with sl veiy full power of attorney. How, then, did iilinear get possession of tbo deeds of the Amador [iroperty? We were toll by the iioard on the li2nd tliat they could not well explain it, but supposed that Minear must have im- posed upon .Mr. Willian*. Wallis — son of Soiiixto).' Wallis — to wiioni bad been deputed the power to give tlu! order to lii)erate them, on his l>eing satisfied that the American terms of sale had been fully complied with, and that INIinear must have teb graphed or written him to tluit elT.'ct, and so fraudulently induced him to autlioilse Wells, Fargo ik Ccnipisny to give them up to him. \\'hether this dirty joi) was done l^y Minear alone or in collusion with other very mueli interested parties, ibe general facts of the case appear to afiord the explanation whicii tbe board pro- fess to he unable to give. Another trick seems to liave !)een played upon the American vendors, for no sooner did ^linear get tbe +;I27,0(H) in scrip than he pawned it with the Lc>ndon and Universul !!auk (Cocbrane'a Bank, which they also strongly rccounnend to tlieir .dients as a safe in- vestment paying 8 per cent.) for (;8,0lMi— professedly lo jiay off arrears of working expen.ses due against the mine, but the etTeva of this mort- gage to the American vendors was m urevenf. th.>ni fr )in selling their shares, and taking advantage of the fictitious value that had been creat- ed for them by the company's mendacious reports from tiie mine." 1 I Appendix. Having got their sham title registered in the district American courts the English and Foreign Debenture Corporation floated the " Amador Gold Mine Limited," with a capital of £250,000, of which £50,000 was to be for working expenses. No prospectus was ever issued, but Amador shares suddenly appeared on the tape, and an effort was made to work them off on the public, by moans of Messrs. Cochranes', the outside brokers, puffing circulars. From time to time encouraging reports were sent home from the mine by a Mr. James Dye. At the last meeting Mr. Dye was present, and shareholders were invited to ask him any question. Here we return once more to our correspondent's letter. He says : — " I accordingly took advantage of this offer and read out to him the following reports that wore signed with his name and purported to have been written by him, and requested him to state if their contents were true : — ' The mill lias run GO days to August 1, 45 stamps, running day ' and night ; 6,750 tons of ore have been treated — net profit to Amador ' Gold Mine, Limited, SO.OOQdols. I will have a ton of ore crushed next ' week at the 55iift. level, and will wire you the result as soon as possible. ' With regard to the ore in sight, without any further development in * sinking, there is sufficient of the best ore to last IG months- -say 100,000 ' tons. This worked out at G,0 ' His answer was : ♦ None whatever, for the little bit of good ore was lost amongst so much rubbish.' (8) ' Why was the mill used on such rubbish at all ? ' He replied : ' It was because of the orders from London to work the whole GO stamps, no matter with what stuff, «o that a report that all the Gi stamps were at work could be sent.' (4) ' \Va.s the lease of the mine to Ur. Whittaker Wright a reality ? ' He said it was a paper reality, but it had no substantial existence, as Mr. Whittaker Wright had never been near the mine, and the worthless sulphurcts were still lying in the shed as not worth removing. It was a sham lease to save their bacon after issuing such lying reports. Now, sir, seeing we un- fortunate bonji fide sharclioldcrs have been robbed of our money by these lies, and that a confidence trick has been practised upon us by these Cochrar.es ' strongly recommending ' us— as their only too confiding clients— to buy their own worthless goods, do you not think that the law could be successfully appealed to, to compel them to refund it ? " The above is the version of the Aniador (iold Mine as given by our corre- spondent. Much of it we know to be true, and we believe tlio whole of the story is accurate in the main. We have not space this week to deal further with the subject, and we therefore must reserve our comments until the next issue. ■Ill |ho a- Ir. of 10 ?th May, 1S'.)3. — Last week wo gave a startling account of the Amador Gold .Mine which was sent to us by an unfortunate shareholder, who has been victimised to the extent of i;l,!»00. Oui correspondent concluded his long letter by asking whether the law could not be appealed to m order to compel the Cochniues to refund his money. We are not at all sure thai it could not. Here are the facts : — The I'iUglish and Foreign Contract Corporation is started in lH-<8 by the Coclu-iines and Mr. (". Harrison, an American, who is called managing director. This Corporation pretends to acquire and resell to the Public the Amador frold Aline in California. The American vendor having received tll.'7,5().) in siiaies as his purchase price, pawns the whole block of shares for C'^.niio at the Cochrane's bank, the London and Universal. No prospectus is (;ver issued, but .\nuulor shares are dealt in on the Stock Exchange — that is to say, "wasii" sales are made, and the priee is quoted on the tape. Tlien eonic;, the part of Messrs. Coehrane and Sons, stockbrokers. According to their advertisement in llio Mining Manual. "This old- establisheil firm has for nearly a (|Uiur.cr of a century gained the higiiest reputation for the character of its dealings. . . They had never recom- mended pools, syndicates, or other ventures of a itcrnicious nature." To keep up this reputation they strongly reconunended in tiu.'ir circulars the purchase of Amador shares and shares in the Lontlon and Universal Hank. A paper called SticU'ty, which was then owned by the Cochranes, cui-iously enough was also a great believer in Amador shares. While a hctitinus market is being made on the Stock Kxcli go the outside brokers, Cochnino and Sons, i;J and 14, Cornhill, are bu.-^v working tlienM)ff on the public Appendix. whenever they can do so. It may interest people to know that Orosvenor and Co., another firm of touting brokers was, and may be still, an alias of the Cochraiies. Just as a gentleman named Ferdinaudo has run bucket- shops at different times under the names of " Stanley Chester and Co.," •• Stanhope and Co.," " Howard Bruce and Co.," A;c.,so the Cochranes have dissembled as " Grosvenor and Co." and "MuirandCo." • • • All through the Amador business the Cochranes are the guiding spirit. Our correspondent alleged last week, and we have received no contradiction, that a Mr. James Dye, who sent the reports as to the operations of the mine, was not a mining engineer but a clerk of tlie Cochranes ! Again, as there was no prospectus and no public issue of Amador shares, whose were the shares, we wonder, that the Cochranes had for disposal in tens of thousands ? And, after all, the Amador Company never had a good title to the property, although the shares were sold as fast as possible to the credulous public. A voluntary reconstruction has recently been decided upon ; but we think that it is a case where a compulsory winding-up order should be applied for, in order to have the affairs of the Ainador Company thoroughly exposed. We have thought it right to deal at length with the matter, because the Cochranes are spreading their nets very wide. We are frequently asked whether the shares of the London and Universal Bank are safe ? The answer is that the bank is another name for Cochrane, the money lender, as was disclosed in the action against Mr. Earing last October when it came out that his bill had been discounted at G(» per cent. The Cercle de Luxe is anothtM- creation of the Cochranes, and we may sum up the family by saying that they run a promoting company, a club, a bank, and biioket-shops. We have given the trading names of these concerns, and the public will now know by whom their strings are really pulled. * Cd r^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ :^lr> QJ '-^^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ \a (^\ tvenor alias icket- Oo.," ihave . Our ction, mine, there re the ns of . title bo the tcided order ipany ;h the We Bank o, the ctober The ini up bank, cerns, a.