LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GrIKT OF" 
 
 Class 
 
 

 Opigiogs of tbe Press 
 
 From the San Francisco Chronicle 
 
 A READABLE RECORD OF TRAVEL There is no literary quality in 
 "Travel," by Etnil Klopfer; the narrative of the author s remarkable 
 experiences in all quarters of the globe is frequently marred by gram 
 matical errors ; but the story is so full of genuine human nature and 
 so abounding in stirring incident that any one who picks it up will be 
 sure te read it. The author seems to have been born with the true 
 passion for travel. As a lad he left Hamburg for the Phillipines, but 
 after spending some time in Manila he began that life of adventure 
 which carried him from China to California and from Panama to Peru, 
 Incidentally, he fought in the Army of Maximilian and was in the pay 
 of a Central American dictator. The volume leaves him in Chile, but 
 he promises in another to take up his wanderings. What will impress 
 any reader of this book is the real Americanism of the author. Born 
 in Hamburg and bred under conditions of life very different from ours, 
 he early developed the passion for personal freedom which can best be 
 gratified in America. He had also the American s hearty contempt 
 for a man who cannot turn his hand to any useful work. In his time 
 he served as foremast hand and fireman at sea and as woodchopper, 
 farmer, miner, dishwasher, car driver, and horse trader on land. In 
 all his adventures there is the breezy confidence of a hero of Smollett 
 or Fielding, which is rarely found nowadays and which is very enjoy 
 able. One may also learn much of human nature from this book, in 
 which the author has shown so little reticence. Its best lesson, per 
 haps, is that sterling good qualities may be found in all races and that 
 he makes a great mistake who starts out with prejudices against any 
 race because of color or customs. No better moral lesson was ever 
 preached than in the short account of the German Count who proved 
 so dismal a failure as a dishwasher in a San Francisco Hotel, yet 
 whose foolish pride in his name and ancestry remained even when he 
 was forced to beg for bread. The book contains many episodes of life 
 that are extremely interesting, because of the absolute lack of self- 
 consciousness with which thev are told. 
 
 From the New York World 
 
 A man who has had a good many adventures in this life, and made 
 noi.es of them, has the right to print them, if he pleases, at his own 
 expense, and this Mr. Ernil Klopfer, of Alameda, Cal., has done. His 
 
book, "Travel and Experiences," private and personal as it is to a 
 great extent, is much more interesting than many more pretentious 
 books of travel. 
 
 From the San Francisco Call 
 
 The life of any man contains matter of interest for other men. 
 Much more the lives of those among us who, fond of adventure, have 
 wandered over the face of the earth. " Travel, Reminiscences and 
 Experiences," by Emil Klopfer, will prove pleasant reading to those 
 who love changing scenes and conditions. It is a plain unvarnished 
 narration of the writer s experiences in various countries. At an early 
 age Emil Klopfer left Hamburg, and, on a sailing vessel, voyaged to 
 the Phillipine Islands. In the light of modern ocean travel his experi 
 ences are curious reading. Then he made his way to California, Nica 
 ragua, Mexico, Cuba, Argentine, Chile, etc., in each country earning 
 his own living and saving money for future journeys. A jack-of-all- 
 trades he must have been gifted with great powers of adaptability. 
 A man who can turn to and work as a sailor, a miner, a ditch digger, a 
 steamship fireman, a fruit-peddler, a boot-black, a newspaper boy, a 
 farmer, a soldier, a coat trimmer, a book-keeper, a steward, etc., could 
 have no difficulty in getting along. Among other experiences he served 
 as a soldier on the side of Maximilian in the Mexican War, and his 
 account of that event is very instructive. 
 
 From the Oakland Tribune 
 
 Emil Klopfer, of Alameda, has, under the title of " Travel," just 
 issued a very interesting work reminiscent of his experiences in the 
 four quarters of the globe. Starting in from his birthplace in Ham 
 burg, he takes his readers to the most interesting parts of the world, 
 and in a vigorous, graphic style describes his adventures and impres 
 sions, at the same time giving strict attention to matters of geographical 
 and historical interest. It is a book that is readable in every page, and 
 should command a big sale. 
 
 From the iSew Orleans Picayune 
 
 The author of this extremely fascinating book is a German, well 
 educated, able to express himself to the point, who, in his youth, 
 possessed with the fever of travel, left his home in Hamburg and set 
 out to see the world. He sailed first to Manilla, and thence to China. 
 Then, his money giving out, he shipped as a common sailor and reached 
 San Francisco, and so to various other parts of the world. He was now 
 a sailor, again a waiter, a bootblack, a fruit peddler, a newsboy, an 
 
organ grinder a cowboy, a soldier in the army of Maximilian, and a 
 little of everything else. His adventures, observations (very practical 
 and wise they are) and experiences are narrated in an artless, direct 
 manner, which reminds the reader strongly of Robinson Crusoe. But 
 Robinson never had more thrilling adventures than are here nar 
 rated. The adventurer is cast away on the China Sea, takes part in a 
 fierce and bloody battle against a horde of Chinese steerage passengers, 
 who try to capture the veesel, is mangled, bruised and left for dead on 
 a Mexican battle field, and has a hundred other thrilling adventures, 
 which makes the reader doubt whether the tale be truth or fiction. It 
 reads, anyway, wonderfully like the truth, and whether true or not 
 makes most delightful reading for the lover of adventure. 
 
 From the San Francisco Report 
 
 " Travel " is the somewhat unusual title of a book by Emil Klopfer 
 The author has unquestionably the stuff in him that makes the traveler. 
 There are two kinds of travelers. One is the gilded youth, whose edu 
 cation is not complete until he has made th^ grand tour, which runs in 
 certain well-known grooves. He has plenty of money and every facility 
 for making travel a luxury. 
 
 The other is such as our author, who has practically nothing but his 
 own indomitable determination. But of such is the real traveler com 
 posed. The story of his adventures will revive memories of glorious 
 Robinson Crusoe, the hero of our boyish days, not from any especial 
 resen* blance between them, but from the manner of telling. Alto 
 gether, it can be recommended as being one of the most interesting of 
 its kind. 
 
 From the San Jose Mercury 
 
 Mr. Klopfer is both the author and the publisher of hie book, and 
 in the character of an author deserves better treatment than as a pub 
 lisher he has accorded to himself. He has traveled far and wide under 
 circumstances so different from those of most travelers, that his story 
 possesses qualities not usually found in works of the kind. He has not 
 been simply a visitor to noted scenes and places, but a worker in many 
 lands. His book deals not with descriptions of scenery and themes 
 worn threadbare by many writers, but with his personal adventures, 
 and these have been sufficiently varied to be interesting at almost all 
 times. As an illustration of the various aspects under which he saw 
 the world, it may be stated that he crossed the Pacific Ocean as a sailor, 
 worked in Vancouver as a miner, in Oregon as a waiter, in California 
 as a fruit peddler, a bootblack and a newsboy, a farmer and a miner, 
 served in Mexico as a soldier under Maximilian, was an organ grinder 
 
in the West Indies, a car driver in New York, a book-keeper in Brazil, a 
 wood chopper in Argentine, a horse trader in Chili, and a saltpetre con 
 tractor in Peru. His many adventures in these various employments 
 are narrated with no great literary skill, but with a sufficient directness 
 and vigor to make them vivid and entertaining. 
 
 From the New York Recorder 
 
 In " Travel " Emil Klopfer, of Alameda, Cal., tells part of the story 
 of a model soldier of fortune ; of his experiences in many lands and 
 many trades car driver in New York, soldier in Mexico, coal trimmer 
 at sea, and the like. It is an interesting book, as any book must be 
 which deals with raw facts not badly. 
 
 From the Han Luis Obispo Tribune 
 
 Once upon a time books of travel were read and written for the 
 information they contained of the places visited and described. To 
 day, such has been the multiplication of such books, so complete are 
 the guide books and atlases, and the extended use of photography and 
 engraving, that there are few prominent places in the world which offer 
 to the traveler an opportunity to tell new tales which will be received 
 with much favor by the attentive reader. The world is covered with 
 beaten tracks which ramify in every direction, and about which only 
 a personal inspection can give new impressions. To-day the book of 
 travels is in reality only a picture of the writer. The reading public is 
 chiefly interested in seeing what sort of an impression is produced upon 
 the individual writing by the familiar scenes. In this view, we think 
 the unpretentious work of Mr. Emil Klopfer will be read with much 
 curiosity. He presents a character of an unusual kind. The book 
 might rather be entitled a biography, and as such is worth studying, 
 It is the life history of a young German imbued with an inveterate 
 desire for wandering over the face of the earth, and who, without 
 means or influence, makes his way to the remotest corners of the earth, 
 eternally hungering for new sights and new people, and managing to 
 go where he will. Occasional hardships only lend zest to his enjoy 
 ment. The constantly recurring fact that he is a penniless stranger in 
 a strange land does not in the least trouble him. With a fine contempt 
 for money grubbing, and an utter disregard for social caste, the first 
 occupation that offers itself to him is promptly embraced, with the 
 result that he runs the gamut of all known employments. Withal he 
 has a keen appreciation of the main chance, and whether he is figuring 
 as a merchant, miner, cook or organ grinder, in any and every position, 
 he fills his pockets. But that end attained, he drops his job and is off 
 again to some other region which promises novelty to him. The book 
 is a plain unvarnished tale, as simple and candid as De Foe might have 
 told it, and of course abounds in interesting incident and adventure. 
 
 From the Philadelphia Press 
 
 Emil Klopfer s volume of reminiscences and experiences, collect 
 ively entitled "Travel " is a delightful bundle of chatty sketches, full 
 of interesting incident. 
 
TRAVEL J 
 
 REMINISCENCES 
 
 AND 
 
 EXPERIENCES 
 
 BY 
 
 KLOPKER 
 
 ALAMEDA, CAI,. 
 KIvOPFER, PUBLISHER 
 
 1894 
 
Copyright, 1894, by EMIL KLOPFBB 
 
 All Eights Reserved 
 

 book contains the account of 
 travels and experiences of a young 
 man, whose greatest desire from 
 childhood was to seek Nature in her 
 grandest and most charming moods, 
 and to acquaint himself with the customs, habits and 
 peculiarities of her many children. 
 
 Every one, has perhaps, had at one time the same 
 desire, but found no opportunity of realizing it; such 
 will read this book with interest and pleasure, and will 
 find in it a true friend of a similar mind. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 ALAMEDA, CAL. 
 1894 
 
 (ill) 
 
CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 1. From Hamburg to Manila 9 
 
 Passenger 
 
 2. Phillipines China 61 
 
 3. Pacific Ocean 78 
 
 Sailor 
 
 4. California 93 
 
 5. Vancouver Island 99 
 
 Miner 
 
 6. Oregon 103 
 
 Waiter 
 
 7. California 105 
 
 Ditch Digger 
 
 8. Pacific Ocean ; ... 109 
 
 Fireman 
 
 9. California 118 
 
 Fruit Peddler 
 Boot-black 
 
 Newspaper Boy 
 
 (v) 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 10. California 124 
 
 Farmer 
 
 11. California 132 
 
 Miner 
 
 12. Nicaragua 136 
 
 Planter 
 
 13. California 141 
 
 Vegetable Dealer 
 
 14. California 145 
 
 Runner 
 
 Dish-washer 
 
 Cook 
 
 15. Mexico 154 
 
 Soldier 
 
 16. West Indies . . 159 
 
 Organ Grinder 
 
 17. Cuba .... 169 
 
 18. From Havana to New York 173 
 
 Passenger 
 
 19. From New York to Hamburg .... 179 
 
 Goal Trimmer 
 
 20. From Hamburg to New York .... 184 
 
 Emigrant 
 
CONTENTS vii 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 21. Mexico 196 
 
 Soldier 
 
 22. New York 219 
 
 Driver 
 Conductoi 
 
 23. West Indies Nueva Granada Venezuela 
 
 Brazil , 228 
 
 Steward 
 
 Book-keeper 
 
 Broker 
 
 24. Argentine Chili 239 
 
 Wood-chopper 
 
 25. Chili Peru 257 
 
 Horse-trader 
 Saltpetre Contractor 
 
TRAVEL 
 
 REMINISCENCES AND EXPERIENCES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 JRN at Hamburg, I had from 
 my earliest childhood the brisk 
 and active life of a great and 
 world-renowned commercial 
 metropolis all about me. 
 
 The innumerable incoming 
 and outgoing vessels, the con 
 stantly changing scene and 
 action which the whole year round was presented 
 to one s view in the safe and spacious harbor, made 
 such an indelible impression upon my mind, that, 
 even as a child, the riverside was my favorite 
 resort. I stood there for hours at a stretch, watch 
 ing with the liveliest interest the wind and weather- 
 beaten vessels that came sailing up the river from 
 foreign, lands, picturing to myself the strange and 
 exciting scenes the men aboard them might have 
 
 (9) 
 
10 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 experienced in those out-of-the-way parts of the 
 world. 
 
 But it was still more attractive in the sunny 
 spring-time, when vessels, bound for tropical coun 
 tries, glided on the tide, or in tow of the puffing, 
 snorting, little tugs, down the Elbe. My desire 
 to go along was then often so strong that I 
 could hardly conquer my inclination to run away 
 from home to see the world. 
 
 These scenes, so dear to me, worked in such a 
 way upon my mind that it became my one ambition 
 to leave Europe as soon as possible. During the 
 day my thoughts were wandering about in different 
 parts of our beautiful world, and at night, in 
 pleasant dreams I found myself amid the forest, or 
 on the plains of South and North America. 
 
 When I quitted school I was scarcely fourteen 
 years of age, but in spite of my youth I would have 
 left Europe at once with pleasure. In Germany no 
 one will admit self-reliance to be a virtue in young 
 people, and all elderly persons insist that they 
 must be guided exactly as little children. In my 
 family the same idea prevailed, and an aversion to 
 causing trouble by any act of mine, determined me 
 to submit to the wishes of my people, and to accept 
 the position of an apprentice to a commercial firm. 
 
 I felt ashamed, that I, a strong, sturdy youth, 
 confident of his ability to make his own way in the 
 world, was obliged to submit to being clothed and 
 supported during a three-years apprenticeship by 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 11 
 
 my relations, and to give my labor without remun 
 eration of any kind, merely in the interest of my 
 chiefs. 
 
 When parents feed and clothe their sons until 
 they leave school, which in many families is of 
 itself a great burden, one would think that the 
 parents should expect to see them supporting them 
 selves by their own unaided efforts, and without the 
 assistance of any one. 
 
 Numbers of establishments, ranging from the 
 pettiest shoemaker shop to the largest and wealthi 
 est commercial houses, are kept in existence solely 
 through the revenue from their apprentices and 
 their unsalaried services. 
 
 In some places the term of apprenticeship is 
 three, in others four, and in some even five years. 
 The boys render obedience and service for abso 
 lutely nothing, and when, perhaps, a few dollars are 
 given them as a Christmas present, these short 
 sighted youths are completely overcome by the lib 
 eral generosity of their kind-hearted masters ! 
 
 To leave one s apprenticeship before the stip 
 ulated time has expired, according to German 
 ideas, disgraces not only the apprentice, but his 
 family also. 
 
 The desire to shorten my term of apprentice 
 ship by the simple but effective means of leaving my 
 employer s service came very often into my mind, 
 and only a reluctance to cause my relatives any 
 trouble deterred me from carrying the idea into effect. 
 
12 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 I learnt what I could during my hours of work, 
 and used the rest of my time in studying and in 
 creasing my knowledge of those things which had 
 more interest for me, and which, as I thought, would 
 perhaps some day prove of greater value to me. 
 
 In Germany a young man who wishes to see 
 the world and gain knowledge by practical exper 
 ience, has always to contend with a great many 
 difficulties placed in his way by relatives, and 
 especially when those relatives had never, or at 
 least very seldom, traveled beyond the boundaries 
 of their native city. 
 
 Advice and expostulation are brought to bear, 
 all tending to convince the adventurous youth that 
 it would be far better to earn a living at home than 
 to venture amid the dangers and temptations of 
 the great outside world. 
 
 Whether those ideas are sound or not, I will 
 leave to the decision of others. I know that they 
 made no impression upon me, and that they only 
 strenghtened my desire to get out of the Old World 
 as soon as possible. 
 
 When I had finished my apprenticeship in 
 Hamburg I was told that I could go to the Philip 
 pines, and in order to get away from Europe I eag 
 erly accepted the proposition. 
 
 In the early part of 1861, I took passage by a 
 sailing vessel, the Bella Gallega, bound direct to 
 Manila, and in the delightful excitement of antici 
 pation I could hardly wait for the vessel to sail. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 13 
 
 In those days the trade with the Philippines 
 was so insignificant that the Bella Gallega was 
 delayed for months before sufficient freight could 
 be secured to complete her cargo. At length the 
 consignees advised me that the vessel, on account 
 of her draught, had dropped down to Brunshausen 
 to take the remainder of her cargo, and that she 
 would sail within a day or two. I therefore joined 
 her at once, but was astonished to hear from the 
 officers on board that at least a week would elapse 
 before she would be ready to sail. I placed my 
 baggage in my cabin and decided to return to Ham 
 burg, spending the few days yet left to me in 
 Europe with my relations and friends. 
 
 At the end of the week I returned to Bruns 
 hausen, where I heard the same old story again, and 
 indeed, I could see for myself that nothing about 
 the ship herself indicated a speedy departure, but 
 as I did not feel inclined to return to Hamburg, I 
 possessed myself w T ith patience and remained 
 aboard. 
 
 The days of waiting I got through as best as I 
 could ; the mornings were spent in long walks to 
 Stade or other places in the vicinity; the after 
 noons in playing billiards or nine-pins with our 
 German pilot ; and the evenings in playing chess 
 with my shipmates, during which amusements the 
 conversation had to be carried on by signs, as they 
 could neither understand me nor I them. But at 
 the end of about a week, the captain, with the rest 
 
14 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 of the passengers having arrived from Spain, we 
 sailed. 
 
 The Bella Gallega, between whose wooden walls 
 I was to find my only home during the next five or 
 six months, was a Spanish ship of ahout 900 tons 
 register. Her long yards, her heavy masts and rig 
 ging gave to the dark and gloomy interior of the 
 vessel an additional shadow. Everything aboard, 
 even the peculiar ship s odor, seemed strange to 
 me. 
 
 The vessel, built in Manila, of the strong 
 Molave wood, was a little more than forty years old. 
 Of a plump and clumsy model, she was a slow 
 sailer and a bad sea weatherer ; but her cabins, 
 staterooms and quarter-decks were large and spa 
 cious, and in these respects, at least, she promised a 
 pleasant and comfortable voyage. 
 
 Beside the captain and two mates, we had a 
 carpenter, boatswain, cook, dishwasher, two cabin 
 boys and thirty men-before-the-mast in our ship s 
 company. 
 
 The captain, Don Bautista Onaindi, and the 
 carpenter were European Spaniards ; the mates 
 Mestizos ; the balance of the crew Indios from the 
 Philippines. 
 
 My traveling companions were : Dona Anselma 
 Suarez from Malaga, with her little son, Juanito, 
 and Don Vicente Onaindi, brother of the captain. 
 Consequently there were in all six Europeans aboard, 
 of whom, save myself, all spoke the Spanish Ian- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 15 
 
 guage. The mates spoke Spanish also, but they, 
 as well as the crew, preferred their own native 
 tongue Tagaloc. 
 
 Shortly after the captain arrived on board we 
 were taken in tow by a small tug, and glided down 
 the river. Close to Cuxhaven the tug cast off, and 
 opposite Neuwerk we dropped our pilot. 
 
 The weather was delightful and the wind 
 favorable. Past the Island of Heligoland, along the 
 German, Dutch and Belgian coasts, towards the 
 Channel, we sailed under full canvas. 
 
 The old ship made a fairly quick run across 
 the North Sea, and we expected to have the same 
 good fortune in our run down the Channel. But 
 our fond expectations were doomed to disappoint 
 ment ; before we had scarcely reached the entrance to 
 the Channel the wind and weather changed com 
 pletely, and as a little later a dense, impenetrable 
 fog settled down over the sea, our captain thought 
 it best to come to anchor. 
 
 The number of ships constantly cruising 
 about in so narrow a sheet of water as the Channel 
 are compelled out of regard for their own safety to 
 use the utmost precaution, especially in foggy or 
 stormy weather. During the balance of that day 
 and the following night, every ship within hearing 
 distance kept her fog horn sounding, and the dreary, 
 God-forsaken moaning and groaning across that 
 ghostly expanse of mist-laden sea, produced an im 
 pression upon my mind that time has not eradicated. 
 
16 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 By the next morning a strong southerly breeze 
 had lifted the fog, and when the sun rose lighting 
 up the holdly rugged coast of England, we had 
 before us a most beautiful panorama. We lay 
 about two miles off shore, immediately opposite 
 Dover, surrounded by hundreds -of other vessels, 
 which, like ourselves, were pitching and rolling in 
 the short, choppy sea of the Channel. 
 
 Innumerable fishing smacks could be seen in 
 every direction, loaded with the last night s catch, 
 returning to port. Some of these small craft 
 came alongside and exchanged for a few bottles of 
 gin or brandy whole basketsful of the choicest fish. 
 Getting our anchors aboard, we made sail and with 
 the wind on our beam beat up the Channel, but in 
 a few hours the fog came down, as thickly as ever, 
 and once more we sought safety in our anchors and 
 fog-horns. 
 
 The sea ran high, a storm of wind and rain set 
 in, and so unfavorable was the weather that it took 
 us almost a week to get out of the Channel into the 
 open ocean. 
 
 We had scarcely left Cuxhaven, when, in spite 
 of the tranquillity of the North Sea, I felt the 
 horrible sensation of sea-sickness coming over me, 
 but in the Channel, where our vessel was tossed and 
 jerked about most pitilessly I became worse, and 
 suffered dreadfully. Acting upon the advice of our 
 captain, I remained on deck in the fresh air, 
 instead of following my own inclination and seek- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 17 
 
 ing my berth. His ideas in regard to sea-sickness, 
 and I have since proved the practicability of them 
 by actual experience and observation, were that no 
 medical man can prescribe any remedy for it, and 
 that the only relief from the horrible sensation is 
 to be found in nourishment and in the fresh air on 
 deck. Of course, such a treatment requires a good 
 amount of moral courage to carry out, but those 
 who have it will always find it efficacious. 
 
 Heavily dressed and wrapped in oil skins, I 
 remained on the quarter-deck in the worst of 
 weather, trembling all over from cold and nervous 
 ness, the latter caused by continuous vomiting. I 
 became at last so weak and was in such a wretched 
 condition that life seemed to have lost all its attrac 
 tions, and I often thought that the hour of death 
 could not be far away. Sea-sickness, with all its 
 horrors, is at the same time entirely harmless, never 
 proving fatal, although one expects death almost 
 hourly. 
 
 Six long and weary days, appearing to me as 
 so many years, I suffered the most horrible tortures 
 before I began to recover. My meals were brought 
 to me on deck, where I lay, lashed to the mizzen- 
 mast, more dead than alive. The odor even of food 
 was repulsive to me, but in spite of this I always 
 forced myself to eat a little, knowing that a few 
 minutes later I would have to part with it. 
 
 Only those who have experienced similar suf 
 ferings, can fully appreciate my joy and delight 
 
 TRAVEL 2 
 
18 TEA V EL, ETC. 
 
 when the sensation at last left me. Everything 
 appeared to me in the rosiest colors, and this beauti 
 ful world of ours more charming and alluring than 
 ever. 
 
 Neither Dona Anselma, her little boy, nor Don 
 Vicente were troubled with sea-sickness. The 
 former, whose father was a sea- faring man, had 
 spent a great deal of her childhood at sea, and the 
 latter, a sea captain himself, was on his way to the 
 Philippines to take command of a vessel belonging 
 to the owners of the Bella Gallega. Children are 
 seldom affected with sea-sickness, and never as se 
 verely as jsdul s. 
 
 After leaving the Channel behind, the fleet of 
 vessels which hitherto surrounded us, dispersed in 
 all directions, and we perceived only occasionally a 
 sail far down on the horizon. We crossed the Gulf 
 of Biscay, steered along the Spanish and Portuguese 
 coasts, and sighted at some distance, Madeira, the 
 Canarios and the Cape Verde Islands. 
 
 The weather at this time was perfect, but the 
 glare of the sun increased every day until the heat 
 became so great that exertion of any kind seemed 
 a burden, and we were glad to lie in the shadow of 
 the awnings, too exhausted even for conversation. 
 A light, but steady breeze hardly gave us way and 
 eventually carried us down to the equator at an 
 average rate of from four to five miles per hour. 
 
 In this region, I, for the first time, saw a shark. 
 I remember still the very first one we caught. The 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 19 
 
 great brute, over twelve feet long, was of such a 
 tremendous weight that it took the united strength 
 of our sailors to heave him on board. As usual, 
 those that were caught were butchered, cut to 
 pieces and no mercy whatever shown to them. A 
 portion of the meat, especially that of the yourlg 
 sharks, was cooked and eaten by our sailors, seem 
 ingly with much relish. 
 
 A long voyage aboard a sailing vessel offers as 
 every one knows, a very limited variety of distrac 
 tions, and appears to most people, obliged to travel 
 in this way, a tedious and uninteresting undertak 
 ing. Having merely the place of destination in 
 view they care but to get there, and make no effort 
 to contribute to the amusement or comfort on board, 
 nor even take advantage of the opportunity offered 
 to increase their knowledge by study and observa 
 tion. Many of them, disappointed at the unavoid 
 ably lengthened voyage, and irritated by the slow 
 progress, so often made in the face of adverse winds 
 and currents, become actively ill-tempered, and 
 make the lives of the other passengers and the 
 officers of the ship miserable by continual bicker 
 ings and quarreling. 
 
 In those days when steamer connections were 
 scarce, traveling by sailing vessel was quite com 
 mon. A journey, in the early sixties, by the steam 
 ers of the Peninsular and Oriental Mail Steamship 
 Company from London to Hongkong, by way of 
 Alexandria, Cairo, and Suez a distance of about 
 
20 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 ten thousand miles took from forty to fifty days, 
 and cost from six to eight hundred dollars. 
 
 Taking into consideration the fact that now-a- 
 days, in consequence of competition, one can make 
 the journey from China to Europe, or vice-versa, at a 
 cost of less than three hundred and fifty Mexican 
 dollars, and in about thirty days, the fare of three 
 hundred and twenty-five Spanish dollars, which I 
 paid for my passage from Hamburg to Manila seems 
 excessive. 
 
 In spite of being the only German among so 
 many Spaniards, Mestizos and Indies, whose lan 
 guage at first I was perfectly ignorant of, I had but 
 little opportunity to feel bored and lonely. My 
 time was fully occupied, and the longer the voyage 
 lasted the more at home I felt on shipboard, and 
 actually became so contented that I often regretted 
 that the voyage was not to be a longer one. Much 
 of this contentment should be attributed to the 
 good nature of our officers and my traveling com 
 panions, who assisted me in every way to familiarize 
 myself with their language and the habits and 
 customs of their people. 
 
 After my sea-sickness had passed away and I 
 became accustomed to the movement of the vessel, 
 I decided to systematize my day s work into a reg 
 ular order. I had brought a lark and canary with 
 me from Hamburg. Their cages hung from the 
 ceiling of my cabin, and they awakened me at sun 
 rise every morning with their exquisite notes. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 21 
 
 Sometimes I arose even before dawn, dressed, 
 drank a cup of chocolate, lighted my pipe and 
 walked the deck with the officer of the watch an 
 hour or so. 
 
 Later I took my salt-water bath, attended to my 
 birds, and otherwise occupied myself until half-past 
 nine, when breakfast was served. The captain, who 
 sat at the head of the table, had at his right Dona 
 Anselma, her little boy, and Don Vicente, and to his 
 left the mates and myself. 
 
 The breakfast consisted of soup, besides four or 
 five other courses, dessert, two kinds of Spanish 
 wine, coffee and fresh rolls, which our cook was 
 obliged to bake every day during the voyage. The 
 food was invariably well cooked and served, and of 
 unexceptional quality. We were usually at table an 
 hour or more, and while drinking, eating and con 
 versing, enjoyed ourselves during that time in a 
 manner only understood by people of Southern 
 descent. 
 
 From the very first I took a great liking to the 
 Spanish manner of cooking and must say that even 
 now I prefer it to any others. Such dishes as Paella 
 a la Valenziana, Menudo^ la Andaluza,Bacalao a la 
 Bizcaina and many others I could mention, if prop 
 erly cooked and served would tickle the palate of 
 even a Parisian epicure. 
 
 The siesta, or noon rest, so necessary to people 
 accustomed to life in tropical countries, was never 
 omitted on board our vessel. During rainy and 
 
22 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 stormy weather every one sought shelter below, but 
 in fine weather the whole ship s company, save the 
 officer on watch, found rest and comfort, under the 
 awnings on deck, passing the time in general con 
 versation until at length the gentle rise and fall of 
 the ship on the swell lulled us to sleep. 
 
 Dinner was served at four thirty, and con 
 sisted of about the same number of dishes as the 
 morning meal. Between the courses, according to 
 Spanish custom, every one who wished to, smoked a 
 cigarette. Dinner finished, we returned to the deck 
 where for hours we passed the time in talking, 
 smoking, promenading, and admiring those mar 
 velous tropical sunsets with all their wealth of color. 
 
 At eight o clock in the evening coffee, tea and 
 chocolate were served, either on deck or in the 
 cabin. 
 
 In common with most persons of Southern 
 blood, the Spaniards on board were very musical. 
 After the coffee, etc., had been removed, the guitars 
 and mandolins were brought out, and the evening 
 made musical by the notes of the exquisitely sad 
 and beautiful melodies of their native land the 
 music of the instruments being accompanied by 
 singing and clapping of hands. Sometimes, when 
 in the humor, we danced to the measure of a Bolero 
 or Jota Aragonez just as lively as to the steps of a 
 waltz or polka, and on such occasions the gentle 
 men of our party regretted that Dona Anselma 
 could not multiply herself into partners for all. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 23 
 
 As long as we navigated in the tropics, the 
 evenings were spent mostly on deck, where we 
 remained up to midnight or even later ; the exqui 
 site soft balminess of the air inviting us to stay 
 there rather than in a close cabin. 
 
 The captain told me several times that off the 
 African coast it was not advisable to sleep on the 
 deck, as the winds from the land were laden with 
 desert sand, which affected the eyes, and had proved 
 fatal on many occasions to travelers, as well as 
 sailors. I thanked him for his kind advice, but 
 most always ignored it. The charm of a tropical 
 night, illuminated by the myriads of brilliant stars, 
 was so alluring that I usually slept on deck until 
 the chill morning air drove me below to my cabin. 
 
 The foolish and obsolete custom of baptizing 
 and ducking passengers, when crossing the equator 
 for the first time, was not countenanced on board 
 the Bella Gallega. When we crossed the line we 
 were at dinner, and our captain celebrated the 
 occasion in champagne, remarking that so impor 
 tant an occurrence in our lives should be duly 
 signalized in some manner. We drank to the 
 health of one another, and the sparkling wine had 
 a very happy effect upon our little company s spir 
 its during the evening. 
 
 As soon as we had left the Elbe, the mates 
 and boatswain at once began to treat the men 
 in such a brutally, cruel fashion that my man 
 hood revolted at it. I knew that according to 
 
24 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 the maritime laws of civilized countries, neither 
 captain nor mates were allowed to chastise their 
 men. I knew, too, that officers of vessels are not 
 always guided by the strict letter of the law, but I 
 did not know that in other parts of the world were 
 men whom it was impossible to control by kind 
 ness, but only by fear of corporal punishment. 
 
 Our sailors were the representatives of such 
 species. They belonged to the Malay race, and 
 were an ugly, dirty and very lazy lot of little fel 
 lows. Owing to their little physical strength we 
 carried thirty men before the mast, but they could 
 with the greatest difficulty accomplish what fifteen 
 white sailors would have done with ease. However, 
 they were supple, quick and hardy, and could have 
 accomplished their work easily enough had it not 
 been for their incorrigible laziness. 
 
 In the simplest, lightest duties they were called 
 upon to perform, they all shirked the work as much 
 as possible, each one of them trusting some one 
 else would do his share, and their s, too. The 
 boatswain, understanding this peculiarity, drew out 
 his knout, which, as his badge of office, he always 
 carried in his sash, and gave a good lashing to 
 every one of them. He was a horrid-looking fel 
 low, his face deeply scarred by smallpox, and 
 seemed to be well fitted for the post of tormentor of 
 our sailors. 
 
 At the beginning, such a system of punish 
 ment appeared to me hard, cruel and most inhu- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 25 
 
 man, but, as I came to know the disposition of 
 the Indians better, I found out that at times it 
 was absolutely necessary, and that without it our 
 vessel might never have reached the port of des 
 tination. 
 
 If white sailors had been treated in the same 
 manner, they certainly would have killed and 
 thrown overboard every officer, from captain to 
 boatswain. But our Indians were of a different 
 temperament ; after a good, sound thrashing they 
 always appeared quicker, and more obedient and 
 satisfied than ever, and it almost seemed as if our 
 men missed something necessary to their well- 
 being when for twenty-four hours, perhaps, the 
 usual punishment had been omitted. 
 
 That our officers should become angry, when, 
 especially in bad weather, their orders were not 
 promptly executed, was to be expected ; but that 
 the boatswain should fall upon his countrymen at 
 scarcely a sign from his superior, I never could 
 understand. 
 
 As petty officer, our boatswain s position would 
 not have protected him from corporal punishment. 
 He was treated and addressed in the same manner 
 as all the rest of the Indians with tu, or in the 
 second person and received, though not so 
 frequently, always a sl ; ght castigation. On these 
 occasions he was lashed across a cannon, and the 
 first sailor at hand had to administer the punish 
 ment with a rope s end, consisting as to the will of 
 
26 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 the captain, of a certain number of lashes. The 
 spite and hatred which all our sailors had for the 
 boatswain were surety enough that the lashes, 
 counted one by one as they were laid on, did not 
 fall any too softly upon the wretched creature s 
 bare back. 
 
 With the exception of our carpenter none of 
 the crew escaped those paternal corrections, sailors 
 and cabin boys, boatswain and cooks, all had their 
 turn sooner or later. 
 
 Our cook, by name Perico, was, without doubt, 
 one of the dirtiest and laziest fellows ever born, 
 and his assistant, on a smaller scale, his exact 
 counterpart. Both had the true criminal face 
 and head, and were as dirty and repulsive in person 
 as the interior of their kitchen, where pots, skillets 
 and dishes, even brushes and wearing apparel, lay 
 heaped together in the closest proximity and great 
 est possible disorder. 
 
 Our Indian sailors were entirely without self- 
 respect or sense of moral responsibility, and utterly 
 unreliable. They had to be watched like children, 
 and if this supervision was relaxed in the slightest 
 degree, then some stupid, inexcusable blunder was 
 certain to be made. 
 
 Just before passing the equator in the Atlantic, 
 a case of this kind happened. In fine weather the 
 carpenter had to stand watch during the meal 
 hours of the officers and passengers, but on that 
 particular morning he must have left the upper- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 27 
 
 deck, when the man at the wheel at once took 
 advantage of his absence. 
 
 As we sat at breakfast we suddenly heard the 
 sails flapping and banging against the masts. The 
 second mate hurried on deck, and found the wheel 
 man steering an entirely wrong course. He, of 
 course, was raging, and slapped his face, where 
 upon the sailor, drew his knife and attacked him. 
 The mate grasped a belaying pin and knocked him 
 down, but before doing so received two ugly cuts, 
 one in his arm and the other in his neck. 
 
 The sailor was immediately lashed to a cannon, 
 and after the wounds of the mate had been dressed, 
 we returned to the cabin and finished our inter 
 rupted breakfast. 
 
 Fifty lashes with, a rope s end to begin with, 
 and twenty-five to be administered every day for 
 the three following days, was the punishment meted 
 out to the man. 
 
 Another occurrence, which might have ter 
 minated more seriously, happened in the Indian 
 Ocean, when seven or eight of the crew sneaked 
 into the hold and opened several cases of gin and 
 brandy. Later they came up on deck under the 
 influence of liquor, and began to quarrel and fight 
 among themselves with fists and knives. The offi 
 cers ordered them to be quiet, inquiring at the 
 same time as to tlie cause of their condition. Instead 
 of answering they drew their knives and attacked 
 them, but, prepared for such an assault, the officers 
 
28 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 seized belaying-pins and knocked several of the 
 belligerent drunkards senseless. 
 
 A severe and merciless sentence was at once 
 passed upon the offenders. The ring-leaders re 
 ceived fifty, and the rest twenty-five lashes apiece 
 with a rope s end, besides, their wounds were 
 rubbed with salt and pepper, in order, as was said, 
 that they might heal more quickly. With the 
 omission of the rubbing in of the salt and pepper, 
 the punishment was repeated every day for the fol 
 lowing three days. 
 
 Dona Anselma begged the captain to moderate 
 the sentence, but her request was disregarded. He 
 said he was forced in this case to make an example 
 of these men so that such an affair might never 
 occur again. 
 
 Fighting with fists, and sometimes even with 
 knives was quite common among the men, but as 
 soon as it came to the officers knowledge, the 
 fighters were seized, bound to a mast, and the boat 
 swain s knout called into service. 
 
 In consequence of the unbroken harmony that 
 continued during our long voyage, passengers and 
 officers became at length such close friends that 
 sometimes we felt as though we were members of 
 one and the same family. A certain stiffness and 
 restraint, which always prevails among newly 
 acquainted people, was known on board the Bella 
 Gallega only at the very beginning of our voyage. 
 
 Spaniards are very fond of personal comfort, 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 29 
 
 and are as well very obliging to others, conse 
 quently every one was at liberty to make himself as 
 comfortable as circumstances permitted, without 
 discommoding any one else. 
 
 In the tropics, where especially on calm, sultry 
 days, the fiery sun shone almost suffocating upon 
 us, we wore as little clothing as possible, only the 
 garments absolutely necessary. A cap, shirt and 
 trousers were, with shoes as protection against the 
 hot deck, about all. Dona Anselma usually appeared 
 in a roomy, comfortable morning wrapper, a pair 
 of light shoes on her feet, and bareheaded, her long, 
 black and silky hair hanging over her shoulders, 
 while her little boy, Juanito, played about in the 
 same costume that, according to the statement of 
 eye witnesses, Adam and Eve affected in Paradise. 
 
 But our Indians, accustomed all their lives to 
 a hot and suffocating climate, wore even in the 
 tropics thick and heavy clothing, and it seemed 
 their greatest delight to stretch themselves upon 
 the deck in the full glare of the burning sun, and 
 lie there absolutely idle. How they stood that 
 intense heat as they lay asleep or awake with no 
 coverings upon their heads, I could never under 
 stand. 
 
 Our sailors, and all other Indians included, 
 were a dirty lot of coffee-colored, monkey-like fel 
 lows, and in order to avoid any unpleasantness it 
 was best to leave them severely alone, and keep 
 a certain distance away from them. 
 
30 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Washing, cleaning or keeping themselves in 
 any sort of decent physical condition was consid 
 ered by those half-savages as superfluous. If they 
 had not been drenched occasionally by the bursting 
 of a rain-cloud, or perhaps, during the morning, 
 while scrubbing down the deck, they certainly 
 would never have known what water felt like on 
 the skin, for they never voluntarily applied it. 
 
 Their long, black and coarse hair, in which any 
 number of multi-legged inhabitants could be found, 
 hung over their dirty, tar and grease besmeared 
 faces, and gave those ugly fellows a decidedly wild 
 and savage expression. 
 
 If there was no pressing work at hand every 
 one took life easy, and none of them had occasion 
 for complaint on the score of overwork, yet what 
 little work was necessary was done slowly and 
 grudgingly. 
 
 Next to passing their time in absolute idleness, 
 the sailors* greatest enjoyment seemed to be when 
 they could stoop together like monkeys, picking 
 vermin from each other s heads, and he whose head 
 was undergoing this operation stood, lay or sat with 
 closed eyes and an expression of the utmost stupid 
 ity upon his face. The sight of such an offensive 
 and loathsome performance, so evidently enjoyed by 
 both sexes of these savages or semi-savages, forces 
 one to the conclusion that, possibly, the much dis 
 cussed theory of the evolution of man from monkey- 
 dom may be the true one. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 31 
 
 When not sleeping or hunting vermin, much 
 of their time was passed in eating and drinking. 
 They had coffee, tea and biscuits served twice 
 daily, in addition to three square meals, con 
 sisting of rice, cooked to a stiff, almost dry mass, 
 and numerous little dishes of pork, beef, fish and 
 vegetables. Aside from rice, which was cooked in 
 Asiatic style, all the other food was served swim 
 ming in fat, with highly seasoned sauces, and the 
 stench of garlic and other strong seasonings they 
 used, could often be noticed to an offensive degree 
 in all parts of the ship. When pots, kettles and 
 dishes were placed on deck the men clustered about 
 them, and laughed, chatted and ate, and seemingly 
 enjoyed themselves immensely. 
 
 All over Asia, where rice is the principal food 
 of the natives, soups, meat, fish and vegetables are 
 considered more or less as side dishes. 
 
 Our Indians, having no more sense of decency 
 in their manner of feeding than in any other mode 
 of life, used their fingers instead of knives and forks, 
 simply pressing the rice into little balls, and laying 
 the backs of the finger tips against their lower lips, 
 with their thumbs they shot the rice balls into their 
 mouths, with a dexterity truly marvelous. 
 
 Out of the different pots, containing meat or 
 soup-like messes, every one ate and drank just as he 
 pleased, and it almost seemed as though they took 
 particular pains to slobber over the brims of the 
 vessels. Pieces of meat were seized with dirty 
 
32 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 fingers, and after a quantity had been torn or bitten 
 off, the remainder was thrown back into the pot. 
 
 But the most disgusting scenes were enacted 
 when flies and other vermin, which stuck to them like 
 leeches, had to be quieted during their meals. In 
 such cases their fingers were kept busy about in their 
 beads amongst the dirty hair, matted with grease 
 and cocoanut oil, and then again, without having 
 been wiped, inside the steaming and savory smell 
 ing rice and meat pots. 
 
 When I first watched them preparing to eat, I 
 thought that they would at least wash their fingers 
 before commencing their meals, but I was mistaken. 
 The only attempt at cleanliness was to draw them 
 through their dirty mouths and wipe them off on 
 their tarred and greasy trousers. A sight of this 
 kind, so repulsive to any one accustomed to cleanly 
 habits of living, destroyed my appetite for the rest 
 of the day. 
 
 But if the men who lived in the forecastle ever 
 went so far in their dirty practices as to disgust 
 even the dwellers in the cabin, then immediately 
 the orders came to clean the whole lot thoroughly. 
 Under the inspection of the carpenter, all the 
 Indians had to strip, and were compelled to wash 
 and scrub one another, and the dark brown, leather- 
 like skins were well scoured with sand soap and 
 ashes. After they had had their hair cut, and were 
 dressed in clean clothing, they looked a very differ 
 ent lot of men, indeed, almost respectable. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 83 
 
 But with a race of men who are happiest and 
 best contented when they can live as nearly as possi 
 ble upon an equality with hogs, such a cleaning pro 
 cess has but a slight effect and is of short duration. 
 
 In the Atlantic Ocean, about the tenth degree 
 of southern latitude, we one morning saw at the 
 verge of the northeastern horizon a steamer head 
 ing directly towards us, and our captain took her at 
 once for one of the many British men-of-war which 
 are constantly cruising along the African coast in 
 an endeavor to suppress the slave trade. His sur 
 mise proved to be right. The man-of-war had 
 scarcely neared us sufficiently when she signalled 
 for our name, what port we had sailed from, where 
 we were bound for, and numerous other questions, 
 all of which we replied to after running up our red 
 and yellow flag. But her commander, apparently, 
 was not satisfied with our answers. He ordered us 
 to lie to, at the same time lowering a boat and send 
 ing two officers aboard of us. They demanded to 
 be shown the ship s papers, after examining which 
 they apologized for their unfounded suspicions and 
 started to take leave of us. 
 
 But the courteous Spanish hospitality with 
 which our captain offered them a glass of his finest 
 Taragona wine seemed rather too tempting to be 
 declined, and, as a little later, the slim and graceful 
 figure of Dona Anselma descended from the quarter 
 deck and offered the British officers a hearty wel 
 come to Spanish ground, every one sat down in the 
 
 TRAVEL 3 
 
34 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 cabin and enjoyed a glass of wine and the flavor of 
 some good Manila cigars. But the Spaniards did 
 not understand English any better than the British 
 officers understood Spanish, and therefore I had to 
 be interpreter and the deliverer of some polite and 
 tender compliments to our Dona Anselma. 
 
 After we had emptied several glasses, toasting 
 the health of Dona Anselma, and drinking to a mu 
 tual pleasant and prosperous voyage, the British 
 officers left us. We squared our yards again and 
 continued our interrupted voyage, wishing each 
 other, after the manner of sailors, a hearty farewell. 
 
 Down to the thirtieth degree south, the weather 
 remained warm and pleasant, but in that latitude 
 it began to get cold and stormy, and the trade 
 winds ceased entirely. We felt regret for those 
 beautiful days we had hitherto enjoyed and that 
 the rough and stormy winter of the Southern 
 hemisphere was now to take their place. 
 
 In this cold and unpleasant region the feeling 
 of debility and exhaustion began to pervade my 
 whole system. I suffered pain, especially in my 
 joints, and in spite of my striving to throw it off it 
 got worse, and in the latitude of Capetown I broke 
 down completely. 
 
 A fever, which shook and undermined my 
 whole nervous system, confined me to my bed, 
 where for three weeks, raving in delirium, I suffered 
 severely. 
 
 The gales and winter storms of the Cape of 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 35 
 
 Good Hope, and the short, but high and powerful 
 running seas with which our vessel had to battle, 
 threw me about in the most pitiless manner, caus 
 ing me pain and misery impossible to describe. 
 Helpless and unable to move myself I lay in my 
 berth, utterly dependent upon the kindess of my 
 fellow passengers and the officers of the ship. 
 
 The captain acted as medical adviser. He read 
 and studied his medical books, but could not find 
 what he wanted. He tried many of the drugs in 
 his ship s medicine chest on me, but none of them 
 had the slightest effect, and he, therefore, came to 
 the conclusion that my fever had to run its course 
 before it would pass away. 
 
 The kind care bestowed upon me by every one 
 was extreme and self-denying, and the tears would 
 often rise to my eyes out of pure gratitude. 
 
 In consequence of the increasing bad weather, 
 the officers and even the brother of the captain 
 were obliged to remain, at times, days and nights 
 together on deck, and then Dona Anselma was kind 
 enough to share their watches with me. She sat 
 day after day at my bedside, encouraging me in 
 every way, and telling me so many things about 
 her beautiful and fondly beloved Spain. 
 
 As all things mortal must end, so did my sick 
 ness. I recovered my strength so rapidly that I 
 was soon able to walk for a while about the deck 
 during the daytime, with the assistance of my 
 attentive nurses. 
 
36 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 During my convalescence a heavy gale sud 
 denly swept down upon us one morning, which, 
 increasing from hour to hour, soon developed into 
 a hurricane. Our vessel rolled, pitched and tossed 
 most terribly, and the seas broke with such tremen 
 dous force upon our decks as to almost sink us one 
 great sea hurling its awful weight against the cabin 
 door, smashed it in, and turned cabin and state 
 rooms into a foaming sheet of water. Then again 
 the seas washed clear over our upper-deck, destroy 
 ing, in spite of the screen of canvas and planks, the 
 skylights, and sending cataracts of water down into 
 the cabin. 
 
 The galley fires were swamped, and it was 
 impossible to cook anything. The officers, dressed 
 in oilskins, scarcely left the deck and had no time 
 to think of us. They came below at intervals to 
 refresh themselves with a glass of wine or spirits, 
 endeavoring, at the same time, to cheer us up with 
 words of hope. 
 
 Under a pitch-dark sky, from which the rain 
 poured in sheets, our vessel labored that whole day 
 before the hurricane, rising and falling upon the 
 enormous seas, roaring and foaming under her. 
 
 Wl^n night came on, it found our little Juan- 
 ito crying in his berth, with Dofla Anselma and 
 myself sitting at one end of the cabin table, braced 
 with one hand on the table and the other on the 
 back of our seats, so as to keep ourselves in place. 
 While Dona Anselma wept and prayed, thinking 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 87 
 
 that at any moment we might go to the bottom, I 
 groaned inwardly, biting my lips to suppress the 
 pain which the continuous jerking of the vessel 
 caused me. 
 
 .The lamp over the cabin table had been broken 
 in the morning, and we had only the dim gleam of 
 an old ship s lantern in place of it. In such a 
 cheerless situation the minutes seemed to us like 
 hours, and we experienced all the horrors that 
 loneliness, hunger, and the momentary expectation 
 of death has for those in such a position of utter 
 helplessness. 
 
 We were just upon the point of retiring to our 
 staterooms when a tremendous sea struck the 
 quarter-deck, and, after smashing everything in its 
 way, poured with a roar like thunder down upon 
 the cabin table, drenching us to the skin. Lifting 
 me from the seat I was hurled to the floor, and 
 washed from side to side until my feet stuck fast 
 under the berth in a stateroom, the door of which 
 stood open. Pinned and jammed as I was, the 
 receding waters failed to dislodge me, and I was 
 obliged to lie there, one moment picked up by the 
 rush of the water and half strangled, the next left 
 hanging by my heels, almost suspended in mid-air. 
 
 Dofia Anselma, seeing me struggling in the 
 water, eind realizing the gravity of my situation and 
 my inability to assist myself, with all the nobility of a 
 true Spanish lady forgot herself and her own safety, 
 and made an heroic attempt to assist me in one 
 
88 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 way or another. But the movement of the vessel 
 and the force of the water were too much for her ; 
 she was flung to the floor at once and washed from 
 side to side of the cabin several times before she 
 could regain her former seat. 
 
 One of the officers chancing to come down just 
 then, rescued us from our critical position. He 
 released my feet from their very unpleasant holding 
 place and assisted me into my cabin, where I found 
 almost everything soaking wet, with water several 
 feet deep on the floor. 
 
 Doiia Anselma s room, which was at the stern 
 to one side of the rudder, was in a still worse condi 
 tion than mine. The seas had smashed windows 
 and shutters, fairly flooding her stateroom. Boxes, 
 satchels and wearing apparel were drifting about in 
 the greatest confusion, while her little son, lashed 
 securely in the upper berth, cried with cold, wet 
 and fright as loud as he possibly could. 
 
 While trying to devise some means whereby I 
 might best get through the night with at least a 
 small degree of comfort, Dona Anselma, accom 
 panied by her little boy, came timidly into my 
 cabin. The feeling of loneliness and misery in 
 her wet and gloomy apartment had impelled her 
 to this action. After arranging her son in a com 
 paratively dry corner of my upper berth, cov 
 ering him as warmly as possible, she and I, 
 wrapping ourselves in blankets, sat upon a trunk, 
 our backs against the partition, and with our arms 
 
P&AVEL, ETC. 
 
 braced against the upper berth, we strove to mini 
 mise the motion of the vessel. In this uncomfort 
 able position, unable to close our eyes for a moment, 
 we spent the long; and weary hours of that dreadful 
 night. 
 
 When morning dawned we learned with the 
 utmost delight that the worst of the storm was over, 
 and when a little late? the sun broke the clouds and 
 shone for a moment in at my cabin window, we felt 
 as though we had been reprieved from a sentence 
 of death. 
 
 During the day, as is usually the case after a 
 severe storm, a calm set in, and the vessel pitched 
 and rolled most terribly in the heavy cross-swell that 
 the storm had left behind. Our vessel suffered con 
 siderable damage during the storm; it looked more 
 like a wreck, or a ship that had been in battle, than 
 anything else. 
 
 To repair the damage to the deck, masts, 
 sails, yards and rigging, required an amount of 
 activity and energy on board during the following 
 week that had been hitherto unknown. Every one 
 was busy hammering, calking, painting, tarring, 
 sewing, greasing or patching, and the men seemed 
 to work more steadily and with a better will than 
 ever before, but it was, perhaps, for the sake of the 
 gin and brandy which was very liberally supplied 
 them. 
 
 The loss of my canary bird was regretted by 
 every one in the cabin. I found him the morning 
 
40 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 after the storm in his broken cage, lying in a corner 
 under my berth, dead. 
 
 In consequence of adverse winds, coupled with 
 cold and stormy weather, our captain decided to go 
 no further down than to the forty -fifth degree south. 
 We, therefore, changed our course and steered east 
 by north directly for Australia, but from which a 
 waste of some four thousand miles of water still 
 separated us. 
 
 While traversing the whole width of the Indian 
 Ocean we did not see even a sail, and literally noth 
 ing but sky and water. During all this time the 
 sun seldom made its appearance; the sea ran high 
 and the weather remained cold, rainy and unpleasant, 
 offering but little encouragement to tempt one on 
 deck. We preferred to stay below in the cabin 
 where we felt more at home, and where, with closed 
 doors and windows, our stove gave out almost a 
 tropical heat. 
 
 The only amusement we found on deck con 
 sisted in watching and feeding the different sea and 
 storm birds that sometimes flocked about the ship 
 in thousands. Blue and variegated sea-swallows, 
 gray and white feathered sea-gulls, darker gray- 
 brown, dirty looking albatrosses, which for voracity 
 and greediness are phenomenal, were our only com 
 panions during the long and lonely journey across 
 the Indian Ocean. 
 
 At times, out of mere dearth of something to do, 
 we shot into these great flocks of sea-fowl, and so 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 41 
 
 utterly greedy and rapacious are they that when one 
 was killed or wounded and fell to the water, the 
 others swooped down upon him, and screaming and 
 fighting tore the still living body to pieces, and in 
 a few minutes were ready for more. 
 
 Then again we caught them with hook and 
 line, baited with any sort of food, and when hauled 
 upon deck their clumsiness was very amusing. Ow 
 ing to their webbed feet they were unable to steady 
 themselves on the wet slanting decks, and slid about 
 in the most fantastic fashion, striking and snapping 
 at the legs of every one that came near them, with 
 their bills. When we became tired of this distrac 
 tion we threw them overboard. 
 
 At last the tedious journey across this weary 
 waste of water was at an end, and one morning, with 
 the greatest delight, when we were about the twenty- 
 fifth degree of southern latitude, we sighted at a 
 distance of some thirty miles the coast of West 
 Australia. The unpleasant experiences of the last 
 five weeks were soon forgotten, as with fair winds 
 and all our canvas set, we again approached the 
 tropics. 
 
 After the cold and stormy weather we were now 
 inclined to be more easily satisfied, and appreciated 
 the mild, salubrious climate far more than ever 
 before. We longed only to renew our long inter- 
 tupted studies and amusements, and even Don 
 Vicento, who had a passionate fondness for the 
 noble and necessary trade of shoe-making, again 
 
42 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 followed his hobby. Smoking his cigarillo he sat 
 all day long in the shadow of the awnings, lashing, 
 hammering and stitching shoes and slippers for 
 whoever wished them. 
 
 The evenings and the early mornings, just 
 before sunset and sunrise, are so transcendently 
 beautiful in this part of the world, that once seen 
 they can never be forgotten. Wrapped in dreams I 
 sat for hours in the tops, enjoying the grandeur of 
 our enchanting world. 
 
 Droves of dolphin, numberless turtle, strange 
 sea and land birds, bark, trunks and limbs of trees, 
 sedge, reeds, water-lilies and water-roses adrift about 
 us, indicated the proximity of land, when one day, 
 at noon, the southeast point of the Island of Java 
 rose above the horizon. With a stiff breeze, and 
 steering an easterly course, we soon lost sight of it, 
 but early the next morning the Island of Bali, as 
 though produced by magic power, spread itself be 
 fore our eyes. We sailed close in along the coast, and 
 upon reaching the east point of the island changed 
 our course and entered the Strait of Lombock. 
 
 In this narrow channel we tacked from one 
 side to the other until the current became so strong 
 and the wind so unfavorable that our captain 
 thought best to wear ship and try his luck in 
 another passage. The current, which ran from 
 five to six miles an hour, soon took us out of the 
 Lombock Strait and brought us to where we entered 
 a few hours before. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 43 
 
 During that night and the following day we 
 sailed along the south coast of Lombock, and 
 towards evening of the second day reached the east 
 point of it. As darkness would soon fall our cap 
 tain decided to wait for daybreak before attempting 
 the channel, and to stand off and on during the 
 night. It was exquisitely calm and charming. 
 Myriads of stars shone out and glittered in all their 
 tropical splendor, and the moon throwing a silvery 
 veil of light over all. The serenity of the night was 
 hardly interrupted, and then only by the hollow 
 boom of the breaking surf, by the plashing of little 
 waves against the sides of the vessel, and by the 
 hiss of the sea in our wake as it spread away behind 
 us in long lines of wonderful phosphorescent light. 
 At daybreak we made a northerly course, and 
 sunrise found us at the entrance of the Alias Strait. 
 We encountered a strong adverse current, almost 
 sufficient to check our progress, in spite of a fresh 
 and favorable breeze. In this narrow and crooked 
 strait, hemmed in by the Islands of Lombock and 
 Surnbava, we drifted as though on a lake, and the 
 views spread before us were unspeakably grand. 
 
 In the Afternoon we reached Bali, a little Malay 
 village on the Island of Sumbava, and as our cap 
 tain intended to replenish the water casks and take 
 in some fresh provisions, we dropped our anchor 
 just opposite the little settlement. Our sailors were 
 still busy furling the sails when a little canoe, con 
 taining about half a dozen Malays, came alongside. 
 
44 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Some of them, with wooden swords slung around 
 their waists, climbed on deck^with monkey-like 
 agility, and presented us with baskets of the choic 
 est tropical fruits. 
 
 They were dressed lightly, comfortably and 
 very airily, in almost the same costume as when 
 they came into the world. As such a sight was new 
 to some of us, we felt rather uncomfortable as we 
 beheld these little coffee-colored, betel-imt-chewing, 
 monkeyish creatures jumping and dancing about 
 the deck almost stark naked. 
 
 While the Malay-speaking mates had to trans 
 late the captain s questions to the natives, we 
 pounced upon the exquisite looking, but still better 
 tasting fruits, in an endeavor to empty the baskets 
 in as short a time as possible. 
 
 With the intention to arrange matters with the 
 chief of this district himself, and to examine the 
 spring from which we were to refill our water casks, 
 the first mate was ordered on shore. The carpen 
 ter and I accompanied him, and half an hour later 
 I stood on solid ground for the first time in four 
 months. The impression that it made upon me 
 as I set my foot, for the first time in my life, 
 upon tropical soil, surrounded by a forest of 
 graceful cocoanut palms, will never fade from my 
 memory. 
 
 Guided by some natives, who in turn were fol 
 lowed by a filthy crowd of nude and semi-nude 
 friends and relatives, some of them adorned with 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 45 
 
 rings, beads, gay feathers and wooden weapons, we 
 marched directly to the residence of the chieftain. 
 
 A miserable, half-decayed bamboo hut, resting 
 on piles about six feet above the ground, was 
 pointed out to us as the end of our journey. We 
 climbed an old ladder that had evidently done duty 
 in a hen-coop, and found upon reaching the top of 
 it, his Honor, the governor of this district, at home. 
 
 He was a fat, clumsy and ill-smelling old fel 
 low, and received us with a savage gesture of 
 welcome. After having returned the salutation we 
 followed his example and squatted upon a rotten 
 old mat, smoking, talking and gazing at one another. 
 
 The mate had scarcely introduced his business 
 when some half a dozen women, clad as lightly as 
 possible, entered from different apartments, and, 
 taking little or no notice of us, grouped themselves 
 about their lord and master. The chief, in posses 
 sion of such a bevy of charmers, possibly intended 
 to dazzle us with the beauties of his harem. Then, 
 instead of answering the questions put to him by 
 the mate, he reclined gracefully upon the mat, with 
 his head pillowed in the lap of one of his dulcineas, 
 and with closed eyes and an expression of intense 
 stupidity upon his face enjoyed the usual search 
 through his disgustingly filthy head. 
 
 The mate had brought a bottle of brandy along 
 with him, and when he saw that this lord of the 
 island preferred the rosy chains of love to the baser 
 cares of business, he produced it, and after we had 
 
46 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 sampled it presented the remainder to the chief. 
 The bribe was too much for him. He immediately 
 arose from his recumbent position and deserted 
 Venus for Bacchus. Slinging an old wooden sword 
 around his bare belly he descended the old ladder 
 like a crab, backward, and marching at the head of 
 a rabble of his people led us through a lovely stretch 
 of country to a spring most beautifully located. 
 Before returning to the beach we refreshed ourselves 
 with great draughts of the exquisite liquid that 
 gushed clear and cool from a cleft rock, and in half 
 an hour s time were aboard ship again, where we 
 found Dofia Anselma all anxiety to hear our adven 
 tures. 
 
 We remained upon deck until a late hour that 
 night. The sight of our vessel, as she lay at 
 anchor with furled sails, and surrounded by land, 
 was as new and interesting to us as the scene 
 ashore, where the natives danced and enjoyed 
 themselves upon the beach by the light of torches. 
 
 Early next morning the largest boat we had 
 was manned, and with four water casks in tow 
 went ashore for water. While the men, commanded 
 by the carpenter and boatswain, were filling the 
 casks, the second mate and I made a little tour 
 about the vicinity of the spring. 
 
 At noon, the casks being filled and slung at the 
 side of the boat, we left the shore and steered for 
 the ship, but the current was strong, and the breeze 
 which in the meantime had sprung up, raised such 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 47 
 
 a sea that it made rowing very difficult. We had 
 scarcely made half the distance to the ship when, 
 owing to the pitching of the boat, the water casks 
 began to work loose, and while trying to secure 
 them in place the current whirled the boat about, 
 and carried it rapidly out of sight of the ship. 
 
 The mate, still hoping to save at least some of 
 the casks, ordered the men to pull for the nearest 
 shore, but when we got close in, a side current 
 caught us, and swept us swiftly upon a reef that lay 
 just under water. In a moment all the casks had 
 broken away and disappeared from us forever. The 
 boat was swamped, and turned completely upon her 
 side, and as but little hope remained of saving her 
 from destruction, we had to think about our own 
 safety. A sailor swam to land, fastened a line to a 
 tree, and by means of it we reached the shore, soak 
 ing wet, and full of the sea water we had swallowed. 
 
 Bidding farewell to the wreck of our boat, we 
 started in a northerly direction along the coast. 
 The experiences of the last few hours kept us all 
 busy, each with his own thoughts, so that at first 
 we tramped along in perfect silence. When night 
 fell, with tropical suddenness, we were forced to 
 camp where darkness found us. Parched with 
 thirst, and worn out by exertion, we lay ourselves 
 upon the sand of the beach, and within a few 
 moments were dead to the world. 
 
 The next morning I noticed that I had suffered 
 considerably from sunburn, and iny feet, sore and 
 
48 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 blistered, made walking almost impossible. My 
 canvas shoes were full of sand and gravel, and as I 
 could walk with less pain without than with them, 
 I threw them aside, and hobbled along in bare 
 feet. 
 
 At noon we reached a pretty little grove of 
 trees, and decided to rest for awhile in the shade. 
 Some of the sailors, who had gone in search of 
 water and fruits, returned with pineapples, chicos, 
 mangoes and bananas, bringing in their greasy old 
 caps the most delicious spring water. Although 
 the water was ill smelling from its contact with 
 these filthy caps, I raised one to my lips and drank, 
 and never before have I enjoyed so delicious a 
 draught. The marvelous beauty of the scenery 
 caused me to completely forget my misery. Exquis 
 ite orchids, glowing with blossoms of great beauty 
 and fragrance ; lofty trees, festooned with parasitic 
 vines, its rich, velvet-like foliage forming an impen 
 etrable screen from the rays of the scorching sun ; 
 butterflies, humming-birds, parrots and cockatoos, 
 of the most brilliantly variegated colors ; innumer 
 able monkeys, leaping, jumping and climbing in 
 the most daringly ludicrous style from tree to tree 
 interested me to the exclusion of my own sorrow. 
 
 Near evening, as we rounded a headland, we 
 came in sight of our dear old Bella Gallega. The 
 delight we felt evinced itself in the speed with 
 which we made our way to the nearest point, where 
 the boat, which the captain sent off as soon as he 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 49 
 
 caught sight of us, could land, and in an hour s 
 time we were once more on board. 
 
 The captain took the whole affair very coolly 
 and seemed only too glad to see us all safe on 
 board. We had still two boats and plenty of empty 
 water casks, so that the loss was not at all an 
 irreparable one. 
 
 After we had refreshed ourselves with food and 
 drink, and talked over our adventures for a short 
 time, I wished the company good-night and 
 crawled into my berth. My appearance next morn 
 ing created the greatest laughter. The furnace-like 
 heat of a tropical sun had treated me rather 
 unkindly, and my face, neck and arms were red as 
 a beet. 
 
 A little after daybreak, the first mate, the 
 boatswain and a number of sailors went ashore, and 
 when they returned with four filled water-casks we 
 were ready to sail and had to wait only for the 
 provisions ordered. 
 
 A business-like activity prevailed all day long 
 on deck, with such a noise and confusion as I had 
 never seen nor heard before. The numerous 
 Malays, both women and men, who came on board, 
 used the deck as a salesroom for their different 
 kinds of merchandise. They did not care much for 
 cash, but preferred to exchange their wares for 
 something that had more value for them than 
 money. Some traded beads, glass buttons and 
 other wjrthless stuff for the prettiest parrots, cocka- 
 
 TRAVEL 4 
 
50 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 toos and humming birds ; others, for greasy, worn- 
 out clothing, gave the finest tropical fruits, sugar 
 cane and jellies ; while others again, in exchange 
 for rusty old cutlery, traded mats, monkeys and 
 wooden weapons. 
 
 The sight of such a crowd of extraordinary 
 creatures, with their peculiar costumes, or, rather, 
 lack of costumes, their monkey-like quickness of 
 movement and gesture, was at once most interesting 
 and amusing. 
 
 It was comical, indeed, to watch a dirty Malay 
 strutting about the deck with an assumption of 
 immense superiority to his fellows, as he proudly 
 displayed a pair of brass rings in his ears the rest 
 of him almost as naked as the moment he was born. 
 Or a woman, her head decorated with upstanding 
 feathers, assuming the airs and graces of a queen, 
 on account of a filthy sailor s waist-coat that she 
 was wearing wrong side behind. 
 
 The impression made by those Malay women 
 was not in the least favorable. Grace, beauty or 
 good manners are equally unknown among them. 
 
 Late in the afternoon the chief arrived on 
 board, accompanied by a lot of half-naked women, 
 and brought us chickens, ducks, geese, eggs, a calf, 
 several pitchers of milk, spices, fruits and veg 
 etables, for which the captain paid him a sum 
 equal to about twelve Mexican dollars. The whole 
 company was thereupon treated to gin and biscuits, 
 and a little later ordered to leave the vessel. To 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 61 
 
 get rid of the rubbish these people had left behind 
 the whole deck was at once scrubbed down 
 thoroughly. 
 
 Next morning at daybreak we set sail and left. 
 We passed the Pic of Sumbava, caught a favorable 
 breeze, and under a full press of canvas made good 
 progress. The Macassar Strait is about three hun 
 dred and fifty miles long. We navigated this sheet 
 of water with difficulty, owing to the stiff current 
 and the constant veering of the wind ; sometimes 
 our ship losing during the night all the headway 
 she had made the previous day. 
 
 After we left Bali our ship resembled a men 
 agerie more than anything else. Cages, filled with 
 birds of all kinds and plumage, were standing and 
 hanging about in every available place ; chickens, 
 ducks and geese, their wings clipped to prevent 
 their flying overboard, were turned loose on deck, 
 where they fraternized with the drove of swine we 
 carried, which also had the liberty of the deck. 
 Added to all these were the monkeys, most amus 
 ing little brutes with their queer antics, but so 
 obscene in act and gesture that we were obliged to 
 banish them to the society of the men in the fore 
 castle. The constant screeching, chucking, quack 
 ing, crowing and grunting of all this livestock 
 became almost unbearable, and would have driven 
 a nervous person mad. 
 
 At the further end of the Macassar Strait, 
 when crossing the Equator for the second time 
 
52 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 during our voyage, the low-hanging, pitch-black 
 clouds poured down rain in such a tropical fashion, 
 that we really feared the weight of the water, which 
 came cataract-like upon us, would sink us to the 
 bottom of that vast, lonely waste of ocean. The 
 quantity of water which fell upon our decks was so 
 great that the scuppers could not drain it off 
 quickly enough, consequently we soon had a con 
 siderable depth inside our bulwarks, in which every 
 thing floatable in the way of deck hamper, animals 
 and human beings were washed from side to side 
 with every roll of the ship. 
 
 At length we left the Strait of Macassar behind 
 us, and with a fair and fresh breeze made good time 
 across the Sea of Celebes, when, one morning, we 
 sighted the Sulu or Jolo Islands. Steering a north 
 westerly course we kept in view of them, but on 
 the evening of the second day came to anchor 
 scarcely a mile off shore, owing to unfavorable 
 winds and a strong current setting in to the land. 
 
 The Islands of Jolo, which, even at that time, 
 had cost the Spanish government a great many 
 lives as well as much treasure, have during later 
 years been brought more completely under its rule. 
 
 The inhabitants were Mahometans, and had 
 the reputation of being fanatical haters of Chris 
 tians, and fierce and fearless pirates. They selected 
 the Southern Philippines as a good field for plun 
 der, to which they sallied forth in small, but swift 
 sailing boats, called vintas. Under cover of night 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 63 
 
 they landed their crews, and attacked the unsus 
 pecting settlements, burning and looting them, 
 and with plunder and prisoners retreated to their 
 ships. If the prisoners had friends willing and 
 able to ransom them, the Moros would give them 
 their liberty, but if not, they were enslaved under 
 the most cruel task-masters for the balance of their 
 lives. 
 
 In later years I became acquainted with several 
 Spaniards, Mestizos and Indies in the Southern 
 Philippines, all of whom had been captured in this 
 way and carried off by Moros, but as their ransom 
 was forthcoming they were returned, after a short 
 captivity to their homes and families reduced to 
 skeletons and covered with sores and wounds. 
 Years after this had happened the remembrance 
 alone terrified them so horrible an experience had 
 it been. 
 
 Seafaring men, who, in the sixties or earlier, 
 sailed these seas in which the Jolo Islands are 
 situated, could tell many tales of attack and fierce 
 battles they had gone through at the hands of the 
 savage inhabitants. 
 
 During the time we were at anchor the Moros 
 did not molest us at all. We, of course, took all 
 necessary precautions, keeping our cannon arid 
 guns loaded and in readiness for anything that 
 might happen. But instead of the expected pirat 
 ical hordes, a swarm of troublesome, blood-thirsty 
 insects were blown over to us, and attacked, bit and 
 
54 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 stung us so unmercifully that our faces and hands 
 were swollen and disfigured for the next few days. 
 
 The following morning, as a fresh land breeze 
 sprung up, we weighed anchor and continued our 
 voyage. A few days later we entered the Strait of 
 Basilan, lying between the Islands of Basilan and 
 Mindanao, the Spanish flag floating above the forti 
 fication walls of Zamboanga as we drifted into 
 Philippine waters into the Sea of Jolo. 
 
 The further north we sailed the more interest 
 ing appeared the scenes about us, and we could 
 notice from the number of vessels afloat that we 
 were nearing the port of destination the capital of 
 the Philippine Islands. Besides Pancos, Cascos, 
 Barangayanes, Vilos, Paraos and other small native 
 boats, rigged with bamboo masts, and sails of mat 
 ting and palm leaves, we noticed many larger craft 
 of more modern build, which traded between 
 Manila and the islands of the Southern Philippines. 
 
 Our passage amid this wonderful little world 
 of islands was really grand. Surrounded so closely 
 by them that sometimes we could see no outlet, it 
 seemed as though we were gliding along on the 
 mirror-like surface of a beautiful lake. No matter 
 in which direction we turned our eyes, everywhere 
 we saw the same wealth, the same splendor of trop 
 ical soil. The shore scenery reflected in the calm, 
 mirror-like water, which in the sunlight appeared a 
 beautiful light-green color, and so clear that in 
 places we could see and admire the wonders which 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 65 
 
 grew, swam, fought or lay still at the bottom of the 
 sea. In this delightful part of the world I spent 
 hours upon hours in the mast-tops of our vessel, 
 from whence I could enjoy the enchantment of 
 nature to far better advantage than from the deck. 
 The winds were usually very light, and as the 
 current ran strong in these narrow channels, we 
 were obliged to drop our anchors almost every 
 night, and sometimes even during the day. 
 
 That everything in this world, even the very 
 best, has its drawbacks is a truism, and we, among 
 the Philippine paradise, had to bow, too, to the 
 inevitable. Insects, which seemed to be created 
 only for the annoyance of human beings, drifted on 
 board while we lay at anchor, in swarms of thou 
 sands, and tortured Dona Anselma, her little boy 
 and myself in such a cruel fashion that from itch 
 ing, pricking and buzzing sensations we were driven 
 almost to desperation. 
 
 The rest of our ship s company, having more 
 or less the hot tropical blood running in their veins, 
 suffered less, the bites and stings causing scarcely 
 any swelling. 
 
 We passed between the Islands of Luzon and 
 Mindoro, through the Strait of Bernardino, carried 
 along by a stiff breeze up the coast, and a few hours 
 later reached the Island of Corrigidor. We saluted 
 the Spanish flag which flew above the walls of the 
 fort, and answered to the questions that were sig 
 naled us. 
 
66 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 The Island of Corrigidor lies at the entrance 
 to the spacious bay at Manila, and divides the 
 entrance into two almost equal parts, the northern 
 of which is known as the Boca Grande, and the 
 southern as the Boca Chica. 
 
 Our captain decided to go through Boca Chica, 
 but scarcely had we reached the channel when we 
 collided with another incoming vessel, a three- 
 masted schooner from Bremen. With the exception 
 of the mate on watch, we were at dinner when the 
 collision occurred. We immediately hurried on 
 deck, and found to our greatest surprise the bow 
 sprit of the green and black-painted schooner fast 
 in our rigging, with the schooner herself close 
 alongside to starboard. The officers and crew of 
 the schooner shouted and cursed in Low German, 
 blaming us and threatening to hold us responsible 
 for everything. Our people, in Spanish and Tagaloc, 
 returned the compliment, but in more temperate 
 language. 
 
 The fact that neither party understood what 
 the other said cut no figure in this interchange of 
 compliments both parties were worked up to such 
 a pitch of excitement that this fact was overlooked 
 completely. Finally our captain requested me to 
 act as interpreter, and the anger of both sides hav 
 ing cooled, they soon arrived at an understanding 
 and with good will and the united strength of both 
 crews the men set to work to release the vessels and 
 repair damages. In a short time the sailors had 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 57 
 
 succeeded in disengaging them, and when they 
 drifted apart we found to our mutual satisfac 
 tion that neither ship had sustained any material 
 damage. 
 
 It was difficult to decide whether the Spanish 
 or the German vessel was to blame for this accident, 
 as it occurred in such a narrow channel, where cur 
 rents, changeable winds, and other obstacles have 
 to be taken into consideration. In such cases, 
 usually, both parties are equally to blame, although 
 each plays the innocent and tries to throw the 
 responsibility upon the other. 
 
 In the beautiful bay of Manila, surrounded on 
 all sides by lofty, imposing ranges of mountains, 
 we drifted in a continuous calm fully twenty-four 
 hours before we could reach the anchor ground. 
 Any number of vesssels, from the stately frigate to 
 the smallest pontin, shared the same fate with us, 
 and we all seemed to be glued to the oily, mirror- 
 like surface of the water. 
 
 As we approached our destination Manila 
 the more heartfelt were my regrets that our mem 
 orable voyage, in which I had spent so many happy 
 days in company with our amiable Spanish friends, 
 was soon to end. I could hardly think it possible 
 that this day would be my last on board of our 
 good old Bella Gallega, which during a hundred and 
 ninety days had lodged me so comfortably, and car 
 ried me through so many perils and dangers. It 
 was hard for me to realize that within a few hours 
 
68 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 we should part company, perhaps forever, and the 
 thought made me feel so sad and depressed that 
 tears came constantly to my eyes. 
 
 The impressions a young man receives during 
 his first experience in the great world are always 
 very clearly defined, and usually remain to the very 
 hour of death in his memory, whether they be pleas 
 ant or otherwise. 
 
 The many villages scattered along the shore, 
 surrounded by trees and the splendor of tropical 
 vegetation, afforded a most interesting view, and 
 panorama-like moved slowly before our eyes. We 
 passed the war-harbor Cavite, once so renowned in 
 the annals of Spanish history, and from its cleanli 
 ness and charming situation called the "Cadiz of 
 the Philippines," and in the afternoon dropped 
 anchor about two miles from shore, just opposite 
 Manila. 
 
 According to an old and obsolete custom, no 
 one is allowed to communicate with a newly-arrived 
 vessel in Spanish waters until the harbor, the 
 custom-house and the sanitary authorities have made 
 their official visits. It seemed that on this particular 
 day the Spanish authorities had taken an unusually 
 long nap, or, perhaps, they did not consider it worth 
 while to row out so far upon the bay during the 
 afternoon, for the sake of an old sailing vessel. 
 
 At all events, the hours passed slowly by, one 
 after another, and still the officials did not make their 
 appearance. In the meantime half a dozen bancas 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 69 
 
 arrived little rowboats, with awnings of palm- 
 leaves, and constructed of the trunks of trees, which, 
 however, kept some forty or fifty feet away, out 
 of respect for the port regulations. From one of 
 these boats piped the voice of Dona Anselma s hus 
 band ; his happy face smiled over to her, but 
 under the present circumstances he was allowed 
 only to salute his pretty wife from a distance. 
 
 One could hardly blame him when he became 
 wild at the behavior of his countrymen, and vented 
 his anger in a variety of expressive, but not very 
 flattering remarks. After he had waited for about 
 half an hour he went on shore again, as he said, 
 with the intention of " making those lazy fellows 
 g et up," and to " remind them in plain language 
 of their duty." We on board, however, arrived at 
 the conclusion that the bull-headed authorities took 
 no notice of his remonstrances, as they thought it 
 best to let us lay where we were until the next 
 morning. 
 
 As night came on we went below, and for the 
 last time grouped ourselves about the cabin table 
 for dinner. Our captain treated us to champagne, 
 and did everything to make the last hours on board 
 as happy and comfortable as possible. 
 
 The following morning the so-called Faluas 
 de la Capitania del Puerto and del Resguardo de 
 la Bahia came alongside our vessel. They were 
 broad, clumsy rowboats, half roofed over, and 
 resembled in many ways the galleys of former cen- 
 
60 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 turies. Several gentlemen, some in civilian cos 
 tume, and others in uniform, crawled out from under 
 the roofs, and with a certain Spanish nonchalance 
 at once climbed on deck. A few moments later such 
 a kissing, embracing and handclapping followed as 
 almost made me weak and faint. Doiia Anselma in 
 troduced us to her husband who was a civil govern 
 ment official, and he did the honors to the rest of 
 the party. After business matters had been ar 
 ranged we stepped into the cabin, where, over a 
 glass of wine and fresh Manila cigars, we soon 
 found ourselves talking and laughing like old-time 
 friends and acquaintances. 
 
 With the greatest politeness the Spanish officers 
 placed their boats at our disposal, and invited us to 
 go ashore with them. We accepted their kind invi 
 tation, and half an hour later stood on terra fir ma. 
 
 In the course of a few minutes all our ba^o-age 
 
 oo o / 
 
 which was scarcely opened, was passed through 
 the custom-house, and we were then at liberty to go 
 where and do whatever we pleased. Whether such 
 a fair dispatch on the part of the polite Spanish 
 custom-house officers is in the interest of the gov 
 ernment I do not wish to discuss. I only know that 
 it makes a better impression upon travelers than when 
 trunks, boxes and satchels, even those of ladies, 
 are searched and scrutinized by clumsy and impo 
 lite officials, as in Germany, for instance, where this 
 body is composed mostly of retired military petty 
 officers. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 During my sojourn on the hospitable shores of 
 that delightful Spanish colony I enjoyed the pleas 
 ures of life to its fullest extent. I became so en 
 amoured of that charming country, of its good- 
 humored and good-natured inhabitants, and with 
 the pleasing, cheerful ways of Philippine social 
 life, that I decided to return within a number of 
 years and make it my future home. 
 
 When not traveling in the interior of Luzon 
 or on other islands in the vicinity, I usually spent 
 tKe days in or near Manila, where the greatest 
 variety of new, strange, and fascinating scenes con 
 stantly passed before my eyes. To hear wonderful 
 music, to enjoy the pleasure of dancing, to see the 
 extreme splendor of religious festivals, it is neces 
 sary to go to the Philippines. 
 
 There are but few countries on our globe in 
 which the habits and peculiarities of former centu 
 ries are so rigidly adhered to, and where the 
 admirer of nature finds such a rich, productive field 
 for study as on the Philippines, which in this 
 respect may be looked upon as the Jewel of the 
 Orient. 
 
 In later years I was fortunate enough to become 
 more familiar with the Philippine Islands than per 
 haps falls to the lot of many of my fellowmen. I 
 was employed there first as a clerk, and later, in 
 
 (61) 
 
62 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Manila, Calle Anloague 8, for over twelve years, 
 established under the firm of E. Klopfer & Co. 
 During all this time traveling was my greatest 
 pleasure, and at every opportunity possible I took a 
 vacation, and left the capital, in order to see more 
 of that beautiful country. 
 
 I have traveled on horseback thousands of 
 miles, crossing the different islands from one side 
 to the other, and never grew tired of the constantly 
 changing scenes and the tropical luxuriance of that 
 incomparable archipelago, which to this very day is 
 so little known and appreciated in other parts of 
 the world. 
 
 When I had been for nearly six months on the 
 Philippines I was obliged to consider in earnest the 
 question of my departure. It was harder for me 
 than I imagined it would be to tear myself from a 
 country whose seductive influences had taken 
 such a hold upon me. It was, however, a disa 
 greeable necessity ; but he who yearns, as I did, 
 to observe the marvels and beauties of this world 
 of ours must not permit himself to become en 
 amored of the charms of women in any particular 
 locality. 
 
 I left Manila on the American bark Early Bird. 
 It was evening when we made our way out of the 
 harbor. The vessel was in ballast, bound for Hong 
 Kong, where she had a better paying rice charter 
 from the China Coast. A fresh land breeze carried 
 us along nicely, and at daybreak the next morning 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 63 
 
 we found ourselves outside of the Island of Cor- 
 rigidor. 
 
 In a heavy sea, with unfavorable winds, we 
 beat up the coast as far as Cape Bolinao, from 
 whence we steered a northwesterly course right into 
 the heart of the China Sea. Wrapped in a dream, 
 I stood to the last moment on the quarter deck, 
 gazing with moistened eyes at the fast disappearing 
 land which, during the past few months, had 
 received and entertained me so hospitably. Now, 
 as I found myself once more amid the waves of the 
 heaving, restless ocean, surrounded by naught save 
 sky and water, the recollection of those beautiful 
 days I had spent there returned to my memory 
 stronger than ever, causing a feeling of depression 
 and melancholy. 
 
 The further we left the land behind us the 
 more we noticed the effect of the strong northeast 
 monsoon. The mountainous waves rolled their 
 foaming crests alongside, and the beam seas, through 
 which we ploughed during the whole voyage, treated 
 our lightly ballasted bark most unmercifully. She 
 rolled and pitched in such a dreadful manner that 
 even the best sailors aboard were seized with nausea, 
 their heads felt like bursting, and their stomachs 
 rebelled. 
 
 Besides myself there was another passenger on 
 board, a Mestizo from the interior of Luzon. This 
 poor fellow, who had never been at sea before, 
 became seasick before we left Manila. He at once 
 
64 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 crawled into his berth and did not make his appear 
 ance until we had anchored in the calm waters of 
 the harbor of Hong Kong. He then resembled a 
 dried-up mummy, with his yellow, death-like com 
 plexion. He had an Indian boy along with him as 
 servant, but as he shared the same fate of his mas 
 ter, the servant, too, had to be looked after by our 
 steward. Securely lashed to their berths, both lay 
 in the one stateroom, where they groaned and be 
 wailed their fate in a most pitiful and heartrending 
 manner. 
 
 It took us fully seven days to make Hong Kong, 
 although the distance is not more than six hundred 
 and fifty miles. The weather was very stormy, the 
 dark, low-hanging clouds completely shut the sun 
 from us, and the Early Bird, with reefed stormsails, 
 could hardly make headway against the tremendous 
 seas. Our experience of that week aboard the bark 
 was a very unpleasant one, and the anxiety to reach 
 Hong Kong was general and mutual. Without hold 
 ing on to something one could neither walk nor 
 stand, and unless firmly packed into our berths 
 with mattresses and quilts, we would have certainly 
 been pitched out of them during the night. 
 
 The captain, the mates and myself were the 
 only ones able to come to table for our meals. The 
 dreadful movement of the vessel took away all 
 appetite for food, and the little one was able to eat 
 was swallowed with the utmost aversion and diffi 
 culty. With our legs twisted about the legs of the 
 
TRAVEL, E\TC. 65 
 
 dining table, we sat there and tried our best to 
 move our bodies in unison with the movement of 
 the vessel, which the foaming and roaring seas 
 tossed about like a nutshell. 
 
 Plates and dishes were set inside the squares 
 of the storm-boards, fastened at right angles across 
 the dining table. The steward stood by and did all 
 he could to keep things in place, but neither he nor 
 we could prevent them from flying from the table 
 to the floor, against the walls, or into our laps, at 
 every pitch from the bark. We balanced the plates 
 with our left hand and, while watching a chance 
 when the pitching and rolling was least severe, we 
 shoveled the contents into our mouths as quickly 
 as possible. In spite of all the care and watchful 
 ness exercised, every now and then some one would 
 spill a cup of tea or a plate of soup over himself or 
 some one else, much to their mutual disgust. 
 
 In the morning of the last day of our voyage 
 we sighted the bare and rugged coast of China. 
 Wind and sea gradually subsiding, we were able to 
 carry on under full sail, and threading our way 
 through a fleet of thousands of Chinese fishing 
 junks, arrived a little after sunset at our port of 
 destination. We anchored scarcely half a mile 
 from shore, in the midst of hundreds of vessels 
 flying the flags of almost every nationality in the 
 world. 
 
 The bustle and business-like activity which 
 prevailed in the waters of the harbor were really 
 
 TRAVEL 5 
 
66 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 astonishing, and as new and interesting to me as 
 the mixed crowd of Chinese, both men and women, 
 who, with the object of recommending themselves 
 to us in their different lines of business, came and 
 went, thronging the deck of our vessel. 
 
 On account of the late hour of our arrival I 
 remained the night on board, and enjoyed the 
 beautiful sights which Hong Kong affords when seen 
 from the water or opposite shore, after dark. Next 
 morning I took leave of the Early Bird, at whose 
 mizzeii gaff the stars and stripes, the symbol of 
 freedom and liberty, were flying, and went ashore 
 in a sampan with our white-bearded captain. 
 
 I stepped into a chair and ordered the coolies 
 to carry me up the hill to the Hotel de 1 Europe. 
 A young Scotchman, a junior partner in one of the 
 largest English firms on the China Coast, who had 
 read my name in the passenger list, and whose 
 acquaintance I had made in the Philippines, came 
 a few hours later to the hotel and invited me to 
 make my home with him. I accepted his kind 
 invitation, and lived with him during my stay in 
 Hong Kong. 
 
 During my life on the China Coast I traveled 
 about a good deal, and was almost continually 
 on the road. From Canton to Peking I saw, 
 perhaps, everything worth seeing, trying at the 
 same time, to familiarize myself with the customs, 
 habits and peculiarities of these strange people. 
 
 China, in no way, made a favorable impres- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 67 
 
 sion upon me, not even in later years, dur 
 ing which, at different times, I have traveled in 
 this extraordinary country. The natural beauties 
 of the country are very commonplace when com 
 pared with other lands. The cities, towns and 
 villages are all built after the same pattern, resem 
 bling one another as much as one egg does the 
 rest of a dozen, and the people always showing their 
 most unfavorable characteristics to foreigners. 
 
 With but few exceptions, I have found every 
 where the same viciousness, the same immorality, 
 the same poverty and misery, the same want of 
 sympathy, the same mean, low and cunning faces, 
 and even the same objectionable odor. Ignorance, 
 tyranny and hatred of foreigners shows itself every 
 where, and makes a long residence among these 
 people neither pleasant nor desirable. 
 
 In the beginning of the early sixties, probably 
 in consequence of the punishment administered to 
 them by the French and English, the Chinese 
 appeared to be afraid of foreigners, and showed a 
 wholesome respect for their arts of war. But this 
 prestige has gradually been lost and since the last 
 Tong King war, especially since the catastrophe at 
 Langsom, it has almost ceased to exist. The Chinese 
 are now prouder and haughtier than ever, and it 
 positively seems as though they looked upon them 
 selves as the future conquerors of the world. 
 
 No thoughtful person can deny that China is 
 the nation of the future. Neither we nor our chil- 
 
63 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 dren will see it, but the time may come when every 
 other country in the world will be forced to submit 
 to Chinese rule. Such a country as China, as large 
 as Europe, with almost double the population of 
 that whole continent, is, in spite of the less war-like 
 qualities of its people, always a very dangerous 
 rival, and not to be underrated. 
 
 It is impossible for any one to clearly under 
 stand the subtlety and intricate cunning of the 
 Chinese, who has not lived among and studied them 
 exclusively and without bias for many years. 
 Neither in Europe nor America, not even in the 
 State of California, which is the American Eldorado 
 of the Chinese, has any one, up to the present time, 
 seemed to grasp the real estimate of these siupid- 
 looking, pig-tailed Asiatics. Their sagacity, their 
 ability, their tenacity of purpose, and their self-con 
 fidence beats everything, and no other nation in the 
 world can compete with them in these attributes, 
 which go so far towards success. 
 
 The poverty of their own over-crowded country 
 drives them abroad, where, through their ruinous 
 competition, they have often become a burden and 
 a nuisance in the labor market. Where the Chinese 
 have once nested they never can be driven out. 
 They increase almost as rapidly in numbers as 
 rabbits, and in a way which people of other nation 
 alities do not realize. If two hundred of them are 
 killed to-day, then, to-morrow, three hundred come 
 back to replace them. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 69 
 
 Money is the only power, the only god the 
 Chinese know. For money they do and suffer any 
 thing, even to the selling of waves and children. 
 A Chinaman will " thank you " if you spit in his 
 face and give him a dollar afterwards, and if you 
 pitch him out of one door he will surely sneak in 
 by another, if he thinks he can make any money by 
 it; or when his cunning teaches him that, perhaps, 
 one day he may find a field for his peculiar talents. 
 
 There are exceptions, but they are so very rare 
 that they only prove the rule. 
 
 Besides, the Chinese understand most thor 
 oughly the art of bribery, and realize fully the 
 power of money to overcome obstacles in many 
 countries the very highest authorities have fallen 
 victims to their temptations. 
 
 The Philippines, the Sunda Islands, the Moluc 
 cas, Siam, Birma, and many other of the Asiatic 
 countries are to-day, more or less, under the control 
 of the Chinese, and the greater proportion of their 
 commerce is controlled by them. 
 
 The peculiar aptitude for mercantile affairs, 
 combined with their industry and temperance, and 
 the aptness with which they grasp new ideas, can 
 not but inspire admiration from all who even hate 
 these people. 
 
 The smartest Jew turns pale with envy at the 
 tricks of his Chinese competitor. As far as business 
 ability is concerned, the Chinese are as far ahead of 
 the Jews as the Jews are ahead of the Christians. 
 
70 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Having seen everything of the country that 
 the time at my disposal would permit on this 
 occasion, my desire to see America drove me to the 
 New World. I had decided to make the necessary 
 arrangements for a passage, when, one morning in 
 the Queen s Road in Hong Kong, I met a captain 
 of an English sailing vessel, whom I knew. He told 
 me that he had just closed a charter at the office of 
 his Comprador, and that he was to sail in ballast to 
 Saigon, to bring a cargo of rice from thence to 
 Hong Kong. 
 
 He invited me to join him in his short round 
 voyage, and, as I was not pressed for time, I 
 accepted his invitation with pleasure. I went 
 home, packed a few necessaries in a satchel, and an 
 hour later found myself on board, ready for the 
 start. 
 
 Captain Scott was a jolly young Englishman, 
 and owner as well as skipper of his beautiful little 
 vessel of about 450 tons, which, in honor of his 
 wife, he had named Mary. This lady accompanied 
 us, with her sister, a charming girl of nineteen, 
 with rosy cheeks, golden hair, light blue eyes, and 
 the prettiest English expression of face. 
 
 The son of wealthy parents, he was not depend 
 ent upon the profits of his profession. When a good 
 charter was offered him, he accepted, and when he 
 could not get an advantageous one, he declined, 
 awaiting better times, or he would sail in ballast for 
 some other port. He combined the pleasant with 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 71 
 
 the practical side of a sailor s life, preferring rather 
 to do nothing than to go through lots of work for no 
 adequate reward. 
 
 The distance from Hong Kong to Saigon, the 
 capital of the French possessions in Cochin-China, 
 is about nine hundred miles. We expected to make 
 the run down in from five to six days, and to be 
 back in Hong Kong within a month. 
 
 The next morning we got our anchors aboard, 
 and with a fresh, favorable breeze we soon lost 
 sight of the romantic shores of the island of Hong 
 Kong. 
 
 Life aboard the little bark was very pleasant, and 
 the hours passed like a dream. The cabin and 
 staterooms were large, airy and richly furnished, 
 and afforded all the comforts of a parlor on land. 
 
 With the exception of breakfast, dinner and sup 
 per time, and the hours the ladies devoted to music, 
 vocal and instrumental, we spent the whole day in 
 the fresh air, under the double awnings on our 
 quarter deck. We would sit or lie in comfortable 
 Chinese rattan chairs, employing our time in read 
 ing, talking, chess or checkers ; sometimes walking 
 the deck for hours. 
 
 On the morning of the fifth day of our voyage, 
 just after we had seated ourselves at the breakfast 
 table, an event of the most disastrous nature sud 
 denly befell us. A horrible crash, that made the 
 vessel tremble in every rib and joint, turned our 
 thoughts and anticipations to terror, and flung us 
 
72 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 against the walls, against each other, or to the floor 
 with great force. Recovering ourselves, we at once 
 rushed upon deck, where we found everything in 
 the utmost confusion. The weeping of the women 
 the barking, grunting and cackling of our dogs, 
 pigs and poultry, the flapping of the sails against 
 the masts, the shouts, yells and curses of the officers 
 and men, all joined to the heavy breakers about us, 
 made confusion worse confounded. The ship was on 
 the rocks, and every sea lifted her, carrying her 
 crashing and grinding further onto them. 
 
 A dense fog lay upon the water, making our sit 
 uation seem even more perilous than it was, so 
 thick and impenetrable was it that we could scarcely 
 see our hands before our eyes. 
 
 Some of the officers went below into the hold and 
 returned with the ill news that the sea was pouring 
 in and had reached almost the level of itself. Our 
 only hope, therefore, was in our boats, to which we 
 at once turned for refuge. The two largest were 
 lowered and hastily furnished with provisions, 
 water, nautical instruments, blankets and other 
 necessaries. Dressed in oilskins, and taking the 
 most valuable of our possessions in little bundles 
 with us, we descended the ladder. We took along 
 two dogs and a cat ; the other animals had to be 
 left to their fate. 
 
 In the boat which the captain commanded, were 
 his wife, his sister-in-law, the second mate, six sail 
 ors and myself. The other boat, under the com- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 73 
 
 mand of the first mate, contained the rest of the 
 crew, the dogs and the cat. 
 
 The heat of the sun had dispersed the fog before 
 we deserted the unfortunate Mary. To avoid dam 
 age from the breakers we pulled a good distance to 
 sea, when we ceased rowing, in order to overlook 
 the locality which had proved so fatal to us. 
 
 The vessel had fallen a victim to a heavy fog and 
 the changeable currents of these seas. She had 
 been driven off her course, and at a speed of about 
 four miles an hour, carried upon the reefs of the 
 eastern Paracels. 
 
 We were fortunate, after all, having to thank the 
 weather at least for our lives, for had there been a 
 heavy wind, with a high sea at the time the bark 
 went on the rocks, our escape would have been al 
 most impossible, and probably we would have all 
 perished with the vessel. 
 
 The captain having issued sailing instructions, 
 we wished each other farewell, rigged our sails and 
 steered for the nearest coast, that of Anam, about 
 two hundred miles distant. 
 
 For the first two days we had the finest kind of 
 weather, and with the exception of the scorching 
 heat of the sun, the effect of which was increased 
 to still greater intensity by reflection from the 
 water, no cause for complaint. Propelled by our 
 oars, and aided by a light breeze, which scarcely 
 filled our little sail, we skimmed over the mirror- 
 like surface of the ocean, heaving in long, even 
 
74 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 swells gently beneath us. Even the nights were 
 calm and beautiful, and we all felt thankful that our 
 unfortunate women, shortly before so happily situ 
 ated, could enjoy a short rest, forgetting for a few 
 hours their sadly dangerous situation in blessed 
 sleep. 
 
 On the morning of the third day dark clouds 
 began to gather upon the southern horizon. They 
 gradually overspread the heavens, and a few hours 
 later a thunder storm, accompanied by a cloudburst 
 of rain, swept upon us. From the moment this 
 storm overtook us our boat became a small lake, 
 and we unfortunates, drenched to our skin, had up 
 to the hour of our rescue not a dry stitch on our 
 bodies. 
 
 The weather grew from bad to worse, the for 
 mer mirror-like surface of the ocean presenting in 
 a short time a totally different appearance. The 
 foaming seas, breaking with deafening roars about 
 us, rolled mountains high along, threatening to 
 engulf our little boat and suck it down into the 
 depths. 
 
 At noon of that day we made out, not far from 
 us, a steamer bound south. Yearning for deliver 
 ance, we used our utmost efforts to attract the 
 attention of her people, but our endeavors were in 
 vain. Probably because of the rain, and the thick, 
 murky atmosphere, they did not notice our little 
 boat, as it appeared one moment at the top of an 
 immense sea to be hidden deep in its trough the 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 75 
 
 next, and without taking the slightest notice of us 
 the steamer passed by on her course. This disap 
 pointment had a crushing effect upon us all, 
 especially upon our two unfortunate ladies, who fell 
 back on their wringing wet pillows, weeping and 
 throwing themselves about in such a manner that 
 even the stoutest-hearted among us could not 
 restrain his tears. 
 
 But the following night we experienced still 
 more grievous perils, and drained the cup of mis 
 ery to its very dregs. The fury of the gale increased 
 from hour to hour, and as the night came on it 
 reached such a pitch that we lost all hope of ever 
 seeing the sun rise again. The blast swept howling 
 by us, driving the spray, which stung the skin 
 like hailstones, in our faces. 
 
 To prevent the seas from carrying us overboard 
 we took refuge in the bottom of the boat. Shiver 
 ing from cold and exposure, the water almost up 
 to our necks, we clung to the seats in front of us. 
 Under the seat nearest the rudder sat the captain, 
 his wife, her sister and myself. We placed the two 
 women between us, so as to assist them to the best 
 of our ability, but it took all our strength to hold 
 them in position, and to prevent the seas from car 
 rying them away before our very eyes. In such an 
 utterly helpless condition we passed the hours of 
 that long and dreadful night. 
 
 Next morning a sad loss was revealed to us 
 which the darkness and turmoil of the night before 
 
76 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 had veiled from our eves. The number of our 
 sailors had been reduced to four. The two missing 
 men were probably washed overboard, not having 
 strength to hold on to their seats. The tragic 
 fate of these men made a deeply painful impres 
 sion upon us, particularly as we could not 
 tell who might be taken next. Those who were left 
 had suffered considerably, and we all showed the 
 effects of last night s misery. The seas, while strik 
 ing us with great force, had thumped our heads 
 against the seats and sides of the boat, bruising our 
 faces and making them sore and swollen, while our 
 dripping hair, hanging over our eyes, gave us the 
 appearance of a lot of savages. 
 
 Rudder and sails, oars, blankets and provisions, 
 en fin, everything floatable had disappeared, and we 
 were left utterly at the mercy of the waves and fate. 
 
 At noon the weather began to mend, and the 
 blessed sun at times found its way through the dark, 
 low-hanging clouds, giving us new encouragement. 
 We bailed the water out, and with our hands and 
 the seats of our boat paddled slowly along. 
 
 At sunset we sighted the smoke, and a little 
 later the dark lines, of a north-going steamer, which, 
 coming nearer and nearer, kept at a distance of 
 about four miles from us. With the few resources 
 at our disposal we did our best to make ourselves 
 known to the people on board, but it seemed at first 
 that they did not notice us. The vessel had already 
 passed us a good distance when suddenly she turned 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 77 
 
 and held right for us. The joy with which we were 
 seized as the long-expected rescue was at hand is 
 hard to describe ; we cried, laughed and embraced 
 one another, and behaved like little children. 
 
 When the steamer was close enough she threw 
 us a line, and five minutes later we found ourselves 
 aboard the English steamer Siam, bound for Hong 
 Kong. Officers and passengers received us with the 
 utmost kindness. The women showered kisses and 
 embraces upon our two distressed ladies, who were 
 taken in charge and provided with everything they 
 needed. With the exception of the kissing and 
 embracing, the same kindness was bestowed upon 
 the rest of us, and every one strove to comfort us 
 after our terrible experiences. 
 
 Three days later I again stepped ashore at Hong 
 Kong. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 In consequence of the costly life on the China 
 Coast my resources had become very much reduced, 
 and I had not sufficient money to pay my fare from 
 Hong Kong to San Francisco, a distance of about six 
 thousand miles. 
 
 In those days steamer connection between 
 China and California was not established, and the 
 entire communication between the two ports was 
 carried on by means of sailing vessels. The fare 
 from port to port was three hundred dollars, and 
 the average time of a voyage about fifty days. 
 
 A young man is often actuated by false shame, 
 and I dreaded that rny acquaintances in China 
 should know how little money I had. 
 
 During my residence on the China Coast I asso 
 ciated with and had the entree to the houses of the 
 wealthiest and most exclusive merchants, and many 
 thought that I controlled large if not inexhaustible 
 resources. 
 
 The fallacy common among a certain class 
 of Europeans, that manual labor dishonors a man, 
 and that he who works for an honest living 
 lowers and degrades himself, is shared not only in 
 China, but in all other Asiatic countries. 
 
 I was young, strong and healthy, not afraid of 
 the hardest kind of work, and had imbibed the 
 
 (78) 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 79 
 
 idea that it would reflect honor rather than dis 
 honor on the person performing it. Therefore, I 
 decided to ship as a sailor on board of one of 
 the vessels loading for San Francisco. I under 
 stood the English and Spanish words of com 
 mand, and knew almost everything concerning 
 the masts, sails, yards and rigging of a ship, and 
 besides, I had a good deal of general knowledge per 
 taining to nautical affairs. 
 
 When I spoke to my young Scotch friend re 
 garding my plan, he laughed in my face and asked 
 if I had gone mad. He told me that, if my situa 
 tion was as I explained he would pay my passage, 
 advancing me a few hundred dollars besides, which 
 I could repay at any time. But I did not feel dis 
 posed to cumber myself with debts, preferring to 
 earn instead of to borrow, and thanking him for his 
 generous offer, I declined. 
 
 Three vessels, an American, a German and an 
 English, were loading at Hong Kong for San Fran 
 cisco at this time, so I took a sampan, and rowing 
 about the bay had a look at them all, and decided at 
 once in favor of the American. 
 
 The graceful, symmetrical lines of American 
 sailing vessels, compared with the more or less plump 
 though clumsy build of those of other nationalities, 
 made from the very first a most favorable im 
 pression upon me. In later years, having had the 
 opportunity of seeing vessels of almost every country 
 of our globe, I am still convinced that my early 
 
80 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 conclusions were correct, and in this I am borne out 
 by all of practical experience. 
 
 My last day in Hong Kong I spent in purchas 
 ing the necessaries for my future profession and in 
 wandering about the hills, slopes and valleys of this 
 romantic little island. Viewing their charms and 
 beauties, made greater by the improvements under 
 way, I was forced to admire the energy of the 
 English, who, since the year 1842, when they took 
 possession of the island, had made out of a bare 
 rock a second paradise, for there is nothing to com 
 pare with it on the whole China Coast. 
 
 After my last dinner in Hong Kong I played a 
 few games of billiards, packed my belongings into 
 a sampan, and toward midnight went aboard the 
 American ship, Annie Clime, which on the follow 
 ing day was to sail for San Francisco. 
 
 The difference between my last meal ashore 
 and my first aboard was very remarkable, and 
 showed me for the first time to what strange and 
 different positions in life a person can shift with 
 in a few hours. I had to laugh to myself as during 
 the following morning I ate my frugal breakfast 
 from tin plates and tin dishes, and in company with 
 a crowd of more or less rough-spoken fellows. 
 
 In the house of my late host in Hong Kong the 
 stiff, old-time English custom prevailed, to which, 
 especially at dinner, every one was expected to con 
 form strictly. The dinner party appeared in full 
 evening dress, and consisted of the two partners, 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 81 
 
 two or three guests, and about a dozen clerks of the 
 firm. 
 
 Sherry and bitters, to give zest to the appetite, 
 were served before dinner, whereupon each one took 
 the seat assigned to him. Behind each chair stood a 
 Chinese boy, whose sole duty it was to attend to the 
 wants of the guest. They were dressed in blouses 
 and trousers of the same shade of silk, and moved 
 in their thick-soled felt shoes noiselessly to and fro. 
 
 Upon the dining table, decorated with fragrant 
 flowers and illuminated with candles in richly or 
 namented candlesticks, stood, under white metal 
 covers, the greatest variety of toothsome viands. 
 Plates and dishes had double bottoms, between which, 
 to keep the contents warm, hot water was poured. 
 Sherry was served with soup, Rhine wine with fish, 
 Bordeaux with the other courses, champagne at 
 dessert, cognac and liquor with coffee. As soon as 
 the dessert was placed upon the table, one of the 
 partners, rising and wine glass in hand, said: " Gen 
 tlemen sweethearts and wives !" whereupon each 
 one emptied his glass of champagne. Later, the 
 other partner stood up and drank to " Absent 
 friends. 
 
 After dinner, which always lasted about two 
 hours, every one was at liberty to do whatever he 
 pleased. Some stayed at home, played billiards, 
 chess or cards, and others went wherever they 
 thought they could enjoy themselves better. Poker, 
 at which large sums of money were lost and won, 
 
 TRAVEL 6 
 
82 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 was always the most popular game. Up to the 
 present day no entertainment is imaginable on the 
 China Coast without poker, champagne and women. 
 
 The Annie Clune, aboard which I was to live 
 for many weeks to come, was a large, hand 
 somely modeled American ship, of about 1500 
 registered tons. Besides the captain, who carried 
 his wife, three children and their governess 
 with him, we had two mates, one boatswain, 
 one carpenter, one sail maker, one colored cook, 
 two stewards and twenty sailors in our ship s 
 company, consisting of Americans, English, Irish, 
 two Swedes, one Norwegian and myself. 
 
 The cargo of the vessel consisted of rice, sugar, 
 and a miscellanous lot of Asiatic products. 
 
 A proud and self-opinionated English nobleman, 
 who, as it seemed, intended to teach the Americans 
 some aristocratic manners was, with his English 
 servant, the only cabin passenger on board. 
 
 In the steerage we had about 800 Chinese, and 
 among them, under the protection of an old, 
 weather-beaten "aunt," some fifty red-painted 
 Chinese maidens, who, in one way or another, 
 intended to make a fortune in the Calif ornian 
 Eldorado. 
 
 The Chinese paid for their passage twenty-five 
 dollars each, but were obliged to board themselves, 
 and to cook their rice and all the many different, 
 horrible-smelling dishes in a kitchen erected ex 
 pressly for them on deck. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 83 
 
 On account of the numerous pieces of baggage, 
 the quantity of Chinese provisions, and the number 
 of passengers we had to take on board, our depar 
 ture was delayed for a few days. At last everything 
 was ready, and to the words and air of the merry 
 sailors song " I wish I had a Yankee Girl," we 
 heaved our anchors, made sail, and with a fresh 
 breeze were soon out of sight of land. 
 
 During the first part of our voyage we had to 
 contend with a good many difficulties, which pre 
 vented us from making as fast time as we expected, 
 but later, to the delight of every one on board, 
 our clipper cut the water like an arrow. 
 
 The sailor life aboard the Annie Clune was, 
 under the circumstances, a very pleasant one, and 
 none but a weak or lazy man could find any cause 
 for complaint. To this very minute I think with 
 pleasure of those days, and I gained by experience 
 and observation a good deal of knowledge, which I 
 had not even the slightest idea of before. I used 
 about the same language as my companions, and 
 did my best to live as nearly upon an equality with 
 them as possible. 
 
 The crew was about equally divided between 
 the watches of the first and second mates. We had 
 four hours on deck, and four hours below, and, in 
 order to make a change in the rotation of the 
 watches, from four to eight in the evening, two 
 watches of two hours each. During the whole 
 voyage, which lasted sixty-two days, all hands were 
 
84 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 ordered on deck, on account of bad weather, not 
 more than a half a dozen times. 
 
 I was on good terms with the greater part of 
 the crew, and quarrels or violent disputes were 
 almost unknown. I had one enemy on board, how 
 ever, a sailor from Oregon, with whom, from the 
 very beginning, I failed to agree. He belonged to 
 the same watch as I, and in spite of the fact 
 that I had never provoked him in the least, had a 
 feeling of hatred for me, which one day resulted in 
 quite a lively fight. 
 
 It happened one morning when, from four to 
 eight, our watch was on deck. We were busy 
 cleaning the deck, when, as usual every one had to 
 stand at a place assigned to him. Some of us 
 scrubbed with sand and pumice stone, others drew 
 water and poured it into tubs, from which others 
 again carried it in buckets to those who were in 
 charge of the deck washing. 
 
 I was returning with empty buckets, as my old 
 friend, with two full ones, ran against me. It 
 seemed that he could restrain his grudge no longer, 
 and swung, while passing me, one of his buckets 
 with such a force against my shin-bone, that I fell 
 in a heap groaning with pain. I sprang up at once, 
 jumped at him, and threw him to the deck, where 
 w r e belabored each other with our fists in a very 
 lively manner. 
 
 The vessel, heeling over, rolled us into a corner, 
 where by chance I came up atop of him. I seized 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 85 
 
 him by the throat, twisting my legs about his body, 
 and thus had him at my mercy, although he was 
 stronger than I. Our shipmates, who in the mean 
 time had formed a circle around us, urged us on, 
 only too anxious to see the fight out. 
 
 We were both bleeding from mouths and 
 noses when, at last, we were separated, and I 
 declared the better man. We washed our faces 
 with salt water, and went, as if nothing had hap 
 pened, to our work again. Almost every man 
 in the crew was on my side, and even the mate 
 patted me on the shoulder and said : " Good boy, 
 you." My opponent was certainty less satisfied, he 
 felt sore over his defeat and the congratulations 
 showered upon me, and planned revenge. 
 
 A few minutes later, as we passed each other 
 again, he suddenly threw down his buckets, got out 
 his knife and came at me. But some of the others 
 about were quicker than he, and before he could 
 use it they jumped at him, knocked him down, and 
 gave him such a fearful beating that he had to be 
 carried to his bunk more dead than alive, where he 
 lay for eight days or so, scarcely able to move. 
 
 I felt pleased and highly gratified at the fair 
 dealing and honest feeling of my shipmates, and 
 came to the conclusion, that sailors, in general, are 
 far better fellows than the world esteems them. A 
 fray with equal weapons, man against man, is up 
 held, while a fight with unequal weapons, or under 
 unfair conditions, is opposed and detested by them. 
 
86 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Our work on board consisted chiefly in chang 
 ing, fastening or loosening sails, in deck scrubbing, 
 washing and sweeping, in steering and pumping. 
 Besides, we had to keep watch of our Chinese on 
 deck as well as under deck, and to look out that they 
 didn t perish in their own filth, and that the vermin, 
 which stuck to them like leeches, didn t run away 
 with our vessel. 
 
 The steerage of the Annie Clune smelled and 
 looked exactly the same as the interior of any Chi 
 nese town. Some of the passengers lay all day 
 long in their bunks, which they had decorated with 
 matting, colored paper, gaily-painted boards and 
 signs, spending the hours in gambling, reading, 
 chatting, sleeping, smoking opium, or searching for 
 vermin. Others walked up and down in the street- 
 like gangways between the bunks, packed full 
 with all sorts of dirty, horrible-smelling stuff, while 
 the rest grouped together on deck, making at times 
 such a noise that we had to drive them below. 
 
 With the exception of one sailing vessel, we 
 did not see a craft of any kind while crossing the 
 Pacific; this vessel we sighted about two thousand 
 miles off the American Coast. She signaled that in 
 consequence of bad weather she was over three months 
 out, asking us at the same time if we could spare 
 and send over to her some provisions, as the seas 
 had smashed her boats. She was the Prussian 
 bark, Luise. She came from Macao, and had a few 
 hundred Chinese for San Francisco on board. 
 
TRAVEL, E.TC. 87 
 
 In assent to the wishes of the German we at once 
 hove to, lowered a hoat, put some flour, salt meat, 
 potatoes, biscuits and other food into it, and in 
 charge of the second mate pulled over to her. While 
 the stores were being taken aboard I talked with 
 some of the sailors. The poor fellows looked piti 
 fully, and complained of the misery which pre 
 vailed on board of their rotten old tub. 
 
 It seems incredible that owners should send 
 such decrepit old hulks to sea, which in America 
 would not be used for kindling-wood. Only abso 
 lute necessity can force men, with perhaps wives 
 and children to support, to risk their lives in 
 such a miserable, worn-out craft. We pitied those 
 half-starved fellows on board her, who, compared 
 with us, looked like skeletons. One word on our 
 part would have been sufficient to have induced 
 them to desert and come over to us. 
 
 After the seafaring style we wished each other a 
 happy voyage, squared our yards, and dropped 
 the Prussian peat- cutter soon out of sight. 
 
 One Sunday we crossed the one hundred and 
 eightieth degree of eastern longitude and gained, 
 while going east, twenty-four hours in our time 
 table. The weather was cold and unpleasant, and as 
 on Sundays only necessary work is done, but a few 
 men wejre required on deck, the rest going to the 
 forecastle, where they spent the time in recreation. 
 
 Suddenly we were alarmed by shouts and cries 
 on deck; at the same time the yards swung about 
 
88 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 and the sails flapped against the masts. We hastened 
 up, and found the greatest excitement prevailing 
 among the Chinese, who in throngs came swarming 
 from the steerage, increasing the tumult materially. 
 They had cut some of the running gear, and 
 armed with chopping knives and bamboo poles, 
 were busy in doing some more mischief. 
 
 In a moment the men had grasped the inten 
 tion of the Chinese ; they jumped for the hand 
 spikes and went for them, striking them down as 
 fast they could. The captain called all hands aft, 
 provided them with rifles and swords, arid held 
 them ready for action. 
 
 The first mate, revolver in hand, went towards 
 the Chinese, ordering them to be quiet and to go 
 below at once ; but instead of obeying they flung 
 stones and knives at him. Seeing this, our captain 
 gave the word of command "Go ahead, boys." We 
 then gave a volley and charged the yelling, roaring 
 crowd with bayonets and cutlasses. A hand-to-hand 
 fight and terrible butchery followed, out of which 
 we emerged victors. Every one of them who 
 could not escape in time was cut down, or seized and 
 thrown over board. 
 
 During all this time the vessel had to be left to 
 herself and to the mercy of the waves ; she was 
 tossed about, and served, with her loosely-swinging 
 yards and sails, as a plaything for the foaming 
 mountains of water which came rolling alongside, 
 The deck presented a ghastly sight. Dead and 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 89 
 
 wounded Chinese lay strewn about in every direc 
 tion, and among them some of our unfortunate com 
 rades. One sailor s scull was split open, and his 
 brains had scattered over a dead Chinaman who lay 
 underneath him. Pools of blood and the crimson- 
 tinted water which washed from one side of the 
 deck to the other, gave evidence of the severity of 
 the conflict. 
 
 After driving the remaining Chinese below and 
 closing the hatches, we threw the dead overboard and 
 carried our wounded shipmates to the cabin, where 
 the best and kindest nursing awaited them. Our 
 dead comrade was wrapped in the American flag, 
 lashed to a stone-weighted board and committed to 
 the sea while the captain read a short funeral ser 
 vice. It was a solemn and impressive moment, the 
 memory of which will never fade from the mind 
 of those who were present. Splashed and clotted 
 with blood, bare-headed, with tears in our eyes, 
 we stood there and listened to the words of our 
 commander. 
 
 We worked all night on deck, on the yards and 
 in the rigging, and at dawn next morning the greater 
 part of the damage had been repaired. 
 
 At noon the next day we opened the hatches 
 and allowed some of the Chinese to come on 
 deck. They told us that during the night many 
 of their countrymen had died, and that a consid 
 erable number of them would probably share the 
 same fate. 
 
90 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 In order to prevent a similar outbreak in the 
 future, we, from the day of our trouble, used the 
 greatest precautions towards our treacherous and 
 blood-thirsty passengers. We only allowed a small 
 number of them at a time on deck, and instantly 
 put a stop to the continuous rows and quarrels 
 among themselves. 
 
 The real cause of their uprising we could never 
 ascertain, in spite of questioning some of the better 
 class of Chinese about it. They remained mute and 
 would not or could not give us the desired explana 
 tion. These hardened, suspicious and malicious 
 fellows are fighting, slashing and tyrannizing the 
 weaker among themselves all the time, but against 
 the hated foreigner they stand together as one 
 man. 
 
 We thought, however, that their intention was 
 to put us out of the way, so that they could take 
 possession of the ship, cargo and everything else. 
 But such a project, usually, is far easier planned 
 than carried out, and besides, our Chinese did not 
 take the fact into consideration that in the 
 event of success certain death would have 
 awaited them. Mutiny and bloody fights among 
 themselves would probably have taken place, and 
 being absolutely ignorant of navigating or sailing 
 the vessel, nothing in the world could have saved 
 them from becoming a prey to the ocean. 
 
 Many vessels, loaded with coolies, have left the 
 China Coast and never reached port. What became 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 91 
 
 of them no one knows, and no one will ever know. 
 Whether they fell a victim to Chinese mutiny or to 
 the fury of wind and weather, the ocean alone can 
 tell. 
 
 The ladies defended the entrance to the cabin 
 during the fight. Revolver in hand they stood 
 there, watching with beating hearts the result of the 
 struggle. They were determined to blow their 
 brains out in case of our defeat, rather than sur 
 render to the victorious Chinese. 
 
 During the hours of danger and peril our noble 
 lord had disappeared, thinking it wiser to sneak away 
 and hide himself behind the door of his stateroom. 
 He reappeared as everything was over, and then 
 tried his best to play the bold and fearless nobleman 
 again. 
 
 The fact that on account of his cowardly conduct 
 he was looked upon with contempt by both women 
 and men, did not worry him at all. Ija his aristo 
 cratic pride and haughtiness he felt himself above 
 such rebukes, and did not pay the slightest^ atten 
 tion to what common people, like ourselves, said or 
 thought about him. 
 
 The ignorant stupidity that stared from the 
 eyes of this fellow led one easily to infer that ex 
 cepting himself, he found everything else in life 
 imperfect and defective. Through his self-conceit 
 he had made himself from the first most disagree 
 able to every one in the cabin. To speak to the 
 mates, or even the captain, he considered beneath 
 
2 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 his dignity, and only condescended to notice the 
 ladies at intervals. 
 
 About thirty miles from the coast, close to the 
 Farallones de los Frayles, we took a pilot aboard, 
 and shortly after luncheon sailed through the beau 
 tiful Golden Gate, dropping anchor in the spacious 
 Bay of San Francisco amid a fleet of hundreds of 
 vessels. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 In the meantime, a lot of rough and wild-looking 
 fellows had boarded us. They di^J not take the 
 slightest notice of our officers, and behaved almost 
 as if they were the owners of our stately Annie 
 Clune. They were runners for sailor boarding and 
 lodging houses, and did not make a very winning or 
 favorable impression upon me. There was the keen 
 est rivalry and competition between them to induce 
 our men to patronize their respective houses. 
 
 A few hours later we weighed anchor and brought 
 our vessel to Pacific-street wharf, when our duties as 
 seamen were finished, as far as the Annie Clune was 
 concerned. In company with some of my ship 
 mates I went to one of those sailors shanties, 
 where, for a few days, I made myself as comfortable 
 as possible. 
 
 The day after reaching port we were paid off. 
 I had about seventy dollars to my credit. It was 
 the very first money I had ever earned in my life, 
 and the feeling of having gained it in an honest 
 way, and gathered experience as well, gave me far 
 greater satisfaction than the mere possession of it. 
 During the first few days in San Francisco I 
 spent the time from morning to evening strolling 
 about the streets and in the neighborhood of the 
 city, and never grew weary of the many new and 
 interesting scenes which met my eyes at every turn. 
 
 (53) 
 
94 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 In my boarding house, as in all establishments 
 of like kind, a very rude and noisy life prevailed. 
 The one aim in life of the keepers of these places 
 is to gain possession of the hard-earned money of 
 the newly-landed sailors, and the attention, at first 
 showered on tne men, usually ceases when the last 
 dollar has disappeared from their pockets. When 
 there is nothing more to get, nothing more to be 
 squeezed out of them, they are either kicked into 
 the streets or shipped on an outgoing vessel. 
 
 No matter at what hour I entered the bar-room 
 of this delightful resort for poor Jack, I could 
 always be sure of finding an awful row going on, 
 and sometimes the scenes were very horrible ones. 
 Sailors are proverbially generous with their hard- 
 earned money, and as long as they have a dollar will 
 loaf about these groggeries, treating one another, 
 until the room is filled with men in all stages of 
 drunkenness. Some of them lay granting and snor 
 ing upon the benches and floors, while others hung 
 on to the bar, pouring out libations to their only God. 
 
 The sight, a very repulsive one to me, was cal 
 culated to make an unfavorable impression upon 
 any sober person. When my shipmates caught 
 sight of me they pounced upon me with drunken 
 embraces, insisting upon my drinking with them. 
 As a refusal to drink is considered an insult, and 
 hurts the feelings of a good many people, I most 
 generally accepted their invitation and returned it 
 by treating the whole lot to drinks or cigars. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 95 
 
 It is almost impossible to realize the quantities 
 of liquor that seafaring men consume. My experi 
 ence in that lodging house has convinced me that 
 such a business leaves a tremendous margin of 
 profit. Less fiery drinks than brandy and whisky 
 were not favored, and looked upon with contempt. 
 Each drink cost one bit, or twelve and one-half 
 cents. Two and a half, five, ten, even twenty-dollar 
 gold pieces were thrown about as carelessly as if 
 they were so many worthless copper coins, and in 
 the matter of change and accounting neither party 
 was at all particular. I had never before seen such 
 a phase, and would have thought it impossible that 
 people could allow others to pluck and cheat them 
 in such a barefaced manner. 
 
 The business methods of my boarding house 
 master did not agree with my ideas, and I decided 
 to move to a more reputable quarter of the city. 
 
 With few exceptions, sailors are the same the 
 world over. They are fickle, credulous, and squan 
 der time and money without thought of the future. 
 The present never the future holds any interest 
 for them, and therefore the earnings of their dan 
 gerous and arduous calling soon vanish. As long 
 as a dollar remains in their pocket they feel uncom 
 fortable, and continue their wild, dissipated career 
 ashore. The last dollar gone, the charms of a life 
 afloat renew themselves. They ship again for 
 another voyage never realizing that they are grow 
 ing older from day to day, that they remain always 
 
96 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 in the same class of life, and that at last, with 
 muscles and joints grown stiff, they are even unfit 
 for sailors. While sailors are young they usually 
 don t care to increase their knowledge of navigation 
 or anything that would be useful to them these 
 things only strike them when they are old, when it 
 is too late to recall the past. 
 
 On the evening of my fourth day in San Fran 
 cisco I returned to my boarding house as usual, ate 
 my supper and went to bed. 
 
 When I awoke I found myself lying on the 
 floor, in a strange place, scantily dressed and sur 
 rounded by a crowd of grunting, groaning and curs 
 ing fellows. I was shivering with cold, for my 
 covering was but of the lightest. A thick crust of 
 dried mud stuck to my limbs, and when I moved 
 the effort caused me considerable pain. My head, 
 heavy and dizzy, was filled with fantastic ideas and 
 dreams. I could scarcely gather my senses together, 
 and was trying to account for the situation I found 
 myself in, when I fell asleep again. 
 
 When at length some one awakened me it was 
 bright daylight. A policeman stood before me, and 
 ordered me to follow him. Puzzled and unable to 
 account to myself for this situation, I rose from the 
 floor and followed him into another room, where 
 I was confronted with two men. Upon being asked 
 whether I knew them or not, I answered that one 
 was unknown to me, but that the other was the 
 master of the sailor boarding house in which I lived. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 97 
 
 After I had answered several other questions, I 
 was told that I had heen picked up in an uncon 
 scious condition near midnight of the previous 
 night, in the vicinity of the Broadway wharf. The 
 officer on the beat, noticing two suspicious-looking 
 men carrying a heavy load, had ordered them to 
 halt, whereupon the men had thrown their burden 
 into the mud and started on a run, but were over 
 hauled and taken to the nearest station, accompa 
 nied by their burden, which turned out to be myself. 
 
 As I had explained everything satisfactorily, 
 they gave me some clothing to cover my half-naked 
 body, and, accompanied by a police officer, I 
 returned to my boarding house. Our appearance 
 created the greatest excitement ; my shipmates, 
 upon hearing what had happened, grew wildly 
 enraged and began to smash everything within 
 reach, and to pull the old wooden shanty down. 
 
 I thanked the officer for his kind assistance, 
 took my few belongings and moved into an uptown 
 boarding house. 
 
 I had had a very narrow escape from falling a 
 victim to the rascality of my landlord. In those 
 days I had heard but little of the practice of "shang 
 haiing," and the thought that I might fall a victim 
 to such a fate never entered my mind. In countries 
 where sailors can earn more money by staying 
 ashore than by going to sea, it is at times difficult 
 to get the necessary number of men to complete the 
 crews of outgoing vessels. 
 
98 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 The masters of sailor boarding houses to whom 
 the officers of these vessels apply, are obliged to 
 find a remedy for this scarcity of seamen in one 
 way or another. If sailors are not obtainable they 
 manage to get hold of " green hands/ entice them 
 to their dens, and after drugging or getting them 
 under the influence of liquor they are brought 
 aboard a vessel, lying in the stream ready to sail. 
 The " blood-money " which masters have to pay to 
 these gentlemen always amounts to one or two 
 months wages for every man they put on board. 
 
 When later these poor fellows come to their 
 senses they find the vessel at sea, far away from 
 port. It is too late then for remonstrances, they are 
 of no avail and only make the situation worse. 
 Under such circumstances nothing can be done but 
 submit to the inevitable. 
 
 Men of all trades, without the slightest idea of a 
 seaman s duties, have been " shanghaied " in this 
 fashion. Many a poor fellow has jumped overboard 
 in desperation at finding himself in such a pitiable 
 plight, while others take the matter philosophically, 
 make the best of the situation, do their duty the best 
 they know how, and eventually return to the port of 
 departure to succeed in meting out justice to the 
 dealers who stole and sold them into slavery. 
 
 During. the past thirty years things may have 
 changed considerably for the better, as far as this 
 business is concerned, but from time to time 
 " shanghaiing " is still going on. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A few days later I read an account of the dis 
 covery of rich gold mines on the Leech River in 
 Vancouver s Island, and at once made up my mind 
 to try my luck in that part of the world. I secured 
 a ticket and that same evening found myself on the 
 way to Victoria, the Capital of British Columbia. 
 
 During the voyage, which lasted about four 
 days, I made the acquaintance of a young fellow 
 from New York, who had worked in the gold dig 
 gings of California and Colorado. Being of about the 
 same age and having the same ideas as to travel, we 
 soon became friends and agreed to manage our 
 present undertaking for joint account. 
 
 There were a good many passengers on board 
 who, like ourselves, misled by glowing newspaper 
 accounts, expected to find up north a second 
 Californian Eldorado. 
 
 Upon arriving at Victoria we at once made the 
 necessary preparations, and as soon as everything 
 was completed we started for our destination. 
 
 At the time of our advent at the mines there 
 were already a few hundred men busy at work, 
 digging, shoveling and washing the dirt they had 
 heaped together. Newcomers arrived every day, 
 of whom a good many brought their wives and 
 children along with them ; they pitched their tents, 
 as we and others had done, at a seemingly conveni- 
 
 (99) 
 
100 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 ent place, but not finding what they expected shifted 
 frequently. The camp, extending for miles up and 
 down the river, soon assumed the appearance of a 
 little town, in which from morning until evening 
 the greatest activity prevailed. 
 
 Within a short time every one felt disappointed. 
 What little gold could be found was so insignificant 
 in quantity that it did not pay the daily expenses 
 of a man, far less indemnify him for his hard 
 and tedious labor. Some of the miners, whose pro 
 visions were consumed and who had not the means 
 to buy the necessities of life from the camp dealers 
 had left the field of their former hopes and dreams 
 within a few weeks after their arrival ; the others 
 remained longer, or until they found themselves in 
 the same circumstances and were forced to follow 
 their example. 
 
 Any number of little stores and saloons, which 
 sprung up like mushrooms from the ground, could 
 be seen in every direction, and their proprietors did 
 the best business of all of us. They sold liquor, 
 implements, groceries, etc., at tremendously high 
 prices, and one might say that all the money the 
 men brought with them dropped into their pockets. 
 
 Life in camp was very wild and unrestrained, 
 and offered opportunities for reverses which from 
 day to day could be more plainly noticed. The 
 greater part of these men belonged to a rough and 
 desperate class who as they did not find the expected 
 gold, became bitter and vengeful and spent most of 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 101 
 
 their time in drinking and gambling. Crimes of 
 all sorts soon became so frequent that without 
 revolver at hand no one dared to go out or lay 
 down at night. 
 
 Our provisions, also, were soon exhausted, but 
 fortunately we were so situated that we could 
 replace them, and to do this one of us went to the 
 nearest store every Saturday and bought the neces 
 sary supply for the following week. One evening it 
 came my turn to do the purveying, and having 
 arrived at the store and purchased the provisions I 
 decided to take a glass of beer before going home. 
 
 Seating myself at a table I noticed two desper 
 ate looking fellows playing monte at the other end. 
 They both had some gold coins lying before them, 
 and while watching the game it seemed to me that 
 the chances were more in favor of one than of the 
 other gambler. The loosing miner had just parted 
 with the last coin which lay before him, when he 
 stuck his hand into his pocket, and drawing out a 
 ten-dollar-piece, laid it on the table, with his revolver 
 beside. The cards were drawn and again he lost. 
 The winner, as if deciding what under the circum 
 stances would be best to do-, at last picked up the 
 ten-dollar gold piece, and seeing this the looser 
 fired at him, but missed, and before he could fire 
 again his antagonist pulled his pistol and shot him 
 down. He fell backward from the bench to the 
 floor, rolled over once or twice, and expired without 
 uttering a word. The other party put money and 
 
102 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 revolver in his pocket, lighted his pipe, and went 
 away as if nothing had happened. 
 
 I went home, spoke to my partner about the 
 occurrence, and during the following night could 
 hardly throw off the impressions of the last few 
 hours. 
 
 At last, seeing the uselessness of remaining 
 longer, we decided to return to Victoria. 
 
 Poorer in means, but richer in experience, I 
 knew for the future that no confidence was to be 
 placed in overdrawn newspaper accounts of mining 
 districts. Booming up a country or a tract of land, 
 in which this or the other party is more or less 
 interested, always attracts a good many " green 
 horns," who, usually, have to pay very dearly for 
 their credulity. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 After I had seen the beautiful Puget Sound 
 and the Gulf of Georgia, I left Victoria for Port 
 land, Oregon. 
 
 There I lived in a boarding and lodging-house, 
 until my money was nearly gone, when I obtained 
 a situation in the house as waiter. The place was 
 crowded with guests of different trades and national 
 ities. The men went to work in the morning, 
 immediately after breakfast, returned at twelve 
 for dinner, and at six in the evening for supper. 
 
 For breakfast they had porridge, fish, steak, 
 mutton chops, ham and eggs, liver and bacon, 
 sausage, baked, boiled and mashed potatoes. For 
 dinner, soup, roast beef, reast mutton, roast veal, 
 stew, vegetables, pie, pudding and fruits. For sup 
 per, steak, hash, cod-fish balls, pork and beans, and 
 potatoes. Tea, coffee, milk, ice-water, butter, cheese, 
 and different kinds of bread were served at every 
 meal. On Sundays they had chocolate and a* few 
 extra dishes. 
 
 Breakfast was served from six to eight, dinner 
 from twelve to two, and supper from half-past five 
 to eight. 
 
 A cook and a dishwasher had to attend to the 
 kitchen affairs ; two chamber-maids made the beds 
 and dusted the rooms ; three waiters served the 
 
 (103) 
 
104 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 meals, and kept dining room, dining tables and 
 everything else in this department in order, and a 
 barkeeper attended to his bar and barroom, in 
 which he was assisted by the proprietor, who man 
 aged his business entirely himself. 
 
 The guests paid from seven to ten dollars a 
 week for their board and lodging, according to 
 whether they had a room to themselves or with 
 others. 
 
 For a single meal fifty cents was charged, and 
 for a bed one dollar per night. 
 
 The cook was paid sixty, the barkeeper fifty, the 
 waiters each forty, the chamber-maids each thirty- 
 five, and the dishwasher thirty dollars a month. 
 
 No one of us expected, and none of our board 
 ers or roomers ever gave us gratuities for services, 
 for which we were paid by our employer. " Tipping," 
 as it is called, so customary in Europe, especially 
 Germany, was entirely unknown to us. In this 
 country employers are forced to respect employes 
 far more than they do in the Old World, and pay 
 those whom they employ upon such a scale that 
 they do not become a burden and a nuisance to the 
 guests in the house. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A few months later, as I had again accumu 
 lated a little money, I decided to leave Portland 
 and return overland to San Francisco. In com 
 pany with a young carpenter, whose acquaintance 
 I had made in Portland, and who, like myself, 
 wished to see the world, I left the picturesque shores 
 of the Willamette one morning. Besides blankets, 
 in which we wrapped our few possessions in the 
 way of clothing, etc., we carried revolvers, guns 
 and knives with us. 
 
 Happily and contentedly we tramped along, day 
 after day, and in the evenings, at the end of our 
 day s journey, selected some pretty spot for night- 
 quarter. On the open plain, upon the bank of some 
 rushing river, or under the spreading branches of 
 the noble pines, with the star-studded heavens for 
 a roof, we made our beds. 
 
 During all this time we lived mostly upon 
 game, which we found in such abundance that we 
 had but to make a choice. Sometimes early in the 
 evening, at other s later, we kindled a fire, roasted 
 a duck, a snipe, a goose, a quail, a rabbit, or a cut 
 of venison, as the case might be, and after we had 
 enjoyed our supper as only healthy men living in 
 the open air can, lighted our pipes, wrapped our 
 
 (105) 
 
100 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 blankets about us and whistled, laughed and con 
 versed until sleep closed our eyes. 
 
 Surrounded by the most beautiful works of 
 nature, perfectly well, with out a single care or sorrow, 
 and blessed with youth, with all its capacity for 
 enjoyment, I often felt as if I could have sung my 
 heart out to the whole world. 
 
 Of course, we met with many difficulties and 
 obstructions in our journey ; the country was 
 at places wild and rugged, the trails difficult, 
 and the weather stormy, cold and rainy. For 
 days at a time we were soaked to the skin, and 
 from cold and hunger could scarcely close our eyes 
 at night. But we looked at everything from the 
 brightest point of view, bore cheerfully any of these 
 adverse strokes of fortune, and when the storms 
 cleared away and the sun shone again, nature seemed 
 but the more beautiful to us from the contrast of 
 her darker mood. 
 
 After a month s travel we found ourselves in 
 the northern portion of California, in the vicinity of 
 grandly impressive Mount Shasta. 
 
 The sight of this beautiful old volcano, with its 
 conical peak, its glaciers, its snow-fields and its mul 
 titude of lesser peaks, was indescribably grand. For 
 many days we had this wonderful panorama before 
 us, and when, at last it disappeared in the hazy clouds 
 of the northern horizon, we could not but feel sadly 
 depressed and" lonely. 
 
 On reaching Marysville my companion left me, 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 107 
 
 but I continued my journey, and a few days later 
 obtained work with a farmer, in whose barn I had 
 spent the night, as ditch digger. 
 
 His farm lay along the Sacramonto River, and, 
 to prevent the tide from overflowing the lower 
 portion of his land, he was obliged to dig a trench 
 along the river front, using the excavated earth to 
 build a wall or levee along the outside of the dyke. 
 
 The farmer provided the necessary tools, paying 
 me not a regular daily wage, but according to the 
 amount of work I did, so much per yard. If I was 
 industrious and worked conscientiously I could 
 make as much as three dollars and more per day, 
 but, of course, if I did not work hard and continu 
 ously I made less. 
 
 Besides myself there were five other young 
 men employed upon the farm to do the plowing, 
 sowing, milking and all the rest of the agricultural 
 labor. 
 
 We were lodged together in a barn, and took our 
 meals with the family, which consisted of the 
 farmer, his wife -and three pretty children. 
 
 After breakfast I went to ditch-digging, re 
 turned to the house at twelve o clock for dinner, 
 back to work until sundown, when we had supper; 
 all the time working like a regular coolie. 
 
 A number of huge live-oak trees stood along 
 the banks of the river, the limbs of which partly 
 overhung the water. About every two hours I took 
 a short rest, and in these trees found recreation and 
 
108 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 comfort. I climbed into one of them, selected a 
 comfortable limb, seated myself, lighted my pipe, 
 and enjoyed for a few minutes the charming pano 
 rama which this richly endowed landscape presented 
 in every direction. 
 
 Immediately after supper I went to bed, and 
 utterly fatigued, I soon fell asleep not awaking 
 until the cocks saluted the dawn. 
 
 The Sundays, when only absolutely necessary 
 labor was performed, were always spent in a very 
 pleasant fashion. After breakfast we went rowing, 
 sailing, fishing or shooting water-fowl. After din 
 ner we saddled some of the horses and rode about 
 for hours, and after supper we grouped ourselves 
 under the fruit trees which surrounded the house 
 and barns, passing the evening in general conver 
 sation. 
 
 At length I became tired of this quiet, un 
 eventful life, and resolved to return to San Fran 
 cisco. The farmer paid me my money, I bade them 
 good-bye, and made my way to the city by way of 
 Sacramento. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Upon my arrival in San Francisco I moved into 
 a boarding house, sharing a room with another 
 young man, and intended to indemnify myself for 
 all my hard work and privation by a short holiday 
 of amusement and recreation. 
 
 But Providence had decided otherwise, for 
 when I awoke on the morning of the third day I 
 found the bed of my room-mate empty, and his 
 trunk and other belongings gone. My hands went 
 to the belt about my waist, where I carried my 
 hard-earned money, and I discovered to my amaze 
 ment that it had disappeared, and with it its con 
 tents of five, ten and twenty-dollar gold pieces. The 
 rascal had even turned my trousers and waistcoat 
 pockets inside out, and not left me a dime. 
 
 How he managed to rob me in such a daring 
 way has always remained a puzzle to me. I dressed, 
 went down and told the proprietor of what had hap 
 pened. He professed the utmost sympathy with me 
 at my loss, but that was all the good I got from 
 him. He had no idea of what had become of my 
 ex-room-mate, who settled his bill the night before, 
 telling the landlord that he intended leaving early 
 the next morning. 
 
 Downcast and depressed I returned to my 
 room, brooding over my misfortune and the very 
 
 (109) 
 
110 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 discouraging prospect before me. I had not a cent 
 of my own, and besides I was indebted to the pro 
 prietor for my board and lodging from the day of 
 my arrival. 
 
 Realizing that my position was not to be bet 
 tered by worrying over it, I soon gave that up and 
 began to lay my plans for the future. I went down 
 to the bar-room, got hold of a morning paper, and 
 read in the " want " advertisements that firemen 
 were wanted on the steamship Golden City. Fifteen 
 minutes later I found myself aboard the steamer, 
 applying for ihe job. 
 
 The chief engineer directed me to his first as 
 sistant, and he a few minutes later shipped me as a 
 fireman, assigning me to the watch of the third as 
 sistant engineer. 
 
 I went back to the hotel, promised the pro 
 prietor to pay his bill on my return from Panama, 
 then, with my few belongings under my arm, I re 
 turned on board. The vessel was not timed to sail 
 until the following day, but I prepared to go aboard 
 at once and remain there. They sent me down to 
 the engine and fire-rooms, where I was kept busy in 
 a number of ways. 
 
 The Golden City belonged to the Pacific Mail 
 Steamship Company, and was one of a magnificent 
 fleet of side-wheel steamers which in those days 
 plied between Panama and San Francisco. She 
 could steam at a rate of over twelve knots an hour, 
 and registered about three thousand tons. She was 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. Ill 
 
 provided with, all the luxuries that American inge 
 nuity could suggest, and offered to passengers many 
 comforts that even at the present time are unknown 
 on board screw-steamers. 
 
 Any one who has known these floating palaces 
 from experience must doubtless often recall the 
 time of ocean side- wheelers. In the late sixties and 
 early seventies these magnificently luxurious boats, 
 some as large as five thousand tons, carried on the 
 traffic between China, Japan and California. Some 
 of these vessels were destroyed by fire and ship 
 wreck, others were broken up and used as store- 
 ships, while others again were sold to Japan, where 
 some of them are to-day still in existence and kept 
 running along the coast and on the Inland Sea. 
 
 The next day we left San Francisco. We were 
 in all twelve firemen and twelve trimmers aboard, 
 equally assigned to the three watches of the first, 
 second and third assistant engineers. Each watch 
 was on duty for four hours at a stretch, with eight 
 hours off. The fire-room was situated at the bottom 
 of the hold, and contained twenty furnaces, ten on 
 either side ; each of these furnaces was about six 
 feet deep, and consumed in one hour some two hun 
 dred pounds of coal. Each fireman on duty had 
 five furnaces to attend to, and the coal-heaver s 
 duty was to look out that a supply of coal was always 
 at hand. The twenty furnaces consumed from forty 
 to forty-five tons of coal every twenty-four hours, 
 so that each fireman had during his watch of four 
 
112 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 hours to shovel about four thousand pounds of coal 
 into his five furnaces. At intervals of fifteen min 
 utes we opened the doors and overhauled the fires. 
 With long iron pokers, which became so hot that 
 we could scarcely retain our hold upon them, we 
 thrust into the glowing furnaces, stirred up the 
 coals, removed the slag and ashes, and replenished 
 them with fresh fuel. If we were not careful to do 
 this regularly, then the steam pressure was reduced, 
 and the engineer on duty greeted us with volumes 
 of expressive, but not very complimentary language. 
 So exhausting was this work, more particularly 
 owing to the intense heat of the fire-room, that the 
 ten minutes it took us to get through it left one 
 often so tired out that his legs trembled under him 
 and he could scarcely stand. 
 
 That five minutes during which we had an 
 opportunity to recuperate ourselves for the next 
 attack upon the furnaces we spent cooling our trem 
 bling and perspiring bodies under the ventilators, 
 reveling in the fresh air. 
 
 The further south we steamed the more insup 
 portable became the temperature in our fire-room, 
 where the thermometer registered about one hun 
 dred and fifty degrees. Exposure to such a heat is 
 sufficient to bring down the strength of even the 
 strongest man. Every one of us showed the effects 
 of it, and we all began to look pale and weak. 
 
 We kept our bodies covered to protect them 
 from the glare of those pits of fire, but in spite of 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 113 
 
 all precaution the heat, cracking and drying the 
 skin, soon made it sore, even underneath the cloth 
 covering. As I became weaker my brain would 
 reel, and the furnace and everything about seemed 
 to dance a sort of devil s dance before my eyes, and 
 then it seemed as though some irresistible power 
 was impelling me to the embrace of the white heat 
 of the seething lull. 
 
 The work was, I think, the most exhaustive 
 that anyone was called upon to perform, but we 
 were proportionately paid, and in order to recruit 
 our energies the fare provided us was equal to that 
 served at any first-rate hotel. 
 
 The firemen were paid at the rate of a hundred 
 and the trimmers at the rate of eighty dollars per 
 month. The work performed by the trimmers was 
 a good deal easier than ours. They were not obliged 
 to stand the intense heat of those awful furnaces, 
 but simply to get the coal out of the bunkers, rake 
 the slag and ashes together and heave them on deck 
 and overboard. 
 
 Firemen and trimmers had sleeping and living 
 quarters together in the same part of the ship. It 
 was a large room lying below the water line. About 
 its walls ran three tiers of bunks, one above another. 
 Fresh air was supplied by ventilators in the deck 
 above. In the center of the floor stood table and 
 benches, while a number of lamps provided light. 
 
 The stewards were obliged to keep everything 
 neat and ship-shape, and the men found their meals 
 
 TRAVEL 8 
 
114 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 served for them as soon as they came off watch. 
 Returning from our work, we cleaned and washed 
 ourselves, and then sat down to our meal. The 
 tahle was served with every variety of food that any 
 one could possibly wish tea, coffee, iced water, 
 hutter, hread, cheese, soup, roasts, chops, stews, 
 vegetable, pastry and fruits. Each one helped him 
 self, and ate and drank whatever he pleased. The 
 food remained on the table until the next watch 
 came from its work ; then almost every thing remain 
 ing was thrown overboard, and the table served 
 again with fresh food for them. 
 
 Wine and spirits were served out to us in large 
 quantities, and a bucket filled with lime-juice hung 
 always in the fire-room. 
 
 In proportion to my loss of strength so also I 
 lost appetite. Very often after my watch in the 
 fire-room was ended I was unable to swallow a 
 mouthful of food, and had only strength left to 
 crawl into my bunk, where I at once fell into an 
 exhausted sleep, which lasted until the call, "Eight 
 bells," awoke me and drove me down to my fiery 
 ordeal. 
 
 We called at different Mexican and Central 
 American ports to land freight, mails and pas 
 sengers. 
 
 Shortly after leaving Manzanillo one of the 
 firemen on my watch, a tall, heavily-built Irish 
 man, died. There were but few among us 
 who during the trip did not faint at least once. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 115 
 
 In such cases we were carried on deck, a 
 few buckets of cold water were poured over us, 
 and, reviving, had to go to work as usual. 
 This happened to my Irish shipmate, who after his 
 shower-bath reappeared in the furnace room, seem 
 ingly as well as ever. But it was not many minutes 
 before he succumbed to the heat once more, and, 
 although restoratives were again applied, he 
 remained unconscious. The doctor was summoned, 
 but could do nothing, as life had gone out of him. 
 A little later his body was given to the insa 
 tiable sea. 
 
 Consideration on the part of our engineers 
 could not be expected. The Golden City was a mail 
 steamer and had to run according to schedule time. 
 If the engineers had showed indulgence to any one 
 of us, then all the others would have expected the 
 same, and the vessel, instead of going ahead, would 
 have been driven back by the current. 
 
 After my unfortunate shipmate s sad ending I 
 felt in my own mind that very probably I would be 
 the next one to go. We coaled at Acapulco and lay 
 there for several hours. As we steamed into the 
 harbor I sat on the railing, and gazing into the mir 
 ror-like surface of the water, debated with myself 
 whether it would not be better to jump overboard 
 and become a prey to the waiting sharks than to be 
 slowly roasted and tortured to death in the infernal 
 heat of our fire-room. 
 
 The love of life, however, was too strong in me, 
 
116 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 so I decided to live ; but I made up my mind to run 
 away, leaving everything behind me, as soon as we 
 had reached the port of destination. When, how 
 ever, we steamed into the harbor of Panama, I al 
 tered my determination, and in spite of my miserable 
 condition of health and my sore and swollen hands, 
 I came to a wiser and more sensible conclusion. I 
 felt almost ashamed of my former weakness, and 
 did not think another moment of such a thing as 
 running away, to return to San Francisco as a cow 
 ard and deserter. 
 
 The distance from San Francisco to Panama is 
 not quite thirty-five hundred miles, and we made it, 
 including stoppages, in thirteen days. The passen 
 gers, some five or six hundred in number, were 
 landed at once and sent by rail across the Isthmus 
 to Aspinwall, whence they took another steamer for 
 New York. 
 
 In those day there were no overland railroads 
 as now, and the travel by way of Panama and Nica 
 ragua was brisk and lively. The saloon passage from 
 San Francisco to New York was three hundred 
 dollars, and steerage passage one hundred and fifty 
 dollars. The trip from San Francisco to New York 
 or vice versa usually took eighteen, but never more 
 than twenty days. 
 
 We lay nine days in Panama, and found it 
 time enough to regain strength and prepare for our 
 homeward voyage. During these nine days there 
 were no watches below for us; the furnaces remained 
 
TEA VEL, ETC. 
 
 117 
 
 cold, and we only worked during the daytime, and 
 not very hard even then. 
 
 With a full cargo and a large number of pas 
 sengers we sailed from Panama, making the run to 
 San Francisco in a little more than thirteen days. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 A few hours after our arrival in the home port 
 we were paid off. I put my hard-earned money in 
 my pocket, took leave of some of my shipmates, and 
 went ashore. I at once paid the few dollars I owed 
 my former landlord, and then started out to look up 
 lodgings in some private house. My money I 
 knew would not last very long, and so I was forced 
 to get something else to earn a living by. 
 
 I did not care to accept a position as clerk in a 
 commercial house, as I thought that the associations 
 of such a pleasant, comfortable life would soon cool 
 all my ambition to see the world. 
 
 Circumstances are always potent in men s lives. 
 Many a man has gone into the world young and 
 ardent, full of noble impulses for the good of him 
 self and his fellows, only to find himself cribbed 
 and checked at every turn, by circumstances too 
 strong for him. I had brought from China letters 
 of introduction to some half dozen or more of the 
 principal commercial houses in San Francisco, but 
 of all these letters I delivered just one, and that one 
 I would not have delivered had my mail not been 
 adressed in care of this firm. 
 
 The head partner of the house, an elderly gen 
 tleman of venerable appearance, was exceedingly 
 kindly disposed toward me. He treated me almost 
 
 (118) 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 119 
 
 as his son, inviting me to make my home with him 
 and to accept a position in his office. I thanked 
 him for his good will and his fatherly advice, but 
 felt sincerely sorry that I was unable to profit by 
 them. Whenever I put in an appearance at his 
 office for my mail, the old gentleman tried to per 
 suade me to give up my " vagabond life," as he 
 used to call it, and take a position in his house. 
 Being afraid that he might frustrate my plans, 
 though with the best intentions in the world, I 
 never gave him any more information about my 
 self than a few meager, unimportant facts, just 
 enough to let him know that I was perfectly able 
 to take care of myself, and incapable of following 
 any calling in life, save an honorable one. 
 
 At length but a few dollars remained to me, 
 and as I had to turn my hand to something, I in 
 vested in two large market baskets with handles, 
 filled them with apples, selected the water front as 
 a scene of operations, and started out as a fruit mer 
 chant. 
 
 The beginning was a very encouraging one ; 
 before evening my baskets were empty, and I had 
 made a clear profit of more than four dollars. Al 
 though receipts for certain days were less encourag 
 ing, taking one day with another, I did very well in 
 my new venture, and thus learned for the first time 
 that the business of peddling fruit is much more 
 lucrative than people generally imagine. 
 
 A box of fruit, which in the morning I bought 
 
120 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 from the wholesalers at a cost of a dollar or a dollar 
 and a half, I retailed at a profit of from four to five 
 hundred per cent. If any were left over in the 
 evening, which on account of its becoming too ripe 
 would be unsaleable the next day, I ate it myself, or 
 gave to the children of my landlord. 
 
 I remember still with pleasure an incident which 
 occurred one day, as, with my baskets slung on my 
 arms and munching away at an apple, I strolled 
 about on the wharf. A captain of a ship came to 
 wards me and said, " Say, my boy, if you eat all the 
 apples yourself, you won t have any profit." I 
 laughed at his very true remark, and a little later 
 had the satisfaction of selling him my whole stock. 
 I took the apples on board for him, received my 
 money with thanks, and wished that I might find 
 such a customer as he every afternoon. 
 
 Very probably I would have continued in the 
 fruit business a little longer, had not the humdrum 
 life, together with the continuous loafing about the 
 streets disgusted me with it. So I decided to turn 
 my hands to something else, and most opportunely 
 a bootblack boy with whom I had been acquainted, 
 gave me a hint, which I followed, and with profit. 
 As we were walking about the docks one day on 
 the lookout for customers, discussing the merits of 
 our respective lines of trade, he claimed that his 
 business was more lucrative than mine, and also, 
 with true professional jealousy, intimated that it 
 was beneath his dignity, and he would be ashamed, 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 121 
 
 were he a great, strong, healthy fellow like I, to be 
 peddling fruit from the basket. 
 
 Whether or no his contention was just and 
 proper, I do not care to discuss ; suffice it to say that 
 that same evening I sold my baskets and decided to 
 become a bootblack. The slightest hints, if they 
 come from practical men, even in the smallest way 
 of business, are very often valuable, and I availed 
 myself of all the knowledge of my new profession 
 that T found an opportunity to absorb. 
 
 The very next morning after disposing of my 
 baskets I bought the necessary kit of tools for my 
 new trade, put them in a box, slung it over my 
 shoulder, and was ready for business. 
 
 The comfortable and, I may say, almost elegant 
 bootback-stands that are now so common in San 
 Francisco, were then unknown. Any one who 
 wanted a " shine " was obliged to stand on the street 
 corner, his weight balanced on one foot, the other 
 resting upon the more or less insecure footrest on 
 the box of the artist, until that individual had 
 " shined him up." 
 
 In those days the regular price for a shine was 
 one bit a " short bit " or ten cents, of course 
 it was the smallest coin known in California in 
 those much-to-be-regretted days, when money had 
 not the value it has now ; but often a customer 
 threw a quarter or even a four-bit piece into my 
 box, and to my delight, declined change. A first- 
 class shine, a thoroughly careful brush given to 
 
122 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 coat, trousers and hat, might well have induced to 
 such generosity. 
 
 At the beginning of my career in this field of 
 lahor I stationed myself on the street corners in the 
 upper part of the city, where, especially on damp, 
 gloomy days, I drove a very flourishing trade. But 
 later I discovered that the water front, at times, 
 offered far better opportunities for making money 
 than the more fashionable portion of the town. 
 Sea-faring men, or those who have to do with ves 
 sels, are always liberal, and like to have their cloth 
 ing brushed and generally tidied up as soon as they 
 are through with work. 
 
 In spite of the strong competion which I 
 encountered there, I was often kept so busy during 
 the day that I could hardly get a minute s rest. I 
 had no reason to complain of lack of customers and 
 made far more than I expected to at first. Some 
 days I earned as much as ten dollars, but, although 
 it may sound like self-praise, I must say in justice 
 to myself, that from early morning until late at 
 night, in all sorts of weather, I was about looking 
 out for customers. 
 
 In pursuit of my calling I naturally came more 
 or less into contact with a good many newsboys 
 who then as now, made the different ferry landings 
 their headquarters. Leading an easier life then I, 
 it seemed to me that they made money faster than 
 I was able to. I inquired into it, and found that 
 their profits were over one hundred per cent, and 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 123 
 
 that their unsold wares could be returned to the 
 offices of the several papers. 
 
 Boys, who were not afraid to push themselves 
 in any and everywhere, crying their merchandise 
 in good stentorian tones, made a splendid profit; so 
 I decided to give up boot-blacking and go into the 
 newspaper business. 
 
 This new trade, at first, had a great attraction 
 for me, so much the more as the goods went off 
 rapidly, leaving a nice margin in the pockets of the 
 seller for every sheet sold. More or less the whole 
 day over business was bright, but especially so in 
 the mornings and evenings when the first and last 
 editions were brought out. 
 
 During the mornings I worked the water front; 
 later in the day I strolled about the streets, or 
 sprang from one street-car to another, crying my 
 wares; and towards evening I returned to the 
 wharves and ferries. Business men on their way 
 home after their day s work in the city used to 
 provide themselves there with the latest papers 
 before crossing the bay. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 After a time the life of a newsboy palled upon 
 me, and I decided to change my vocation. As far 
 as money-making was concerned I had no com 
 plaint to make. I had made hundreds of dollars 
 during the last months, and felt that I was entitled 
 to a little rest and recreation. I intended to make 
 a trip into the interior and see some of the great 
 natural wonders of California. 
 
 After a short rest in the city I strapped a few 
 necessaries together and started on my travels with 
 a light heart, a contented and happy mind. 
 
 A tramp of a few weeks brought me to the goal 
 of all my dreams and aspirations. Here I found 
 myself surrounded by the most beautiful and 
 sublime creations of nature, in a spot where it 
 seemed that she had lavished all her splendor and 
 magnificence of form and coloring. 
 
 In that wonderful Yosemite Valley, among its 
 enthralling surroundings, lying at my ease under 
 the giant shadows of those stupendous titans of the 
 Mariposa and Calaveras groves, I have steeped my 
 soul in the sublime and exquisite beauty of our 
 great mother. 
 
 When at length I was obliged to leave this be- 
 wilderingly engrossing bit of nature s handiwork, 
 where I had experienced a sense of indescribable 
 
 (124) 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 125 
 
 calmness and serenity of mind such as I have never 
 known elsewhere, I felt for many days sadly de 
 pressed, almost as though forsaken by all I held 
 dear. 
 
 The forest of this remote valley reminded me 
 in many ways of those of the Philippines, where 
 are any numbers of trees that in point of size, q ual- 
 ity of timber and beauty of form and foliage have 
 few equals. 
 
 The wonderful molave wood of those islands 
 excels even the famous mahogany of tropical Amer 
 ica, and has, in fact, no equal in the world for 
 hardness, fineness of texture, and beauty of grain. 
 It is as heavy as iron, and its beautifully variegated 
 surface takes the most brilliant polish. 
 
 There are vessels at the Phillipines constructed 
 of molave wood that were built fully a hundred 
 years ago. They have been retired from active 
 service on account of their obsolete model and con 
 struction, but their timbers are as sound now as on 
 the day they were launched. It is a fact, although 
 almost incredible, that the molave wood corrodes 
 and eats the iron bolts, but the bolts make hardly 
 any impression upon the wood. 
 
 Some few years since I donated to the State 
 Museum in San Francisco two table tops of molave 
 wood, which on account of their dimensions alone 
 are curiosities, even at the Philippines. One of 
 them, circular in form, measures one hundred and 
 seventy centimeters in diameter, the other, oblong, 
 
126 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 with a length of two hundred and fifteen by a 
 breadth of one hundred and fifteen centimeters. 
 
 During my journey back from the Yosemite I 
 came to a farm in the San Joaquin Valley, which 
 was so charmingly situated that I could not resist 
 calling at the farm-house with the intention of offer 
 ing my services to the proprietor. My desire was 
 fulfilled, and a few minutes later I had accepted the 
 position of a farm-hand, at a monthly wage of 
 thirty-five dollars. 
 
 The farmer was an Irishman, and had recently 
 married the daughter of one of his neighbors. 
 Besides himself and wife, an unmarried sister of 
 his lived at the farm, who assisted in the household 
 work. The farm-house stood upon a gentle rise, 
 surrounded by fruit trees, and at a little distance in 
 the midst of clumps of powerful live-oaks, a few 
 spacious barns. 
 
 Like most industrious and intelligent farmers 
 in America, my employer was very well off. His 
 land had increased materially in value since he 
 bought it. Everything was in the best of order, 
 and provided with all the necessary stock and ma 
 chinery to carry on the business of farming. 
 
 The product, such as cheese, butter, eggs, fruit, 
 hay, wheat, etc., were sent to Stockton, Sacramento 
 and San Francisco, where it usually found a good 
 market. 
 
 About one hundred cows were kept at this 
 farm, which had to be milked every morning. Some 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 127 
 
 of the men were obliged to rise before daybreak, 
 mount their horses and round up the cows to the 
 corral, where the milkers were in readiness. The 
 milking finished, we breakfasted. Our dinner was 
 served at twelve o clock, and supper at six. The 
 work of the usual agricultural order was nearly 
 altogether out-of-doors, and in consequence the life 
 was a healthy one. To me, who loved the fresh air 
 and the clear, natural surroundings, it became very 
 charming, and had I not been of so restless a dispo 
 sition I might have adopted the profession and re 
 mained a tiller of the soil all my days. 
 
 In the early morning, when I galloped along 
 driving the cattle before me, the dew still glistening 
 on the grass, the earth giving forth that subtle, ex 
 quisite perfume that one only experiences at this 
 hour ; when the sun mounted in the east, sending 
 its long, level rays of quivering gold across the land 
 scape at its magic touch, sky, grass, trees, all ablaze 
 with wonderful colors ; when the chirps and whis 
 tles of innumerable birds came from the thickets 
 and groves, as they cleared their little throats for 
 their usual matin songs ; when rabbits, coyotes 
 and squirrels, startled by the hoof-beats of my horse, 
 scurried away in every direction then I felt that 
 exquisite, that indescribable joy of life that comes 
 to us only in youth, when our hearts and souls are 
 clean and unsullied by the world. A sense of sin- 
 cerest gratitude towards the Creator of our beauti 
 ful world surged through my heart at such mo- 
 
128 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 ments, and I could not but pity all those of my 
 fellow-creatures who were not capable of this en 
 thusiastic delight in the sublimity and tenderly ex 
 quisite beauty of nature. 
 
 We were nine young men in all employed on 
 the farm. We lodged in one of the barns, and took 
 our meals with the family of the farmer. 
 
 The evenings and Sundays were spent in much 
 the same way as on the farm on which I worked on 
 the upper Sacramento. 
 
 The farmer was noted all over the State for the 
 successful manner in which he altered stallions, and 
 made a very good yearly income from this branch 
 of his work alone, stallions being brought to be 
 operated upon from far and near, and there were 
 always several of these at the farm. 
 
 This work, which was usually done of a Sunday 
 morning, was always exciting, and had besides the 
 additional attraction of giving the men a chance to 
 make a few extra dollars. 
 
 We mounted our horses, lassoed the animals, 
 threw and bound them, and performed in the 
 shortest time possible the painful operation. When 
 it was over and they were loosened, the tortured 
 brutes sometimes put their heads between their 
 fore-legs and ran for miles before they regained 
 control of themselves. 
 
 About this time a circumstance occurred which 
 caused me deep gloom. One of my companions, a 
 young Englishman, with whom I was very friendly, 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 129 
 
 lost his life in a most dreadful manner while driv 
 ing a fractious team attached to a mowing machine 
 one day. He fell from his seat to the ground, the 
 guards in front of the knife caught him, and the 
 horses, unchecked and startled, ran away, causing 
 the knife to work furiously. 
 
 At a little distance, in the same field, I, too, was 
 driving a mower, when his horses, running at 
 racing speed, attracted my attention. I hurried to 
 find out what had happened. The horses had at 
 last torn loose from, the harness, leaving the broken 
 machine behind them. 
 
 When I reached it a sight met my eyes which 
 froze the blood in my veins. The machine was 
 completely covered with blood, and to and between 
 the iron points tatters of clothing and pieces of 
 mutilated flesh were hanging. I followed the path 
 over which the mower, in its wild flight, had 
 passed, and found everywhere portions of the body 
 of my unfortunate friend. With the aid of others, 
 who in the meantime had hurried to the scene, we 
 gathered together all that was left of him and car 
 ried it to the house. The women fainted when they 
 saw the bloody remains of our young friend, who, 
 scarcely an hour ago, sat happy, hearty and con 
 tented among them. 
 
 The next day we buried his remains among a 
 group of liveoak trees. As he left nothing among 
 his possessions that could give any information 
 about his people in England, I fear that his 
 
 TBAVEL 9 
 
130 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 parents will never know what became of their 
 son. 
 
 Before this awful affair happened I had made 
 the acquaintance of a young fellow who worked in 
 a butcher shop in the vicinity, and after the death 
 of my unfortunate friend I found more distraction 
 in his company than in that of my companions, who 
 seemed to have no interest in any thing but farming. 
 After I had finished my supper I usually rode over 
 to where he lived, and, tying my horse to a fence 
 we strolled about together for hours. 
 
 Young men, full of life and animal spirits, are 
 always ripe for fun, and we were no exception to 
 the rule. In our endeavors to amuse ourselves we 
 played many foolish, but at the same time innocent, 
 harmless tricks, such as changing the sign of a doc 
 tor or lawyer for that of a midwife, hanging an old 
 coat or empty tin can on a barber s pole, or sticking 
 a shaved pigtail into some one s keyhole. 
 
 One evening my young friend had a whole 
 package of neatly dressed pigtails, when we started 
 upon our nocturnal pilgrimage. We were busy try 
 ing to squeeze one as tightly as possible into the 
 keyhole of a house door, when suddenly several 
 men pounced upon us, and gave us such a trounc 
 ing that I shall never forget it. Defense was out of 
 the question, and we were only too glad when we 
 could escape, avoiding further punishment. 
 
 I jumped on my horse and galloped back to 
 the farm. On taking stock of my injuries I found 
 
TRAVEL, E t TC. 131 
 
 I had a swollen nose, a split lip, a scratched face, 
 and a pair of black eyes, out of which for the next 
 few days I could hardly see. At the farm, of course, 
 every one was anxious to know how I could have 
 got myself into such a battered condition, and, 
 ashamed to tell the truth, I tried to make them 
 believe that it was the result of a fall from my horse. 
 The next evening I rode over to see my friend, 
 whose face, too, looked like a jelly. We joked and 
 laughed over our last night s experience, but came 
 to the conclusion to cease for the future those fool 
 ish boys tricks, which might easily have got us 
 into much more serious trouble. A good sound 
 thrashing had brought us to o.ur senses in time, 
 and upon calmly thinking the matter over we had 
 to admit, that under similar circumstances, had we 
 been in their places, we would have pursued the 
 same course of action as the men who had beaten 
 us the night before. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 At length I grew tired of farming, and as my 
 friend, about the same time, grew tired of his way 
 of life, we agreed to leave our places and try our 
 luck for a while in the gold producing region of the 
 Sierra Nevada. 
 
 The farmer paid me my wages. I took leave 
 of him, his family and my companions, and in 
 company with my friend, the ex-butcher, set out 
 for my northern destination. In Sacramento we 
 rested for a few days, provided ourselves with 
 tools and provisions, and pursued our way into 
 the mountains. 
 
 The district in and about Dutch Flat, in the 
 early days, was one of the richest gold-producing 
 placer diggings in California, but since then it has 
 dwindled in importance, and, as the old pioneer 
 miners say, was at the time of our arrival scarcely 
 a shadow in comparison to former years. Quartz 
 and hydraulic mining have replaced this primitive 
 fashion of gold producing, and left but little chance 
 to a poor fellow who comes with his shovel, pick 
 axe, and prospecting pans to dig and wash the 
 ground. 
 
 Still the sight was grand and inspirating. On 
 the river, on the forks, and on the artificial ditches 
 the greatest activity prevailed from morning to 
 
 (132) 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 133 
 
 night, and for miles and miles canvas tents and log 
 cabins could be seen standing thickly together. 
 
 Gold was the only attraction, the only motive 
 power that held those people, composed of almost 
 every nationality in the world, together. They were 
 so strange to one another s ways, so different in 
 their ideas, that, without this momentary expecta 
 tion of finding a fortune, the greater part of them 
 would have left long before, or, perhaps, would 
 never have come at all. 
 
 The incoming parties usually brought a little 
 money and plenty of hope with them, but the 
 departing crowd almost always left with empty 
 pockets, and with blighted hopes and expectations. 
 New arrivals tried prospecting for a while, and, 
 when they thought they had struck a convenient 
 place, settled down and commenced to shovel and 
 wash the dirt. We did the same, but were always 
 disappointed, when, instead of shining gold dust, 
 nothing but sand and gravel remained at the bottom 
 of our pans. 
 
 A few days after our arrival we made the 
 acquaintance of an old miner, who, with wife and 
 children, lived in a very rough-looking log cabin. He 
 told us that he intended to sell out and return to 
 San Francisco with what little money he had. He 
 made us a proposal to sell us his claim, with every 
 thing pertaining to it, and, as his demands were 
 reasonable, we closed the bargain, and the follow 
 ing day commenced work on our own account. 
 
134 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 The hut was of a very primitive form ; it was 
 more like a smoke-house than anything else, and 
 it took me many days to become accustomed to 
 it. Built of logs of trees, laid one on top of the 
 other, and roofed with a sort of shingle, the whole 
 cabin measured twelve feet long, eight wide and 
 seven high. The cracks between the logs were 
 filled with mud, and a small, square hole, through 
 which we had to crawl on hands and knees, did duty 
 for door, windows and ventilator, all at the same 
 time. In the middle of the room was the fire-place, 
 where day and night the butt of a tree was kept 
 burning. With our feet towards the fire and 
 wrapped in blankets, we slept on the ground, and, 
 on account of the smoke, usually with an open door. 
 
 At night we always kept revolvers close at 
 hand, but never found occasion for using them. 
 Theft was a very rare crime in the camp. Any one, 
 who was dishonest enough to steal, knew exactly 
 what punishment awaited him. The fear of being 
 shot down, strung to a limb of a tree, or at least, 
 of receiving a terrible beating, took away all the 
 appetite for other s goods. 
 
 But, instead of the expected thieves, a wander 
 ing pole-cat often came sneaking in. Of all the 
 vermin, reptiles or quadrupeds I have found in the 
 interior of countries, the pole-cat was always the 
 most disagreeable to me. The odor which these 
 animals exhale is dreadful, and even days after one 
 had paid us a visit the nauseous stench remained. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 135 
 
 After working for several months, my desire for 
 new sights, became so strong that I could withstand 
 it no longer and had to go. I tried to persuade 
 my partner to accompany me to San Francisco, 
 where we would make plans for the future, but he 
 would not. Money had greater attractions for him 
 than for me, and he preferred to remain where we 
 both had been very fortunate. We divided our dust 
 and squared our accounts, then wishing him further 
 prosperity, I left. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 In Sacramento I changed my gold dust for 
 solid coin, and found myself richer than ever in my 
 life before. After a short stay in the capital I took 
 passage on one of the beautiful river steamers to 
 San Francisco, a distance of a little over a hundred 
 miles. 
 
 During later years I have seen the river and 
 lake steamers of almost every country in Europe, 
 and must say that they are simply cattle and freight 
 carriers in comparison to those two, three and four- 
 decked floating palaces that ply by the thousands on 
 the rivers and lakes of the American Union. 
 Europeans who do not believe this statement have 
 only to visit America, or those other countries 
 where the elegant and comfortable American river 
 boats have also been introduced. 
 
 In San Francisco I became acquainted with 
 several young men, some of whom had lived in 
 Nicaragua. They told me that they intended going 
 back there, starting the business of cotton growing, 
 as a great part of the country was well adapted to 
 this crop. The idea was rather romantic, and, per 
 haps, for that reason I felt a desire to accompany 
 them. After much deliberation we decided to form 
 a co-partnership, and to carry on our undertaking 
 for joint account. We were eight in number, all 
 
 (136) 
 
TEA VEL, ETC. 137 
 
 industrious young fellows, full of love of adventure, 
 and of different trades and nationalities. Each one 
 of us had at least one thousand dollars in cash at 
 his disposal, so that, as far as the important ques 
 tion of money was concerned, we had no reason to 
 worry. 
 
 Provided with provisions, tools, agricultural 
 implements, seeds, medicines and other necessaries, 
 we sailed from San Francisco for San Juan del Sur. 
 Immediately upon our arrival there we purchased 
 horses and pack mules, and as soon as we had our 
 arrangements completed started for the interior. 
 On the east side of the Lake of Nicaragua, in a val 
 ley, most charmingly situated, we decided to make 
 our future home. 
 
 While some of our party rode to the nearest 
 settlement to obtain information and arrange some 
 business matters, the rest of us settled down to take 
 life as comfortable as possible until they returned. 
 Receiving favorable news we went to work at once, 
 building huts and barns, chopping down and burn 
 ing trees and underbrush, plowing, planting and 
 sowing, buying cows, hogs and poultry, and trans 
 formed the place within a few months from a virgin 
 valley into a bustling scene of activity and life. 
 
 Very probably we would have succeeded in our 
 undertaking had not the climate set at naught all 
 our calculations. Obstacles and difficulties that we 
 never dreamed existed in this country presented 
 themselves from the very moment our project was 
 
138 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 put to the test. We had forgotten to take the fact into 
 consideration that people bred and reared in a tem 
 perate climate were not adapted to the heat and 
 miasma of the tropics, more particularly when the 
 exposure was augmented by arduous labor in the 
 fields. Such kind of work must be left to natives, 
 or to those who have by long residence become ac 
 customed and acclimated. The heat and the 
 miasmatic exhalation from the swamps soon sapped 
 our health and frustrated our hopes. 
 
 Every one of our number, sooner or later, suf 
 fered from the attack of the Terciana, a fever 
 resembling the ague of northern countries. It was 
 weakening and depressing, and reduced us to mere 
 skeletons. Our eyes sunk in our heads, our cheek 
 and frontal bones, bare of flesh, stuck out and our 
 skins took on the color of a dead Chinaman. We 
 became utterly devoid of energy, and lay about in 
 our huts or in the shade of the adjacent trees, list 
 lessly indolent and careless of everything, even of 
 life itself. 
 
 Of all the drugs we had, quinine was the only 
 one that relieved us at all. We used it in such 
 quantities and so constantly that we grew to feel 
 that it was absolutely indispensible to us, and con 
 sequently our stock of it decreased rapidly. 
 
 In spite of our many troubles, we still trusted 
 that we might in time become acclimated and that 
 our project would be ultimately successful, but 
 finally the disease brought on dysentery, and when 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 139 
 
 one of our companions, a few days later died, we 
 at once decided to return to California. 
 
 Our young friend who met such an untimely 
 end was an American, from Ohio, scarcely twenty 
 years of age. We buried him in the shadow of a 
 group of palms, under which in life had been his 
 favorite seat. 
 
 After this sad duty we packed our most valu 
 able chattels on our mules and left the field of our 
 dissipated aspirations. Some of us w r ere so weak 
 and faint from the effects of the fever that we could 
 scarcely keep our seats in the saddle. 
 
 The serious condition of one of our party 
 forced us to take a day s rest before crossing the 
 lake. We cared for him to the best of our abil 
 ity, and did all we could to check the course of his 
 disease, but unfortunately our efforts were of no 
 avail. The little strength he still had now left him 
 entirely. Dysentery, accompanied by fever, and 
 at times vomiting, had such a disastrously weaken 
 ing effect upon him that during the following morn 
 ing he also expired. We dug a grave under the 
 very tree which overshadowed the poor fellow s 
 death-bed, and there buried him. He was a Scotch 
 man, who but a year before had left his native land, 
 where he had been a law student. Impelled by 
 that dash of nomad that makes men wanderers, he 
 met his death in this lonely land, far away from all 
 who loved him. 
 
 A little later we resumed our journey, and after 
 
140 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 a long and tedious trip the rest of us, a most pitiful 
 looking lot, reached the coast the same point from 
 which some six months ago eight young, strong and 
 healthy men, full of hope and determination, had 
 started. At San Juan we had to wait for a steamer, 
 and during this delay we sold everything we could 
 get a decent offer for ; the rest we took back to 
 California. 
 
 The sight of the Pacific, rolling its long and 
 gentle swells at our feet, inspired us with new life 
 and spirit, and we gained strength from the day we 
 again saw the ocean. 
 
 Ten days later we landed in San Francisco once 
 more, where we intended to recuperate for a while 
 from our late hardships. The wonderful climate of 
 California, which we could now appreciate far more 
 than ever before, soon restored us, and in a short 
 time we had regained our normal mental and phys 
 ical condition. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 As the love of life returned to me and the 
 charms of the world regained their former hold, I 
 again began to plan for my future. 
 
 With one of my late partners, a young medical 
 student from Illinois, I strolled through the differ 
 ent markets of San Francisco one day. The brisk 
 activity which prevailed there made a favorable im 
 pression upon us, and prompted the idea of going 
 into business as fruit and vegetable dealers. We 
 spoke to different people in the business, with the 
 view of buying them out, and found at length a 
 Frenchman who wished to sell and return to his 
 native land. He made us a proposition to buy his 
 business, and as his terms were agreeable we did so, 
 but with the condition that for a few days he was to 
 be our adviser in chief and to acquaint us with the 
 secrets of the trade. 
 
 We dealt in everything in the line of fruits and 
 vegetables. Early in the morning we left our board 
 ing-house, made our purchases and repaired to our 
 market stall. One of us remained there during the 
 day, while the other attended to the outside busi 
 ness. We changed watches or shifts every day ; if 
 I stayed at the stall to-day then my partner stayed 
 to-morrow, and so on. People came and went, 
 looked at this and that, bought or asked prices, and 
 
 (141) 
 
142 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 kept us busy all day long. We retailed our mer 
 chandise at a profit of from twenty-five to more 
 than one hundred per cent, and when closing our 
 stand for the day and making up our accounts we 
 were usually well satisfied with the result. 
 
 The outside business demanded a little extra 
 work, but it had the advantage of higher profits. 
 We had a good many first-class customers, living all 
 over the city, who traded regularly with us. Every 
 morning after we had made the necessary purchases 
 and fitted up our stand in a proper shape, it took us 
 a few hours to pack the different goods together 
 with which to fill the orders left with us the previous 
 day. When everything was ready, one of us pro 
 cured a conveyance, loaded boxes, baskets, bags and 
 packages into it, and delivered the several orders to 
 our customers. 
 
 If while delivering the goods the orders for the 
 next day could not be given to us at once, we called 
 again in the afternoon. We collected our bills 
 weekly, and customers who did not attend punctually 
 to obligations paid for their negligence in one way 
 or another. 
 
 In the evening after our day s work was done, 
 my partner and myself strolled about in the less aris 
 tocratic parts of the town and visited the notorious 
 gambling houses, the music and dance-halls, the 
 lager beer saloons, crowded with female attendants, 
 and the numerous other nocturnal resorts with which 
 San Francisco was at that time so well provided. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 143 
 
 Gambling dens, of which one formerly situated 
 at the corner of Washington and Kearny Streets, 
 was the most notorious in the city, having always a 
 great attraction for people who, perhaps have never 
 before seen anything of the vice. Places of this 
 kind, where crimes of violence even were not 
 uncommon at all, exist now only in the memory of 
 older generations. 
 
 At the long tables, provided with different 
 games of chance, sat the bank proprietors with their 
 assistants. They were usually wrapped in dusters, 
 wore large, old-style California felt hats, and kept 
 their faces concealed behind wire masks. A crowd 
 of people, in all costumes and of all shades and 
 colors, came and went continually, keeping the 
 gambling tables surrounded to a very late hour. 
 For weak-minded people such places were of 
 course dangerous, and the atmosphere, owing to 
 the heat of the lamps and the foul breath and 
 clothing of the reeking crowd, more than sickening. 
 
 Money was the world, all the rest of little or no 
 account, and the amounts won and lost were some 
 times fabulous. Every one was quiet, .and with the 
 exception of " all done all set all made no 
 more," often not a word could be heard. The cards 
 were turned, the croupiers raked in and distributed 
 money, and the game commenced anew. 
 
 One evening, as we were about to close our 
 stand, the Frenchman from whom we had bought it 
 made his appearance. He told us that he had 
 
144 
 
 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 returned from France, where, on account of the 
 despotic government of the Third Napoleon, he 
 could not stay any longer, and that he was glad to 
 be on free American soil again. He asked us if we 
 were willing to sell him back his former business, 
 and when leaving said, that he would call and see 
 us the following morning. 
 
 My partner as well as myself had wished for 
 some time to make a change, and, therefore, we bad 
 now the best opportunity to get rid of our business. 
 When our Frenchman returned in the morning we 
 soon came to an understanding, and a few hours 
 later he sat once more as proprietor in his former 
 fruit and vegetable stand. We stuck our money in 
 our pockets, took a drink together, and parted good 
 friends. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 During the following weeks I visited San 
 Mateo, San Jose, and Monterey, the former Capital 
 of California, took a trip down to Los Angeles, and 
 then returned to dear old San Francisco. 
 
 About this time the position of " runner " for 
 the hotel in which I lived became vacant. I offered 
 my services to the proprietor, and was at once 
 accepted. I had still a good sum of money in my 
 pocket, and, therefore, was not forced to accept this 
 kind of work, but did it because I was tired of doing 
 nothing, and besides I also wished to become 
 acquainted with the peculiar methods of this not 
 very reputable business. 
 
 I had my board and lodging, and was paid a 
 commission on every guest I brought to the house, 
 according to the length of time they lived there, of 
 from one to four dollars each. 
 
 The greater part of the day I was out of doors. 
 I strolled about the streets, visited the saloons, hung 
 around the depot, awaiting the arrival of the San 
 Mateo trains, and when the passengers alighted did 
 my best to persuade them to take up their residence 
 in the hotel I represented. But the most profitable 
 field of operation was always on the water front, 
 especially when the Sacramento, Stockton, and 
 other river boats came in. The scenes that then 
 
 TKAVEL 10 (145) 
 
146 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 prevailed on the wharves and on board the arriving 
 steamers were quite exciting, and the crying and 
 howling of those who were striving to recommend 
 their houses, sometimes almost deafening. 
 
 Most hotels, and boarding and lodging-houses 
 had their runners, of whom a good many had crim 
 inal faces of the worse type. They wore badges 
 with the names of the hotels around their hats or 
 caps, and advertised themselves by cards, and with 
 their bold and insolent manners. 
 
 Heavy, but very comfortable hotel coaches, 
 resting, instead of springs, on broad leather belts, 
 were close at hand, and ready to take in baggage 
 and passengers. 
 
 Scarcely had a steamer tied to the wharf when 
 the hordes of runners hastened on board, shouting 
 the names of the houses they represented. They 
 rushed about the vessel as if they were the owners 
 of it, and used every effort, even resorting to per 
 sonal violence to induce passengers to go to their 
 hotels. 
 
 The audacity and unblushing effrontery of 
 these fellows were astonishing, and a constant sur 
 prise to me. Sometimes they grasped astonished 
 men and women by the arms and clothing, and 
 hurried them half-resisting along ; at others, 
 without being ordered to, they grabbed hold of 
 satchels and hand-bags, and, in some cases, picked 
 up and carried off small children to their respective 
 coaches, leaving the owners to follow at their leis- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 147 
 
 ure. People confused by the noise and audacity of 
 these men, were frequently carried to hotels that 
 were most undesirable places of residence, and 
 which they found it impossible to remain in. 
 
 Of later years this particular nuisance has been 
 abated somewhat. Runners are allowed only at the 
 entrance to the ferries, where at times they still 
 make noise enough, but are not allowed to storm 
 and carry by assault, ships and passengers, after the 
 style of Chinese pirates. 
 
 From the very first I discovered that I was not 
 fitted for this peculiar business. I often tried to 
 follow the example of my self-confident and pushing 
 rivals, but it was impossible. I saw that I could not 
 compete with them, that from day to day I lost 
 ground, that the proprietor could neither be pleased 
 nor satisfied with my services, and, therefore, 
 decided to give it up, before, perhaps he might 
 discharge me. 
 
 Of all the many different occupations I have 
 followed in my life, that of runner was the most 
 detestable to me, and the only one in which my 
 abilities did not bring me success. Nature has not 
 supplied me with the necessary amount of "cheek" 
 and brazen impudence, which is the prime qualifica 
 tion for such a business. 
 
 One day I spoke to the hotel proprietor about 
 the matter, and asked him to be allowed to change 
 occupations with the dishwasher, who had been a 
 runner for the house before. Neither he nor the 
 
148 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 dishwasher objecting, the change was made that 
 very day. 
 
 While working as waiter in Oregon I found 
 opportunity enough to study the several duties 
 required of a kitchen boy, and consequently was 
 not without experience in my new line of work. I 
 was the assistant, and often right-hand man to our 
 cook, who, at times, was inclined to be rather lazy. 
 
 In the morning, between four and five, I arose, 
 built the fire, made the coffee, cut and dressed 
 steaks, chops, and bacon, placed potatoes, hash and 
 other things in the oven and on the range, where 
 upon I enjoyed a smoke, and with it the comfort of 
 a cup of coffee. The chambermaids, who generally 
 rose earlier than the male servants, and who never 
 refused a good cup of coffee early in the morning, 
 most always honored me with their company. 
 
 At six o clock the breakfast bell rang. The 
 boarders appeared in the dining-room, and after 
 their meal went to work. At eight o clock all work 
 connected with breakfast was finished ; the waiters 
 closed the dining-room, and I my kitchen. During 
 the following hours I was kept busy washing dishes, 
 pots, pans and skillets, and in helping the cook pre 
 pare dinner. From twelve to two o clock dinner 
 was served. The quality and the number of dishes 
 served were about the same as at the hotel in Port 
 land. 
 
 After dinner more or less the same work was 
 to be done over again, and likewise after supper, 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 149 
 
 which was served from six to eight o clock in the 
 evening. The boarders were usually seated at the 
 table at the first bell-call, so that by seven o clock 
 the dining-room was almost empty. I at once began 
 my work of cleaning the kitchen, peeling potatoes, 
 chopping corned beef, onions, and other vegetables 
 together for hash, making preparations for the fol 
 lowing day, and generally by nine o clock I had 
 finished my day s work, and could do then as I 
 pleased. 
 
 Behind the kitchen of the hotel, in a yard, 
 stood a one-story frame house. Below were store 
 rooms and stables, and on the upper floor the 
 sleeping apartments of all the male servants. 
 
 The cook deciding to leave, the proprietor 
 asked me if I could fill- the position, and, feeling 
 that I was competent, answered in the affirmative, 
 whereupon I was promoted accordingly. A Count, 
 a few years older than myself, was assigned to me 
 as dishwasher, who, as it appeared, had never in 
 his life before stuck his nose inside a kitchen door. 
 
 In the veins of this .young fellow ran blue, 
 aristocratic blood. According to his story he had 
 been an officer in the Prussian Garde du Corps, and 
 left his fatherland on account of a duel which he 
 had fought with a brother of his intended bride. 
 Whether true or not, his story had not the slightest 
 interest for us. We wanted him to do his work, and 
 did not care whether he had left his country in con 
 sequence of love affairs, debts, or anything else. 
 
150 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Experience, however, has taught me that the 
 greater number of titled personages coining to this 
 country from the fatherland do so in order to 
 escape creditors. A title-bearer, with debts more 
 numerous than the hairs of his head, makes, even 
 on brainless people, a bad impression, and therefore 
 it is to the interest of these noblemen to invent 
 tales of romantic love affairs with duel accompani 
 ment. 
 
 From Uew York our Count found his way to 
 San Francisco, where he lived in our hotel upon 
 what money he brought along with him. In a few 
 weeks it was gone, and he could not even pay his 
 hotel bill. In spite of his presuming, overbearing 
 manner, which was charged to him simply as igno 
 rance, the proprietor felt sorry for him, and tried to 
 give him a chance to earn a living within his house. 
 
 Of all the employes in the hotel we were the 
 only two Germans, and I must say that I did not 
 feel very much flattered to call such a green, stupid 
 and stuck-up fellow my countryman. 
 
 I had to assist him in the very simplest duties; 
 I had to tell him the same thing over every day, 
 and then he was not able to do it by himself. When 
 he peeled potatoes he cut the greater part of the 
 vegetable away; when he washed and dried plates 
 and dishes his clumsiness invariably resulted in 
 breaking something ; and when he built a fire or 
 swept the floor the whole kitchen was a cloud of 
 smoke or dust. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 151 
 
 I took considerable work off his hands, as I 
 preferred to do it myself to having it done bung- 
 lingly, slowly, and all wrong. If, while a dish 
 washer, I had not been of more assistance to the 
 cook than this Count was to me, I am sure he would 
 have driven me out of his kitchen within the first 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 One of the waiters, a bright young fellow from 
 Boston, could not agree with the Count at all. They 
 quarreled and fought, and were continually on the 
 warpath. Sometimes the waiter told him that a 
 free American would be ashamed to give himself 
 such a nick-name, which smelled of decay and cor 
 ruption, and which could be gained only by sneak 
 ing, by humilating one s self and staining one s 
 honor, and by other equally contemptible courses. 
 At other times he would tell him that such a stupid, 
 lazy fellow as he, who only understood how to 
 harass and torture poor defenseless soldiers, would 
 in this country simply starve to death, and that the 
 best thing he could do was to take a pistol and blow 
 his brains out ; but for such action he was, in spite 
 of his noble blood, still too great a coward. 
 
 Compliments of this kind, which were in fact 
 nothing less than the plain, unvarnished truth, 
 brought our noble Count at times to his senses. 
 
 The wall at the side of his bed was decorated 
 with photographs, pictures and trophies of his glori 
 ous past, and in order to give himself an air of 
 greater importance, he was continually relating the 
 
152 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 history of his life until he became so annoying that 
 we were compelled to stop him. When he but 
 opened his mouth we knew beforehand what he 
 was going to say the foolish, self-glorifying conver 
 sation so popular among these vain and conceited 
 German military officers. 
 
 I told him often that for his own good he had 
 better forget the past, and begin a new life in this 
 hospitable country, peopled as it was by practical 
 men. By indolence he surely would not advejice 
 himself, and by boasting and bragging of his noble 
 birth he would only arouse the scorn and contempt 
 of thoughtful, intelligent people. 
 
 But my advice was of no avail. His pride of 
 ancestry, and his aristocratic arrogance, which he 
 had become imbued with from his very mother s 
 milk, could not be forgotten. 
 
 On the parade ground, as torturer of helpless 
 German soldiers ; in Berlin, Unter den Linden, as a 
 male street- walker, he might have been in his place 
 but here in America, and especially in our kitchen 
 in California, he was of no account whatever. 
 
 One morning the proprietor appeared in the 
 kitchen and told my assistant that he had no fur 
 ther use for such a lazy, stupid fellow, who was but 
 a burden and a nuisance to every one. He ordered 
 him to get his things together, and gave our "King 
 William," as we called him, his passport. 
 
 What became of him eventually I never learned. 
 I only know that during the following weeks, reg- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 153 
 
 ularly after dark, he came sneaking to our kitchen 
 door, begging us to give him a loaf of bread, or any 
 thing that was left from the table. We all, even his 
 enemy, the waiter, felt pity for him, and out of com 
 passion always filled his little basket, at times 
 twenty-five or fifty cents was given him, and then 
 he disappeared for the next twenty-four hours. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 
 
 A few months later I gave up my position as 
 cook, but remained for a short time boarding in the 
 hotel. I then started out into the world again, and 
 although more than twenty-five years have passed 
 since then, I still look back with pleasure to the 
 days I spent in the kitchen. 
 
 I had remained much longer in California 
 than I at first intended. The charming surround 
 ings, and glorious climate were so tempting that I 
 postponed from time to time my intention of join 
 ing the Mexican army. 
 
 My republican ideas, my love of freedom and 
 liberty, my enthusiasm for equality and the natural 
 rights of men, were not strongly developed in those 
 days. My only desire was to see the world, and I 
 did not realize that it was a disgrace to fight for the 
 cause of a hard-hearted, ambitious despot, and the 
 suppression of a free and heroic people. My ideas 
 have changed since then. 
 
 At last I took leave of my dearly beloved Cali 
 fornia, and embarked for Acapulco in Mexico. This 
 city, the principal sea-port of the State of Guerrero, 
 was of considerable importance during the time 
 that Spanish tyranny dominated most of 4he world. 
 For almost three centuries it was the headquarters 
 of all those who carried on the trade between 
 
 (154) 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 155 
 
 Spain and the Phillippine Islands, which at that 
 time were under the rule of the viceroy of Mexico. 
 From here the celebrated Spanish Naos sailed every 
 year for Manila, and returned within the following 
 twelve months laden with treasure, products of the 
 Philippines and other goods of value from Asiatic 
 countries. 
 
 In consequence of the war, begun upon so 
 frivolous a pretext by the third Napoleon, Acapulco 
 renewed her activity in some small degree. In the 
 beginning of the campaign it fell into the hands of the 
 French, and on account of its strategic importance, 
 Maximilian s party strained every nerve to keep 
 possession of the place as long as possible. 
 
 Upon my arrival at Acapulco, I joined a Mex 
 ican cavalry regiment, formed principally of Mex 
 icans, and commanded by Mexican officers. It was 
 under orders to escort a transport of money, arms 
 and merchandise to the Capital. The distance from 
 Acapulco to the City of Mexico, by way of Chil- 
 pantzingo, Mescala and Cuernavaca, is a little over 
 ninety leguas, and we thought to reach it within a 
 week. 
 
 Shortly after leaving Acapulco I began to rea 
 lize the difficulties, besetting the path of the 
 newly established dynasty. With few exceptions 
 the Mexicans were opposed to the usurper s govern 
 ment ; they were republican in feeling almost to a 
 man, and could only be intimidated for a time by 
 French bayonets. As soon as this argument was 
 
156 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 removed or weakened, the people arose in their 
 might and strained every nerve to throw off the 
 yoke of the foreign intruder. 
 
 Guerrilleros, under the command of celebrated 
 heroes of liberty, were on the move in every direc 
 tion, and held the greater portion of the country in 
 their hands. They never yielded save to necessity 
 and the overpowering force of numbers. When 
 opposed by superior forces, they retreated iato the 
 caves and hiding places of their forests and moun 
 tains, reappearing when the enemy had passed, 
 trying to inspire their countrymen anew with 
 enthusiasm for the noble cause of liberty. 
 
 We had scarcely left the coast w r hen these wan 
 dering Guerrilleros began to annoy us. They were 
 continually at our heels ; they watched all our 
 movements ; they took advantage of every oppor 
 tunity to lessen our strength ; they surprised us 
 during the day as well as during the night, and we 
 were never safe from their attacks in spite of all our 
 caution. Sometimes they fired into us from an 
 ambush, where we could not even see them ; some 
 times they charged upon us unexpectedly, and 
 retreated as suddenly and mysteriously as they had 
 come. The van and rear guards of our transport 
 suffered most, and we lost men, both killed and 
 wounded every day. 
 
 On the evening of the third day of our march, 
 the van-guard was suddenly attacked by a body of 
 cavalry, and at the same time a lively musketry 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 157 
 
 fire opened upon us from an ambuscade. The 
 command to attack was given ; we formed, drew our 
 swords, and charged the enemy. The struggle 
 which followed, and out of which our party emerged 
 victorious, must have been a hard and desperate 
 one. I know very little of it, as a wound on my 
 head brought me to the ground stunned, and left me 
 but a slight recollection of what had happened and 
 how the horses galloping over me, bruised and 
 abraided my body with their hoofs. 
 
 When I recovered my senses, my first thought 
 was that I had become blind. A stiffened blood 
 crust covered my face and kept my eyes closed, but 
 in my anxiety I moistened them with saliva, and 
 was overjoyed that my fears were unfounded. 
 
 It was midnight, the weather cold and disa 
 greeable, with a sharp, cutting wind whistling 
 through the branches of the trees. The twinkling 
 of a few stars illuminated the locality but faintly, 
 and the groans and cries of pain from dying and 
 wounded men and horses fell on my ears from all 
 sides. I tried to rise, but too weak to do so, fell 
 back and lost consciousness again. 
 
 When I reopened my eyes the sun stood high 
 in the heavens. I pulled myself together, rose to 
 my feet, and surveyed with terror our battle-field. 
 Friend and foe had forgotten animosity and lay 
 peacefully together, most of them dead, and the 
 few alive either in the last struggle of agony, or 
 cursing the originator of this horrible war. 
 
158 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Supporting myself with the scabbard of my 
 sabre, I limped about the field of battle and death, 
 and discovered at a little distance a young Mexican, 
 an Alferez, or under lieutenant of my troop lying 
 wounded on the field. This poor fellow had been 
 shot through one leg, had a sabre cut on his arm, 
 and had lost a great quantity of blood. He was 
 lying between two dead horses, and as he perceived 
 me a smile broke over his poor wan face, and a 
 rather more cheerful expression took the place of 
 utter hopelessness. 
 
 I assisted him to his feet and away from his 
 former resting place. We dressed each other s 
 wounds and decided to return to Acapulco together. 
 Arm in arm we crept slowly along, until we reached, 
 after a tedious journey, our destination. 
 
 At Acapulco I sought and obtained permission 
 to retire from the service. I changed my uniform 
 for civilians clothes, remained a few days in the 
 town and sailed on the first steamer for Panama. 
 The bracing sea breeze, and the abundance of excel 
 lent food on board the Constitution had such a favor 
 able effect upon me that I was soon as well as ever. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Panama, with its beautiful surrpun dings, is a 
 perfect paradise. The old tumble-down buildings, 
 the massive, but ruinous and crumbling fortifica 
 tion walls remind one of the time when mighty 
 Spain was the most powerful nation in the world. 
 For a few days I enjoyed myself here, and after 
 viewing everything worth seeing, I began to make 
 preparations for my trip across the Isthmus. 
 
 The railroad, connecting Aspinwall and Pan 
 ama, is subject to no competition, and charged for 
 transportation over a distance of not quite fifty 
 miles the exorbitant sum of twenty-five dollars in ( 
 gold. I was not inclined to pay so much money for 
 a three hours ride, and besides, I wished to see the 
 country, for which a railroad car afforded but small 
 opportunity. 
 
 One morning, with revolver in my belt, blan 
 kets over my shoulder, a heavy walking stick in my 
 hand, I lighted my pipe and departed from Panama, 
 happy and contented. The road I followed was the 
 one traveled by the Indians hundreds of years 
 before, and in later times by the Spaniards. It was 
 about sixty miles in length, and led over hills, 
 across rivers, through forests and valleys, and 
 afforded the greatest variety and beauty of tropical 
 scenery. 
 
 (159) 
 
160 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 After a march of four days, I left this beauti 
 ful stretch of country behind, and found myself sur 
 rounded by swamps and morasses in the noisome 
 town of Colon, or Aspinwall. Life here had 110 
 attractions for me whatever. I would have con 
 tinued my journey at once with pleasure had I been 
 able to do so. 
 
 The population of this town was made up of 
 the scum and outcasts of every nation on earth, the 
 negroes of Jamaica predominating. These people 
 led the most abandoned lives, and were slaves to 
 the lowest and basest passions. 
 
 A small American schooner was loading here 
 for Kingston, Jamaica. I arranged for my passage 
 to that port with the captain for the sum of twenty 
 dollars, and was glad to leave Colon, the most 
 important seaport on the east coast of Nueva 
 Granada, or Colombia. 
 
 Our trip of ten days across the Caribbean Sea 
 offered very little variety. The vessel was so small, 
 and her cabin and deck packed so full of freight 
 that but little room was left to move or walk about. 
 For the purpose of getting exercise I assisted the 
 sailors in their work, or climbed about in the rig 
 ging and masts of our miserable little tub. 
 
 The captain, who owned a share in the vessel 
 himself, belonged to that class whose one ambition 
 seems to be the accumulation of money. It is posi 
 tive pain to them to spend it. Contrary to the rule 
 of American vessels, the schooner was provisioned 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 161 
 
 in a manner that amounted to stinginess, and 
 besides, the skipper treated his men so meanly, 
 giving them scarcely enough to eat, that they were 
 always at war with one another. 
 
 As punishment for his contemptible, niggardly 
 behavior, some of the men made their way into his 
 room one night and gave him such a frightful beat 
 ing that for days he could not leave his bed. The 
 crew stuck together, and as every one of them repu 
 diated such a shameful deed, the perpetrators were 
 never discovered. In addition to this, the men took 
 advantage of every opportunity to creep into the 
 storeroom, stealing everything they could lay 
 hands on. 
 
 Sometimes I thought that such a mean, short 
 sighted man did not deserve pity. He himself was 
 the cause of all his trouble. If he had treated his 
 men fairly and justly, he would have escaped their 
 hatred, and pecuniarily he would have been far 
 better off. 
 
 The captain was a Southerner, a perfect fanatic 
 on the subject of secession. He spoke of the ques 
 tion in dispute between the North and South with 
 all the bitterness of a partisan, and when he discov 
 ered that I w^as a Union man, and not in sympathy 
 with the Southern Confederation, he treated me 
 with marked contempt. 
 
 My former intention was to go from Colon by 
 the nearest way to Cuba. But now, finding myself 
 already in the West Indies, new routes presented 
 
 TRAVEL 11 
 
162 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 themselves to me, and T decided to see other lands 
 before proceeding there. 
 
 After a short sojourn in Jamaica, I embarked 
 as a deck passenger on board the English steamer 
 Ocean Queen for Puerto Rico. As deck passenger I 
 was obliged to provide my own food, and only had 
 the freedom of a very limited space at the fore end 
 of the vessel. 
 
 The steamer plied to and from Central Ameri 
 can ports, and had many passengers for St. Thomas 
 and Europe on board, of whom the greater part 
 traveled in the saloon. In the second cabin, or 
 steerage, were comparatively few, and even these 
 looked down superciliously upon the four or five 
 miserable deck passengers. 
 
 In the morning I usually bought a loaf of 
 bread from the baker, which I washed down with 
 water, and it tasted better to me than many a lux 
 urious meal I have eaten since. Sometimes I 
 assisted in the kitchen, peeling potatoes or scraping 
 turnips and carrots ; sometimes I fetched water and 
 coal, for which service I was allowed to help myself 
 to some scraps that came from the cabin tables. 
 
 When the nights were fine I slept on deck, and 
 when not, I crawled under deck. My bed depended 
 upon circumstances. Sometimes it was on cases, 
 barrels or sacks, and sometimes in some out-of-the- 
 way corner. But I had an especial fondness for a 
 coil of rope for night quarters. I sat myself down 
 in such a coil, sank gradually into it, doubled up 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 163 
 
 head and feet together, like a pocket-knife, and 
 slept as well, if not better, than if wrapped in the 
 finest eiderdown quilt. 
 
 Among the deck passengers was a young Ital 
 ian, who was returning with a monkey and a 
 squeaky organ from a professional expedition into 
 Central America. Judging by his utterly woe 
 begone appearance he had not been very fortunate 
 there, and now, for the same purpose, he intended 
 to pay a visit to the Island of Puerto Rico. 
 
 Owing to his shabby, ragged and greasy cloth 
 ing, and the awful odor of garlic emanating from 
 his breath and person, even sailors and deck pas 
 sengers kept at a respectable distance from him. 
 This poor creature could not speak a word of Eng 
 lish, and he and his monkey would probably have 
 starved to death had I not taken pity on them. My 
 services were accepted in the spirit offered and a 
 friendship sprang up between us which resulted in 
 our forming a partnership. 
 
 I had not much money left, but in comparison 
 with him I was a Croesus on a small scale. I bound 
 myself to provide the monkey with a uniform and 
 other articles necessary in his performances, and to 
 have the old weather-beaten organ repaired and 
 furbished up. He undertook to explain to me the 
 various tricks of the monkey, and to familiarize me 
 with the organ-grinding business generally. When 
 we arrived at San Juan, de Puerto Kico, the capital 
 of the Island of Puerto Kico, my partner took the 
 
164 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 organ on his back, I the monkey on my shoulder, 
 and we went ashore. 
 
 In a narrow alley of the town, in the house of 
 a Spanish mule-driver, we rented a small room ; it 
 contained no furniture whatever, hut dirt and filth 
 in abundance. We placed organ and monkey in 
 one corner, our other few belongings in another, 
 and sallied out to take a look at the town and to 
 enjoy heartily a good Spanish meal. 
 
 A few days later, our mutual obligations being 
 performed, everything was ready for a start. But 
 before leaving for the interior of the islaild we 
 decided to give a few performances in the city and 
 suburbs, in order to earn a little money, and to find 
 out how we might strike the musical taste of the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 We were disappointed from the start to find 
 that the Spaniards were not the people we had 
 expected them to be ; they were not favorably 
 impressed either with the clever, cunning tricks of 
 our monkey, or in the droning tunes of our rickety, 
 wheezy old organ. Scarcely had we commenced 
 our performance on the corner of one of the streets 
 when nearly all the windows and shutters of the 
 surrounding houses were closed with a bang and 
 from those that remained open, instead of the 
 expected coins, we were assailed with rotten 
 bananas, oranges, and insulting language. 
 
 Even the dogs in the streets showed their 
 antipathy for us. They snarled at the organ and 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 165 
 
 showed their teeth at the monkey, and with indrawn 
 tails retreated, growling at us from a distance. 
 Very probably not being accustomed to such a sight, 
 nor to the squeaking sounds of our instrument, they 
 began, as soon as it struck up, to bark and howl in 
 such an infernal manner that our monkey seemed 
 to lose heart, and he became so frightened that he 
 could not understand the commands given him. 
 
 Children of all shades and colors, usually stark 
 naked, followed us in great numbers, acting as our 
 body-guard, but the only encouragement we 
 received from them was their good will. Unfortu 
 nately they had nothing else to give. 
 
 In the laborious work of our business we alter 
 nated our duties, as good comrades should. While 
 one of us ground the old organ the other had to 
 attend to the monkey. Held by a cord, we made him 
 dance, jump, shoot, go through a. drill, and when 
 he had finished the tricks of his not very extensive 
 repertoire, then he was supposed to collect the 
 donations of the kind-hearted spectators. 
 
 In the capital, which we traversed in every 
 direction, we did a very poor business. Whether we, 
 our performances, or the Spaniards themselves were 
 the cause of it, was, of course, hard to say, and 
 under the circumstances of little importance, 
 anyhow. 
 
 My partner had an idea that the Spaniards 
 were rather behind the age, as they did not appre 
 ciate our artistic exhibition, and at the same time 
 
166 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 he thought that the colored people in the interior of 
 the island would have better taste, and reward our 
 efforts in the way we had every right to expect. 
 
 So one morning we strapped our few belong 
 ings together, one took the organ on his back, the 
 other the monkey on his shoulder, and each grasp 
 ing a heavy walking-stick, left San Juan de Puerto 
 Rico, which had shown itself so unappreciative. 
 
 Our intention was to go by way of Aguadilla, 
 Mayaguez, to Ponce, where, upon our arrival, we 
 would make plans for further journeys. 
 
 With our heavy burden on our backs, the road 
 seemed far worse than it really was. We crept along 
 so slowly that it took us almost a month to reach 
 Mayaguez, a romantically situated little place, sur 
 rounded by numbers of tamarind and mango trees. 
 In every village through which we passed we stopped 
 a little while, and gave young and old the oppor 
 tunity of enjoying a performance. We accepted 
 anything that was given to us grateful even for 
 the smallest copper coin. Of course we didn t make 
 a fortune, but made more than we, or at least I, had 
 expected we would, and I began to believe that my 
 partner s former expectations had not been too great 
 after all. 
 
 After several days performances in and about 
 Mayaguez, a few hours before our intended depart 
 ure, the cruel hand of destiny suddenly fell upon 
 us, ruined our hopes, destroyed our plans, and 
 ended our partnership. We lived there with an old 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 167 
 
 mulata, who for a small compensation rented us 
 part of her tumble-down cottage. We slept on the 
 bare ground, our monkey on his organ in one 
 corner, and we in our blankets in the other. 
 
 The monkey, who answered to the name of 
 Pietro, was a good-sized beast, and by reason of the 
 ill treatment he had received at some time or another, 
 a very vicious animal. From the beginning I 
 had treated him with kindness ; had allowed him 
 to scratch my head at his leisure, and had shown 
 him lots of other little favors. He proved thankful 
 for it, struck up a great friendship with me, and 
 was willing and obedient in every respect. With 
 his master, who seemed to be jealous of our friend 
 ship, he was not on such good terms. He kicked 
 and whipped the monkey upon the least provoca 
 tion, and sometimes so cruelly that I was obliged 
 to interfere. The consequence was that the monkey 
 obeyed him only through fear ,. chattering and show 
 ing his teeth whenever he could. 
 
 During the night before our intended departure 
 I was suddenly awakened by the call, "Emilio, la 
 scimmia si e sciolta dalla catena, la scimmia mi 
 morse." I jumped up, lighted a candle and crawled 
 over to my partner where a bloody and shocking 
 sight presented itself to my eyes. The Italian lay 
 lamenting and groaning upon his blood-spotted 
 blanket, and the monkey, with his bowels hanging 
 out of his body, dead at his side. 
 
 Our Pietro, who could manage to free himself 
 
168 
 
 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 from his chain one way or another, had jumped 
 suddenly at his master s throat, and scratched and 
 bit him so fiercely that in order to save -his life he 
 was forced to draw his stiletto and cut him down. 
 His face, neck and arms were terribly lacerated, and 
 out of his left cheek the infuriated animal had torn 
 a large piece of flesh. 
 
 I fetched water, washed and laved his wounds, 
 endeavouring to staunch the bleeding, and remained 
 the rest of the night at his side. The following 
 morning I went for a doctor. He came, dressed his 
 wounds, and sent him to the hospital. 
 
 I arranged my affairs with him, visited him 
 during the remaining days of my stay very often, 
 and finally took leave of him. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 The Spanish brig Carmencita was loading for 
 Trinidad de Cuba. I took passage in her, and ten 
 days later found myself on .the south coast of this 
 rich and charming island. 
 
 On account of a slave-trader, having arrived 
 from the east coast of Africa on the previ 
 ous day, a very brisk and active scene presented 
 itself upon our arrival at Trinidad. Some hundred 
 unfortunate creatures had already been landed, and 
 were to be sold to the highest bidder. 
 
 Planters, agents, brokers, who for this purpose 
 had come from far and near, inspected, examined 
 by sight and touch, and appraised this human mer 
 chandise in exactly the same way as butchers do, 
 when buying cattle. 
 
 Men, women and children were brought into a 
 sort of barn, where they were washed, combed, 
 brushed and furbished up, so as to remove the 
 effects of a long sea voyage. 
 
 On the day of the auction they were led to the 
 slave market, where they went off like hot cakes. 
 The prices were in proportion to the quality of the 
 merchandise. For strong, powerful men, up to 
 fifteen hundred dollars were paid ; for healthy, 
 well-formed women, up to eight hundred dollars, 
 
 (169) 
 
170 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 and for children according to age, from one to four 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 During that sale there were scenes enacted that 
 would have brought tears to the eyes of any honest- 
 hearted man. To me such a spectacle was new. It 
 angered me, rilled me with rage and hatred against 
 those miserable wretches, who, with the lives of 
 their fellow-creatures as goods, were plying such an 
 infamous trade. 
 
 By way of Cienfuegos and Villa Clara I went 
 through the interior of the Island to Sagua la 
 Grande, where I arrived after a very pleasant and 
 interesting trip. 
 
 On the road, I now and again called upon 
 Spanish and native planters, and at one plantation, 
 charmingly situated in a little valley, I rested for 
 quite a number of days. The proprietor received 
 me with Spanish courtesy, inviting me to remain his 
 guest for a few weeks. But anxious to reach 
 Havana, I declined his invitation for a longer stay, 
 and left his hospitable home on the morning of the 
 third day. 
 
 He was one of the wealthiest and most influ 
 ential planters on the Island, and on his extensive 
 plantation had more than a thousand slaves. Pro 
 vided with all the comforts of home, his spacious 
 residence, surrounded by airy verandas, stood in the 
 midst of a well-kept flower garden, and at the rear 
 of this the engine-house, stables, barns, and the 
 negroes cottages. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 171 
 
 Engineers, overseers or major-domos, and other 
 white men employed on the plantation, lived by 
 themselves, and had, excepting during business 
 hours, no intercourse with the negroes whatever. 
 
 Two doctors, w r ho, as they said, were always 
 kept busy, lived with the family, which consisted of 
 the planter, his wife, two sons, two grown-up and 
 two half-grown daughters. It was the first planta 
 tion I had seen conducted on such a magnificent 
 scale, and I must say that it made a strong impres 
 sion upon me. It was quite a little world in itself, 
 in which almost everything the heart might desire 
 was to be found. 
 
 Comparing plantation life in Cuba with that in 
 the Philippines proved very disparaging to the 
 latter. The Philippines, so far off the beaten track 
 of travel, were much neglected and had but little 
 value to the Spaniards, whilst they held possession 
 of the largest and wealthiest portions of the New 
 World. 
 
 The plantations on the Philippine Archipelago 
 are small, and miserably managed, while existence 
 on them is arduous and wretched. Even to-day 
 there is not one hacienda that produces more than 
 twenty-five thousand picos, or about fifteen hundred 
 tons of sugar in a year. 
 
 During the day I walked or rode with some one 
 on the plantation ; in the afternoon we drove in 
 comfortable volantas about the vicinity, visiting 
 friends of the family; and in the evenings, after 
 
172 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 dinner, dancing, playing, and other amusements 
 went on. 
 
 The slaves amused themselves, as soon as their 
 day s work was done, in a similar way. They sat be 
 fore their clean and neat little cottages, laughing and 
 chatting, or romped about to their heart s content. 
 
 Accustomed from childhood to hardships, and 
 a condition of servitude, they did not know even 
 the meaning of liberty. They were happy because 
 contented with their fate, which, perhaps, was better 
 than might have befallen them in their own coun 
 try. They had no worries of any kind, and if they 
 were ill, or an accident happened, they were nursed 
 and cared for with every attention. 
 
 They were, without doubt, far better off than are 
 a good many white slaves in Europe, who work from 
 early morning until late at night, and in spite of all 
 their toil scarcely keep themselves from starvation. 
 
 My former idea on the subject, that black slaves 
 are treated like dogs, has since changed to a consid 
 erable extent. It is easy to understand that a valu 
 able article should naturally be taken better care of 
 than a worthless one, if only to avoid heavy pecun 
 iary loss. 
 
 If the German soldiers, who get, outside of 
 their miserable barrack food, a payment of twenty 
 pfennige, or five cents, a day, were treated half as 
 humanely as the black slaves on the haciendas of 
 Cuba, they might surely call themselves happy and 
 fortunate. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 From Sagua la Grande I went by way of Car 
 denas, Matanzas, to Havana, where by calling I 
 surprised a schoolmate of mine, who held a position 
 as clerk in a Spanish firm. I also met some Span 
 iards whom I had known in the Philippines ; they 
 were Government officials, and in the meantime had 
 been transferred from there to the Island of Cuba. 
 
 In Havana, which in regard to personal com 
 fort is far, behind the Philippines, I rested fora 
 short time, during which I discussed with my friend 
 plans for the future. I spoke to him of my experi 
 ences on the Philippines ; of the better chances to 
 succeed a business man has there ; of the pleasant, 
 hospitable manners of its good-natured inhabitants, 
 and at last persuaded him to change Havana for 
 Manila. 
 
 We intended to establish ourselves in Manila 
 as partners, but before my friend would give up his 
 position he insisted that I should first go to Europe 
 and endeavor to arrange certain business matters. 
 Later, if I should realize my expectations, he would 
 leave Havana, we would meet in Europe, and 
 together sail for the Philippines. 
 
 The distance from Havana to New York is 
 about twelve hundred miles, and is made by the 
 regular mail boats in from four to five days. 
 
 (173) 
 
174 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 A large English steamer, lately arrived from 
 Santo Domingo, was then advertising for freight 
 and passengers for New York. She carried only 
 saloon passengers, and thinking she would make 
 the trip in the usual time, I purchased a ticket by 
 her for fifty dollars. A number of other people, 
 mostly Spanish, Mexican and English families, had 
 taken passage also. But scarcely had we left the 
 anchor ground when we found that the lying, over 
 drawn newspaper advertisements had deceived us all. 
 
 This vessel, advertised as a steamer, had a very 
 elegant cabin outfit, but otherwise not even the good 
 qualities of a middle-class sailing vessel; A miser 
 able little engine, scarcely able to drive her at a 
 speed of three miles an hour, constituted her steam 
 power, and was for use only in case she could not 
 make headway under sail. When a calm set in, the 
 " coffee-machine " was set at work, but at the least 
 puff of air the propeller was raised from the water 
 and under sail we crept slowly along. 
 
 In our first excitement we reproached the cap 
 tain in bitter terms, telling him that upon our 
 arrival in New York we should make public the mean, 
 contemptible trick played upon us. He answered 
 that he was sorry for us with all his heart, but in 
 sisted that he was not to blame for it, and that with 
 all his good will .he could not make of his old, 
 weather-beaten vessel a .White Star ocean grey 
 hound. 
 
 At last, knowing that our situation could not be 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 175 
 
 altered by grumbling, we quieted down and tried to 
 make the best of our situation. 
 
 In addition to a few hundred barrels of pine 
 apples, and any quantity of bananas stored on deck, 
 the cargo of the vessel consisted principally of 
 sugar. In consequence of our long voyage, the pine 
 apples soon began to spoil, and to spread such a 
 horrible odor all over the ship that they had to be 
 thrown overboard. At this time we were, in spite 
 of having had ever since leaving Havana the finest 
 weather, not even half way to New York. 
 
 At noon of the second Sunday out dark clouds 
 appeared on the northeastern horizon. They came 
 nearer and nearer, enveloping us in darkness like 
 night, while the storm swept howling and shrieking 
 over our heads. The ocean, which shortly before 
 had been so calm and quiet, presented a few hours 
 later an entirely different appearance. The foam 
 ing, mountainous billows, lighted up at intervals by 
 great flashes of lightning, were a terrible but 
 grandly impressive sight, and the tremendous seas 
 that washed the deck with deafening roars carried 
 everything not fastened securely along with them. 
 
 The old, clumsy India was pitched about in a 
 most merciless fashion, and made such a dreadful, 
 squeaking noise that most of the passengers could 
 neither walk, stand nor sleep during the following 
 night. By the morning the tempest had passed, 
 the sea quieted down, the jerking motion of the ves 
 sel ceased, and all sail could be set again. 
 
176 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Our joy at the passing of the storm was turned 
 to anxiety when the captain told us that during the 
 night his old tub had sprung a leak ; that it had 
 been found necessary to throw part of the cargo 
 overboard, and that the pumps had to be kept going 
 constantly. He told us this as we were sitting down 
 to breakfast, and tried to tranquilize us by adding 
 that no immediate danger was to .be feared ; but if 
 the crew should not be able to keep the pumps 
 going ; if the pumps themselves could not avail 
 against the incoming sea, or if foul weather were to 
 overtake us again, then, of course, it would be a dif 
 ferent matter, and rather questionable whether we 
 would ever reach the port of destination. 
 
 His statement had a very painful effect upon 
 the greater number of passengers, who cried, sobbed, 
 fainted or gave other outward expressions to their 
 feelings. Not only were delicate matrons and maid 
 ens lamenting, but strong and powerful men also, 
 from whom one might have expected more coura 
 geous conduct. 
 
 During the following six days the passengers 
 assisted the crew to the best of their ability, and did 
 all they could to save themselves and the vessel from 
 destruction. Whether, without our assistance, the 
 vessel would ever have reached New York is very 
 problematical and difficult to decide. The instinct 
 of self-preservation animated every one of us, and 
 even tender and delicate women stood to the pumps 
 and worked as hard as the sailors. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 177 
 
 We were in all about sixty adults in the cabin, 
 of whom about half were women. Immediately 
 after the captain had laid the fact of our situation 
 before us, the passengers divided themselves into 
 watches. In the beginning we decided to leave the 
 women out, but they would not hear of such an 
 arrangement, and urged that in cases of such impera 
 tive need they could devote their little strength to a 
 common cause just as well as men. 
 
 On this occasion I formed a higher opinion of 
 the energy, perseverence and moral courage of 
 women than I, in common with other men, had 
 hitherto held. Day and night food and drink were 
 kept in readiness on the cabin table. As soon as we 
 came from our work we refreshed ourselves arid 
 then lay down until our duty again called us on 
 deck. 
 
 Those who have never been in a similar 
 position can hardly imagine what a spectacle our 
 rotton old ship presented, her hold and tween decks 
 awash with a solution of sugar and salt water. 
 
 Spanish and Mexican beauties, who in all their 
 lives had never dreamed of ever soiling their hands 
 with work of any kind, stood to the pumps, wet and 
 disheveled in draggled silk dresses, and showed 
 themselves in a light that only such circumstances 
 could account for. With their dainty little hands, 
 sore and blistered, they pushed and pulled the pump 
 handles up and down, to the shame of many of the 
 male passengers, and worked so steadily and unre- 
 
 TRAVEL 12 
 
178 
 
 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 mittingly that even the weather-heaten, gray- 
 bearded sailors were compelled to pay them a com 
 pliment of admiration and respect. 
 
 Far outside of Sandy Hook we took a pilot on 
 board. A little tug-boat looking out for customers 
 took hold of us and brought us in a few hours to 
 port. We went on shore, and with few exceptions, 
 to the same hotel, and slept after our hardships for 
 the next twenty-four hours without awakening. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 In New York I remained but a few days, 
 embracing the first opportunity of getting to Ham 
 burg. My means were very much reduced, and I 
 did not feel inclined to spend the little I had left 
 for steamer fare. I wished to save it, and, if pos 
 sible, to work my passage. 
 
 At Hoboken the Borussia was loading for Ham 
 burg. I went on board of her, told the chief 
 engineer what I wanted, and was at once accepted 
 as a coal-heaver, and assigned to the watch of the 
 third assistant engineer. 
 
 From false economy on the part of the owners, 
 the German steamer Borussia was short of hands. 
 On the pier at Hoboken are always to be found men 
 who would like to return to their native country, 
 but on account of their empty pockets, are not able 
 to do so. The owners take advantage of their pov 
 erty by engaging them to work their passage, and 
 by such an arrangement save a good deal of money. 
 They don t do it out of compassion or fellow feeling, 
 but only on the score of economy. 
 
 Besides myself, a great many other young fel 
 lows worked their passage also, but they were 
 shipped mostly as deck-hands, waiters, or in the 
 kitchen. 
 
 A few days later we left New York, and arrived 
 
 (179) 
 
180 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 at Hamburg, after a very rough and stormy passage 
 of eighteen days. 
 
 The treatment I received on board the Borussia 
 I probably will not forget as long as I live. 
 Although more than a quarter of a century has 
 passed since then, the scars on my hands still remind 
 me of it. 
 
 The engineer to whose watch I had been 
 assigned, took a dislike to me from the first. 
 Whether I was too fine or too common, too well 
 educated or too uneducated for him, I could not 
 say. He himself was such a brute, and such a dis 
 graceful wretch, that I have seldom or never found 
 his equal. This fellow could not even speak his 
 own mother tongue high German but in low 
 German, swore, cursed and used a vocabulary of 
 vulgar and abusive epithets, such as one only 
 hears in the very lowest dives among the outcasts 
 of humanity. 
 
 He tormented and tortured me where and when 
 ever he could, and in such an infamous way that all 
 my shipmates felt embittered towards him. But 
 those poor creatures were so intimidated, and stood 
 under so tyrannical a rule that they scarcely dared 
 to open their mouths. An unfavorable word from 
 the engineer would have thrown them out of work, 
 and, perhaps, have brought them and their families 
 into misery and want. 
 
 The firemen and trimmers did not earn even 
 the sixth part of what we earned on board the 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 181 
 
 Golden City, and, in addition, they were treated by 
 their superiors like dogs. Most of them were mar 
 ried men, and had to provide for wife and children. 
 To make a little better living for their families, 
 these men, who were mostly mechanics, worked at 
 their various trades in their spare time tailoring, 
 shoemaking, barbering, or something else. 
 
 Accustomed to the simple and practical arrange 
 ments of the Americans, almost everything on 
 board of the Borussia seemed to me clumsy and far 
 behind the age. Especially was this the case in the 
 arrangement for heaving the ashes from the fire- 
 room on to the deck and overboard. It was so old- 
 fashioned, requiring such a waste of strength that 
 any American engineer would have ridiculed it. 
 
 In spite of all these drawbacks I would not 
 have complained in the least, if the rowdy engineer 
 had only let me alone. But it seemed that it gave 
 him pleasure to bully and aggravate me at le:st 
 once during my watch, regardless of whether I was 
 working, or standing under the ventilators, panting 
 for breath. His favorite torture was to order me 
 with a sneering smile and in the most supercillious 
 manner to a dark and gloomy place beneath the 
 engine-room, where, owing to the low ceiling, I 
 could neither stand nor walk, and where in a kneel 
 ing position, or half lying in cold, dirty water, I 
 had for hours to scrape, clean and do other 
 unnecessary work. 
 
 I never questioned his orders, but obeyed with 
 
182 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 a look filled with contempt and indignation. Fortu 
 nately he never laid hands on me, otherwise I am 
 positive that one of us would never have risen 
 again. 
 
 My shipmates often told me that I should com 
 plain to the captain of his behavior toward me, but 
 I considered it beneath my dignity to do so, and 
 besides I would show no weakness to him, thinking 
 that for the few days I could stand it anyhow. 
 
 My hands had suffered considerably ; they 
 were sore and inflamed, and cruel thumping pains 
 in them often kept me awake for twenty-four ho.urs 
 at a stretch. My shipmates showed sympathy for 
 me, but my cowardly, hard-hearted torturer not the 
 very least. 
 
 One morning, when my right arm began to 
 ache, and hung almost as though lead had been 
 poured into its joints, I resolved to go and see the 
 doctor. I knocked at his cabin, thought I heard 
 " come in," and, therefore, opened the door. But 
 he scarcely caught sight of me when in a deep bass 
 voice he shouted : " How dare you you insolent 
 fellow you to come in here get out I tell you." 
 
 Rather puzzled at such a greeting, I closed the 
 door, and waited outside until it pleased this ruffian 
 to attend to me. 
 
 During my residence in beautifully free Amer 
 ica, I had forgotten entirely that in my unfortunate 
 fatherland, the members of the honest, useful work 
 ing classes are treated like beasts of burden. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 183 
 
 After this petty tyrant had kept me waiting, 
 like a fool, for over half an hour he at length made 
 his appearance. He caressed his beard, brought his 
 golden eye-glasses into position, looked carelessly 
 at my hands, and said, in an ironical and insulting 
 tone : " That is simply nothing bathe them in 
 cold water, and work till they heal and fresh skin 
 grows over the wounds." Without wasting as much 
 as a glance at him, I turned my back and went 
 forward. 
 
 If his hands had been but a shadow of mine, I am 
 sure he would at once have crawled into his berth, 
 and not appeared again for days. 
 
 He was a big, clumsy, bloated fellow, out of 
 whose face stared ignorance, laziness, brutality and 
 sensuousness, and who belonged to those that have 
 stained the reputation of ships doctors. 
 
 Owing to his indolent and luxurious life as a 
 steamship doctor, he had become so lazy and stupid 
 .that he could not have made a living as a quack s 
 assistant on shore. He rose late in the morning, 
 went to sleep several times during the day, ate 
 and drank, read brain-killing novels, and felt angry 
 when, perhaps, once in a while a passenger, or one 
 of the crew, came to consult him. 
 
 When at last we had reached our destination, 
 and tied up to the Pinas in St. Pauly, I parted from 
 my shipmates, took a cab and drove to my parental 
 home. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 During my stay in Hamburg I was disap 
 pointed in many ways. I found that the ideas of 
 freedom, liberty and equality, brought back with 
 me from America, were not liked there at all, and 
 that cringing and stooping hypocrisy, and servile 
 submissiveness, were just as in former years the rule 
 of German life. 
 
 A few days after my arrival, I tried to arrange 
 the affairs which I had discussed with my friend 
 in Havana. I used every argument I could bring 
 to bear, but owing to the narrow-mindedness of 
 those people, I did not succeed. If I had suited 
 myself to their ways, and acted less freely and inde 
 pendently, I am sure that I could have succeeded. I 
 asked for no alms whatever, only for credits, secured 
 by good collateral, as every business man does. 
 
 To take the hat off, to throw the cigar away 
 before entering the house, to knock at the office 
 door, and wait like a fool, until it pleased those 
 inside to say " come in, " to ask humbly for mister 
 so-and-so, and then to speak to some proud and 
 haughty fellow in a slavish, humiliating way, did 
 not suit me. 
 
 I abandoned the project soon after opening 
 negotiations and wrote to my friend in Havana that 
 all our arrangements must be considered at an end. 
 
 (184) 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 185 
 
 As soon as I had this affair off my mind I felt 
 relieved, and the idea of leaving Europe as quickly 
 as possible became my only absorbing thought. 
 
 With my relations I could not agree either. 
 They said that all my former good habits had been 
 ruined in America, and that it would have been far 
 better for me if I had never left home. They could 
 not understand why their ideas were not mine, why 
 I preferred the wild, far-away country as some 
 called it to civilized, illustrious Germany ; why I 
 felt neither happy nor contented in my own native 
 country ; and why I had not the desire to settle 
 down -with them as every good and obedient son 
 should. 
 
 People born and reared in those tyrannically 
 ruled countries, don t notice the pressure which lies 
 like lead upon them. Knowing nothing better all 
 their lives, they have become so accustomed to the 
 iron rod, continually hanging over "them, that in 
 their minds they are the freest and most independ 
 ent people in the world. 
 
 The more they tried to persuade me to remain 
 there, the more I opposed them, and the end was that 
 I did not part on as friendly terms as one should 
 with relations. 
 
 The sailing vessel Palmerston was at this time 
 advertised for freight and passengers for New York. 
 Without telling my people in what way I intended 
 to leave, I secured a steerage passage oil her for 
 forty dollars. 
 
186 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 On board of this emigrant vessel were about 
 eight hundred passengers, hailing from almost every 
 country in northern Europe, and of whom scarcely 
 the twentieth part traveled in the cabin. 
 
 Life, as it presented itself there, was worse than 
 anything I had hitherto seen. Even on board a 
 slave trader it could not have been worse, where 
 they had advantages which we poor wretches on 
 board the Palmerston had not. I had thought it 
 impossible that ship-owners of my own native city, 
 who, as zealous church-members stand in high 
 repute, were not ashamed to carry on such a nefarious 
 business. 
 
 Without heart, without feeling for the misery of 
 their fellow-creatures, they sent emigrants like cat 
 tle across the ocean, and did not even provide them 
 the most necessary things. Whether they reach the 
 port of destination or succumb to the misery they 
 find on board is entirely indifferent to them. They 
 only have the money point in view, and look at all 
 the rest merely as by-questions. They consider the 
 human freight as merchandise, having no more 
 claim to their compassion than so many tons of coal 
 or other stuff. 
 
 Agents of those gentlemen traveled among the 
 ignorant inhabitants of northern countries trying 
 to entice them to Hamburg, and after the passage- 
 money to America had been paid not the tenth part 
 of all the promises were fulfilled. 
 
 Such traffic is very lucrative, and leaves an 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 187 
 
 enormous profit. The many palatial residences on 
 the Elbe, on the Alster and in other so-called aris 
 tocratic localities, which have been built from the 
 blood of such poor, unfortunate victims, are the best 
 proof of it. 
 
 The officers and crew of an emigrant vessel are 
 obliged to obey orders strictly, and carry into effect 
 the wishes of their employers. If they do not, or 
 if they show sympathy, no matter how little, with 
 their wretched fellow-creatures aboard, then they 
 are of no value, and are dismissed at the first oppor 
 tunity. They have to be jugt as heartless and 
 insensible to every kind of misery as their employ 
 ers, and the more so they are the easier it is for 
 them to work themselves up. 
 
 All those least commendable virtues were to be 
 found on board the Palmerston. With but few excep 
 tions, officers and men obeyed instructions to the 
 letter. Besides, the crew was savage and brutal, 
 and treated our poor, awkward emigrants in such 
 an infamous fashion that many of them actually 
 trembled with fear whenever they were spoken to. 
 Kicks, slaps and blows were so liberally distributed 
 that one could well imagine himself in a Russian 
 penitentiary or on a German drill-ground. 
 
 The food served to us was in keeping with the 
 other accommodations. The food supplied steerage 
 passengers on American vessels was in comparison 
 to ours the most luxurious. 
 
 Our cook was as mean as his employers ; he, 
 
188 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 too, was out for business. He issued such scanty 
 rations that the greater number of the passengers 
 were as hungry after their meals as before. If they 
 wanted more the cook would furnish it, but only in 
 return for pecuniary consideration. 
 
 Even the very sailors imitated his tricks, and 
 sold for cash to our careworn and hungry passen 
 gers, every bit they could spare from their own 
 miserable food. Many of the emigrants, men as 
 well as women, courted the good will of sailors and 
 deck boys in the most servile flattery, only to obtain 
 some direct or indirect advantage for their griping 
 stomachs. 
 
 In the upper part of the ship s hold, before used 
 to store freight in, were two plank scaffolds, one 
 above the other. With the exception of a few nar 
 row gangways, the whole surface of those rough 
 boards and planks were divided by laths into squares 
 of about four by six feet, in which two or three of 
 us had to sleep. They reminded me of the worst 
 kind of sheep pens. In those pens we lay like 
 pickled herrings, and in which, on account of the 
 low ceilings, we could not even sit upright. Small 
 boxes, satchels, tin cups, plates and other utensils 
 so necessary to emigrant vessels, shared the place. 
 
 Emigrants who had the means to buy in Ham 
 burg straw mattresses lay, of course, on them, but 
 those poor creatures who had not were obliged to 
 lie during the whole voyage on the hard pine 
 boards. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 189 
 
 As men and women, girls, boys and little chil 
 dren lay in these pens without regard to decency, it 
 is easy to comprehend that the meaning of "mine" 
 and " thine " was often lost sight of. 
 
 To people who imagine that they would faint 
 were they to stick their noses inside the steerage of 
 an American vessel I can recommend, as a nerve- 
 strengthening remedy, a voyage on board a German 
 slave or emigrant ship. 
 
 In consequence of the continuous bad weather, 
 the hatches, for days at a time, could not be opened, 
 and the atmosphere in our pens was then simply 
 horrible. The greater number of our emigrants 
 had never been beyond the borders of their native 
 villages until now, and naturally suffered severely 
 from seasickness. They grunted, groaned and 
 lamented in such a heartrending manner that the 
 rest of us could scarcely hear ourselves speak. 
 
 There was not the slightest attempt made to 
 render medical assistance on board in any way, not 
 even in cases of childbirth and death, which fre 
 quently occurred. In the latter case the sailors 
 carried the corpses on deck, wrapped them in old 
 pieces of canvas, and threw them with a sort of 
 " hurrah " overboard. Everyone looked out for her 
 or himself, and God so they said did the same 
 for all of us. 
 
 The officers never came into our part of the 
 ship, and the sailors very seldom, and then only 
 after taking all sorts of precaution no doubt they 
 
190 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 had a wholesome respect for the sickening atmos 
 phere and the two, four and multi-legged inhabi 
 tants of our tween decks. 
 
 The stall immediately above that one occupied 
 by myself and mates was tenanted by a family of 
 Finns, consisting of father, mother and son, who, 
 at times, became very offensive and annoying to us. 
 These poor creatures were clothed in rags that 
 scarcely sufficed to meet the ordinary demands of 
 decency, and suffered from exposure most terribly. 
 They resembled skeletons in appearance, they sel 
 dom came out of their stall, they scarcely ate any 
 thing,* and it actually seemed that they must have 
 buried themselves in their own filth. We did all 
 we could to make them understand that we were 
 alive below, and had a right to some consideration, 
 but our remonstrances made not the slightest 
 impression upon them, and horrible, unmention 
 able matter continued to drip down upon us. 
 
 An experience in the tween decks of our ship 
 was the most effective means I know of for develop 
 ing the brutish instincts of human beings. 
 
 Next to our pen, separated from us by two six- 
 inch strips of lumber, was one occupied by a Polish 
 couple and their daughter, a young girl almost 
 grown to womanhood. The fat, ugly, and garlic- 
 perspiring old Jewish woman became at times very 
 annoying to me. She used, when asleep, to thrust 
 her arms through the space between the slats that 
 separated us, and wipe those fat, dirty appendages 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 191 
 
 of hers across my face. I would not have paid 
 much attention to this kind of joke, had it not been 
 for the horrible aroma of her breath that came full 
 in my face and nauseated me almost to the verge 
 of vomiting. Under the influence of such an 
 atmosphere I often felt a premonition of seasick 
 ness, and to check an eruption in time I hung an 
 old garment of mine to the partition slats, as a non 
 conductor of odor. 
 
 The husband of this woman, who at first seemed 
 perfectly contented with his lot, and who quacked 
 and chatted all day long, after the manner of his 
 people, was suddenly taken ill, seized with a severe 
 dysentery, wasted away to a skeleton, and after suf 
 fering intense pain, died. 
 
 His wife and daughter were so overcome by 
 their own misery that the death of their bread win 
 ner seemed to make but little impression upon 
 them. He died during the night, while a terrible 
 gale swept over us. Our vessel rolled, pitched, 
 creaked and groaned in such an infernal manner 
 that but few on board could close their eyes. 
 
 My neighbor aroused me, told me what had 
 happened, and begged me to fasten the lifeless body 
 of her husband to the slats of the pen, in order to 
 prevent it from being rolled over herself and daugh 
 ter, by the pitching of the vessel. I did so, closed 
 thereupon my nose and ears, and thus enjoyed a 
 few hours rest. 
 
 What I have suffered, and how my olfactory 
 
192 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 nerves were tortured during the sickness of my 
 unfortunate neighbor is almost impossible to say. 
 At this writing, although more than twenty-five 
 years have passed since that awful voyage, the 
 aroma of those days and nights often seems to 
 return to my nose. 
 
 The stench of a dunghill appeared to me as 
 perfume in comparison to the odor that emanated 
 from the pen occupied by my Polish neighbors. 
 
 My pen-mates and I only regretted that we 
 could not have had the ship-owners along with us ; 
 for had the opportunity only presented itself, we 
 certainly would have served them as one serves 
 kittens when they commit a nuisance, and have 
 rubbed the aristocratic noses of these gentlemen in 
 the filth that trickled over and under our mat 
 tresses. 
 
 From the time of leaving Cuxhaven until we 
 arrived in New York, we were continuously buf 
 feted by storms of more or less severity. Our cap 
 tain s first intention was to go through the Channel, 
 but on account of heavy, foggy weather he gave 
 that idea up, and decided to sail around Scotland. 
 He enjoyed a high reputation among the greater 
 part of my fellow-passengers. They looked upon 
 him with admiration, and would certainly not have 
 dared to even open their mouths in his presence. 
 
 That he could bring his vessel across the ocean 
 with nothing in sight to steer by save water, sky, 
 sun, moon and stars, was something that they could 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 193 
 
 not understand, and it remains, perhaps, to this 
 very day a puzzle to them. They thought the route 
 between Hamburg and New York would resemble 
 somewhat the roads in their own countries, where, 
 in order to direct one on. his way, lamp-posts, sign 
 boards, and, once in awhile, a lager beer saloon 
 could be found. 
 
 At last, at the end of the fifth week, we came in 
 sight of land, when our joy -was general and mutual. 
 
 Far from land we picked up a pilot. As 
 he came on board and saw the filth and dirt on 
 deck, his breath left him. Without saying a word 
 he descended- into his boat, wrapped himself in 
 heavy oilcloth, changed his hat for an old south- 
 wester, lighted his pipe, and then returned to us. 
 One cannot wonder at an American, accustomed to 
 neatness and cleanliness, becoming ill and faint at 
 the sight of such a floating pig-pen. 
 
 Several tugs came alongside, but on account of 
 the stinginess of our captain, their services were 
 not accepted. 
 
 Inside of Sandy Hook we, for the first time 
 during the voyage, enjoyed the life-giving rays of 
 the sun. By hundreds the emigrants flocked on 
 deck, and gazed with stupid, expressionless faces 
 towards the land, where they thought that gold 
 was to be picked from the ground. 
 
 " Over in America," " over in New York," was 
 about all one could hear during the voyage. Of 
 the political, social and commercial institutions of 
 
 TRAVEL 13 
 
194 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 the country they knew absolutely nothing, nor of 
 the pitiful fate which awaited such ignorant, awk 
 ward creatures as themselves. 
 
 Whether New York was in America, America 
 in New York, or New York and America districts 
 of a Russian province at the other end of the 
 world, was equally vague to them. They knew as 
 little about it as they knew of the form of our globe, 
 which, by a good many of my traveling companions 
 was in shape compared to a limburger cheese. 
 
 One might be certain that other and perhaps 
 greater misfortunes than they had yet experienced 
 awaited our emigrants as soon as they stepped upon 
 shore. They could neither speak the language, nor 
 were they shrewd enough to protect themselves 
 from the meanness and rascality of those who in 
 every large seaport in America make a living by 
 robbing and swindling ignorant emigrants. These 
 outcasts of humanity, usually recruited from the 
 ranks of their own countrymen, cheat, deceive and 
 betray them, take possession of them as soon as 
 they land, and if they have money, or anything 
 worth money, hang on to them until the last cent is 
 gone, and then kick them into the street. 
 
 The old world considers America as a kind of 
 dumping ground for all the men and women they 
 cannot use there. Whether escaped from prison or 
 the gallows, whether poverty, or the cruel, unjust 
 laws of kings, queens and emperors, drive the peo 
 ple away from there, makes no difference whatever 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 195 
 
 all and everything, according to European ideas, is 
 good enough for America. No one can deny that 
 large numbers of honest, respectable and useful 
 people are coming from Europe every month, but 
 that a great deal of rubbish also finds its way to 
 the American shores is equally true. Time and 
 experience will surely tell whether or not it is to 
 the interest of America and the American people to 
 restrict the liberal emigration laws of to-day. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 My intention was to go from New York to 
 South America, and from there as circumstances 
 would permit, to return to the Philippines. But 
 fate decided otherwise, and for some unknown 
 reason tossed me about for a time in the northern 
 hemisphere. 
 
 One evening while sitting in the Atlantic 
 Garden, on the Bowery, over a glass of beer, a gen 
 tleman came toward me, saluted me, and said that 
 he felt sure that he must have seen me before in 
 some part of the world. He sat down with me ; we 
 presently drifted into conversation, and found that 
 we had met before at Acapulco. 
 
 He was a Hungarian, and at the time he had 
 seen me at Acapulco held the rank of captain in an 
 infantry regiment in Maximilian s army ""stationed 
 there. On account of sickness he had quitted the 
 service, in the meantime paid a-visit to his friends 
 in Europe, and was now on his return to Mexico. 
 
 We became quite friendly, used to meet fre 
 quently, and spend much of our time together stroll 
 ing about New York, and talking over our Mexican 
 experiences. I eventually became so interested in 
 Mexico that I entirely forgot my intentions of going 
 to South America, and made up my mind to return 
 with him to the land of the Aztecs. We lived at 
 
 (196) 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 197 
 
 rather a lively pace in New York, until we had 
 scarcely money enough left to pay our fares to Vera 
 Cruz. 
 
 Immediately upon my arrival, I left with a 
 body of cavalry for the interior. My Hungarian 
 friend joined the infantry, and I left him on my 
 departure, in Vera Cruz. 
 
 During the time I was in Mexico, I spent very 
 many happy and pleasurable days, as well as sad 
 and sorrowful ones, which, as long as life lasts, will 
 remain engraven upon my memory. I have, per 
 haps, seen more of this beautiful country than the 
 majority of my fellowmen, and from actual experi 
 ence formed a high opinion of the patriotism of its 
 noble and heroic people. 
 
 Owing to the indecision of our leaders, we were 
 chased about the country in every direction ; some 
 days to the north or south, at others to the east or 
 west ; sometimes high on the plateau, at others 
 deep in the valleys of this charming land, which, by 
 the horrors of that utterly useless and uncalled for 
 war has suffered so immensely. 
 
 We scarcely had time to congratulate ourselves 
 that after long, weary marchers, skirmishes and 
 battles we should now have an opportunity for a 
 short rest, than we got new marching orders, and 
 the morning saw us off to another district of this 
 then unfortunate country. 
 
 The horrors of this war, which upon such a 
 frivolous excuse was declared through the Napoleonic 
 
198 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 arrogance, surpassed in many respects even the 
 most barbarous excesses of former centuries, and 
 the desperation with which both parties battled to 
 the very last, scarcely finds a parallel in the annals 
 of history. 
 
 It is, indeed, a misfortune that the story of all 
 the infamous deeds committed in Mexico has never 
 become public property in Europe, and that it exists 
 only in the memories of those who, as facile tools, 
 were forced to obey the cruel will of the European 
 intruder. 
 
 In monarchical countries, which can exist only 
 by fraud and oppression, truth is considered the 
 greatest enemy of the state rather of the monarch. 
 All facts given to the public are distorted and 
 twisted into such shape as will reflect most credit 
 upon monarchical institutions, and enthuse the 
 people for the government. 
 
 Experience shows that truth-loving Europe has 
 often made a harmless, innocent lamb of a blood 
 thirsty tiger. 
 
 This cruel war, which was brought to an end 
 by Mexico in such a glorious fashion, has shown to 
 the world once inore that republican liberty can 
 always vanquish monarchical despotism. It has 
 spoiled forever the lust of territory of those 
 European despots who for decades have been cast 
 ing envious eyes upon the American Republics, and 
 it has plainly and distinctly given them to under 
 stand that free people will fight the sword with the 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 199 
 
 sword, until every son of the soil rests upon the 
 shield stained with his blood, rather than see a des 
 pot s flag in free America. 
 
 Had it not been that the United States hands 
 were tied at that time, this scandalous campaign, 
 which ended with the execution of Maximilian, 
 would not and could not have taken place at all. 
 The well-known " Monroe Doctrine," according to 
 which no European power is allowed to interfere in 
 the affairs of the new world, would have been 
 enforced and respected, and not a single European 
 despot would have dared to abrogate it. 
 
 The unfortunate breaking out of the Civil War 
 in t\ie United States shortly before the Mexican 
 campaign was set afoot, lessened the influence of 
 the American government in the affairs of the out 
 side world. Europe saw her opportunity, and hoped 
 to reap some benefits from it. With the exception 
 of the Swiss, all the other governments of Europe 
 expected and hoped for the success of the Southern 
 Confederacy in that most awful war, and Napoleon, 
 seeing his opportunity in Mexico, started his cru 
 sade. 
 
 Without any formal declaration of war, after 
 the style of savages, rather than of so-called civil 
 ized nations, Spain, England and France, in the 
 latter part of 1861, pounced upon Mexico. They 
 seized Vera Cruz, murdered all those who opposed 
 their arms, and advanced into the interior, plunder 
 ing and pillaging. 
 
200 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 The agreement between these throe nations, 
 however, did not last very long, and a few months 
 later England and Spain withdrew their troops, 
 which in the meantime had advanced beyond Ori 
 zaba, leaving the field of operations to the arrogant, 
 intrigue-loving Napoleon. 
 
 The French army in Mexico numbered about 
 forty thousand men, and in order to replace the 
 enormous losses in battles, sickness and desertion, 
 fresh troops had to be sent from Europe contin 
 ually. 
 
 Napoleon at that time was the most powerful 
 and influential personality in Europe. Every one 
 bowed to his wishes, and obeying him with slavish 
 snbmissiveness seemed to be considered, even by 
 the others of the European sovereigns, the greatest 
 possible honor. 
 
 After the capital of Mexico and many other 
 important places had fallen into the possession of 
 the foreign intruder, Napoleon thought it best to 
 establish under his protection an hereditary mon 
 archy in Mexico. French influence, backed by 
 French gold, French bayonets and French promises, 
 easily bought over a handful of venal traitors, who, 
 in the name of the Mexican people, suggested the 
 establishment of a monarchical form of govern, 
 rnent in their country. 
 
 This petition being duly laid before Napoleon, 
 just as he had dictated it to the petitioners, he had 
 an emperor ready at hand, in the proud and ambi- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 201 
 
 tio us Maximilian, who, tired of being a nonentity 
 in Europe, was willing to be an emperor even in 
 America. He jumped at the chance, and accepted 
 Napoleon s terms at once, making, of course, the 
 condition a mere matter of form that the Mexi 
 can people themselves should tender him this 
 honor. 
 
 Some of the same traitors who had shortly 
 before petitioned Napoleon, were called together 
 and shipped to Europe with instructions to tender 
 the imperial crown to Maximilian, and to concede 
 any other formalities he might demand. 
 
 Maximilian s mentality was not of a high 
 order, but in spite of that his common sense should 
 have taught him that these men self-seekers and 
 traitors as they were had neither the true interest 
 of Mexico at heart, nor the right to speak for a 
 whole nation, knowing, as he must have, that 
 such creatures could not be the representatives of 
 an heroic, freedom and liberty-loving nation. 
 
 But the ambition to rank with his imperial 
 masters and kinsmen, and to have the same unlim 
 ited opportunities to plunder .a whole nation on an 
 imperial scale, was so tempting that he entirely 
 forgot to take the more important points of the 
 question into consideration. 
 
 He left his lovely home, his castle Miramar, so 
 charmingly situated on the shores of the Adriatic, 
 to invade, as usurper, a country in which the repub 
 lican form of government existed as before, and 
 
202 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 where, after a brief and troubled dream of imperial 
 state, he met his richly deserved fate. 
 
 Maximilian s European connection which, by 
 the way, is always glad to have an opportunity to 
 increase and strengthen its forces by another crowned 
 head had, of course, acknowledged him at once as 
 emperor. America alone ignored him, treated him 
 as an adventurer and interloper, and recognized, as 
 before, the government of the President, Benito 
 Juarez, as the only possible and lawful one. 
 
 Maximilian with his wife, the proud and ambi 
 tious Charlotte, landed during the summer of sixty- 
 four at Vera Cruz, and in triumphal procession 
 were escorted, under the protection of French bay 
 onets, to their future residence, the capital city of 
 Mexico. 
 
 For nearly three years the newly-made emperor 
 lived happily and contentedly in a country, the 
 language of which he could scarcely speak, and 
 during this time strained every nerve to equal in 
 the splendor of his state, and the luxury of his liv 
 ing his European kinsmen. Short-sighted, inex 
 perienced in statecraft, without the qualities of a 
 general or a fighter, he did not even take an interest 
 in the affairs of his government. He enjoyed the 
 fact of his really being an emperor, and left impor 
 tant affairs in the hands of his generals, and his 
 Mexican and European advisers. 
 
 If right went before might, Maximilian would 
 have had but little of the good things of life, but 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 203 
 
 as this, unfortunately, was not the case, he, from 
 the very beginning, demanded a civil list the word 
 " salary" is too gross and vulgar for crowned heads 
 of three million six hundred thousand per year. 
 
 In spite of the poverty and misery which pre 
 vailed under his government, the kind-hearted 
 Emperor as he was called by his professed 
 admirers never forgot to pocket his ten thousand 
 dollars every morning, which, as salary for the last 
 twenty-four hours, became due to him. 
 
 Three million six hundred thousand dollars is 
 a very large amount of money, and appears still 
 larger by comparison. The Presidents of the United 
 States do not receive such a sum of money in sev 
 enty years, or, to put it another way, Maximilian 
 received in a space of five days just as much as the 
 First Magistrate of the United States of America 
 receives for a whole year s services. 
 
 The imperial households at the City of Mexico 
 and Chapultepec squandered fabulous sums of 
 money, and to scrape these together it was neces 
 sary to use strong measures measures which 
 would have brought a blush to the cheek of a 
 Turkish tax-collector. 
 
 Court etiquette, and all the rest of the imperial 
 humbuggery, had, of course, to be introduced into 
 the New World also. Until the arrival of Maximil 
 ian and Charlotte, nothing of this tomfoolery was 
 known in Mexico the Mexicans did not even 
 understand how to salute imperial majesties ! Con- 
 
204 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 sequently it called for an immense deal of brain- 
 work, together with the combined wisdom of this 
 tenderly-loving couple, to find a remedy for such 
 an awful state of ignorance. 
 
 Everything needful was ordered from Europe ; 
 the Mexicans had to pay for it, and were supposed 
 to consider it an honor to be allowed to provide 
 these luxuries for such exalted personages. 
 
 Besides highly aristocratic, but hollow-headed, 
 self-opinionated court ladies, any number of blue- 
 blooded stable-boys, toilet-room and bed-chamber 
 cleaners, porters, court clowns and hundreds of 
 other useless individuals, with titles, decorations 
 and bombastic names, arrived. They acquainted 
 the Mexicans with the secrets of rotten, corrupt 
 European court life, and taught them the art of 
 handling majesties by the " Grace of God." 
 
 The aping of European court fashion and cus 
 toms reached such a degree that even Maximilian s 
 partisans became disgusted with such carnival and 
 masquerade farces. 
 
 In Europe, Maximilian was considered the 
 savior of a country which, without his aid, would 
 have torn and rent itself to pieces in civil war. He 
 was further looked upon as a noble philanthropist, 
 willing to sacrifice his very life in the interest of 
 civilization, and as it was maliciously spread 
 about for the welfare of an incapable, lawless and 
 savage race. 
 
 Believing this, a great many credulous, but 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 205 
 
 noble and well-meaning persons, followed in his 
 train, who, had they realized the true state of 
 affairs, would surely have remained at home. 
 
 That he might not be obliged to depend entirely 
 upon the French forces in Mexico the leaders, and 
 even the very soldiers of whom laughed and sneered 
 at the puppy, placed by the grace of their Emperor 
 on the Mexican throne Maximilian ordered so- 
 called Mexican regiments to be enlisted. These 
 were placed under the command of Mexican gen 
 erals, and, like the Austrian and Belgian troops, 
 had nothing whatever to do with the French. 
 
 The lust of pillage and blood overcame disci 
 pline, which among the invading forces was known 
 hardly by name. As vandals, those hordes overran 
 the beautiful country, and sacked and destroyed 
 where and whenever they could. The provinces of 
 Michoacan, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Neuvo 
 Leon and Tamaulipas suffered most, and the cruel 
 ties committed there will surely never be erased 
 from the memories of the actors in those scenes. 
 
 Looting and thieving went on in the most 
 scandalous fashion. From Maximilian down to the 
 lowest soldier, almost everyone did his best to 
 enrich himself, and to squeeze as much as possible 
 out of his enemy, the unfortunate Mexican. 
 
 The courage and hope of the Republican troops 
 and that of their leaders were but increased by mis 
 fortune. They fought for a just cause for free 
 dom, liberty, and the independence of their coun- 
 
206 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 try and in the fulfillment of their noble duty they 
 gave the most brilliant proofs of perseverance, 
 patience and bravery. To drive the hated invaders 
 from Mexican soil was their only desire, and that 
 they would eventually have succeeded, even had the 
 French troops not been recoiled, no one who knows 
 Mexico and the Mexicans will ever doubt for a 
 moment. 
 
 With the imperial party all was quite different. 
 Many adherents lost courage and despaired as they 
 saw themselves opposed by such an obstinate 
 enemy, who took advantage of every opportunity to 
 weaken and divide their strength. 
 
 Mercy, compassion, even common humanity, 
 no longer existed ; every inhuman act that was done 
 by either side and they were, unfortunately, very 
 frequent was certain to be requited by the other. 
 
 Towns and villages were sacked, pillaged and 
 laid in ashes. Men, women and children were 
 butchered, outraged, lashed to the tails of horses 
 and dragged amid rejoicing of the captors through 
 the burning streets. Prisoners were hung head 
 downwards to limbs of trees, and used as targets by 
 the brutal, arrogant soldateska. Foot-traps were 
 set, bear-pits were dug, covered with brushwood, 
 and left for some one to fall into, whereupon the 
 captives were stoned, or dragged out by lassoes, and 
 tortured to death in one horrible way or another. 
 
 Every Mexican who fought for freedom, liberty 
 and the independence of his country was just as 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 207 
 
 in n:y unfortunate fatherland declared an outlaw, 
 and no punishment seemed too hard and cruel 
 for him. 
 
 There were crimes committed in Mexico, dur 
 ing the war, which are of such a sickening detail 
 that it would freeze the blood in the veins of almost 
 anyone, and for all these atrocities no one, save 
 the noble-minded Napoleon and the kind-hearted, 
 philanthropical Maximilian, was to blame. 
 
 The termination of the American Civil War was 
 a check to Napoleon s and Maximilian s ambitious 
 schemes, and brought all their hopes and dreams 
 to a sudden end. 
 
 In democratic fashion, in the plain, unvar 
 nished words of republican simplicity, it was inti 
 mated to the French Emperor that he must 
 withdraw his troops from Mexico, or the United 
 States would take summary vengeance. And at 
 the same time the Emperor of Austria was notified 
 that he must keep at home a body of troops which 
 stood ready to embark for Mexico, or the Ameri. 
 can minister would leave Vienna within twenty- 
 four hours. 
 
 To get into trouble with the American Colossus, 
 of course, did not suit either Napoleon, Franz 
 Joseph, nor any other European sovereign, so they 
 tried to make the best of a bad job, and did as they 
 were ordered. 
 
 When this disastrous news reached Mexico, the 
 imperial party became confused, and the little 
 
208 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 remaining sense of those majesties by the "Grace 
 of God " went entirely. 
 
 Charlotte went to Europe. She begged Napo 
 leon to change his resolution ; she implored the 
 Pope for his benediction, and all the rest of her 
 European kinsmen for their assistance in her just 
 and lawful cause, and in her ignorance overlooked 
 the fact entirely that the mainspring of all her mis 
 fortunes was not in Europe at all but in America, 
 in Washington. 
 
 When this proud, ambitious, and hard-hearted 
 lady saw that the splendor of her imperial majesty 
 w T ould dwindle away, and fall to pieces like a mis 
 erable house of cards, she fell sick, and disappeared 
 from the stage forever. 
 
 It was neither in Maximilian s nor in Char 
 lotte s power to change the situation, otherwise they 
 would not have hesitated a single moment to sacri 
 fice the last of the Mexican race to their ambition. 
 
 While this approaching disaster culminated 
 over the usurper s head, threatening to devour him 
 and his party, Maximilian, for the first time, 
 showed himself to the world in his true character. 
 Partly through ignorance, partly through malicious 
 ness, and partly through that savage instinct which 
 tyrants and despots possess, he took one false step 
 after another in quick succession, which railroaded 
 him only so much the sooner towards the gallows. 
 
 To crush republicanism and, as he thought, 
 to cure the Mexicans of their appetite for fighting 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 209 
 
 in the future, he enacted, near the latter part of 
 sixty-five, some laws which, for barbarity, would have 
 done credit to the very savages of the South Sea 
 Islands. 
 
 Knowing it to be false, he caused the report 
 to be spread about the country that Juarez had 
 left the Mexican territory; that the Republican 
 forces had ceased to exist, and that none but ban 
 dits and highwaymen were waging war against him. 
 
 He consequently decreed that prisoners, what 
 ever their number or their rank might be, were to 
 be shot at once ; that those who sold horses, arms, 
 war material or provisions to the enemy were to 
 share the same fate ; and that those who assisted 
 the enemy in an indirect way, or who declined to 
 accept an office under the monarchical rule, were 
 to be imprisoned and their property confiscated. 
 
 Any one acquainted with Mexican affairs will 
 know, that during all the years of war, President 
 Benito Juarez never left Mexican soil. Most of the 
 time he was with his government in Paso del Norte, 
 and as in the beginning, so at the end of the war, 
 in San Luis Potosi. 
 
 These cruel laws reacted upon the very men 
 of Maximilian s own forces, for the other side, 
 knowing that they had no mercy to expect, showed 
 none, and both parties butchered their prisoners of 
 war most cruelly. 
 
 By this barbarous decree Maximilian sacrificed 
 thousands of Mexicans and foreigners, and called 
 
 TRAVEL 14 
 
210 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 down upon himself the condemnation, hatred and 
 contempt, not alone of the Mexican nation, but of 
 the whole right-feeling and thinking world. 
 
 When the last of the French troops had left 
 Mexico, almost the entire country was in the pos 
 session of the Republican forces, but Maximilian s 
 ambition could not bring itself to resign the impe 
 rial crown and retire from the country to which he 
 had brought naught but misery and misfortune. 
 He continually buoyed himself up with the belief 
 that from some unexpected quarter he would find 
 assistance and relief in his extremity ; but the days 
 he frittered away in this vain hope only sufficed to 
 bind the iron bands of his enemies closer and closer 
 about him. 
 
 At the capital, where every available man fit to 
 bear arms had been pressed into his service, he 
 brought his fighting strength up to about twenty 
 thousand men. With these, in the beginning, he 
 could easily have made his way to Acapulco or to Vera 
 Cruz, from whence he could have taken refuge on 
 board any foreign man-of-war in the harbor. His 
 friends advised him to do this, but instead of follow 
 ing their advice he resolved upon the stupid plan 
 of making for the north, into the very heart of his 
 enemy s stronghold. 
 
 Maximilian left the defense of the capital in 
 the hands of some of his friends, and taking with 
 him about fifteen thousand men under the com 
 mand of his three best generals, came with 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 211 
 
 them as far as Queretaro. As soon as he had shut 
 himself up there the Republican General, Mariano 
 Escobedo, laid siege to the town, and kept him like 
 a mouse in a trap. Every attempt at escape was 
 frustrated, every sortie was repulsed, and at the end 
 of May the town was carried by the victorious 
 Republicans. 
 
 That Queretaro fell by treachery into the hands 
 of Escobedo is a mere myth one of the many false 
 hoods which were spread abroad with the intention 
 of gaining sympathy for Maximilian s cause. 
 
 Any one who knows Queretaro and the great 
 advantages the besieging forces have over a garrison 
 never believed such nonsense. From the begin 
 ning, the fall of Queretaro was but a question of 
 time, which, of course, could have been hastened by 
 a ruinous and destructive bombardment. 
 
 The Republicans were too humane to stoop to 
 such a course, or they would have executed the 
 usurper at once upon capturing him. Instead of 
 this, they handed him over to a court-martial, 
 which convicted him of crimes committed against 
 the independence and the public security of the 
 nation, and as a disturber and oppressor of freedom, 
 liberty and the natural rights of men, and sentenced 
 him to be shot. 
 
 On the 19th day of June, Maximilian and his 
 two generals, Mejia and Miramon, were executed at 
 the foot of the Cerro de las Campanas, a mile out 
 side of Queretaro. 
 
212 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Unfortunately, experience has shown that upon 
 the word of royalty one cannot always depend, 
 otherwise Benito Juarez might have pardoned Max 
 imilian and sent him, a played-out adventurer, back 
 to his European kinsmen. 
 
 During the trial his lawyers and advisers did 
 everything possible to save his life. Some of his 
 friends even tried to gain by bribery what justice 
 denied them. 
 
 The Princess Salm-Salm, perhaps more inter 
 ested than any other person in the escape of Max 
 imilian, played rather a dangerous game with his 
 guardian, a renowned and heroic soldier of the 
 republic. She thought that the vast sums of money 
 which she could dispose of would be more than 
 sufficient to buy his acquiescence of her schemes, 
 and with gold transform a gallant Mexican officer 
 into a miserable, contemptible traitor. He gave ear 
 to her plans, and after learning all the details of the 
 plot told her in a vague manner, which perhaps she 
 did not understand, that it was necessary for him to 
 advise first with his commanding officer. 
 
 On the following day, in company with the 
 Italian, Austrian and Belgian ministers, this lady 
 was expelled from Queretaro. 
 
 A little later the capital city, Mexico, fell into 
 the hands of General Porfirio Diaz. 
 
 During my adventures in Mexico I was wounded 
 several times, but was always fortunate enough to 
 escape with my life. A blow that I received on the 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 213 
 
 head reminds me, even now, of the stirring events 
 of those days. 
 
 It was on the plateau of Mexico that we were 
 surprised one morning by the Republican forces. 
 In the course of the fight the enemy formed squares 
 and some of our cavalry were ordered to break them. 
 We attacked, but were repulsed, and after being 
 reinforced we charged again and succeeded in 
 breaking the formation. 
 
 In the hand-to-hand struggle which followed my 
 horse was shot under me. I was brought to the ground 
 with him, and while trying to pick myself up a soldier 
 struck me down again with the butt of his musket. 
 
 When I re-opened my eyes I thought I must be 
 dreaming, for I was gazing into the faces of two 
 beautiful women, who sat at the side of my bed 
 applying iced cloths to my head. I seized their 
 hands and asked them with tears in my eyes to tell 
 me how I came in this situation. They told me 
 that after the fight was over, and friends and 
 enemies had left the battle-field, the inhabitants 
 went out to gather up and carry the wounded into 
 the houses in the vicinity. 
 
 I had been brought to the house of a noble- 
 hearted Mexican family, where for many days I was 
 treated tenderly, and with loving kindness. 
 
 . Expressing to them my gratitude for all the 
 generous care they had bestowed upon me, I, as soon 
 as I had recovered sufficiently, took my leave and 
 hastened to the City of Mexico. 
 
214 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Promoted to the rank of an officer, in the early 
 part of the year sixty-seven I left the capital with a 
 Mexican force. We joined the balance of the French 
 troops, about ten thousand strong, who were march 
 ing to the coast on Vera Cruz. 
 
 Scarcely had we arrived there and entered the 
 city when a republican force put in an appearance. 
 They began the siege of the town at once, and block 
 aded every road leading to the interior. 
 
 After the French troops had sailed for Europe, 
 we remained in Vera Cruz with about twelve hun 
 dred men, in order to hold the place as long as 
 possible for the Imperialist party. 
 
 We held the city to the end of June, repulsed 
 all attacks, and only surrendered after we had 
 learned from American newspapers that Queretaro 
 had been taken and Maximilian executed. 
 
 During the siege, which lasted a little over 
 three months, Vera Cruz suffered considerably, and 
 the number of its defenders had dwindled to less 
 than half. 
 
 The harbor, with the fort San Juan de Ulua, 
 remained, of course, in our possession, but in spite 
 of this advantage, most of the necessaries of life 
 became at last so scarce, and those that could be 
 obtained so costly that every one within the walls 
 had to suffer more or less. 
 
 The Republicans bombarded the place once or 
 twice a day, and that it was not transformed into a 
 heap of ruins was due only to the bad aim of the 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 215 
 
 enemy s gunners, whose projectiles mostly whistled 
 over our heads, and plunged harmlessly into the 
 bay. 
 
 Sorties on our part were made twice a week.. 
 They lasted sometimes all forenoon, and although 
 always resulting in loss of life, gained us no advan 
 tage. 
 
 A great many of our men who escaped the 
 enemy s fire, fell victims to that terrible fever, the 
 vomito negro, which, during the siege of Vera Cruz, 
 raged a most dreadful epidemic. It usually proved 
 fatal within a few hours, and people who in the 
 morning rose well and strong were often by noon 
 safe under the ground. 
 
 Nature has furnished me with a strong consti 
 tution, but all during the siege of Vera Cruz I was 
 never quite well. I was obliged to have recourse 
 to quinine and bitter salt every day, and if for one 
 day I neglected to swallow my dose, the rush of 
 blood to my head, which surely followed the omis 
 sion, gave it the sensation of being on the point of 
 bursting. One evening I, too, was seized with an 
 attack of this black vomiting, which, however, was 
 checked by so-called home remedies administered 
 to me by the wife of our colonel, in whose house I 
 lived. 
 
 Social life in Vera Cruz during the siege was 
 in many respects very pleasant and enjoyable. We 
 became acquainted with many Mexican families, in 
 whose hospitable houses we spent many a happy 
 
216 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 and delightful hour. Dancing and musical enter 
 tainments were quite frequent, but often they were 
 interrupted and brought to a sudden termination by 
 the distant booming of the cannon, and the whistling 
 and bursting of the enemy s shells overhead. 
 
 On the walls of Vera Cruz we had mounted 
 about sixty cannon, but dating as they did from 
 former centuries, they were liable to do just as 
 deadly work to friend as to foe. One cannon 
 exploded on one occasion, and tore half a dozen of 
 our Spanish artillery men to pieces, 
 
 The news that Maximilian had been captured 
 and executed came to us first by way of America, 
 and when, a few days later, the besieging general 
 sent us Mexican papers, confirming the complete 
 downfall of the Imperialist cause, we agreed to his 
 proposal to surrender. An instrument stipulating 
 the terms of capitulation was drawn up, and was to 
 have been signed on the following morning. But 
 during the night our commanding officers, the corn- 
 isario, the Prefecto, and with them the war chest, 
 containing funds to the amount of about a million 
 of dollars, disappeared. 
 
 A French corvette had left the harbor under 
 cover of darkness, with these wretches aboard, and 
 carried them to a foreign country, where, probably, 
 they have since enjoyed the fruit of their treachery 
 and dishonesty. 
 
 When the news of their escape reached the 
 public, the greatest excitement and exasperation 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 217 
 
 prevailed. During the first outburst it was thought 
 that the besieging general had made common cause 
 with them, for which he ought to be called to 
 account and punished. 
 
 Our artillery men, mostly composed of Euro 
 pean Spaniards, made ready their cannon, and 
 began to throw shot and shell into the enemy s 
 camp again. Without knowing what might have 
 happened in Vera Cruz, the besieging force seemed 
 at first rather puzzled, but finally they loaded their 
 guns and returned the compliment. 
 
 The cannon on our walls, when in full activity, 
 fairly shook the little town, and the enemy s shells, 
 which with deadly effect exploded in the streets and 
 within or upon the roofs of the houses, terrified the 
 inhabitants to such an extent that no one dared to 
 move out of doors. They had thought the siege 
 finished, all the horrors of war at an end, and con 
 sequently felt more than astonishedJio find hostili 
 ties renewed. 
 
 To prevent Vera Cruz from becoming a heap 
 of ashes, at noon of that day the most influential 
 citizens of the city appeared before our new com 
 mandant, and made him a proposition to stop the 
 cannonade and withdraw his forces from the town. 
 
 After a short deliberation their proposition was 
 accepted, and the siege of Vera Cruz, as far as we 
 were concerned, at an end. 
 
 It cost the people of Vera Cruz a large amount 
 of money to get rid of us, but as usual in such 
 
218 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 cases, the ransom or indemnity was not as fairly 
 divided as it should have been. Generals and com 
 manders, numbering many more than necessary for 
 an army twenty times as large as our little band, 
 took all the fat for themselves, and left but the thin 
 watery broth for officers and men. 
 
 The Mexican man-of-war Tabasco, a miserable 
 little tub of four hundred tons, formerly the prop 
 erty of a Mexican shipping house, was furnished to 
 transport us to the United States. In the shortest 
 time possible she was coaled, provisioned, and as 
 boon as everything was in readiness, the foreign 
 troops and some Mexican officers of high rank, 
 numbering in all about three hundred and fifty 
 men, embarked and sailed for Mobile, Alabama. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 The twenty-seventh day of June was the date 
 of our departure, and surely the memory of that 
 day will ever dwell in the minds of those who were 
 present. 
 
 Before day dawn we assembled in our barracks, 
 and marched in a mournful procession through the 
 streets of the little town, which we had defended so 
 long and so bravely. With moisted eyes and sadly 
 depressed hearts we were leaving, perhaps for ever, 
 a place within whose walls we had spent, in the 
 society of amiable Mexican families, so many happy 
 and delightful hours. Although it was scarcely day 
 break the windows and balconies of the houses on 
 our route were crowded with Mexican matrons and 
 maidens ; they showered us with flowers, waved 
 their handkerchiefs, and wished us a hearty 
 farewell. 
 
 Immediately apon our arrival at the landing 
 place we embarked, and a few hours later we were 
 on our way north. Shortly before we left the 
 anchor ground the Republican forces marched 
 into Vera Cruz, and we could see the Imperial 
 flag torn down and replaced by the victorious 
 Republican banner. 
 
 Our voyage to Mobile was rather tiresome, and 
 in some respects troublesome. It took us fully seven 
 
 (219) 
 
220 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 days to run a distance of not quite one thousand 
 miles. 
 
 We had the finest weather possible all the time, 
 otherwise I do not know what would have become 
 of us and our old coal barge. 
 
 The hold of the vessel was filled with coals, 
 boxes, barrels and sacks, and the cabin and state 
 rooms were so small that scarcely the tenth part of 
 us could have found accommodation in them. There 
 fore, the deck was the only spot where the bulk of 
 us quartered. We lay there in the most democratic 
 equality, and packed so closely together that at 
 night, if one turned over, he could not avoid waking 
 his neighbors on either side. Heavy showers of 
 rain, drenching us to the skin, surprised us every 
 few moments. But we could do nothing but grin 
 and bear it, and await with what patience we might 
 for the sun to dry us again. 
 
 Dried salt-codfish, worm-eaten biscuit, and 
 stone-hard Edam cheese were the only food we had, 
 and as the water on board was bad, and so scarce 
 that the allowance to each man was not sufficient to 
 quench the thirst that our dry, salt food engendered, 
 the temper of almost every one on board showed 
 itself in a not very favorable light. 
 
 As everything in the world must have an end, 
 so did our voyage. Dangers and privations were 
 soon forgotten as we came in sight of the American 
 coast, and, as a little later, we passed the last arm 
 of the Mississippi, and steamed into the Bay of 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 221 
 
 Mobile, no one thought of his past troubles, but 
 only in what way he could best amuse himself in 
 Dixie-land. 
 
 At the entrance to the bay, just opposite Fort 
 Morgan, we anchored to await the- sanitary author 
 ities, and, when they arrived, they were informed 
 that some deaths had occurred during the voyage, 
 but that, at present, every one aboard was in good 
 health. They left us with instructions to remain 
 at anchor until we were advised as to our future 
 disposition. 
 
 But the turbulent fellows aboard the Tabasco 
 could not be thus easily controlled. Such authority 
 as that could not keep them aboard ship when they 
 wanted to go ashore. So they forced the captain to 
 heave anchors, start his engines and continue on 
 his way to Mobile. 
 
 Two shots from the fort were fired from behind 
 us, but, as they did not hit the target, they saved 
 their powder and ball and we steamed ahead for 
 the city. 
 
 In the afternoon we reached Mobile, anchored 
 in the stream, and made preparation for at once 
 leaving the vessel. On shore, a great throng had 
 gathered, which, as boat-load after boat-load landed 
 on American soil, greeted them with cheers and 
 jubilations. It was, without doubt, a strangly impres 
 sive sight to see this little body of men grouped 
 together on shore, dressed out in gay and glittering, 
 but soiled and torn uniforms, and among them 
 
222 . TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 representatives of almost every country in Europe, 
 and of a good many African districts also. It was a 
 scene which, from its novelty, will long remain 
 fresh in the memories of the inhabitants of Mobile. 
 
 The military officers, stationed at Mobile, stood 
 on the embankment of the river and saluted their 
 sun-burned Mexican camrades in the kindest way, 
 giving them a most hearty welcome to American 
 soil. 
 
 Tfhe reception by the Southern people of the 
 remnants of the defeated Imperialist party was a 
 very hearty one. Every one did his best to be oblig 
 ing, and to make our stay with them as pleasant 
 and comfortable as possible. 
 
 Proclamations in French and Spanish w r ere 
 posted in the streets, saying that the Police Depart 
 ment would cheerfully give any kind of informa 
 tion and take care of money, arms and other effects 
 w r e might have. The newspapers said the same, 
 and were high in their praise of the behavior of 
 the men, pointing out at the same time the hard 
 ships the Imperial officers and soldiers had suffered. 
 
 The South sympathized at that time more or 
 less with Maximilian and his party, and treated us 
 almost as brothers in adversity. Like themselves, 
 we, too, had fought for the sake of slavery and 
 tyranny, and like themselves, we, too, had received 
 the well-deserved punishment from the overwhelm 
 ing strength of Republicanism. 
 
 After a rest of fourteen days in the State of 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 223 
 
 Alabama, I went, in company with a Spanish artil 
 lery officer, by way of New Orleans, Saint Louis and 
 Chicago, to New York, where my companion 
 embarked for Spain, leaving me on this side of the 
 ocean. The trip, especially that part of it from 
 New Orleans to Saint Louis, on board one of those 
 luxuriously furnished paddle-wheel steamers, was 
 delightful and the natural scenery really grand. 
 
 When at East Saint Louis we stepped into an 
 elegant sleeping-car, my companion did not at first 
 know what to say. He had expected to find Euro 
 pean torture-cars and European baby-wagons, and 
 therefore could scarcely understand that even in 
 this respect Young America was at least half a cen 
 tury ahead of the Old World. 
 
 The kind and generous treatment that in the 
 South was shown to us changed more and more as 
 further north and east we came. It seemed as if 
 the people here looked upon us with contempt, and 
 as if they would give us to understand that we 
 ought to be ashamed of ourselves for having fought 
 to uphold slavery, and for the interest of a hard 
 hearted, ambitious despot. 
 
 In a trunk, which on my departure from New 
 York for Mexico I had left in that city, I had still 
 several suits of civilian s clothes. I therefore 
 changed my uniform for one as soon as I could, and 
 was glad not to attract any more attention. 
 
 When I left Vera Cruz I had a few hundred 
 dollars in my possession. But this sum did not last 
 
224 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 me very long, and disappeared faster than was alto 
 gether agreeable. Consequently, after a briefly- 
 enjoyed holiday, I had to turn to work again. 
 
 One day I noticed in the "want columns" of a 
 daily paper that an uptown family wanted a coach 
 man. I knew New York sufficiently well, was 
 accustomed to the care and use of horses, not inex 
 perienced in the handling of carriages, and thought 
 to try my luck for a while in this line of work. 
 
 Next morning I called at the address given, 
 and was informed by the servants that the Gracious 
 Master Baron could not be seen at such an early 
 hour. I waited, opened a conversation with them, 
 and found them willing enough to give me some 
 information concerning the peculiarities, as I 
 thought, of my future employer. Five servants, all 
 Germans, were there, of which two belonged to the 
 female sex. Notwithstanding that we had been 
 acquainted only for a few minutes, they told me 
 a great many things about the haughtiness and 
 ignorant assumption of their aristocratic employers, 
 and joked in such a way about them that a contin 
 uous laughing was kept up. 
 
 They told me that the Baron belonged to the 
 tribe of Israel ; that some years ago, while short of 
 means, he came from abroad ; that money and influ 
 ence had bought him a title there, and that he 
 insisted, that just as in his benighted native coun 
 try, the same servile submissiveriess should be 
 bestowed upon him here in America. They further 
 
Til A VEL, ETC. 225 
 
 
 told me that his wife aft el daughter insisted upon 
 
 being treated with the same show of abasement; 
 that from pride and vanity they were actually offen 
 sive, and could hardly contain themselves ; that the 
 domestics were changed frequently, and that those 
 who could not, or would not, condescend to contin 
 ually cringe, stoop and bow were dismissed at once. 
 
 Provided with such valuable information, I 
 was at last led into a room where the aristocratic 
 Baron received common, low-standing people, like 
 myself. A little, well-fattened fellow, dressed in 
 silk, and hung with diamonds, came towards me, 
 and at once commenced a conversation, in the Ber 
 lin-Jewish dialect, concerning his yesterday s adver 
 tisement. 
 
 Regarding wages and the duties of my position 
 we soon came to an understanding, and I was about 
 taking my leave to go and fetch my trunk when he 
 finally said, " But you will have to call me Gracious 
 Sir, and my wife and daughter Gracious Ladies, 
 and on our leaving or entering the carriage you 
 must take off your hat and keep it in your hand 
 till the carriage door is closed." 
 
 Smiling, I had listened to him at first, but now 
 I could not restrain myself any longer and laughed 
 outright in his face. I told him that here in this 
 free and enlightened country, fortunately, such 
 humbuggery was not known, and that he had better 
 throw his titles and other make-believe stuff straight 
 into the gutter. 
 
 TRAVEL 15 
 
226 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 But when I began to tell him the truth he felt 
 that his dignity had been insulted. He puffed him 
 self up like a toad, he hissed with rage like a snake, 
 and cried, " You say Baron is humbug, titles are 
 hocus-pocus, you mean, insolent fellow, you get out 
 of here, or " He intended to push me out of the 
 door, and, while doing so, my hands came into 
 collision with his face, broke his eye-glasses, and 
 drew a little claret from his aristocratically-hooked 
 nose. 
 
 He ran back to the middle of the room and 
 cried like a madman : " He wants to murder me 
 Charley, Wilhelm, Mary, Johanna, come up, knock 
 him down, kill him, throw him out of the house." 
 Those to whom he called did not come, but, in 
 their stead, his wife and daughter appeared on 
 the scene, who, as they saw the gracious baron 
 besmeared with blood, thought it best to go down 
 in fainting fits. 
 
 When I arrived below stairs the servants could 
 not contain themselves for laughter. They embraced 
 me, squeezed my hands, and thought that " letters 
 of nobility" of this kind, administered twice a week 
 to this gracious baron, would soon bring the old 
 fool to his senses. 
 
 Like so many other titled personages, it was 
 simply for the sake of money that these people 
 came to America. On account of their small cash 
 supply they could not live in Europe in such style 
 as they would have liked to, and, therefore, thought 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 227 
 
 that in this country they might find a better oppor 
 tunity to scrape a fortune together. 
 
 Besides, these adventurers often find a chance 
 to marry their empty title to the full money bags of 
 an ambitious, but foolish and short-sighted Amer 
 ican girl, and accept her as the fifth wheel of a 
 coach. 
 
 Those title-hunting American girls, and their 
 unpatriotic American parents are flattered and 
 consider it the greatest possible honor to form the 
 connection with these blue-blooded husbands and 
 sons-in-law, whose reputations and moral standing 
 are, in most cases, of the very lowest, although 
 perfectly sure that their American money will be 
 squandered in gambling, drinking, or in company 
 with other women. 
 
 During the ensuing time I lived in New York 
 I was employed as driver and conductor on differ 
 ent street car lines. The life was very monotonous 
 and about the same as the lives of drivers and con 
 ductors of to-day, the only difference being that 
 then the wages were higher and the money col 
 lected less carefully looked after. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 At last I became tired of the life in New York, 
 and concluded to put into effect my former intention 
 of going to South America. 
 
 I went first to St. Thomas, where a little later I 
 got a place as steward on the West India steamer 
 Columbia. On board of this old, decrepit, but, at 
 the same time, very comfortable vessel, I remained 
 several months, and led a very pleasant life. 
 
 The Columbia carried mail, freight and pas 
 sengers between the different islands of the Little 
 Antilles, along the coast, and up and down the 
 rivers of Venezuela and Nueva Granada. She 
 called at lots of different ports, and the passengers, 
 who came and went continuously, kept the five 
 stewards on board always at work. 
 
 One morning we left Angostura on the Ori 
 noco, and steamed with freight and a number of 
 passengers to Para, in Brazil. The emotion with 
 which I was seized, as after a journey of six days 
 we entered the south-east arm of the largest river 
 in the world, will ever remain fresh in my memory. 
 The dreams of my childhood lay now in reality 
 before me as the splendor of tropical shore scenery 
 moved panorama-like slowly before my eyes. 
 
 My intention of leaving the vessel and remain 
 ing for a while near the shores of this grand and 
 
 (2?8) 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 229 
 
 imposing river, was to be realized sooner than I 
 expected. A few days after our arrival at Para I 
 went ashore with our chief steward one morning, 
 and, after having arranged some business matters, 
 we strolled about in the vicinity. 
 
 On one of the beautiful promenades, shaded by 
 palm and tamarind trees, sat a young lady. She 
 was occupied with needle-work, watching at the 
 same time two little children playing about her. 
 We passed, raised our hats, according to the style of 
 polite Southerners, and went our way. The manner 
 in which she responded to our salutation, and in 
 which, out of a pretty face, a pair of black, sad- 
 looking eyes gazed upon us, was so bewitching that 
 my mind at once became disturbed. 
 
 Without betraying my feelings to the steward, 
 I asked permission to stay on shore a few hours 
 longer, and, on it being granted, I hurried back to 
 the place where my unknown lady friend languished 
 in solitude and loneliness. 
 
 I went to her, commenced under some clumsy 
 pretext a conversation, and, as I saw that my bold 
 ness was not resented, I remained in her society till 
 her little protegees asked to be taken home. With 
 an agreement to meet on the following day, I took 
 my leave of this charming creature. 
 
 When I found that on board they would not 
 consent to my leaving the vessel, I made up my 
 mind to desert her. I had still some twenty dollars 
 coming to me, but I renounced it willingly, and 
 
230 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 would have left even my personal property behind 
 if I could not have managed otherwise. With the 
 assistance of a sailor, during the following night, I 
 slipped down a line, jumped into a canoe and 
 paddled ashore. 
 
 My new acquaintance and I soon became inti 
 mate friends. She told me her history, concealing 
 nothing in her past life, and became, therefore, 
 most dearly beloved by me. 
 
 The daughter of a high Brazilian Government 
 official, she was disowned by her parents, because a 
 rascal deceived her, and failed to keep his prom 
 ised troth. 
 
 Expelled from her home and driven into the 
 street, this poor, inexperienced girl at first knew 
 not what to do. With the little money she had in 
 her possession she paid her fare to Para, where she 
 gave music and singing lessons, and a little later 
 accepted a situation as governess in a wealthy Bra 
 zilian family. 
 
 After I left the vessel she gave up her situation, 
 and we took apartments together living as man and 
 wife. We talked of love and happiness, and, our 
 ideas being the same, pictured a future of the 
 brightest hues. 
 
 During the time we remained on the shores of 
 the Amazon, with the exception of each other, we 
 scarcely thought of anything else. Surrounded by 
 the natural beauties of this charming part of the 
 world, we enjoyed felicity and happiness of love to 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 231 
 
 its fullest extent. The delicious days, which, in 
 company with my beloved Lola, I spent there, will 
 always recall with pleasure the time of my youthful 
 manhood. 
 
 I do not know what might have become of me 
 and my desire of travel, had not relentless death 
 snatched my adorable Lola from me. With the 
 intention of settling down in Rio de Janeiro, we 
 left the romantic shores of the Amazon one day. A 
 few days after our departure my companion began 
 to feel ill. She complained of pain in her head, in 
 the joints of her limbs, and between Bahia and Rio 
 became so weak and faint that she was forced to 
 remain in bed. 
 
 According to the wish of my intended bride, I, 
 upon our arrival in Rio de Janeiro, hurried at once 
 to the house of her parents. I met the mother, 
 handed her a few lines from her daughter, telling 
 her at the same time her wishes. 
 
 Overpowered by the emotion of joy in finding 
 her daughter, whom she thought lost and forlorn, 
 so near her, she broke down completely. She cried, 
 sobbed, and repeated in endearing terms the name 
 of , her child. Other children came into the room, 
 and, upon being told that their sister was living, 
 threw their arms around their mother s neck and 
 seemed to share her happiness. 
 
 Shortly after the parents had shown the door 
 to their daughter, their consciences began to reproach 
 them. They felt that they had acted neither justly 
 
232 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 nor charitably, and longing to repair the wrong, 
 searched and made enquiries all over the country, 
 but without finding any trace of her. 
 
 A carriage stood at the doorway ; the mother, a 
 grown-up-daughter and myself stepped in, drove to 
 the harbor, took my cruelly treated girl from her 
 stateroom, and brought her to her home, which she 
 had not seen for over a year. 
 
 The joy of seeing her mother, and the blessed 
 knowledge of forgiveness and love, caused an excite 
 ment which aggravated her condition. 
 
 Medical assistance and the kindest and most 
 unremitting attentions were of no avail in arresting 
 the course of the disease. 
 
 On the morning of the third day after we 
 brought her home she expired, and those eyes, in 
 which I had so often seen my only delight and 
 happiness, were closed forever. The grief and 
 desperation of all those who stood about the cold 
 and lifeless form of my departed Lola, who even 
 in death was so beautiful, is almost impossible to 
 describe. 
 
 Rio de Janeiro, with its woriflerful surround 
 ings, is a perfect paradise, but, unfortunately, I was 
 in no mood to enjoy it as otherwise I surely would 
 have done. Brooding over my loss, of which I had 
 been deprived in so cruel a manner, I took no inter 
 est in anything, and often felt so despondent that 
 self-destruction seemed the only relief to my misery. 
 But youth, and love of life, decided differently. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 233 
 
 Sitting in a cafe" in the Rua Direita one morn 
 ing, I saw, passing on the other side of the street, a 
 gentleman in the well-worn uniform of a Mexican 
 artillery officer. I rose, followed, and addressed 
 him, and was pleasantly surprised to find in him a 
 companion in arms of the Mexican campaign. We 
 sat together, talked over old times, scenes and 
 adventures in Mexico, and soon became friends. 
 
 He was a Frenchman, a few years older than 
 myself, and came, as a lieutenant under Bazaine, to 
 Mexico. When the French troops were withdrawn 
 he remained, and joined a Mexican regiment. At 
 the fall of the capital he was taken prisoner, and 
 with the rest of hi3 companions in captivity, sent to 
 New Orleans, from whence he found his way down 
 to Brazil. 
 
 When I met him he had been but a few days 
 in the city, and was so short of money that he 
 could hardly afford himself one meal a day. Being 
 in far better circumstances than he, I felt glad that 
 I was able to assist him and relieve him of a por 
 tion of his cares. I invited him to live with me, 
 and offered to share, during the time we should be 
 together, my lot with him. 
 
 His intention was to join the Brazilian army 
 against Lopez in Paraguay, and, in order to carry 
 out this project, he desired an interview with the 
 emperor. Merely for the sake of curiosity to make 
 Pom Pedro s acquaintance myself, I joined in with 
 his scheme, under the pretext of a similar intention. 
 
234 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 One afternoon we both took the road to Sao 
 Cristovao, where Dom Pedro, twice a week, gave 
 audience to any one anxious to see him. We passed 
 the halberdiers on guard at the entrance to the 
 palace, and were escorted by green-swallow-tailed 
 lackeys to the audience chamber of the Brazilian 
 sovereign. 
 
 A little later, the emperor, in evening dress, 
 wearing some small orders pinned on the lapels of 
 his coat, appeared on the scene. As I stood nearest 
 to the entrance he first came towards me, and 
 offered me, according to the custom of Catholic 
 potentates, his hand to kiss. 
 
 Now, I have never objected to kiss the hand of 
 a woman, but to kiss the hand of a man I considered 
 beneath my dignity. 
 
 Smilingly I gazed into his face, without paying 
 any attention to the honor which he intended to 
 confer upon me. He noticed my intention, and I 
 think, rather mortified, drew his hand back. 
 
 My petition for being permitted to join the 
 Brazilian army against Lopez, he answered shortly 
 by saying that I would have to apply to his minister 
 of war for that. Without condescending to waste 
 a further look, he turned his back upon me and 
 addressed himself to my companion. He, reared 
 under the iron rod of the third Napoleon, not seeing 
 anything whatever degrading orhumilating in such 
 an act, bent his knees, pressed a juicy kiss on Dom 
 Pedro s hand, and made his speech also. The 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 235 
 
 answer he received was about the same as was 
 vouchsafed to me, save that the emperor assured 
 him that he would speak to the minister of war 
 himself. 
 
 The emperor then on his behalf extended to 
 him the privilege of kissing his hand again, and, 
 ignoring me entirely, disappeared by the same door 
 through which he had come. 
 
 For a little while we looked about us in this 
 sumptuous palace, and then returned to Eio de 
 Janeiro. 
 
 Fourteen days later, my friend, as captain in a 
 Brazilian artillery regiment, embarked to the seat 
 of war in Paraguay. 
 
 During my residence in the capital of Brazil I 
 did brokering and bookkeeping, and by the time I 
 was ready to leave was provided with everything 
 necessary. 
 
 I went by way of Sao Paulo, Lages, Port 
 Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, to Montevideo, where 
 I arrived after a most interesting journey of about 
 150 days. 
 
 The scenery of those countries ^through which 
 I passed was grand and wonderful, and so fascinat 
 ing that it seems impossible to be ever forgotten. 
 The most vivid imagination fades to nothing in 
 comparison with the splendor of nature, which in 
 every direction was displayed before my eyes. 
 
 The dense, impenetrable forests of Sao Paulo, 
 Parana, and St? Catarina, the extensive campos or 
 
236 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 rolling prairies of the Province of Rio Grande do 
 Sul, and the Republic of Uruguay, the mighty 
 mountain ranges, and the labyrinth of streams and 
 rivers, with their foaming and roaring cascades and 
 cataracts, made an impression upon me which will 
 last forever. 
 
 During my long and solitary journey I met 
 with dangers and privations of different kinds, but 
 I looked at them as matters of little importance, 
 naturally thinking that he who wishes to enjoy the 
 splendors of our world, ought not to be discouraged 
 by such obstacles and difficulties. 
 
 I took only those things along which my horse, 
 or, in case of necessity, I myself could carry, and 
 sent the rest of my goods in *a little trunk around 
 the Horn to Valparaiso. 
 
 Horses and mules I rode during my journey 
 by dozens. Prices in the interior were so insig 
 nificant that very often for three or four dollars I 
 could buy the strongest and finest animals. Some 
 times I exchanged them for fresh ones, paying a 
 little to boot, and at others, when I could not do so, 
 and they were tired and ridden sore, I gave them 
 their liberty. About half a dozen I lost by disease, 
 or in crossing rivers, and then often I had to travel 
 for days afoot. 
 
 One horse I lost in the whirlpool of a cataract, 
 and with it, saddle, blankets, sheepskins, lasso, and 
 everything on its back. I myself was saved in an 
 almost miraculous manner, and full of water, and 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 237 
 
 drenched to the skin, I could only fetch ashore what 
 was fastened to my body. 
 
 Without meeting a human being I traveled 
 afoot for many days, after that accident, living 
 upon roots and the bottoms of the stalks of pampas 
 grass, and in consequence of the cold nights I spent 
 a very miserable time. At the first estanzia I came 
 to I provided myself with the most necessary things 
 before I continued on my journey. 
 
 In the interior of the country I very often lost 
 my way, and sometimes it took days before I could 
 find the right track again. 
 
 Once in a while I fell in with Troperos, people 
 who drive cattle and horses, or bring country pro 
 ducts from one place to another. I joined them, 
 studied and learned the customs and habits of those 
 hardy, pretenseless and sociable country people, and 
 remained a day or two in their company. 
 
 Hospitality among the Brazilian estanzeiros is 
 universal. Any one who calls upon them may be 
 sure of the kindest reception. They are mostly 
 wealthy, and in possession of immense tracts of 
 land. Stock breeding and raising is their favorite 
 occupation. I have seen stock farmers who had a 
 hundred thousand cattle, horses and mules, ranging 
 on the table land of Brazil ; and grazing on the 
 plains of Uruguay far more than half a million of 
 sheep. 
 
 The lives of these land-owners is ndfc inter 
 spersed with much luxury. They live in adobe 
 
238 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 huts, and in low-roofed wooden cottages, in which 
 but little furniture is to be found. Like many other 
 natives they prefer to sleep on the ground. At night 
 raw cow-hides are spread on the floor, upon which 
 they make down their beds. 
 
 Their food is very plain, and consists of meat, 
 black beans, flour, made from manioc, milk, fruit, 
 and a sort of squash. Paraguay tea, or mate, they 
 sip like most of the South American people, nearly 
 all the time. 
 
 Chatting, gambling, music, singing and danc 
 ing, but especially riding, in which art, men as well 
 as women, have reached a marvelous degree of per 
 fection are their amusements. Elegant riding out 
 fits, richly decorated with silver, are naturally the 
 hobby of those daring and skillfull horsemen and 
 women. 
 
 Education was almost unheard of. Reading and 
 writing was to many of them a great art, and of the 
 world outside the borders of their province, they 
 had but a feeble idea. But they are good-natured, 
 hospitable, brave and honest, and have enough to 
 make life pleasant and enjoyable, even without 
 knowledge and experience of the world. 
 
 Since royalty in whose interest it was to keep 
 the people in ignorance has been driven from 
 Brazilian soil, it may have changed for the better, 
 and a Brazilian of to-day is, perhaps, quite another 
 man fiftm what he was some twenty-five years ago. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 After my arrival in Montevideo I rested for a 
 while, and than went by way of Buenos Ayres, 
 Rosario to Villa Nueva, from whence I intended to 
 cross the continent to the Pacific Coast. 
 
 But a great many unexpected obstacles delayed 
 my departure for a considerable length of time. The 
 winter of sixty-nine was a very severe one on the 
 southern hemisphere, and the immense quantities 
 of snow which fell in the Cordilleras blocked the 
 passes longer than usual. 
 
 I heard about this from natives coming from 
 Mendoza, that before November one wouid hardly 
 have any chance to cross the Andes. 
 
 It was the beginning of August when I arrived 
 at Villa Nueva, and, therefore, although I traveled 
 slowly, I would still have to wait a few weeks in 
 Mendoza. To avoid this, and at the same time to 
 increase my cash supply a little, I decided to accept 
 any kind of work I could find. An opportunity was 
 soon offered me, and on the following morning I 
 left as wood-chopper for Monte de Jucat, a pretty 
 little forest in the vicinity of Villa Nueva. 
 
 The distance from Rosario to Villa Nueva is 
 about fifty leguas. It was at that time the terminus 
 of the Ferro-Carril-Central-Argentino, a railroad, 
 built by an English Company. For use of extending 
 
 (239) 
 
240 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 the line further to Cordoba in Monte de Jucat, trees 
 were cut down, sawed to pieces, and prepared for 
 sleepers and stringers. 
 
 Besides two English engineers, one book-keeper 
 and a few overseers, we were over two hundred 
 wood-choppers, who, with the exception of about a 
 dozen foreigners, were all natives of Argentine. 
 
 The foreigners lived together in large tents, 
 and the natives with their families in rotten, half 
 tumble-down adobe and brush huts, beneath the 
 trees of the forest. We worked from seven in the 
 morning until five o clock in the evening, had one 
 hour for dinner, and as we were not overworked, 
 found no cause for complaint. 
 
 Life as it appeared to me there was quite enjoy 
 able, in some respects even comfortable, and gave 
 me an opportunity to study the bad as well as the 
 pleasing and amusing habits of the natives of the 
 Argentine Eepublic. 
 
 After our day s work we enjoyed ourselves in 
 recreation, sometimes strolling about in the neigh 
 borhood, visiting the families of our native com 
 panions, where joy and merriment could always be 
 found. 
 
 My desire to see Chili drove me westward, 
 otherwise I would with pleasure have remained a 
 little longer. I took leave of the inhabitants of 
 Monte de Jucat, went to Villa Nueva, drew the 
 money due me, and made preparations for my 
 journey. . 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 241 
 
 Provided with everything I needed, I started 
 from, the village and reached Mendoza after a jour 
 ney of about thirty days. The trip across the 
 Argentine Republic was very interesting, but the 
 scenery is in no way comparable with the grandly 
 wonderful sights I had presented to me in Brazil. 
 With the exception of the Sierra de Cordoba and 
 the Sierra de San Luis, the whole country is more 
 or less a level plain, which on account of its monot 
 ony soon lost its charm. 
 
 Long, coarse pampas-grass; slow -moving 
 streams and rivers; shallow, dried-up lakes, bor 
 dered by thickets of willows ; bands of horses, 
 cattle and sheep ; sometimes rabbits and coyotes, 
 and once in a while a filthy, half-decayed native 
 adobe hut, was about all I saw during my tedious 
 trip across the Pampas Argentinas. 
 
 Trees, e^ven brushwood, were entirely unknown 
 for sometimes a whole week. I always liked to 
 spread my blankets at night under the foliage of 
 some tree, but here, on the forsaken and deserted 
 pampas, I was obliged to do without trees. Lying 
 on the open field I had to tie the end of the lasso 
 the loop of which was about my horse s neck to 
 my body, to prevent the animal s escape during the 
 night. 
 
 The two mountain ranges I had to cross were 
 of course an exception to the dull, flat monotony of 
 the country. They seemed splendid, and the veg 
 etation which covered them appeared, after the 
 
 TKAVEL 15 
 
242 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 monotony of the barren, destitute pampas, perhaps 
 even more exquisite than it really was. 
 
 In the interior of those scantily populated 
 countries, where one may journey for weeks with 
 out seeing a hut or a human being, a traveler 
 depends upon his horse or mule for everything 
 even for society. As necessity breeds invention, 
 the inhabitants, of those countries, born almost in 
 the saddle, have invented saddles and saddle outfits 
 which enable one to carry everything he needs 
 along with him. 
 
 Knowing from my experience in Brazil the 
 advantages of those riding outfits, I provided myself 
 with them where and whenever I could. 
 
 In the morning, when saddling and packing 
 for the start, I placed three or four dried sheepskins 
 upon the back of my horse, and over them the 
 saddle, which was composed simply of two half- 
 round leathern bolsters, each about a foot long, 
 placed one on either side of the animal s spine. 
 Blankets and more sheepskins were placed on top 
 of it, the whole being wrapped snugly together by a 
 broad leathern girth or cinch, which was drawn 
 tightly under the horse s belly ; saddle-bag, drink 
 ing horns, lasso and dried meat were fastened 
 in front and at the rear of the saddle, and off I 
 went. 
 
 Preparing my night quarter, I used the sheep 
 skins as mattress, the saddle as pillow, poncho and 
 blankets as covering, and slept, if it didn t rain or 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 243 
 
 storm, just as softly, warmly and comfortably as if 
 wrapped in the finest eiderdown quilts. 
 
 Drinking horns are on the pampas, where 
 water is scarce, of the greatest necessity, and with 
 out them a good many people would perish of thirst. 
 They are made of buffalo horns, closed at the lower 
 end, and the larger ones will hold as much as four 
 gallons. Two of them are fastened together by a 
 leathern strap, and hung over the back of the 
 animal. 
 
 The food a traveler in those countries carries 
 with him, when on the road, consists of meat, dried 
 in the sun into hard, tough, leather-like stuff, upon 
 which he has to depend, not only for days, but at 
 times even for weeks. If my meat supply became 
 short, I bought a sheep or a lamb when I could, for 
 w r hich I paid from fifty to seventy-five cents. I 
 killed it, cut the lean part into strips, threw the rest 
 away, tied it on the back of my horse, and the sun 
 did the rest ; thus, for a number of days, I was pro 
 visioned again. 
 
 After my day s journey was ended I built. a 
 fire, roasted a piece of meat, used, instead of salt, a 
 little gunpowder, and drinking water with it 
 enjoyed my plain but tasty meal with much zest. 
 If, on account of bad weather, I could not kindle a 
 fire, then I had to eat the meat raw, moistened by 
 the rain and seasoned with the animal s perspi 
 ration. 
 
 On the bare pampas it was often difficult to 
 
244 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 find enough fuel to start a fire with in the evening, 
 and therefore I had to begin in the morning to col 
 lect the excrement of my horse, as I went along, to 
 use it as fuel at night. 
 
 Such a life was very interesting to me, and 
 equally enjoyable as it would be to anyone who 
 takes pleasure in traveling, is not rather particular 
 in regard of eating and drinking, has a love for 
 nature, and a good, strong constitution. 
 
 Here in the Argentine Republic I at times, too, 
 fell in with Troperos or Arrieros. These men are 
 happy and contented, in spite of the fact that their 
 life is a continuous succession of trials and hard 
 ships. 
 
 I met tropas or caravans that consisted of hun 
 dreds of mules, bringing merchandise from one 
 place to another. Each troop has its patron or pro 
 prietor, with his peons or assistants. One peon, 
 usually, has to attend to twelve or fifteen laden 
 animals. Every mule carries a load of about two 
 hundred pounds, which, equally divided on either 
 side, hangs to the wooden pack-saddles, and is 
 lashed with leathern thongs to the bodies of the 
 animals. According to the road and the pasture 
 found on the way, from six to eight leguas per day 
 are made, and once in seven a day of rest is taken 
 for the animals and men. 
 
 In the evening, when a place for the night s 
 camp is selected, loads and saddles are taken off the 
 mules and they are turned loose and left to them- 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 245 
 
 selves. They are led by a mare with a bell hung 
 about her neck, the sound of which they will never 
 stay very far away from. A few riding-horses are 
 kept tethered in the camp. Merchandise and pack- 
 saddles are placed in a circle, inside of which each 
 one makes down his bed. 
 
 A boy, whose duty it is to ride the bell-mare 
 and attend to the cooking, prepares supper. He 
 kindles a fire, puts on a pot of water, into which he 
 throws pieces of meat and a handful of salt, and 
 boils it into a soup. When this mess is cooked the 
 men group around the pot and eat and drink as 
 they like. After supper every one lights his 
 cigarette, sips his mate, and goes to bed. 
 
 The following morning the boy prepares a 
 caldo, or soup, the same as the night before. The 
 mules, which have often strayed miles away, are 
 rounded up, packed, and everything ready for a 
 start, the journey is continued. 
 
 The boy on. his inadrina, or good mother, as the 
 bell-mare is called, sets out in front, the animals in 
 a long line following, while the patron and his 
 peons form the tail-end of the procession. The 
 men have always plenty to do. Sometimes a mule, 
 under the weight of its burden, breaks down, a sad 
 dle and a load get out of position, or an animal runs 
 away, whenever by means of jumping, kicking or 
 bucking it can get rid of its burden. 
 
 Troperos whom I met during my trip across the 
 pampas, were mostly Gauchos. They are very 
 
246 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 sociable, perfectly natural and straight-forward^ but 
 rather ignorant, dirty and superstitious. 
 
 Cleanliness is not considered a virtue among 
 the country people of South America. If any one 
 thinks he cannot put up with such habits, then 
 surely he had better stay away from that part of the 
 world. 
 
 About two days travel from Mendoza, one 
 evening a little before sunset, I came in sight of the 
 Cordilleras. It was a grand and imposing sight, 
 and created an enthusiasm in me which I am 
 utterly unable to reproduce on paper. The many 
 privations of my solitary journey were soon for 
 gotten as those mighty mountain ranges, veiled in 
 snow and ice, loomed up in the west before me. 
 
 As I came nearer to Mendoza the more over 
 whelming became this glorious panorama, which 
 must be seen to be appreciated. 
 
 While in Mendoza I roomed and boarded with 
 a native family, consisting of mother, son and two. 
 daughters. They had a beautiful home in one of 
 the suburbs, and during the time I was there I 
 enjoyed their style of living very much. 
 
 The following morning after my arrival I 
 visited the ruins of old Mendoza, where, during the 
 earthquake of 61, over ten thousand people lost 
 their lives in such a dreadful manner. I climbed 
 over the ruins of that once charming place, now 
 overgrown with trees and brushwood, and as I 
 reflected upon the awful fate which so suddenly 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 247 
 
 befell its unfortunate inhabitants, my mood was a 
 sadly depressed one. 
 
 The Mendoza of to-day is built to the south of 
 the old town, and at the time of my visit was a very 
 nourishing and beautiful city. I have seldom seen 
 any place which for romantic situation can compare 
 with Mendoza. It lies with its wonderful surround 
 ings a perfect paradise on the eastern slopes of the 
 Cordilleras, where it extends with its suburbs for 
 miles. 
 
 Canals, bordered in places with rose bushes, in 
 which the snow-fed waters of the Cordilleras flow 
 swiftly, cross and re-cross the city and suburbs in 
 every direction. 
 
 The number of people afflicted with goitre 
 almost immediately attracted my attention. I have 
 seen this disease before in mountainous districts, 
 but never prevailing to such an extent as here, 
 and in other localities of the Cordilleras. Whether 
 it is to be attributed to the snow-water, intermingled, 
 perhaps, with particles of herbs, or to some other 
 cause, no one has yet determined. 
 
 About the middle of November, for the first 
 time in nearly six months, the mail arrived from 
 Chili by way of the Cordilleras. The carriers were 
 Chilians, accustomed to mountain climbing, hard 
 ship and privation. With mountain sticks in hand, 
 and mail-bags strapped to their backs, they had 
 crossed from Santa Rosa de los Andes. 
 
 I consulted with them as to the condition of 
 
248 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 the road, and a few days later made up my mind 
 to start for my western destination. 
 
 The prairie-bred horse which I had brought 
 along with me I sold, and bought an animal foaled 
 and bred in the mountains, which could jump and 
 climb almost as well as a goat. I engaged a guide, 
 and one morning just before sunrise we left beau 
 tiful Mendoza. 
 
 A journey of fourteen days brought me to 
 Santa Rosa de los Andes, a distance of about eighty 
 leguas. Traveling for days at a stretch over snow 
 and ice, in a forlorn and inhospitable part of the 
 world, was quite a novelty to me. A multitude of 
 magnificent views were, of course, displayed before 
 my eyes, but even they did not repay me sufficiently 
 for the hardships of such a journey. In summer it 
 might be otherwise, but in the spring, after a severe 
 winter, I would hesitate to cross those tremendous 
 mountain ranges again. 
 
 Besides obstacles and privations of many kinds, 
 the road was at some places so very dangerous that 
 a less ardent admirer of nature than I surely would 
 have turned back and given up the idea of crossing 
 the Cordilleras. 
 
 Without a guide I could never have found my 
 way, and would have lost my life on more than one 
 occasion had it not been for his timely aid. 
 
 At times, streams, frozen with ice and covered 
 with snow, broke under the weight of my horse and 
 myself, and in I went, up to the waist in the chilly 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 249 
 
 water. At other times my horse stepped into holes 
 filled level with snow, and sank so far into them 
 that my guide had to come to my assistance and dig 
 me out. Often our horses made missteps, a loose 
 stone rolled under foot, and away went both horse 
 and rider, down the mountain side. That we escaped 
 breaking our necks, or being dashed to pieces, often 
 seemed a wonder to me. After one of these slips, 
 our poor brutes stood trembling like aspens, with 
 the saddles either upon their nocks, or hanging 
 under their bellies, but we cinched them up and 
 began the ascent once more taking our lives in our 
 hands. 
 
 At places the road led for miles through dark 
 and narrow mountain canons, in which the over 
 hanging rocks came so close together that the sky 
 could seldom be seen between them. Then again 
 we had to skirt steep, almost perpendicular preci 
 pices, where a path, cut in the face of the wall of 
 rock, was scarcely broad enough to allow a rider or 
 a loaded animal to pass. Snow, ice and granite 
 wall, and once in a while a dark and gloomy sky 
 was all we could see, and the deafening noise of 
 mountain torrents, rushing thousands of feet below 
 us, all we could hear. 
 
 On a great many of those dangerous places, 
 where from giddiness I feared to lose my balance, 
 I closed my eyes, dropped the bridle on the neck of 
 my horse, and let him do just as he pleased. It is 
 remarkable with what caution and wonderful sagac- 
 
250 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 ity, animals, bred in the mountains, follow the trail. 
 They seem to know that a misstep might be dis 
 astrous to them. On dangerous spots they examine 
 with their hoofs the condition of the road, often 
 drawing the hoof several times back and forth 
 before they decide to step down and go on. 
 
 Near those dangerous places, the steep mountain 
 slopes are covered with the skeletons of animals 
 which have been collecting for hundreds of years, 
 and which are being constantly increased. 
 
 During the summer an active travel prevails 
 between Mendoza and Santa Rosa de los Andes ; 
 troops of horses, cattle and loads of merchandise are 
 continuously moving hither and thither. But in 
 spite of all the precaution on the part of the leaders 
 of those caravans, it sometimes happens that the 
 animals become excited, and while trying to pass 
 one another, lose their foothold, slip, and roll head 
 long into the depths. Rescue is impossible. The 
 condors scent the blood from afar, pounce upon their 
 prey, and within a few hours nothing but a cleanly 
 picked skeleton is left. 
 
 About sixty leguas from Mendoza, still on 
 Argentine soil, is the station of Puiito de las Vacas. 
 It consisted of half a dozen huts, occupied by Chil- 
 enos, who in this barren mountain country were 
 hunting the guanaco or camel-sheep of the Cordill 
 eras. The skin and the meat, dried in the sun, are 
 brought to Chili, where both articles are always 
 marketable. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 251 
 
 To afford ourselves and our horses a needed 
 rest, we intended to stay there one day, but the 
 wild romantic mountain scenery, coupled with the 
 hospitality of the inhabitants of Punto de las Vacas, 
 and the novelty of guanaco hunting, induced me to 
 prolong my stay a few days. 
 
 During the time I remained there I was enter 
 tained splendidly. In company with the Chileno; 
 in whose hut I lived, I explored all that part of the 
 Cordilleras. Of a morning we saddled our horses, 
 took lasso and bolas, and rode into the mountains, 
 followed by forty or fifty shaggy little dogs. At 
 noon ws returned, and usually with a few living 
 guanacos. 
 
 The manner of hunting these animals is very 
 interesting. The dogs, specially trained, drive 
 them out of their hidi.ig places, and in a direction 
 where a rider can follow. If close enough the rider 
 throws his bolas three iron balls fastened to the 
 end of leather straps from two to three feet in 
 length around its legs, and brings it almost always 
 to the ground. The dogs pounce upon it, fasten to 
 the wool, and keep the animal down until the 
 hunter comes and lassoes it about the neck. At first 
 a guanaco kicks, bucks, jumps, and makes every 
 effort to get away, but soon finds out that struggling 
 is in vain, that the leather only draws tighter, chok 
 ing its tongue still further out of the mouth. Trem 
 bling it follows its captor, and often within a short 
 time becomes as quiet and gentle as a lamb. 
 
252 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 The meat and the milk from these animals, and 
 a few times a day a little mate, is the only food of 
 those hardy and good-natured Chilian hunters. 
 
 On the afternoon of the fourth day we took 
 leave of Punto de las Vacas, so as to reach the same 
 evening the foot of the Cuinbre pass, a distance of 
 about four leguas. 
 
 As soon as we had left the settlement the road 
 began to trend upward, and brought us within 
 a short march into the region of snow and ice. 
 When we reached our destination it was dark, 
 and the twinkling stars all we had to guide us. 
 We shoveled the snow from the ground, spread 
 our blankets down on the hard-frozen earth, tied 
 some sheep skins over the backs of our horses, 
 and turned in. 
 
 Our rest was broken by the coldness and 
 unpleasantness of the night. A sharp cutting 
 wind rushed howling over us, and when towards 
 midnight a heavy snow storm set in, our situation 
 began to go from bad to worse. Covered with snow 
 and blankets, and shivering with cold, I lighted my 
 pipe, and tried to keep my limbs from freezing. 
 
 Finding it impossible to sleep we got up before 
 day-dawn, saddled our horses, sharpened the irons 
 on their hoofs, and made ready to start on the 
 tedious and perilous journey we had before us. Up a 
 zig-zag path we climbed the face of an almost per 
 pendicular mountain, at least a thousand feet in 
 height, and arrived at the summit shortly after sun- 
 
TEA VEL, ETC. 253 
 
 rise, dripping with perspiration in spite of the 
 intense cold. 
 
 The panorama which spread itself before my 
 eyes amply repaid the hardships of the last hours. 
 It was so wonderful, so bewitching that I have 
 never in my life seen anything to compare with it. 
 No pen is able to describe, no brush to reproduce 
 it. In spite of the icy cold and the intensely rare 
 fied atmosphere, which forced the blood from my 
 nose, I unthinkingly stopped my horse and indulged 
 in a few minutes contemplation of this grand dis 
 play of Almighty power. 
 
 Tears came to my eyes at the sight of such a 
 splendor, such a sublimity of nature. My guide 
 called for me to hurry on, or I surely would have 
 reveled a little longer in those thousands on thou 
 sands of peaks below us, covered with snow and ice, 
 and glittering in the rays of the early sun like gold 
 and precious stones. 
 
 At the end of this plateau, scarcely five hundred 
 feet long, and about fifteen thousand feet above the 
 level of the sea, stood a large wooden cross, roughly 
 nailed together. It served as the boundary post 
 or monument between Chili and Argentine. 
 
 From here our trail led downward very rapidly. 
 The slopes on the Chilian side were steeper than 
 those in Argentine, and the road full of obstacles 
 and hinderances. By the evening we had the worst 
 part of our journey behind us, and were out of the 
 region of inhospitable snow and ice. 
 
254 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Just after dark we reached the station Guardia 
 Vieja, situated in a green, romantic little valley, 
 and decided to remain there over night. 
 
 In the house of our landlord, a Chilian farmer, 
 joy and merriment prevailed. On the porch, cov 
 ered with vines, men and women gathered, and 
 sang to the music of the guitar, or danced, with all 
 the abandon of passion, the national dance the 
 Samaeueca. 
 
 We turned our horses into a meadow, where 
 for the first time since we left Mendoza, they had a 
 chance to enjoy a hearty feed of alfalfa. In the 
 meantime supper was prepared for us, and when 
 we had finished we joined for a while in their 
 pleasant amusement. But our day s hardship had 
 tired us out, and not in the mood for dancing and 
 merriment we soon wished the company good-night, 
 lay down, with our saddles for pillows, and slept 
 soundly until the next morning. 
 
 The sun stood high in the heavens as we parted 
 from. Guardia Vieja. The road from here to Santa 
 Rosa de los Andes was beautiful, and in comparison 
 to that passed through the previous days, a regular 
 boulevard ride. Along the bank of the Colorado 
 river, through forest, dales and valleys, over hills, 
 scarcely a few hundred feet in height, we followed 
 our trail. In the afternoon we reached a little place, 
 the home of my guide. I dismissed him, paid him 
 his five dollars, with a little gratuity besides, and 
 continued my way alone. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 265 
 
 It was almost dark as I came in sight of Santa 
 Rosa de los Andes. I felt pleased to have reached 
 it, and it seemed that my horse felt so too, for he 
 pricked up his ears, whinnied at the approaching 
 night, and broke of his own accord into a faster 
 gait. 
 
 About half a legua from Santa Rosa the road 
 branched off in different directions. I stopped my 
 horse a moment, hesitated, and then followed the 
 trail, which, according to my calculations, ought to 
 be the right one. The path becoming narrower, a 
 little later formed a kind of mole, with a ditch at 
 either side. Seeing my mistake I intended to turn, 
 and while doing so my horse slipped and fell head 
 long into the icy waters of the Cordilleras. 
 
 Floundering up to my waist in it, and shiver 
 ing with cold, I at last got my horse out on the 
 opposite bank. Darkness in the meantime had 
 settled down, and leading the horse I made my way 
 across the meadows towards the gleam of a distant 
 light. 
 
 An old Chilena, aroused by the barking of her 
 dogs, received me at the entrance of her cottage, 
 and invited me to step in and make myself com 
 fortable. When I had told her of my bad luck, 
 she gave me an old petticoat to wear while my 
 clothes were being dried. I slipped it over my 
 head, slung an old poncho around my shoulders, 
 and sat down in front of the fire, which was burn 
 ing on the ground. She led my horse to a meadow, 
 
266 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 and made arrangements to prepare a supper for 
 me. 
 
 A little later a young girl appeared in the cot 
 tage, whom the old Chilian woman introduced to 
 me as her daughter. After I had eaten and warmed 
 myself, the girl picked up a guitar, and to its accom 
 paniment sang some of those sadly beautiful mel 
 odies of her South American home. 
 
 My stay in Santa Rosa de los Andes was of a 
 longer duration than I originally intended to make 
 it. The girl and I became great friends ; we chatted 
 and laughed and passed the time together most 
 pleasantly. During the day I rode with her for 
 hours in the charming country surrounding Santa 
 Rosa, and when at last the day of my departure 
 came, I felt depressed and miserable. 
 
 Concha my young friend s name had told 
 me on the second day of our acquaintance that the 
 old Chilena was not her mother, but a far-away 
 relation, to whom, according to the custom of poor 
 country people, her parents had pledged her for a 
 small sum of money, which the old woman had 
 loaned them. I promised her to return from Val 
 paraiso, to redeem her, and to take her along with 
 me to the coast. 
 
 I took leave of them, and by way of San Felipe, 
 Llai-llai and Quillota in three days rode to Valpa 
 raiso, a distance of about thirty -five leguas. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 My entrance into Valparaiso apparently 
 attracted the attention of a good many of the pas 
 sers-by, who may have taken me for a highwayman, 
 judging from my torn and dirty clothing and the 
 condition of my face, sore and scarred from the cold 
 and winds of the mountains. 
 
 At a livery stable in the Calle del Cabo I sold 
 my horse, and, although it was low in flesh and 
 saddle-galled, I received thirty dollars for it. I had 
 bought it in Mendoza for twelve dollars, and there 
 fore got a hint, which resulted in my of later doing 
 some business in horse-trading. 
 
 I secured my trunk, which in the meantime 
 had arrived from Rio de Janeiro, went to a hotel, 
 cleaned and dressed myself up, and appeared half 
 an hour later outwardly a little more respectable. 
 
 Up to that time I had, during my not very long 
 life, suffered from a good many diseases, but never 
 before had they attacked me so suddenly and in 
 such numbers as now, upon my arrival in Val 
 paraiso. 
 
 Whether my state of health was to be attributed 
 to the recent hardships and privations I had gone 
 through was, of course, impossible to say, and, 
 under the circumstances, of little importance any 
 how. 
 
 (267) 
 
258 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 First I suffered from inflammation of the liver, 
 a little later from inflammation of the bowels, and 
 had scarcely recovered from that when the dysentry 
 came on top of it. The dysentry developed into 
 such a severe type that within a few days I became 
 a skeleton, and my weight was reduced from about 
 150 pounds to less than half. 
 
 During the time I suffered from imflammation 
 of the liver and bowels I was cared for in a hospital, 
 but during the attack of dysentry I was in my own 
 room, which I had taken in a Chilian private 
 family. 
 
 The dysentry sapped what little strength my 
 other sickness had left and brought me to the help 
 less condition of a child. *Three doctors, of differ 
 ent nationalities were called one after another, and 
 every one quacksalved and tried his science on me, 
 but without being able to stop the course of my 
 disease. 
 
 One of those doctors, a very renowned man, 
 gave me things to be swallowed, which, used as 
 medicine, I had never heard of before. Sometimes 
 it consisted of common blotting paper, rolled 
 together in little balls, sometimes of pulverized 
 charcoal, and sometimes again of brick-dust, moist 
 ened with turpentine. 
 
 Whether those medicines had cured his former 
 patients or not, I, of course, do not know, but I do 
 know that they did not have the slightest effect 
 upon me. 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 259 
 
 A friend of my landlord, who was the captain 
 of a Chilian gunboat, came into my room one day 
 and said that he was to sail for the island of Juan 
 Fernandez, inviting me at the same time to go 
 along with him. He thought that a change of 
 climate would be the only cure for me, and would 
 do me more good than all the doctors and all the 
 medicines in the world. 
 
 I accepted his kind invitation, and a few days 
 later was on the way to those charming little 
 islands, belonging to Chili, and situated scarcely 
 400 miles from the coast. 
 
 I was so weak that sailors were obliged to carry 
 me from my bed into a carriage, from the carriage 
 into a boat, and from there on board of the gun 
 boat. The effect of the bracing, health-giving sea 
 air upon me was wonderful, and when, fourteen 
 days later, I returned to Valparaiso I fellas though 
 returning to a new world. 
 
 After nature had restored me entirely I decided 
 to carry out my former intention. 
 
 One morning I started for Santa Rosa de los 
 Andes, and upon my arrival there was entranced to 
 clasp my sweetheart to my breast. She owed the 
 old Chilian woman some twenty dollars; I paid it, 
 redeemed her, and took her along as my friend and 
 companion. 
 
 In Santa Rosa de los Andes I had to wait for 
 horses from Mendoza, and, when at last a troop 
 arrived, I selected a number, and drove them wtt* 
 
260 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 the assistance of Concha and two peons to the 
 coast. 
 
 Like all South American women, born and 
 reared in the interior, Concha, too, was familiar 
 with horses and everything cencerning them. Dur 
 ing the day we traveled on an average of ahout ten 
 leguas, and at night turned the animals into a 
 corral, or into the meadow of some farmer living 
 along the road. 
 
 It is necessary to see those women on horse 
 back in order to form any idea of their splendid 
 horsewomenship. Concha was as much at home on 
 a bare-backed horse as in the saddle, and she could 
 use her lasso with the same precision and dexterity 
 as the peons used theirs. Any horse that took it 
 into his head to run away from the band might be 
 sure that within a few minutes it would be over 
 taken, and a lasso around its neck, brought back by 
 her. 
 
 In my undertaking I was very fortunate from 
 the beginning. Horses that I bought in Santa 
 Rosa I could dispose of partly in the cities and 
 villages through which I came, and the rest in Val 
 paraiso during the first few days. The profit was a 
 very good one, and repaid me sufficiently for the 
 trouble connected with such a business. 
 
 Sometimes we remained only two or three 
 days in Valparaiso before returning to Santa 
 Rosa, where we bought another lot of horses, 
 drove them toward the coast, and continued this 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. *61 
 
 business until the winter closed the passes of the 
 Cordilleras. 
 
 Then, as man and wife, we traveled about Chili, 
 seeing and enjoying almost everything in this 
 lovely country that nature could offer. 
 
 With my beloved Concha I led a most enviable 
 life, and enjoyed, as surely but few of my fellowmeri 
 do, that pure happiness of love that exists only 
 between men and women who are not yet polluted 
 by the vices of this world. In her charming society 
 the days passed as in a dream of delight, and I 
 thought seriously of giving up all ideas of the Phil 
 ippines and setting down with her in the southern 
 part of Chili, in the Province of Valdivia, so abun 
 dantly blessed by nature. 
 
 But an eager desire to see Peru and the ruins 
 of the ancient Iiica rule I wished first to realize. 
 Therefore we sailed for Iquique, from whence we 
 intended to travel into the interior. 
 
 At the saltpetre mines in the Province of Tar- 
 apaca, still belonging in those days to Peru, offers 
 were made me, which were so tempting that I 
 decided to remain for a while at least, so as to 
 become acquainted with this line of business and 
 at the same time to increase my supply of cash. 
 
 The manner in which saltpetre is carried over 
 the sandhills and deserts towards the coast, to 
 Iquique, Mole, Mejillones, Pisagua and Junin, 
 seems excessively cruel for those wretched little 
 half-starved donkeys that pack this stuff. The poor 
 
262 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 beasts receive from their hard-hearted drivers more 
 lashes than food, and as long as a single bit of 
 strength remains in them have to stagger on. When 
 they break down in the road, and even the cruelest 
 torturing cannot bring them up, they are left where 
 they are. The salty evaporation of the soil dries 
 them up to mummies, or the hawks and buzzards 
 pick what little flesh is left from their bones. 
 
 Those barren, deserted wastes, where no water, 
 no trees, no brushwood, not even a blade of grass 
 can be found, are simply discouraging. The prov 
 ince is rich in underground treasure, but on the 
 surface it is a picture of misery and desolation. 
 
 The water in the mines is bad, salty, and 
 scarcely fit to drink, and on the coast, where it is 
 condensed from salt water, very expensive. Some 
 times when I came down to the coast my horse 
 drank a dollar s worth of water within a few hours. 
 
 In a little cottage, in the vicinity of the mine 
 La Noria, Concha and I lived, according to circum 
 stances, quite comfortably. 
 
 We were on the eve of leaving this inhospitable 
 district, when, one day, my companion was confined 
 to her bed. Fever attacks, shivering, reddening 
 of the skin, and intense pain in her spine set in, 
 which by her Peruvian servant were taken as the 
 prescience of viruelas negras. Her opinion, unfor 
 tunately, proved to be true ; a few days later, face, 
 arms, and a part of her body began to cover with 
 the poisonous substance of this dreadful disease, 
 
TRAVEL, ETC. 263 
 
 which in those countries is more or less always 
 prevalent. 
 
 Medical assistance, which, perhaps, would any 
 way have been of no avail, could not be got. The 
 only doctor in the district lived about three leguas 
 away. I rode to him, begged and implored him to 
 come with me, but from fear of his own safety he 
 would not do it. Willingly I would have given him 
 my very last dollar had he but returned with me 
 and attempted to save my Concha. 
 
 The disease took a sudden turn. The viruelas 
 settled in the windpipe and caused death by suffo 
 cation. Under immense efforts to breathe she 
 expired one night in my arms. 
 
 The grief which came over me as I held the 
 lifeless form of my departed love within my arms 
 is impossible to describe, and can be understood 
 only by those who, perhaps, have been in a similar 
 situation. 
 
 I pressed fervent kisses on the disfigured coun 
 tenance of my beloved Concha, and could scarcely 
 believe it possible that the eyes, which had so often 
 smiled on me in love and happiness, would never 
 re-open in this world. 
 
 Scarcely had I laid the remains of my once 
 charming companion to rest than I, too, was thrown 
 on a sick bed, but fate treated me more kindly, and 
 instead of vkuelas prietas I was afflicted with vir 
 uelas locas (a mild form of smallpox), from which 
 within a few weeks I had recovered. 
 
264 
 
 TRAVEL, ETC. 
 
 Depressed and disgusted with myself for hav 
 ing left beautiful Chili, I stood almost despairing 
 at the grave of my departed love. But I called all 
 my self-control into play, pulled myself together, 
 and decided to abandon a country in which, twice, 
 the iron hand of destiny had destroyed my happi 
 ness in such a cruel manner. 
 
 I left Peru and went by way of San Francisco, 
 Yokohama and Hongkong to Manila, where, after 
 having been absent for about ten years, I, one 
 morning re-appeared. 
 
 How I settled in the Philippines, how I built 
 up a mercantile house, and how I traveled in 
 Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Australia, will 
 appear in a later volume* 
 
 
U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 CD l 4S57Eflfl l 4 
 
 J