""■^iifllf" ^^^111^^^^ 5<--=s; Wtilv Pen and Peaei P f i.'v -i &)]•' W/J?fff9b*\ ' » • ■ # ♦ • • # • » # » ?8!^ 1*1 WM. W*| THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/earthdelineatedwOOainsrich J 1 THE EARTH DELINEATED WITH PEN AND PENCIL; OK, VOYAGES, TRAVELS, AND ADVENTURES ALL ROUND THE WORLD. EDITED BY W. F AINSWORTH, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Ac., &c. • EMBELLISHED WITH TWO E*JHr»a»© ILLUSTEATXOES, GHJSIAVE DORE , BERARD, LANCELOT, JULES NOEL, AND OTHER EMINENT ARTISTS. « »Hm " LONDON: CHARLES GRIFFIN & COMPANY, 10 STATIONERS' HALL COURT. - - ' A >%& PKEFACE. AG l$70 -=♦- The object of "All Round the World "is to set before the Stay-at-Homc Traveller an exact image and representation of the World wherein he lives ; supplying him with that ready means of acquaintance with each Country, its Inhabitants, its Scenery, its Vegetation, its Animals, and its Monuments, that can only be attained by the eye, and accompanying each pictorial delight with graphic Illustrations by men of celebrity in the career of Travel and Adventure. Wc propose to take our readers "All Round the World," in a long and varied traverse; opening to them the great Books of Geography, of Science, and of Nature. How necessary such a Work is at the present moment ; how little we know of ourselves and each other — of those even who live almost in contact with ourselves — may be judged from the fact, that the interior of even our own great Colonies is as yet Terra Incognita. In Asia, the vast range of the Himalayas, with the health-giving breezes of a northern climate, looking down upon the sun-burnt plains of India on the one side, and the smiling pas- tures of Tartary on the other, were until lately unvisited ; China and Cochin China, with their swarming millions of population, unfrequented; and Japan a sealed country. In America, while of the South-east we still only know " Those vast shores washed by the farthest sea," of the Centre and the West we were almost wholly ignorant, except that they were inhabited by untamed savages. It is a fact that the whole of a country, since pronounced to be the most beautiful in the world for scenery as well as tho mildest in climate, whose valleys teem with fertility, and whose mountains abound with gold and other metals, and minerals even more precious — viz., from California upwards to Vancouver's Island, and across from the Red River to the Pacific, was left for two centuries in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, as being a region of ice and snow, fit only for the bear, the beaver, and the trapper. In Africa, we are only just roused to the importance, not of exploring merely, but of trading with tho tribes aud nations of its fertile and healthful central regions ; while Commerce no longer brandishes the bloody whip and clanks the iron fetters of the slave, as she sails up the Gambia, the Benawe, and the Niger, or loads her polluted decks with a human cargo from barracoons on the fatal Western coast; but, with Religion by her side, advances up the Congo and Zambesi, to assure and certify a conquest more enduring than arms — intercourse in connection with the precious gift of instruction in the Religion of Peace. Wonderful, indeed, has been the progress of discovery effected within the most recent times. Whilst the ex- ploration of the Niger, the Benawe, and the Zambesi, in Africa, reveal new fields of inquiry, the navigation of tho Murray and the Murrumbigee in Australia, and of the Ainoor in Russia, opens up new regions to the colonist, and that of tho Yang-tse-kiang in China, and of the Parana, the Paraguay, the Amazon and other great rivers in South America, equally extensive realms to commercial enterprise. Nor are the remarkable accessions made of late to our knowledge of the interior of Australia — more especially of the discovery of a vast extent of land available for pasturage or tillage — of less import to the future. The discovery of a whole district of lakes, and of a region of snow- clad mountains in intertropical Africa, with the exploration of the upper affluents of tho White Nile, solves the great problem of all ages — the source of the Nile ; nor ought it to be omitted, that the determination of the existence of an available pass in the Rocky Mountains is like the last link in the great line of communication, which will inevitably be established with the lapse of time, between the Atlantic and the Pacific through British America. Every care has been bestowed in making "All Round tiie Would" a work of intrinsic value, not only as a book, but as a work of art. The designs are not ornamental landscapes, but drawings by travellers themselves, executed by the most able artists and engravers. :r»r- x r-w - rt CONTENTS. ♦•»■» FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. PAQB I. — Jaffa to Jerusalem, 1 II. — Over Jerusalem, 6 III. — In the Footsteps of our Saviour, 15 IV. — Mount Zion and the Jews, 26 V.— The Via Dolorosa, 28 VI. — The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 29 VII. — The Temple and the Mosque of Omar, 38 VIII. — Round and About Jerusalem, 44 IX. — To Bethlehem and to Hebron, 51 X. — To Jordan and to Nazareth, 59 SICILY AS IT IS. I. — In and About Palermo, 67 H. — Along Shore to Messina, 76 HI. — Stromboli and the Lipari Isles, 78 TV. — Messina, 79 V. — Round and up Mount Etna, 83 CHINA, COCHLN-CHINA, AND JAPAN. I. — Hong Kong, 89 II.— Macao, 91 HI. — Up the Canton River, 99 IV.— Canton, 102 V. — The First of the Mings, 107 VI. — The Last of the Mings, 119 VH. — The Rebels of China, 125 VIH. — The Great Rivers of China, 131 IX. — The Maritime Cities of China, 134 X.— Shanghai, 139 XI. — Tien-tsin, "The City of Felicity," 147 XII. — The Great Wall of China, 151 Xin. — Across China to Pekjn, 152 COCHIN-CHINA, 156 JAPAN, 175 II. — Bay and Harbour of Nagasaki, 180 IH. — Environs of Nagasaki, 184 IV. — Japanese Domestic Life, 185 V. — A Japanese Lady, 188 VI. — The Interior of Japan, 190 VH. — Arts and Industry of the Japanese, 192 VHI. — Japanese Literature and Art, 196 IX.— Simoda, 197 X. — An Excursion Round Simoda, 200 XI. — Approach to Yeddo, 202 Xn. — Landing at Yeddo, 204 Xni. — Interior of Yeddo, 205 XIV.— Tea Gardens, 206 XV. — Round Kanagawa, 208 XVI. — Harikari — the Happy Despatch, 210 XVII.— Hakodaki, • • • • .212 XVIII. — Government and Manners 215 vi CONTENTS. THE ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. I. — An Austrian Voyage Round the World, 219 II.— Ceylon, 220 III. — Nikobar Islands, 230 IV. — The Andaman Islands, 235 V. — Singapore, 243 VI. — An Excursion in Java, 244 VII. — The Philippine Islands, 247 VIII. — The Enchanted Lake, 251 IX. — The Sil-li-ba-boo Islanders, 253 UP AND DOWN THE AMOOR, With Scenes in Central Asia, Tartary, and Siberia. 1. — The Country of the Kalkas, 260 II. — Mongolia, 264 ni. — The Sultans of the Steppes, 269 IV. — The Lake Baikal, 275 V. — Down the Amoor, 282 VI. — Up the Amoor, 294 VII.— Siberia, 301 VHI. — Life among the Yakuts, 308 FROM ASIA TO AMERICA. Land of the Tchuktchi, 323 VANCOUVER ISLAND, ,325 FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC. I. — The Rocky Mountains, . 330 II. — The Way to the Rocky Mountains, 333 HI. — Through the Countp.y of the Blackfeet to the Rocky Mountains, . . . 353 IV. — The Country between Canada and British Columbia, 366 V. — The Winipeg and Red River District, . . . ... . . . 390 VI. — Adventures in the Rocky Mountains of the Baron de Wogan, . . . 395 VH. — The Miner and the Hunter, 398 VHI. — Departure for the Interior, 399 IX. — My Adventures, 400 CREMATION GHAT AT CALCUTTA. "Burning and Exposure of Bodies in India, 409 CUBA AND THE CUBANS. I. — History — Description of Havana — Government — Army and Navy — Revenue, . 413 H. — Manners and Customs — Public Vehicles — Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce, 419 HI. — Climate, Scenery — Vegetable Productions — Rivers — Mountains — Domestic and Wild Animals — Mineral Riches — Cathedral — Church of San Domingo- Viceregal Palace — Chapel of Columbus — Plaza del Toros, or Colosseum for Bull Fights, 427 TO CUBA AND BACK. I.— The Voyage, 437 II.— Havana, 437 III. — Matanzas and the Sugar Plantations, 440 IV. — Slavery in Cuba, 443 V. — Farewell to Cuba, 444 VI. — Cien Fuegos — Sugar Plantations — Condition of Slaves, 446 "VTI. — The Havana — Its Hotels — The Paseo — The Harbour and the Quay, . . 447 THE SEARCH FOR THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION. I. — The Discovery Yacht "Fox" at the Danish Settlements in Greenland — An Arctic Winter — Cross Baffin's Bay' — Erect a Monument — Sail down Peel's Strait — Make Regent's Inlet and Bellot Strait — Winter Quarters, 451 H. — Interview with the Boothian Esquimaux — Relics of Franklin — Captain Sir F. L. M'Clintock examines East Coast of King William Island and Mouth of Back's River — Return by South and West Coast of King William Island — Note from Lieutenant Hobson, 455 HI. — Return to the "Fox" — A Navigable North- West Passage? — Hobson's Jour- ney — Captain Allen Young's Journey — Discovers M'Clintock Channel — The Expedition returns Home — General Conclusions, 463 CONTENTS. vii DALMATIA. PAGK I. — First View of Dalmatia — Dalmatian Nationality — Chdrches and Convents — Forts — Ragusan Society, 469 II. — Environs of Ragusa — Turkish Islands of St. Mark and St. Barbara — Island and Monastery of La Chroma — Bay of St. Hilary — Ragusa Vecchia, . 476 III. — Haven of Gravosa, or Santa Croce — Val d'Ombla — Subterranean River, . 479 rV. — The Men of the Black Mountains — Montenegrines, or Tchernagori — Protec- torate of Russia — Connection with Austria — Combats with the French, 480 V. — Bocca di Cattaro — Port of Montenegro — Toavn of Cattaro — Marmont at Cattaro — Ferocity of the Montenegrines, 485 VI. — MONTENEGRINE BAZAAR — TOWN OF NeIGUSH — MONTENEGRINE HUTS — TzETINIE, CAPI- TAL of Montenegro — Murder of Prince Danilo, 488 VII. — Herzegovina — Trebigne and the Trebinitza — Ascent of the Vellebich from Ragusa — Village of Bergato — Fort Tzarine — Val di Brino — Epidaurus, ok Old Ragusa, 494 VIII. — A Dalmatian Cafe — Feudal Town of Trebigne — Castle of Gradina — The Trebinitza, a Subterranean River — An Intermittent Lake — The Ombla, . 495 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. I. — Chatham Islands — Iguanas — Charles Island — Albemarle Island, . •. . 499 II. — Narborough Island — Tagus Cove — James Island — Hood's Harbour, . . 502 HI. — Islands Volcanic — Colony at Charles Island — JamesIsland — Salt Lake in Crater, 504 IV. — Importance of Reptiles in the Archipelago — Falkland Islands, . . . 509 CORAL ISLANDS. I. — Atolls or Atollons — Lithotypes or "Constructors of Worlds" — Submarine World — Coral Reefs — Keeling Islands — Coral Formations, . . . 516 II. — Boulder on a Coral Island — Great Crab — Structure of Lagoon Islands, . 520 HI. — General Proofs of Subsidence in the Pacific — Sir James Emerson Tennant on Coral Wells, and the Conversion of Salt Water into Fresh, . . 525 MALDIVA ISLANDS. Thousand Islands — Productions — Atolls or Atollons — Fishing Blocks of Coral — Inhabitants and Languages — Island of Diego Garcia — Comoro Island, 533 SOCIETY ISLANDS. I. — General Aspect of Tahiti, or Otaheite — Commerce — Lake of Vaihiria — Great Morai of Papara — Island of Raiatea — Mauarua — Smaller Islands, . . 537 II. — Population — Productions — Sugar-cane Plantations — Cotton — Cattle— Huts of Natives — Chiefs — Timber Trees — Religion and Morals, .... 539 MOUNT ATHOS AND ITS MONASTERIES. I. — Ancient Athos — Canal of Xerxes — Monasteries — Monastery of Lavra or St. Laura — Ascent of Mount Athos, 549 II. — Monastery of Caracalla — The Church — Monastery of Piiilothes, . • .557 III. — The Great Monastery of Iveron — The Monastery of Stavroniketa— -Splendid MSS. of St Chrysostom — The Monastery of Pantocratoras, . . . 560 IV. — The Great Monastery of Vatopede — Monastery of Spuigmenou — Monasteries of Kjliantari, Zographou, Castamoneta, Docheirou, and Xenophou, . . 565 V. — Monasteries of Russico and Xeropotama — Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius — Monasteries of St. Paul and Simopetra — Excursion to Karyes, 571 VI. — Caracai.la — The Agoumenos — Curious Cross — The Nuts of Caracalla, . . 579 THE GREAT PLAINS OF NORTH AMERICA. I. — Movement of Population of United" States Westward — Division of United States — Line of AVatershed— Most Available Line of Communication, 586 II. — Routes across the "Plains" — Fort Smith — Sculleville — Choctaw Indians — Chicksaws and Creek Indians — The Suawnees, 589 III. — Old Fort Arbuckle — Delaware Indians — Wakos Indians — Buffalo Hunting, . 597 IV. — The Cross Timbers — Prairie Dogs — Comanche Indians — Catching Wild Horses, 603 . V. — The Dry River — A Centenary Cotton Wood Tree — The Kioway Indians, . 605 VI. — Pueblo, "Town or Village" Indians — El Llano Estacado— Indian Paintings, 611 VII. — New Mexico — Cerro de Tccumcari — Frontier Mexican Town of Anton Cmco, 613 VIII. — Valley of Cuesta — Canon Blanco— Galisteo— Organ Rock — Valley of the Rio Grande — Pueblo of Santo Domingo — Pueblo Indian Church, . . 615 IX. — Arrival of the Expedition at Albuquerque — The Americans in New Mexico, 618 X. — Society at Albuquerque — Robber Races of Apache and Navahoe Indians — Pueblo or Village Indians — Hispano-Indian Breeds — Valley oftheRioGrande, 622 CONTENTS. THE GREAT PLAINS OF NORTH AMERICA— Continutd. PA0B XI. — The Indian Town of Isleta— Pueblo Laqcna— The Moeo Rock — The Ruins of New Mexico and their Origin, . 629 XII.— The Desolate City— The Camp before Zuni— Ruins of Old Zuni, . . .636 XIH. — Salt Pool — The Rio Secco— Petrified Forest — Ruins on the Colorado Chiquito, 638 XIV. — Departure from the Colorado Chiquito — Volcanic Cones — TnE Woods of the San Francisco Mountains — Subterranean Abode of the Natives — Squirrels, .... . 642 XV. — Bill Williams' Mountains — Grey Bears— Partridge Creek — Turkey Spring — Pass of the Aztec Mountains — Yampay and Canon Creeks, .... 644 XVI. — Tonto Indians — Cactus Pass — Giant Cactus— The Beaver Village, . . 650 XVH. — Valley of Bill Williams' Fork — Mountain Spring and Indian Paintings — Arrival at the Rio Colorado — The Mohaves, Chimeiiwiiuebes, Cutciianas, and Pah-Utahs, 653 XVni. — Village of the Mohaves — Passage of toe Colorado, 650 XIX. — The Rio Colorado — Desert — Dry Salt Lake — Arrival at Pueblo de Los Angeles, 662 TRAVEL AND SPORTING ADVENTURES IN TROPICAL SOUTH AFRICA. I. — Walfisch Bay — Missionary Station — A Lion Hunt — Death of the First Giraffe, 675 II. — A Lion Hunt — Death of the Leopard — The Ovambo and Ovamboland, . . 681 III. — The King of the Ovambo — Enormous Quantities of Game — A Night Adventure, 685 IV. — Mr. Andersson Visits Cape Town — Returns to Walfisch Bay — Mutilated Hy^na, 687 V. — The Pool of Kobis — Lions and Giraffe — A Black Rhinoceros, . . . 688 VI. — Shoots a White Rhinoceros — Is desperately Wounded by a Black Rhinoceros, 692 VII. — First View of Lake Ngami — Animals, Birds, and Fishes — Nakong and Lache — Ascent of the Teoge — Harpooning the HirrorOTAMus — A Lion for a Bed- partner, 694 THE STEPPES OF RUSSIA AND THE CAUCASUS. I. — Russian Tendency to Colonization — Zaporogian Cossacks — Cossacks of the Don and Volga, 707 II. — The Steppes — Fields of Haiiiat— Classes of Steppes — Ravines — The Land of Nomades — Future Importance of the Steppes to Commerce, .... 709 IH. — TheKalmuksnecessarilyNomades — Kalmuk Encampment — Kalmuk Horsemanship, 714 IV. — City of Astrakhan — Armenians, Tartars — Singular Result of a Mixture of Races — Commercial Position of Astrakhan, 723 V. — Kisslar on TnE Terek — A Caucasian Capua — The Tchetchenses and the Cossacks — Kasafiurta — Encampments of Tartars — Ravine of Karany, . 727 VI. — Derbend and Baku — Caspian Gates — Pyl^e Albania — Scythian Albanians and Alani — Daghistan — Peter the Great's Resting-place — Great Wall of Caucasus, 733 VII. — Steppes of Cape Ap-chiron — Baku, ine. City of Fire- Worshippers — Sanctuary of Atashgaii — Great Fire Temple — Islands of Fire — Parsi Pilgrims, . . 739 VIII. — From Baku to Tiflis — The Lesghians — Peter the Great's Campaigns — Opera- tions of Catherine II. — Visit to a Circassian Prince and Princess, . . 745 IX. — Town of Shumakiii — Misfortunes of its Inhabitants — Bayaderes or Dancing Girls, 755 X. — Valley and Town of Nukiia — Castle of Queen Thamara — Mount Elias, . 757 XI. — Tiflis — Aqueduct near Tiflis — Camels in Persia — Agriculture in Georgia, . 760 XH. — Ethnographical Archives in Tiflis — The Natzval — Crown Peasants, . . 766 XIH. — TnE Houses in Tiflis — Persian Ambassador— State of the Army — Jermalow, 775 XIV. — Georgian Nobles — Journey to Martukphi — Guilds in Persia and Georgia, . 779 MOROCCO OR MAROCCO. I. — Mauretania Mughiribu-l-aksa — Morocco Physically Contemplated — Moors, Arabs, Berbers, Jews, and Negroes — Morocco Army — Ceuta — Tetuan, . 782 II. — Tangier and Tingis — Description of the Tower and Castle — Chief Mosque, . 787 HI. — Port of Arzilla — Larache — Al Kasr Kebir — Port of Mehdiyaii — Description of Salee and Rabat — Superstitions — Snake Charmers, 791 IV. — The Jews of Morocco — Wedding and other Festivities — Renegades, . . 794 V. — Old Capital of Mekinez — City of Fez — Coast-way to Azamor — Across Country to Morocco — Description of Morocco — Mount Atlas, 798 VI. — Port of Mogador — The Moorish Cemetery — Imperial Guard of Negroes, . 800 VII. — The Recent Spanish Campaign in Morocco — Final Action in Front of Tetuan — Stubborn Defence of the Moors — Retrospect of the Campaign, . . . 810 ILLUSTRATIONS. -> ♦ »♦ < Sol Ancient Temple Bridge View op Jerusalem, from over the Pool of Hezekiah, (Jaffa, •••••••••• Lydda, .......... Rama (Arimathea), and Kirjathjearim, .... Saracenic Fountain, near the Council House, Jerusalem, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at Jerusalem, Valley of Gihon, The Damascus Gate, Jerusalem, The Field of Blood, in the Valley of Hinnom, Gate of the Hospital of inE Knights of St. John, at Jerusalem, Garden of Gethsemane, and Mount of Olives from Jerusalem, Bethany, Isaiah's Grave, Valley of Jehoshaphat, . The Tomb of David, Absalom's Tomb, and Pool of Siloam, Jews' Quarter, Jerusalem, Tower of David, Jerusalem, . Via Dolorosa, .... The Wailing Place — Jews Praying at Wall of the Temple of The Mosque of Omar — Site of the Temple at Jerusalem, The Holy Sepulchre, and Interior of the Holy Sepulchre, Cave under the Temple Hill, Pool of Bethesda, .... Jews at Jerusalem, Vestibule within the Golden Gate, Vaults Beneath Solomon's Temple, and Remains of Castle of Zion, Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, and Tomb of Kings, A Pillar in the Vaults of the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, The River Jordan, Another Pillar in the Vaults of the Temple, Pools of Solomon, and CiiURCn of the Nativity, Hebron, with the Cave of Machpelah, The Dead Sea, and Plain of Jericho, Rachel's Grave, .... Bethlehem, Inhabitants of Bethlehem, Interior of Convent Mar Saba, The Jordan Leaving the Sea of Tiberias, Nablous, the Ancient Shechem, and Bethel, Mount Tabor, and Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, Tiberias, Nain, Nazareth, . Mount Etna (viewed from Taurominium), in Sicily, The Chapel of St. Rosalia, near Palermo, in Sicily, The Rock and Town of Scylla, Coast of Sicily, Stromboli, one of the Lipari Isles, near Sicily', The Marina, or Sea view at Messina, in Sicily, Costumes and Inhabitants of Sicily - , Ruins of Agrigentum (Girgenti), in Sicily, View of Syracuse, in Sicily, Chlnese Boat, Pagoda at Whampoa, Hong Kong, The Pagoda of the Rocks, at Macao, .omon, ,b, DRAWN BY Thirond, Photo., Photo., Crar, Photo., Therond, Thirond, Photo., Cramb, Therond, Lancelot, Therond, Photo., Photo., Sepp, . Sepp, . Sepp, . Photo., Photo., Cran Photo., Photo., Bida, Lancelot, Miller, Sepp, Photo., Bida, I; Sepp, Sepp, Photo., Bida, Baubigny, Bida, Photo., Photo., Crah Photo., Sepp, Navlet, Bida, Sepp, Photo., Photo., Cran Photo., Photo., Cramb, Photo., Therond, Rouargue, Rouargue, Rouargue, Rouargue, Rouargue, Rouargue, Rouargue, Rouargue, Bore, . Grandsire, Sabatier, Bore, . b, lb, FAOB 1 4 4 5 8 9 12 13 16 17 20 21 22 23 25 25 26 28 29 32 33 36 40 40 41 44 44 45 45 48 49 51 52 53 53 54 56 57 59 60 60 61 61 61 64 65 69 73 80 81 85 85 88 89 92 93 96 x • ILLUSTRATIONS. The Landing Place at Macao, . » Chinese Boat Woman, .... Chinese Merchant, Chinese Lady, Tartar Cavalry (Chinese Tartar Army), Night Scene in Amoy, .... Chinese War Soldiers (War Tigers), . A Chinese Woman, Chinese Opium Smokers, .... Flower (Pleasure) Boat at Shanghai, . Custom House at Shanghai, . A Chinese Travelling Wheel-Barrow, . The Great Wall of China, . The Emperor op Cochin-China and his Ministers, Residence op the French and English Ambassadors at Tien-tsin, Mouth of the River Saigon, Cochin-China, Banks of the River Saigon, . Rice, China, Paul Subterranean Budhist Temple near Touraine, in Cochin Japanese Tea Gardens, Gardens of the Emperor of Japan at Yeddo, Japanese Lady, Toilet op a Japanese Lady, .... Entrance to the Bay of Yeddo, . White Mulberry Tree, and Raising Water, A Policeman of Yeddo, Village in Jaffa, The Austrian Frigate " Novara " off the Island of St, Working Elephant in Ceylon, A Forest in Ceylon, Interior of a Hut in the Island of Kar-Nikobar, Virgin Forest in Kar-Nikobar (Indian Ocean), Palm Tree in Great Andaman, Volcano in Java, The Enchanted Lake in the Philippine Islands, Attack on a British War Steamer by the Natives of Andaman, ■-A Native of the Andaman Islands, RrvER Amoor and King-gan Mountains, A Khalkas Family on the Upper Amoor, View op Alexandrovsk, on the Bay of Castries Buriat Temple on Lake Ikeugun, Mongolia, Lake Baikal, Frontier Post between China and Russia, Yakuts on a Journey, .... Fort of Okhotsk, Sledge and Dogs on the Amoor, . The Argali (Ovis Ammon), or Wild Sheep of Siberia, Bazaar and Fair at Nertchinsk — Russia in Asia, Tunguse Sorceress and Natives, baikai. District. Mantchurians and Tungusians of the Trans- Yakut Colony or Village, Tunguse Encampment, .... Yakut Woman, Yakut Sh amahs, or Demon Dispellers, . Official Travelling — Russia in Asia, . The City of Victoria, Vancouver Island, The First Shot at a Grizzly Bear, Fight between a Bull and a Bison, Indian Sepulchre in the Long Grass Prairie, Salteaux Indians Fire-fishing, . . A Portage on the White Mud River, . Fort Edmonton, on the Upper Saskatchewan River, . Rocky Mountains, Chimney Rocks on the Banks of the Columbia River, Indian Sepulchres on the Banks of the Cowlitz River, A Canon, or Mountain Pass, in the Sierra Wah, The Giant Pine Trees of Sonora, .... xSEAR, •••••••••. on the Saskatchewan River, DRAWN Bt Dore, . Dore, . Dore, . Dore, . Dore, . Francais, Dore, . Dore, . Morin, Grandsire, Grandsire, Dore, . Dore, . Therond, Dore, . Jules Noel, Lancelot, Miller, Therond, De Bar, Morin, Morin, Morin, Jules Noel, Miller, Dore, . De Bar, Jules Noel, Therond, De Bar, Therond, De Bar, De Bar, De Bar, Lancelot, De Bar, G. Fath, Grandsire, Lancelot, Lancelot, Sabatier, Sabatier, Victor Adam, Victor Adam, Victor Adam, Sabatier, Victor Adam, Victor Adam, Victor Adam, Valentin, Victor Adam, Victor Adam, Victor Adam, Victor Adam, Victor Adam, A. de Berard, Dore, . Morin, Dore, . Sabatier, Sabatier, Felcoq, Felcoq, Sabatier, Sabatier, Lancelot, Lancelot, Miller, TAGE 97 101 104 108 112 113 120 124 128 129 137 144 144 145 153 160 161 165 168 173 173 176 177 186 193 201 214 217 224 225 233 240 241 244 249 256 256 257 262 268 273 278 285 286 289 295 302 302 304 304 305 312 313 320 320 321 329 336 337 339 345 348 353 357 358 365 369 374 ILLUSTRATIONS. xi DRAWN BY PAGE The Baron de Wogan at the Council of Judgment, Pelcoq, . 381 Group op Indians, . Pelcoq, . 385 The Baron de Wogan, .... . Pelcoq, . 393 A "Claim" in California, . Pelcoq, . 397 Grass Valley Diggings, .... Pelcoq, . 397 The Baron de Wogan at the War-post, . Pelcoq, . 401 Indians of the Rio Colorado, . Pelcoq, . 405 The Cremation Ghat at Calcutta, Therond, . . 412 Inhabitants of Havana, .... . Potin, 413 The Yolante (Hired Carriage) of the Havana, . Victor Adam, 417 Avenue of Palm Trees, Leading to a Residence in C uba, . E. de Berard, 420 The Cathedral of Havana, . Navlet, 425 Chinese Coolies in the Havana, .... . Pelcoq, 429 View of Havana, the Capital of Cuba, Lancelot, 433 View of Matanzas, Lancelot, 445 Landscape in the Island of Cuba, . Paul Huet, . 449 The Arctic Regions — the "Erebus" and "Terror" i> r the Ice, . Grandsire, . 453 Mouth of Back's River, . Lancelot, . . 456 Opening of a Cairn, . Lancelot, 457 Relics of Franklin's Expedition, . Lancelot, . 457 Snow Huts of the Esquimaux, . Lancelot, 461 The "Fox" in Bellot's Strait, Valentin, 464 Tzetinie, Capital of Montenegro, A. de Bar, . 469 Palace of the Ancient Doges at Ragusa, . . Lancelot, 472 Harbour of Gravosa, near Ragusa, .... . Jules Noel, . 473 Capital in the Palace at Ragusa, .... Lancelot, . . 480 Montenegrins, . Marc, . 481 Castle of Trebigne, • • • • . . A. de Bar, . 488 Gradina, .... . . Grandsire, . 489 River Trebinitza, . . • • . . A. de Bar, . 493 View of Ragusa, . . . . . . Lancelot, 497 Chatham Island, . . . . . E. de Berard, 505 Charles Island, . . . . . . E. de Berard, 506 Post-Office Bay, Charles or Floriaka Island, . E, de Berard, 510 Watering Place, Charles Island, . E. de Berard, 512 Birds, Reptiles, and Vegetation, . Bmiyer, 513 Albemarle Island, ........ . E. de Berard, 521 Whitsunday Island, . E. de Berard, 524 Bay of Manevai, Island of Vanikoro, .... . E. de Berard, 529 Oeno in the Pomotu Archipelago, .... . E. de Berard, 533 Village of Vanu, Island of Vanikoro, . E. de Berard, 536 Pinnacle and Coral Reef, Bora-bora, .... . E. de Berard, 540 The Confession, ........ . Bida, . 541 High Peak at Bora-bora, . E. de Berard, 545 Distant View of Mount Athos, . Villevieille, . 551 The Agoumenos of Iveron, . . Pelcoq, 555- Baptisty, or Phiale of Saint Laura, .... . Lancelot, 558 Fresco of the Trapeza at Saint Laura, Therond, 559 Monastery of Iveron, ^ . Karl Girardtt, 561 Bas-relief in the Convent of Vatopedi, Mount Athos . A. Proust, . 564 Nut-gathering on Mount Athos, Villevieille, . 568 Monastery of Sphigmenou, . Karl Girardct, 569 Fresco of Saint George, . Pelcoq, 574 Albanian Soldier of the Guard of the Epistates, Villevieille, . 575 Cyprus Tree, . Miller, 575. Coffee Plant, '. Miller, 575- Sculptured Cross in the Treasury of Karyes, . Therond, 576 Chief Court of the Monastery of Kiliantari, Lancelot, 577 Sculptured Cabinet in the Treasury of Karyes, . Therond, 580 Council-general of the Epistates, . Boulanger, . 584 The Prairie on Fire, . Bore, . 593 Fort Smith on the Arkansas, . Lancelot, 598 Ball-playing among the Choctaw Indians, . Bore, . 601 Camp of Comanche Indians, .... . J. Buvaux, '. 607 Buffalo Hunting among the Delawares, . Bore, . 609 Camp of Kioway Indians, . Lancelot, 616 Comanche Indians, . J. Buvaux, . 620 Indian Hieroglyphs, ..... . Lancelot, 62a- | Xll Mountains of San Francisco, . ■ — Organ Rock near San Domingo, Inscription Rock or "Moro," . •tt—STowN of Zcni, . Pueblo, or Town-dwelling Indians, Alcalde of Santo Domingo, Holy "Well at Zuni, Altar and Ruins at Zuni, The Giant Cereus, . Mohave Indians, Mohave Horseman, . Hut of Chimehwhueb Indians, Ferry on the Rio Colorado, ■ Bill Williams' Fork, Game of Ring among the Mohaves, Arms, Ornaments, and Utensils of the Giraffe and Lions, . Pueblo de los Angeles, . Hunter and Rhinoceros, . A Pond in Africa at Night, Hippopotamus Harpooned, Hunter and Lions, . Hunter and Elephant, View of Derbend, . View of Astrakhan, Tent of a Kalmuk Princess, Peter the Great's Hut, near Derbend, Georgian Bayaderes, Fire-worshippers at Atash-gah, 4j— Fire Temple, near Baku, -.View of Baku, Valley of Nukha, View of Tiflis, Costumes of Baku, View of Shumakhi, Castle and Town of Gori, Porch of Lesghian House, Queen Thamara's Castle, Lesghian Village of Begitta, Georgian Costumes, . The River Phasis, . Acclivity of Mount Suriiam, Crest of Mount Suriiam, Mouth of the Phasis at Poti, City of Morocco, The Port of Tangier, _Port of Mogador, . Mountains of Iron, . Serpent Charmers, . View of Salee and Rabat, Cemetery at Mogador, Start of a Caravan, ILLUSTRATIONS. Indians, DRAWN BY Lancelot, Lancelot, Lancelot, Lancelot, J. Duvaux, J. Duvaux, Lancelot, Lancelot, Lancelot, J. Duvaux. Lancelot, J. Duvaux, Do re, . Dore, . Lancelot, Lancelot, Dore, . A. de Berard Dore, . Dore, . Dore, . Dore, . Dore, . Moynet, Moynet, Moynet, Moynet, Beauce Moynet, Moynet, Moynet, Moynet, Tkerond, Moynet, Moynet, Francais, Moynet, Moynet, Dore, . Moynet, Moynet, Moynet, Moynet, Moynet, A. de Berard, Jules Noel, Jules Noel, Jules Noel, J. Duvaux, E. de Beroi Grrandsire, Marc, . TAGS 625 630 633 635 636 636 641 645 648 649 653 656 657 665 667 671 673 677 684 689 696 697 701 705 707 711 720 721 726 729 736 737 741 745 747 753 756 757 761 764 769 773 774 781 785 797 801 805 808 809 816 817 ALL ROUND THE WORLD: EDITED BY W. F AINSWOBTH, F.R.&S.,' F.S.A, FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. VIEW OF JERUSALEM FROM OVER THE POOL OF HEZEKIAH. I.— JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. He who would visit Jerusalem aright must do so with the Bible in his hand and faith in his heart. He must throw down the measuring rod, and lay aside the historical disquisition, while he visits the scene of Jeho- vah's j ust wrath and a Saviour's never-ending mercy, with the hushed silence of a penitent and the reverential enthusiasm of a pilgrim. It was with such feelings that we first touched the soil of the Holy Land, when landing from the steamer at Jaffa, and set forth on a six hours' ride towards Eamleh, the first stage on our journey towards Jerusalem. Jaffa or Joppa, before whose time-stained and battle- worn walls we are now landing, through a difficult surf, is one of the most ancient cities in the world. It is here that Noah is said to have built the ark ; here the cedars from Mount Lebanon for the building of the Temple were landed by Hiram, at the order of Solomon, for conveyance to Jerusalem ; here the prophet Jonas embarked for Tarsus ; hither came St. Peter from Lydda, to restore to life the charitable Tabitha (whose dwelling may yet be seen) ; and during his residing here, in the house of Simon the tanner, (there is a row of tanners' shops on the other side of the town), it is here that the Apostle saw, while sleep- ing on the roof (just as many of the inhabitants are doing at this very moment, for the tops of these houses are all flat and battlemented) the vision of the clean and unclean meats ; here the messengers of the Cen- turion found the Apostle ; hence he went further on his great mission to the Gentiles ; and tradition points to the Convent of the Holy Land as built on this very spot, where Simon lived. Burnt by Judas Maccabseus, taken by Vespasian, Joppa was erected by the Crusadera into a titular county. Godfrey of Bouillon died here, as some say, though we shall shortly see his tomb at Jerusalem ; and the walls of a donjon keep, built by St. Louis, still remain : as does also, sad and doubtful monument ! the vast magazine or hospital where died of the plague, and, as scandal says, of too much opium administered (in mercy, as he alleges) by B 2 ALL ROUND THE WOKLD. their chief, so many of the victorious soldiers in the French expedition to Egypt. Nor are classical heroes wanting to the place ; for at ten minutes' distance to the south (in eastern travelling we allow three miles to the hour — a horse's walking pace,) you can see on the summit of an eminence a small Mussulman sanc- tuary, the very place, we are assured, where Perseus, mounted on the winged horse Pegasus and armed with the Gorgon-headed shield of Minerva, conquered the sea-monster and rescued the fair Andromeda. The fact, we know, never occurred any more than the fellow fight between St. George (who was born in this district) and the Dragon ; but, nevertheless, St. Jerome himself, in his Commentaries, does not disdain to mention an oral tradition as existing in his times. A clever writer suggests that the city itself was the Andromeda, and the sea-monster the Phoenician pirates; the winged horse being the Desert Arabs, who were invited to her rescue. The town is charmingly situated on a hill coming down to the shore, with the sea on the west, and beautiful gardens on the east. The gardens of Jaffa are estimated at one hundred and fifty, in one hundred of which are large pools, constantly supplied from shallow wells, wherewith all the trees, as well as vegetables, are daily watered. The citron, orange (both fruit and blossom on the tree, for it is April), the lemon, the banana, and the palm, will strongly impress you with the notion of tropical scenery ; but the apples, pears, and quinces, even the mulberry ti'ees, will remind you of Devonshire. Feast your eyes upon this verdure, and these orchards, and these pomegranates, good Pilgrim ! for you will see no where again such luxu- riant vegetation until you reach the Valley of the Jordan. 1 Pass through the one only gate looking towards Jerusalem, and notice the void space near it, and how the people gather there. You perceive the governor and the judge are hearing cases there, just as you read of those seated at the gate in the Scrip- tures. Now are we in the open country — in the very Desert of Egypt — for all along this part of the coast the sand blows in from the sea, and destroys the natural fertility of the soil, watered as it is by many streams now hidden in minute percolations. They say this sand is brought up by the northern current 1 Rabbinical writers derive the name of Joppa from Japhet, while the classical geographers refer it to lope, daughter of jEolus, and they argue that such a form of the word best suits the Phoenician original, which signifies " an eminence." Joppa existed when the Israelites invaded the land of Canaan, and is mentioned as lying on the border of the tribe of Dan (Joshua, xix. 46). It was the only port possessed by the Israelites till Herod formed the harbour of Caesarea. Although the port is bad and even dan- gerous, Joppa has been from the first Crusade down to our own day the landing-place of pilgrims going to Jerusalem. There is still an hospital for pilgrims there, dependent on the Convent of Pan Salvador in Jerusalem, and occupied by Spanish monks. The eminence or promontory on which Joppa is built, is picturesquely crowned by a castle, the town itself chiefly faces the north; and the buildings appear, from the steepness of the site, as if standing upon one another. The mo>t prominent features of the architec- ture from without are the flattened domes by which most of the buildings are surmounted, and the appearance of arched vaults. From the steepness of the site, many of the streets are connected by flights of steps, and the one that runs along the sea-wall is the mo-t clean and regular of the whole. There are three mosques, and Greek and Armenian convents, as well as the Latin one. Ko ancient ruins remain in a place so frequently destroyed in war. The chief manufacture is soap, and the inhabitants are said not to exceed 4,000, of whom one-fourth arc reckoned to be Curistiaus. of the Nile. It may be seen in the Bay of Acre, begins again at Cassarea, south of Jaffa, passes Askalon and Gaza, and rolls on in desolating waves to the Great Desert that lies between Arabia and Africa. Water your horse, before starting, at this noble Sara- cenic fountain, with its elegantly ornamented roof supported on six pillars. It is the most beautiful object in the place ; the courts and minarets that surround it, the Arab merchants, and the busy people, always about, cannot fail to impress upon your mind a recollection of what Arab life must have been when the Moors were a great and civilized people. I see you t:ike out your pistols and examine the priming. If ever you wish to be robbed while tra- velling in the East, you should carry arms. They are the articles most coveted by wild people ; consequently, the greatest temptation you can offer them : they will rob you for your arms, and even murder you. From Jaffa to Jerusalem, you are, otherwise, as safe as be- tween London and Birmingham. You hire a drago- man and horses, and place yourself in his custody at about a pound a day, if for a long journey ; just as in former times men hired post horses, and took a guide through the Lake Districts. They will ask you to have a guard, but you might as well walk along the Strand, or any other high street, at noonday, with a policeman to take care of you. The best friends for a voyage through the Holy Land, are a priest or a clergyman : those who are known only to do good are everywhere respected. Passing through the green forest of gardens, and, thence, through thickets of cactus, we come out at last upon a wide spreading plain, not a flat dead level, but swelling with gentle undulations, rising into long sandy ridges, from which occasionally slope up rocky mounds and hills. The day is hot, though the sun has not long been up; the heat is hardly bearable, the vapour rises steaming from the sands, and out upon the horizon is the mirage — the phantom of a lake ! You are now in the land of Dan. The peasant of Sharon — the valley of which is hard by — bears, as you may see, the Egypto-African characteristics of that race. Our road is lonely, but how picturesque the few we meet ! The camel, with a burthen seemingly larger than himself; the slow, heavy, down-looking Jew ; the haughty Turk ; the slender, swarthy, muscu- lar, lithe-limbed peasant — the women, bearing jars of water on their heads ! Having early in our journey passed a fountain in the Moorish style, surrounded by cypresses and ancient sycamores, the pious erection of the good Abu Nabbut, a former governor of Jaffa, we reached a village called Yazun, situated to the left of the way, on a mount all green with gardens; for wherever there is water here, there is verdure, and, wherever care is taken, everywhere there is water. This village marks the first hour of the distance. On the right stands a sepul- chral chapel, surrounded by nine cupolas, on the right, again, of which is a cistern or fountain with a narrow mouth, whereupon rests a jar from winch the thirsty wayfarer may quench his thirst. This is called the "Fountain of the Plane-tree." The chapel marks, so says tradition, the tomb of the Prophet Gad — Gad. the Seer, — at whose instance, as we read ("2 Samuel xxiv. 18), David bought from Araunah the Jebusite the area (now known as Moiiah) on which the temple was afterwards built, — not the Patriarch Gad, as it is FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. argued, for the sons of Joseph all died in the land of K.gypt : unless, as a pious writer suggests, the bodies of all the patriarchs were embalmed, as was expressly dir°cted to be done with those of Jacob and Joseph, and transported to the Land of Promise ; a supposition strengthened by the fact that the pious Mussulman points out, about an hour's distance from the tomb of Gad, the tomb of Nebi-Riiben, the Holy Saint or Patriarch Reuben. Thus surmising, we slowly jog on for another half- hour, until we reach a grove of olives, planted in quin- cunxes, and a plantation of mulberry trees — the remains of an enterprise of certain French speculators in the 1 7th century, undertaken at the instigation of Colbert. You must not fail to picture to yourself how, when the 18th century was in its prime, these olives and these mulberry trees afforded a grateful shade to Bonaparte and his staff, who came thus far on their way towards Jerusalem. The mulberries here are grown for their fruit, and not for the silk- worm. We are too early for their fruit, which does not ripen until May, and is very sharp, and in flavour like an overgrown blackberry. To the right of the road — if so a camel path or horse-track be rightly called — half hidden in the grey foliage of these olive trees, at about a mile distance, lies the village of Beit- Deegan. Pronounce this, as do the Egyptians, Beit- Dagan, and you will have (for Beit, or Beth, means house or place belonging to) the House of Dagon, that great idol of the Philistines, who could not endure the proximity of the Ark of the Lord. We are near to Ashdod — where the captured ark was deposited before Dagon and triumphed over the idol — and not farther than an hour from Gath. Passing Sarapend, a poor village, and its ruinous aqueduct, about a musket-shot to the right, where the prophet Jonas is said to be buried — a fact which the pious Mussulmans dispute, when they show his tomb at Nineveh — we come in sight of the wished-for tower and minarets of Ramleh, the Arimathea of the Scriptures, rising up from a wood of olive-trees, whose trunks are about as thick as those of pollard oaks. The name now given implies the City of the Sand. It is, indeed, a city of dust and ashes, for the mounds of grey rubbish that lie about in the narrow, crooked streets, are the dried lees of soap factories, and the slightest wind blows them about, so much so as to blind a large proportion of the population. We hasten to the Latin Convent, a large building walled round for safety, as are all convents in the east. There we find shelter and refreshment, thanking, thereupon, the goodness of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who founded it, as well as the kindness of the venerable brothers who offered us the welcome solace of so excellent a repast. How delicious the shelter from the sun with which this pillared corridor provides us ! How cool this stone floor; how clean that whitewashed, arched roof, with its frescoes of St. Joseph ! How grateful the look-out from the cloisters into the gardens, that palm-tree's shade, and that far-spreading, thick-leaved vine ! Ramleh is a town of some size, and has 3,000 inhabitants. 1 When the pirates of the Mediterranean hunted out the merchants' ships along the sea coast of 1 Professor Robinson disputes the identity of Ramleh with Arimathea, " a city of the Jews " according to Luke, on the grounds that Abulfeda alleges Ramleh to have been built after the time of Muhammad, or about a. D. 716, by Sulaiman AbJ-el- Syria, the trade from Persia and India came inland by Bagdad and Damascus in caravans, and, then, Ramleh was a stopping-place. Hence its large khans or open inns, its yards and storehouses for travellers and merchandize. Large houses are nume- rous, and there is a Greek and Armenian convent, as well as the one of whose hospitality we are now par- taking. But the streets are narrow and crooked, as well for safety and defence as for shade. The square tower to the right of the road is known as "The Tower of the Forty Martyrs." It forms a portion of an old church built by the Crusading Templars, in honour of the sacred relics of forty soldiers murdered in Armenia. What is now the mosque within the walls — you see its minaret between the palm trees to the left as you come up the town — was once an establishment of the Knights of St. John. Let us ascend the tower and gaze from this advantageous spot over the first extensive view of the Holy Land, and its pleasant places, that we have been able to obtain. The plain of Sharon spreads bright, fertile, and beauti- ful before us — from the dark mountains of Judea and Samaria to the sea, and from Holy Carmel to the sandy deserts of Philistia. See the white villages, glittering in the sun, along the many declivities of the mountains. See the waving corn, the barley already in the ear and ripe for harvest; the heavy crops of wheat, rich as Lincolnshire. Yonder the shepherd walking before his flocks, as they return frisking to their folds; the reaper returning from his toil. In summer you would see hills of grain, and the thrashing floors and the oxen driving the machines (" the new sharp thrashing instrument having teeth" (Isaiah xli., 15) over the bruised grain. But our horses await us at the convent gate of the good Franciscans. They have rebuilt the old house entirely, all but one room, where Bonaparte slept when he constituted Kamleh his head-quarters. Nothing therefore remains of the house of Joseph of Arimathea, except only the site on which we are now standing. The journey across the fertile plain of Pvamleh is oppressive. There is a sirocco of the quiet dry-heat kind ; our very clothes are dry and hot. It is the south wind of Job (xxxvii. 17) that "quieteth the earth." The birds have sought the shade. The very air is weak and languid with heat. An hour and an half brings us to Berea (the desert) a modern village, awakening no memories. An hour further and we reach a spot whereavillage nestles. On the left the cactus hedges show the declivity of the first ripple in which the plain begins to ascend towards the mountains. This is Kubab, or the City of Roast Meat (the roast or frizzled khibobs, as the British traveller well knows, being small pieces of meat roasted on a skewer, the only roast in the Turkish cookery books), and in this village we begin, for the first time, to meet with reminiscences of Samson, whose birth place, Ashdod, is not far distant. The Arabs have a curious legend about this place. Malik ; that Ramah and Ramleh have not the same signification, for that Ramleh is in a plain, while Ramah implies a town on a hill, but it has been justly remarked that Abulfeda's statement may mean no more than that Sulaiman rebuilt the town, and with regard to the name it cannot be assumed that Hebrew proper names were always so significant. Indeed it is generally admitted that Dr. Robertson's objections have not destroyed either the tradition, or the grounds for following the usual course of describ- ing Ramleh as representing the ancient Arimathea. ALL ROUND THE WORLD. JAFFA. In the legend referred to, it is not difficult to detect an Arab reminiscence of Sampson's 300 foxes, with torches to their tails, by means of which he revenged himself upon the Philistines (Judges xv. 4, 5). Along by the south-western side the slope is pierced with subterranean magazines for grain, and the numerous openings, like well-holes, leading to them are dan- gerous traps for horses. We next reach Amwas or Emmaus, "Hot baths," also called Nicopolis, but not the Emmaus of Luke (xxiv. 13), where Our Saviour met his disciples in their disconsolate walk after his crucifixion. This is 28 miles from Jerusalem, and the disciples could scarcely have walked there and back to Jerusalem the same day, especially as " the day was far spent" before they "sat down to meat." The country now is broken up, and the mountains gradually rise in front of us. We are fast ascending. The road begins to be rugged, and gradually narrows into a mere valley, then to a defile. Two miles south of Amwas or Emmaus we come upon Latrun, or the Town of the Thief, situate on a conical mound, commanding a wide prospect, and crowned with the ruins of a large and strong fortress — from which Jaffa and the Mediterranean can be seen. It was a strong military post in the old time, com- manding the road from Jerusalem to the sea. It is called the Castle of Emmaus by St. Jerome, and after- wards the Castle of the Good Thief. Here is the legend. It is here the good thief was bom and dwelt, and made his living, like the barons of the Rhine, by robbing the passengers up the valley (Wady Aly) lead- ing to Jerusalem. One day, the Holy Family, while passing this way in their flight into Egypt, were stopped here by this thief and his companions, and required to pay a ransom. Dimas, for such was the good thief s name, was so touched by the grace of the Divine Infant, that he protected the Holy Child from the brutality cf his accomplice ; to which good inspiration is attributed, by tradition, the special favour of that thief s conversion at the moment of his expiring upon the Cross, while the other died in impenitence to the last. This also, is the site of the Modin of the Maccabees; it is here that Judas Maccabeus conquered Gorgias, the lieutenant of Nicanor (i. Maccabeus, iv., 3). Here, too, the Crusaders had a camp, and here was the last advance post of our own Richard Coeur de Lion. He came no nearer to Jerusalem, but returned to be captured on his road home. A little to the right lies a village, where the Tomb of Samson was said to have been, but is not. It lay between Zorah and Eshtaol. The site remains, as do the ripening fields of corn, and the noble fountain from which the women — as oft did the mother of Samson — may, even now, be seen coming with their full pitchers balanced on their heads. Returning to the road, a short half hour brings us up to the "Well of Job," (Ayuab) a deep fountain, or shallow well, about fivefeetin diameterand six fret in depth, con- taining about three or four feet of water, by no means tempting to the sight or taste. This is considered the half way between Jaffa aud Jerusalem. We are. now following the itinerary of the Ark, which, when restored by the Philistines from Ekron, was taken by the un- broken and unguided kine, harnessed to the cart contain- ing it, across the plain to Bethshemesh (1 Sam. vi., 1 0, 1 2), whence the terrified inhabitants conveyed it to Kir- jath-jearim. The stones by the well beside which we are now standing, are regarded by the Jewish pilgrims as marking the threshing floor of Joshua of Bethshemesh, where the Ark first halted. The streamlet flowing from this well now waters a field of gourds. This is said to be the boundary of the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin, — the well and waters of Nephtoah marked down by Joshua (xviii., 15). Hence we follow a narrow valley, barren and rocky, into which numerous other minor valleys trend. The road is everywhere rocky, and strewed with stones that endanger our horses' limbs, and plough up with deep ravines a mass of colossal stones, heaped up on each other as if by some mighty Titanic masonry. The scene is one of dreariness and desolation. We have been three-quarters-of-an-hour in this ravine, and now the road opens, the valley becomes less abrupt, and we find ourselves in a kind of basin amongst the rocks, under a green clump of oaks — a delicious retreat and halting place for refreshment. A ruined kiosk stands near this fountain : this is the tomb of the Imam Aly, from whom the valley takes its name. LVDOA. FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. RAMA (ARIMATHEA). XIRJATHJEARIM. Passing tbe kiosk, we push our horses up to the culminating point of the valley by a steep and rugged path, cut through clumps of cactus, among huge boulders scattered over the rocky sides. Still rising upon the ridge we come to the thicket of olives, wherein lies an ancient desolate village, Saris, by which the Ark of Jehovah passed over to Kirjathjearim, and where David is said to have taken refuge from the wrath of Saul. Another hour, over an undulating road, always rising — for we must reach to full two thousand feet above the level of the sea before treading on the plateau of the Holy City — and we turned the hill, and found Kirjathjearim, or Kuriet el Enab (the Village of Raisins) at the opening of a cultivated valley, prettily situated in a basin on the north side of a spur jutting out from the western hill. This is where the Ark rested twenty years in the house of Aminadab, on a slight elevation (Gibeah). They show the site, and within a house erected upon it dwells the sheikh or head man of the village tribe. There is an open space in front of Kirjathjearim like one of our village greens. It is shaded by five or six fine fig-trees, under the leafy shelter of which council is held and judgment given on matters of importance to the little com- munity. There is a fine fountain of excellent water, and flocks and herds are to be seen lying about — a scene of pastoral repose ! Be not deceived ; this village was until lately the residence or den of the greatest bandit of the Holy Land, the terror of priests of all religions. Each successive chief of this family succeeded to the same title — Abu-Ghush, "Father of Deceit," which ultimately became a word of terror throughout all Palestine. So long as 500 years ago, one Abu-Ghush murdered all the monks in the village, where there is a large convent of the " Good Fathers of the Holy Land ; " so thenceforward in their annals the place bears the name of Jeremy, as well from the once noble church now in rains — yet finely preserved, so far as its pointed gothic porch and aisles, and its round-arched windows — a strange mixture of the Crusaders' time, dedicated to the Prophets, and now a stable, — as from its moral resemblance to Anathoth, the mournful scene of " Jeremiah's lamentations." Twenty-one years ago the Abu-Ghush of that period commanded 40,000 Arabs, and rebelled against his sovereign from Ramleh to Jerusalem, and from Hebron to the mountains of Jericho. There are still sixty or seventy members of this family remaining, but the Turkish government took them in hand in 1846, seized the grand delinquents, and sent them to Constantinople. Some of these died in further banishment; one only has returned, after years of expatriation, to private life and painful respect for other people's purses, a saddened and an honest man. Some day ere long, perhaps, there may be an Abu-Ghush figuring at the head of a prospectus for the mercantile development of the Holy Land by a railway from Jatfa to Ramleh, with branches to Jerusalem and Damascus. Even now the wealthiest of the family is largely interested in soap-boiling, which (tell it not in Gath !) is, now-a-days, one of the principal and most flourishing manufactures of the cities of Palestine. This Kirjathjearim is most probably Emmaus, where our Saviour broke bread with the disciples (Luke xxiv. 30). 1 It is just three hows' ride from this place to Jerusalem, down by a long descent to Kustul, a ruined fort upon a hill — whence may be seen, high on a hill- top, and bending over the valley of the Gibeonites, Nebi Samuel, the tomb of the prophet Samuel, said to be the Ramah, — in Hebrew, "assembly place" — ofthat Prophet. After this we have a steep descent and a slippery path down to Colonia. It was here, in all probability, that Uzza put his hand upon the Ark, for the steep is 1 Kirjath-jearim signified "City of Forests." The first part of the name Kurt/et-eUEnixh, signifies, like Kirjath, "city" only, "jearim," forests, lias been changed to "enab," grapes. So close a correspondence of name and position seems to justify Dr. Hohin- son's conclusions in favonr of the identity of the two. 6 ALL ROUND THE WOKLD. rocky and dreadful for a cart; and close at hand here, no doubt, were the sites of the threshing-floor of Nachon and the house of Obededom. At Colonia we stop a few minutes, to ease our horses and examine the stone bridge, with round arch, the large ruins, evidently- extending, the fine pools and copious fountains. These are the works of Hadrian the Emperor. Henceforward the path winds up a valley and steep hills, over a waste of dreary rocks. This long and weary passage past, we look for Jerusalem, but in vain. There is yet a mile of stony table-land to stumble across. Nebi Samuel is again in sight, however, on a hill above. Then comes another white tower; that is the Convent of the Ascension, on the Mount of Olives. Another swelling ridge surmounted, and the wall of Jerusalem, battlemented with towers, rises blank before us. The slope of the ground eastward prevents the houses, temple, domes, or minarets, being seen above. There is only the gray old square tower of Hippicus, and the wall ; and the first impression to the mind, highly wrought up as it cannot fail to be, is singularly disappointing. A moment's pause, a look around, and the desolation of the scene strikes the beholder in all its awfulness — "mountains without shade, valleys without water, earth without verdure, rocks without terror or grandeur," and gray walls rising on the brow of Zion. Not a breath of wind murmuring, not a sound. " Jerusalem, where we would visit one Sepulchre only, is, itself, the tomb of a whole people." But this is not the vantage-spot to gaze upon the city. Seen from the Mount of Olives, on the other side of the valley of Jehoshaphat, Jerusalem presents an inclined plane, descending from east to west. The embattled wall, fortified with towers and a gothic castle, encompasses the whole of the city all round, excluding, however, part of Mount Zion, which, in more ancient times, was enclosed within its precinct. The city, here, presents to the imagination the appear- ance of an army advancing down a hill, the pinnacles and the domes on Mosque Moriah, looking like the banners raised in advance. Here, there is a vacant space to be seen, as also towai-ds the Fort Antonia, in the western part of the city; while towards the Holy Sepulchre and Calvary the houses appear to stand close together ; but towards the east, and down along to the Brook Kedron, the eye falls on ruins and desolation. The houses are heavy masses, very low, without chimnies at top or windows externally, and with flat roofs or terraces, with cupolas on the top. They look like prisons or sepulchres. The whole city would appear like one level roof, but for the rare steeples of the churches, the minarets of the mosques, the tops of a few cypress trees, and the dark clumps of nopals, which only break the uniformity of the plan. The general aspect has been well compared to the confused monuments of a cemetery in the midst of a desert. Such is the present condition of "the most beautiful city of the whole earth ;" Josephus, speaking without knowledge of the new and greater claims to the admiration of the world which the City had attained as the scene of the great martyrdom and testification of God's goodness and man's great wickedness, says ( Wars, vi. x., 6) " Yet hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness of the veneration paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed." II— OVER JERUSALEM. Jerusalem, standing upon four hills — Zion and Acra on the west, Moriah (with Ophel) on the south, and Bethesda on the north ; defined on three sides by deep valleys or ravines — Jehoshaphat, Hinnom, andGihon; and cut asunder by a deep defile, the Tyropceon, or Street of the Cheesemongers, forming what was once its main street, dividing the Temple from Zion — is easily comprehended at a single glance, in its most striking features, from almost any point of vantage. On entering under the deep archway of the Jaffa Gate we have on the right the ditch and tower of the citadel or "Castle of David," as it is sometimes called, being, however, in fact, the fortress built by Herod Agrippa. Of the three great towers, dedicated to his queen Mariamne, whom he murdered through jealousy, and his brother Phasaelis and friend, Hippicus, who both fell fighting for him in battle, one only re- mains, the gloomy, squat-looking, but massive tower of Hippicus. The lower portion of that, too, alone is standing, formed of massive stones, similar to those that remain of the temple in the Hararn walls, monuments of masonry in the Roman ages, such as were pointed out to the Saviour, " Seest thou these great stones " (Mark, xiii, 2). Here was the palace of that sumptuous king, the vast bed-chambers for one hun- dred guests, with roofs of great beams of cedar, and furniture of silver and gold, as recorded by Josephus. Those gilded porticoes and richly carved pillars, and gardens ever cool and green, and groves of trees, and canals with their dove houses, are all gone — all burnt with fire by the zealots during the siege by Titus, when discord within aided the enemy without, and a. Jewish hand first fired the Temple itself. The ancient portion of this tower is now only forty feet in height, but its dimensions remain, fifty-six feet by seventy. An additional height of about eighteen feet was built up on this by the Crusaders. Mount Zion is to our right ; to our left are Acra and the lower city, with the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary, the Via Dolorosa, the whole scene of our Lord's suffering ; before us the Temple and — over the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which lies concealed between them — the Mount of Olives. To the right of the gate, as we enter, is an open square, once ruinous and desolate, now a kind of West-end to Jerusalem. Here stands, upon the site of King Herod's palace, an English church, newly erected, in the modern Gothic etyle, like some Baker-street chapel, the whiteness of its fresh-cut stones strangely contrasting with the mellow brown colour and antique Saracenic architecture of the buildings all about. There are also the Bishop's house, and the new Armenian Convent, a fine building with gardens. There are bankers and boutiques and shops of all kinds, and three tailors' "establishments," in strange discordance with the solemn Orientalism of the general costume and character of all about them. We pass on ; for this is not what we have come to see. The small community of British, American, and German residents are doing much good, but nothing in comparison with the mighty change that has to be effected before Jerusalem or her people are restored. The Protestant congregation numbers, it is said, occa- sionally two hundred. These are under the protection of England and Prussia in an anomalously united bishopric. Austria defends the Roman Catholic insti- tutions; France is "ProtectorofChristianity(generally) SARACENIC FOUNTAIN, NEAR THE COUNCIL HOUSE, JERUSALEM. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE AT JERUSALEM. in the East;" and tlie Emperor of Russia is head of the Greek Church. These communities reside for the most part in the Frank Quarter, from the Jaffa Gate to the Damascus Gate, while around the Holy Place, whence the glory has departed, the Jewish people still linger. The Jew in Jerusalem is himself a perpetual miracle and lasting monument of Scripture truth. Enter the abodes of these people, you will find them doing what they did five thousand years ago — teaching their children to read the Holy Book. Seventeen times have they seen Jerusalem destroyed, yet still they turn their faces towards Zion, expecting still a king who is to deliver them. " Greeks, Persians, Romans, are swept from the earth," says a noble writer, "and a petty tribe, whose origin preceded that of those great nations, still exists unmixed among the ruins of its native land." 8,000 (some say 1 1,000) Jews, 5,000 Mussulmans, 3,000 Greeks, 1,500 Latin Catholics, 1,000 Armenians, and from 100 to 200 Syrians and Copts, form, with the Protestant community, for the most part English, the present population of Jerusalem, which Jewish historians nar- rate to have at one time equalled the enormous and indeed incredible amount of two millions. This was during the Holy Week, when pilgrims from all parts came to Jerusalem. How far this must have ex- ceeded the enthusiasm of our degenerate days may be judged from the fact that the pilgrims who visit Jeru- salem yearly do not exceed 12,000, of whom 10,000 are Mussulmans. This being Easter, is the most crowded season, so we are enabled to judge for ourselves. The foundation of the city dates from Melchisedek. Of this one of the Arab traditions, many of which breathe the pastoral air of the early portions of the sacred Scripture, has preserved the following charming legend : — "Jerusalem was a ploughed field, and the ground, on which the Temple now stands, the joint inheritance of two brothers, one of whom was married and had several children, the other lived a bachelor. They cidtivated in common the field which had devolved on them in right of their mother. At harvest time the two brothers bound up their sheaves, and made of them two equal stacks, which they left upon the field during the night. A good thought presented itself to the younger. ' My brother,' said he to himself, ' has a wife and cliildren to maintain ; it is not just that our shares should be equal ; let me then take a few sheaves from my stack and secretly add them to his ; he will not perceive it, and therefore cannot refuse them.' This project the young man immediately executed. That night the elder awoke and said to his wife, ' My brother is young, and lives alone, without a companion to assist him in his labours and console him under his fatigues; it is not just that we should take from the field as many sheaves as he does; let us get up and secretly go and carry a certain number of sheaves to his stack ; he will not find it out to-niorrow, and therefore cannot refuse them ;' and they did so accor- dingly. The next day both brothers went to the field, and each was much surprised to find the two stacks alike, neither being able in his own mind to account for the prodigy. They pursued the same course for several successive nights, but as each carried to his brother's stack the same number of sheaves, the stacks still remained equal, till one night, both determining 10 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. to stand sentinel to elucidate the mystery, they met, each bearing the sheaves destined for his brother's stack. " Now the spot where so beautiful a thought at once occurred to and was so perseveringly acted upon by these men, must be a place agreeable to God ; and men blessed it, and chose it whereon to build a house to His name." 1 Improved by David, who drove the Jebusites away, and enriched by Solomon, who added to Mount Zion the Temple and circumjacent buildings, the City was reduced, by the division of the tribes at his death, to the capital of Judea simply, but in the next four centuries it was still further embellished and ag- grandized, until, the worship of false gods, the true sin of the Hebrew nationality, replacing the law of Moses, the wrath of God fell upon the children of disobedience, and its fall was not far distant. In vain, under Hezekiah, did Jerusalem resist the armies of Sennacherib ; for it was destroyed soon after by Nebuchadnezzar. Its inhabitants were car- ried into captivity. Sixty years later Cyrus permitted its re-establishment, and a theocratic government took the place of its monarchy. "While on his march to Persia, Alexander received its submission, though he spared it, owing to a divine interference communi- cated through a dream. From the sovereignty of the Lagides, after his death, it passed to the Seleucides, whose persecutions gave occasion to one of the brightest periods of its history ; the devotion of the Maccabees, who succeeded in delivering their country, and governed it with glory. A quarrel between 1 The identity of the Salem of Melcliizedek with the Jerusalem of sacred history, has been demonstrated by a close critical analysis of all the passages in which the circumstances are alluded to ; and it has been further shown to be highly probable that this patriarch was identical, not with Shem, as has been some- time supposed, but with Heber, the son of Peleg, from whom the Land of Canaan obtained the name of the Land of the Hebrews, or Heberites. The elucidation which the early history of Jerusalem receives from the monuments of Egypt is extremely important and valu- able, as relating to a period which is passed over in silence by the sacred historians. There is a city which stands forth with a very marked and peculiar prominence in the wars of the kings of Egypt with the Jebusites, Amorites, and neighbouring nations. We meet with it first as a fortress of the Amorites. Sethos II. is engaged in besieging it. It is situated on a hill, and strengthened with two tiers of ramparts. The name in hiero- glyphs, translated into Coptic, and thenee into Hebrew, is Chadash. The next notice of Chadash belongs to the reign of Sesostris, and connects it with the Jebusitc nation. The inscription further de- scribes Chadash as being in the land of Hetli or of the Hittites. It was thus apparently the metropolis of three or four of the most powerful Canaanitish nations before the time of the Hebrews. Its metropolitan character appears in Scripture, at the time of Joshua's invasion. We cannot hesitate in identifying the Cha- dash of the hieroglyphs with the Kadutis, or Cady tis of Herodotus, the Khadatha of the Syrians, and El Kuds of the Arabs — " the Holy City." It wns not till David's time that the Jebusites were finally expelled, and under his son, Solomon, it became the ecclesiastical head of the nation and the ark of the covenant, and the tabernacle of the congregation. The name, Jerusalem, is generally admitted to be a compound of two earlier names. Some have supposed of Jebusalem, "the trampling down of peace," euphonised into "possessio hereditaria pacis," or as others have it, " the vision of peace." Old Sir John Manndeville seems to have anticipated the researches of the most learned scholars of Europe when he says, " You must know that Jerusalem of old, until the time of Melchisedek, was called Jebus; and afterwards, it was called Salem, until the time of King David, who put these two names together, and called it Jebusalem, which King Solomon altered to Jerusalem." . But he did not auticiputc the Egyptologists. Hyrcanus II. and Aristobulus II., who disputed its throne, brought to its walls the Roman armies under Pompey, and then the Parthians, and then again the Romans under Crassus, from whom Herod, by suc- cessful intrigue, obtained authority to assume the honour of entitling himself its king. Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, and the last of the Maccabees, being captured by Herod, an officer of his uncle's court, was delivered to Anthony, by whom the last descendant of the Maccabees was scourged to death. It was in the reign of Herod the Great that Christ was born, and in the reign of Herod Agrippa, his grandson, that those events passed which have given to Jerusalem its immortal interest among Christians, — the life and death of the Saviour, and the appearance of a new religion destined to transform the world. Jerusalem next became apportioned for a time as one of the tetrarchies that replaced the unity of government under Herod, but the successive revolts of the Jews brought upon it capture and destruction by Titus, after a siege of seven months, the miseries of which were aggravated by internal discord ; then afterwards by Hadrian, who drove the Jews entirely away from it, gave it the name of ^Elia Capitolina, and dese- crated the Christian shrines, and even the revered sepulchre of Christ, by introducing the filthy rites of the worst part of Eastern idolatry, adopted into Pagan pantheism under the title of the worship of Adonis. The once Holy City preserved its Roman name until the time of Constantine, whose mother, the Empress Helena, was the first to avail herself of her son's conversion to Christianity, and search for and restore the Christian monuments with a pious care. The subsequent capture by the Persian king Chosroes,the release of the holy shrine by the Crusaders, and the final triumph of the Saracens, with the subse- quent history of Palestine, need no recapitulation in our brief summary. At the present moment, the Holy City is the seat of government of the district of Liva, and the residence of the Pasha of Palestine. How long it will thus remain is one of the questions immi- nent for settlement in the present disturbed state of Syria. Every dynasty has left its stamp upon the city. The site is Melckisedek's, and all around speaks of the Pastoral ages ; Zion tells us of David ; the Temple platform, of Solomon ; the towers, of Herod ; the walls and bridge, of the Romans; the Great Mosque, of Omar and the Turks ; the Holy Sepulchre, of Constantine ; the churches and monuments, of the Crusaders ; the Mount of Olives, of the Saviour ; the Valley of Hinnom, of the worship of Moloch ; the Valley of Jehoshaphat and its tombs, of the Prophets and the Kings, and of the wretched People who live in exile and fear, and, trembling, beg to purchase permis- sion to lay their bones there. The whole Land in its desolation is a record of the wrath of an offended God. Such are the recollections, and these the solemn thoughts, to which our first entrance into Jerusalem gives rise. But the day is far spent, and we will turn to the left by the north-west angle of the castle, and take up our quarters, not at any new inn, the Medi- terranean, or the Malta, but at the Casa Nuova, a new building erected as an addition to their old convent by the establishment of the Latin monks, who, from time almost immemorial, have habitually entertained pilgrims to Jerusalem, of every rank. Walking out from this convent, and mounting the wall which is FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 11 close by, we obtain a general view of the City, and may obtain a cursory knowledge of its localities. The present walls of the City are about two miles and a half in circumference, and average about forty feet in height ; but in some few places they are about twice that height. In position, they are nearly identical with those erected by Hadrian, which were so decayed in 1 178, (just before the final expulsion of the Christians by Saladin, in 1187), that large sums were sent by Christendom for their reparation. Saladin himself repaired them in 1192 ; but Sultan Melek el Miadh-Shem threw them all down, except the Haram walls (about the Temple), and El Khalat (the citadel). In 1243, the Christians, to whom the city was again handed over by Barbacan, (it having been previously surrendered to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1240, and captured again), rebuilt the fortifications, principally at the expense of the Knights Templars ; finally Sultan Suliman I, the •second of the Mirzan Sultans that reigned over Jerusalem, built the present walls in 1542 ; St. •Stephen's Gate, and some portion of the Damascus Gate remaining as they were left by the Crusaders, as well as some portion of the existing walls. The fosse, then deep, is now filled up by accumulating rubbish. At a few points the native rock is merely faced with masonry, or often, as in Mount Bezetha, built into the wall. The gates — only the principal gates are now only open — face the cardinal points of the compass. These are the Jaffa or Bab el Khahil (Gate of a Friend, that is Abraham, the friend of God), on the west ; the Damascus or Bab es Sham, or Bab el Amud, (Gate of the Column), on the north; the St. Stephen or Bab Sitti Miriam, (St. Mary's Gate) on the east; and Zion or Bab fen Nebi Daud (Gate of the Prophet David) on the south. These are kept open from sunrise to sunset every day, except an hour on Friday — the Moslem sabbath-noon, when they are closed while service is performed in the Mosque of Omar. The Mugharibeh 1 or Duug Gate, 3 1 The Mugharibeh, who have a quarter named after themselves, which they no longer entirely occupy, are the people of the West, or of Barbary. There are some of them the descendants of the Moors driven from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. These exiles were charitably received in the Holy City ; a mosque was built for the.n, and they receive even now a liberal portion of bread, fruit, soup, and money (the latter rarely), allowed from the Hospice of St. Helena, or rather Roxalana, for the poorer Mus- sulmans of Jerusalem. The heirs of the proud Abencerages, the elegant architects of the Alhambra, are become porters at Jeru- salem, who are sought for on account of their strength, and as mes- sengers esteemed for their swiftness and intelligence. What would Saladin and Richard say, if, suddenly returning to this world, they were to find the Moorish champions transformed into door- keepers of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Christian knights repre- sented by brethren of the Mendicant Order ? 2 Bishop Arculf, who travelled in the year 700, relates a curious legend in reference to this exit of the Tyropoeon— once a fosse within a fosse, shutting in Zion andMoriah into one compact mass, which explains the origin of the Frankish name of its gate. Dung-gate— which might otherwise appear repulsive. "On the 15th of September, annually, an immense multitude of people, of different nations, are used to meet in Jerusalem for the purpose of commerce ; and the streets are so clogged with the dung of camels, horses, mules, and oxen, that they become almost impassa- ble, and the smell would be a nuisance to the whole town. But, by a miraculous providence which exhibits God's peculiar attach- ment to this place, no sooner has the multitude left Jerusalem, than a heavy fall of rain begins on the night following, and ceases only when the city has been perfectly cleansed." In other words, heavy rains carry off a large portion of the filth of the streets by this gateway. The so-called Dung Gate is supposed to be the same as Josephus's Gate of the Essenes. (Neh. ii. 13; xii. 31.) It has also been identified with "the gate between two walls." (2 Kings xxv. 4. Jcr. xxxix. 4). situated in the Tyropoeon. is never opened except during seasons of scarcity of water. The other gates are walled up — the Golden Gate especially, the Turks having a tradition that at some future time a mighty conqueror is to enter through it into the city. 3 There are several battle- mented towers of minor elevations, besides that of Hippicus. At the north-east corner of the Temple enclosure, are remains of the tower of Hananeel. In the north-west corner of the city wall are also the remains of a large fortification called " Goliah's Castle," (Khalat-Julib), better known as " Tancred's Tower." The existing wall occupies only about one-third of the site of the original city, much of Mount Zion being excluded on the south, and nearly all of Ccenopolis, or the Lower City, on the north. The streets of Jerusalem are narrow, seldom more than ten feet wide, and mostly not so much ; they are filthy and ill-paved, covered with stones of all sizes embedded in the earth. In many there is a ditch or trench in the centre, hollowed out for horses and camels, between side paths for passengers. The ditch is often two feet in depth, and one beast can only pass at a time. The natives know only two or three streets by name. The Christians have endeavoured to remedy this inconvenience. Thus there is " Zion Street " from Zion Gate to Damascus Gate, dividing the Jews quarter from the Armenian; the continuation of it which separates the Latin and Greek quarters from the Turkish, is called " Saint Stephen's," there being a tradition that the courageous deacon was martyred near the gate. The " Street of David " designates the great thoroughfare from Jaffa Gate to the Temple, dividing the Latin and Greek quarters from the Armenian. The continuation of this between the Turkish quarter and the Jews is called the •' Street of the Temple." "Mill Valley Street" runs from the Mugharibeh Gate at the end of the Tyropoeon into Damascus Street. The zigzagging street from Saint Stephen's Gate to the north-western corner of the city, as far as Damascus Street, is the famous " Via Dolorosa," up which the Saviour passed from judgment to cruci- fixion ; from the last point mentioned, it is the ' ' Street of the Holy Sepulchre," the church of which forms the main feature of it. The " Street of the Patriarch" is a short and narrow street from Hezekiah's Pool to the Greek Convent of the Forerunner, and is between David Street and the Street of St. Sepulchre. The short street lying between Damascus and Valley Streets, immediately in front of Helena's Hospice, is some- times called " Market Street," but generally Tariki el Sitti (" Lady Street)," in honour of the lady who raised 3 The Pilgrim Scewulf, who travelled in 1102-1103, says:— " There is a gate of the city, on the eastern side of the temple, which is called the "Golden," where Joachim, the father of the blessed Mary, by the order of the Angel of the Lord, met his wife Anne. By the same gate, the Lord Jesus, coming from Bethany on the Day of Olives, sitting on an ass, entered the city of Jerusalem, while the children sang 'Hosanna to the Son of David.' By this gate the Emperor Heraclius entered Jerusalem when he returned victorious from Persia with the Cross of Our Lord j but the stones first fell down und closed up the passage, so that the gate became one mass, until, humbling himself at tho admonition of an angel, he descended from his horse, aud so the entrance was opened to him." Sir John Mauudeville describes in his time (a. d. 1322) the marks of the ass's feet as being still seen in three places at the Golden Gate, the steps of which are of very hard stone. Maundrell calls it the Gate of the Temple, and below this gate, he says, in the bottom of the valley, was a broad hard stone, discovering the prints made by our blessed Saviour's feet. 12 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. this magnificent structure — either the Empress or Dame Tanshok — the wife we believe of a German crusader, who was exceedingly charitable in founding hospitals for poor pilgrims. What the Empress Helena endowed, the Sultana Roxalana seized, and perverted, adding further endowments, to providing soup for poor Turks. The benefaction is still carried into effect. The domestic architecture of Jerusalem, as can be seen, is of the simplest character. The houses are all constructed of the common limestone of the country. There being no timber in Palestine, this material is of course exceedingly high-priced here ; and the doors and casements of the windows are the only portion of the houses made of wood, not a particle being used about the floors, roofs, or any other part whatever. The windows are few and small, and all grated with iron if sufficiently large to admit a thief. Window-glass is a rarity but just introduced. There is only one door to the largest establishments, and there are no windows below, which, as those above are generally latticed, ensures seclusion — almost that of a prison — to the inmates. The want of timber necessi- tates an extensive use of crypts, arches, vaults, and domes. This characteristic will be remarked in the View over Jerusalem at page 1 , We will now set forth to get another view over Jerusalem, and, reaching the Patriarch Street, ascend to the top of the Coptic convent adjoining the noble caravanserai of the same church, thence looking down upon one of the notabilities of the city, the Pool of Hezekiah. This deep cistern is nearly 250 feet long, and 150 feet wide : an immense reservoir, capable of holding water sufficient for half the city. It is quite surrounded by houses. Its depth below the surface is eight or ten feet, but it is considerably deeper at the southern than at the northern extremity. It is usually thought to be supplied by rain-fall from the neigh- bouring houses, but it is in reality in connection with the upper Pool of Gihon — outside the Jaffa gate, and at the head of the Valley of Hinnom. Jerusalem was once abundant in water ; it is a part of the curse upon it that water should be now deficient ; hence it sometimes fails at the end of autumn. The view we have from here (see page 1,) is a fine one. But still, VALLEY OF GIHON. the desolation of the city is most conspicuous. The whole of Bezetha beyond on the left, and a large part of Acra to the left just below, is uninhabited ; the Temple enclosure is a vast void space ; the parts about Mugharibeh or Ophel, and the south-east of Zion, are either ploughed fields, or overrun with cactus ; the entire west face of Zion is occupied by the gardens of the Armenian Convent ; the space south of Calvary is vacant, and what is occupied is merely filled by mosques, convents, and churches; though even where there are houses, they are for the most part in ruins. We have now a fine prospect of the walls, which form almost an oblong square, the longest sides running from west to east. The ancient Jerusalem could not have been much more extensive than the modern city, and must have occu- pied, in its palmy days, the same site, except that it comprehended within the walls the whole of Mount Zion, but excluded Calvary, which was afterwards enclosed by Adrian. Solyman, the son of Selim (1534), is reported to have slain his architect for not comprehending the whole of Zion within the walls, but this, it is hinted, he did, as the readiest means of paying him. In modern warfare the City would be untenable, as it is commanded by hills on all sides. We are now on the edge of Acra, between which hill and Zion — the sloping buildings of which are on the right — the valley of the Tyropoeon is seen descending. Over to the right, where once stood the Temple of Solomon, may be seen two blue cupolas marking the octangular Mosque of Omar, with the long low roof of the minor Mosque El Aksa. The minaret rising to the left of the Mosque of Omar (Temple Enclosure) was erected, we are told, by Tunguz, Prefect of Syria, when he built the celebrated school at the side of the Gate of the Chain. It is served by the most eminent Muezzins, and gives the directions to the others in announcing prayer. It stands near the Gate of the Chain, which opens from the Temple Enclosure into the Street of David, but into which it is not advisable to peep unless you desire a sound beating from the Turks. Around and about it are majestic planes and cj'presses, an union of nature and art peculiar to Turkish religious enclosures. It was from their liv- ing in this Mosque el Aksa that the Knights Templars took their name ; and in front of its porch lie buried the murderers of St. Thomas a Becket, who died at Jerusalem, upon a pilgrimage undertaken in expiation of their crime. At the corner of the wall is the "House of Pilate," now a barracks, late a stable, whence stolen views of the sacred platform were of old vouchsafed to favoured Christian pilgrims, such as Chateaubriand and Latnartine. To the right, just below, are the swelling domes and heavy massive towers of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — one dark elliptical dome overlooked by another, and a white one rising out of a cloud of little domes over an ocean of houses. This is Calvary and the Sepulchre. The line of walls, the pointed minarets stand out in bold relief against the deep blue of the oi-ient sky ; but no voice is heard in the widowed City ; no roads seem to lead to her, and were it not Easter Week, few would be passing in and out of her gates. The centre of attraction for the Pilgrims is evidently the square before the Holy Sepulchre : here beads from Mecca, and mother-of-pearl images from Bethlehem, and crosses of bitumen from the Dead Sea, are attracting purchasers of various nations. The tall and elegant minaret adjacent to the .^,r*-r. 3 ■-,...-- ■■:- iCa^^^iWK THE DAMASCUS GATE, JERUSALEM. #^;\---." Cliurcli of the Holy Sepulchre belongs to a mosque, called El K hanky, formerly the residence of the Latin Patriarch. Of this building we read a curious story, related by an Arab authority, who tells how the Christians were greatly distressed at seeing this minaret arising in such close proximity to the Holy Sepulchre, which it entirely commanded. They offered a large sum to Sheikh Ibn Ghanem, to bribe him to desist from his pious intention, but he persisted and completed the structure. The Prophet then appeared to a Holy Man and commanded him to seek out and salute Ibn Ghanem, and assure him of his intercession at the day of judgment for his meritorious work of having out- topped the infidels. But see ! how the eager pilgrims crowd to the portal of the Holy Sepulchre — where the whole scene of the Saviour's crucifixion and entomb- ment are vividly brought before their eyes. The church is a magnificent monument of the Byzantine age. (See page 9). We shall soon be down there, and following the eager enthusiasts in visiting the religious stations of that sacred spot. The spacious deserted enclosure close on the right, and on which grow two or three olive trees, a palm tree and a few cypresses, was once the magnificent house of the Knights Hospitallers, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The Greek Convent forms one side of this square, and that community had hoped to obtain these gardens and the ruins pertaining there- unto, but within the last few years the whole square containing them, as well as the Church of St. Anne in another part, have been made over by the Sultan to the Emperor Louis Napoleon. The very curious and pic- turesque gateway which forms the subject of our illus- tration (page 17) stands at one end of this vacant spot, lacing into the street leading from the Church to the Sepulchre. The external facade displays a flattened pointed arch, while the archway beyond is round headed. The carving is extremely rich. Among the ornaments and emblems is seen the Lamb, the emblem of the noble order of St. John of Jerusalem, of whose palace this was the entrance. Behind the gateway are seen some remains of the buildings. The interior is the receptacle of every kind of filth ; from the open area a staircase mounts up to a cloister, from which opens sundry rooms, not capable of being entered from multifarious pollutions. There is a large hall with painted windows absolutely filled with dung. How are the mighty fallen ! Im- mediately upon the capture of Jerusalem by the Cru- saders (in 1099) followed the foundation of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, the origin of which was an hospice founded in Jerusalem in 1048 by a few mer- chants of Amalfi for the accommodation of pilgrims from Europe. An hospital for the sick was afterwards added — hence the term, Knights Hospitallers, the members of which were also known as Knights of Rhodes. When the Crusaders entered Jerusalem, many of the chevaliers determined on joining the order. Godfrey granted a donation, an example which was followed by other princes. To the usual vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, was added a vow to be always ready to fight against Muhammadans and all who forsook the true religion. In 1118 the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, then called also the Knights 14 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. of Malta, became a military order. The building now bo desecrated was described in 1322, as having 178 pillars of fine stone, and having near it the church called "Our Lady the Grand" and "Our Lady the Latin," "and there stood Mary Cleophas and Mary Magdalen, and tore their hair when Our Lord was executed on the cross." Napoleon Bonaparte expelled the last relics of the Order of St. John Hospitallers, when he took M alta from them. "Will Louis Napoleon resuscitate their ancient glories? Stranger things have happened. With the City thus lying before us, and its landmarks denoted, it will not be difficult, looking down upon the valley of the Tyropceon, which separated Zion from the Temple, and over which was a bridge con- necting the two parts of the City (each of which were separately walled), to imagine Jerusalem restored to its pristine magnificence under Herod the king, and that during the anarchy that ensued after his death it was crowded, as Josephus tells us, by two millions of people — when the ridges of Zion — now covered with their crops of corn, and here and there an olive tree — were adorned with magnificent structures. We have in our mind's eye the beautiful city in its grandeur. Between that and its destruction and its present desola- tion our Christian associations intervene. There to the right is the Mount of Olives, from whose sacred brow the Saviour saw the glory of Jerusalem, and wept over it and predicted its fall. Down that hill he approached the City, andpassinginto the deep Valley of Hinnom, as- cended to the Temple, the crowd accompanying him like a conqueror with their hozannas, and strewing palms. There is the Golden Gate by which he entered, now walled up. There is the outer court whence he drove out the money changers ; there the dark groves of olives, through which he passed to Olivet, or traversed on his way to the house of Lazarus at Bethany ; and there the garden of Gethsemane. There the scene of his Passion and his Ascension. To the " governor's house" to the right was the Saviour conveyed before Pilate ; and along the " Dolorous Way," from St. Stephen's Gate to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was the scene of his long agony prior to his final suffering on the Cross of Calvary, which that building covers. The destruction of Jerusalem, in fulfilment of his prophecy, followed within a few years. Judea, after the death of Agrippa, was made a Roman province, and a Roman Pro-consul appointed over Jerusalem, thus destroy- ing the independence of the city and abolishing its hierarchical or theocratical form of government. The Zealots resisted, however, and were driven into the Temple by the High Priest and the people. Here John of Giscala, driven in from Galilee, united his forces with the fanatics within the city ; they together admitted the Idumseans by stratagem during a storm ; the barbarous allies plundered and slaughtered the Jews and the high priest, and the contending factions triumphed over the citizens, who, however, sought aid in a third party, and Simeon, son of Giorias, was ad- mitted to occupy the upper city, whence he attacked the Zealots in the Temple. While the wretched city was thus divided within, the banners of the Roman army under Titus appeared at the north-western wall — you can trace it by drawing a line from the extreme left across Acra and round inside of the Holy Sepulchre, up to the Temple — but one legion was encamped to the right, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, facing the Temple. Step by step the Jews defended the city. Driven from the first wall, they fought upon the second, and the Roman engines having broken in a breach, the troops poured through, but became entangled in the narrow streets, and were driven out, being unable to withstand the missiles poured upon them from every roof. The misery of the Jews was indescribable, death and star- vation were everywhere. Titus withdrew from the attack and awaited the result, having vainly offered mercy and terms to the besieged. Josephus tells us of their indomitable obstinacy ; until, at last, Titus dug a deep trench round the city, and closely blockaded it. This is said to have been completed in three days, and to have been five miles in extent, and to have had thirteen garrison towers — a fact which, as narrated by the historian, an eye-witness, without any great expi-ession of wonder, gives us a great idea of the engineering powers of a Roman army. The City became a chamel house ; the mothers " soddened their own children for meat." A forlorn hope of Romans scaled the walls, but were valorously repulsed. At last a breach was made in the fort by the Roman engines ; and one night the soldiers rushed through it upon their prey. The fortress was taken, but the Jews retreated, only to defend themselves in the Temple Court below. Driven thence, they fell back to the inner court, and rallied round the Temple. This Titus had resolved to save. But the Jews having sallied forth in rage upon their enemies, were closely followed up by the Roman soldiers, one of whom fired the sacred precinct. The Jews rushed infuriated upon the Roman swords, and a terrible carnage ensued around. One historian only has been equal in de- scription to his task. We have the places before us to our right. In the centre is the upper city. " It was an appalling spectacle to the Romans. What was it to the Jew 1 The whole summit of the hill which commands the city blazed like a volcano. One after another the buildings fell in with a tremendous crash, and were swallowed up in the fiery abyss. The roofs of cedars were like sheets of flame ; the gilded pinnacles shone like spikes of red light; the gate towers sent up tall columns of flame and smoke. The neighbouring hills were lighted up, and groups of people were seen watching with horrible anxiety the progress of the destruction ; the walls and heights of the upper city were crowded with faces, some pale with the agony of despair, others scowling unavailing vengeance. The shouts of the Roman soldiers, as they ran to and fro, and the howlings of the insurgents, who were perishing in the flames, mingled with the roaring of the conflagration, and the thundering sound of falling timbers. The echoes of the mountains replied or bsought back the shrieks of the people on the heights ; all along the walls resounded screams andwailings; men who had been expiring with famine rallied theii remaining strength to utter a cry of anguish and desolation." Simon and John cut their way, by desperate fighting, across the Tyropceon bridge, into the " Upper City," where, in spite of the remonstrances of Josephus, and the personal instance of Titus himself, they still held out. But, with the Temple, the hearts of the people had fallen. Flushed with their victory, greedy for fresh spoils, and chafing at resistance, the impetuous Roman conquerors burst into the upper city, exulting ; but found there only death and desolation — empty streets and houses full of dead bodies. Even now the ruins over Ao ra, within, on the FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 15 right, and over the city to the left, even as far as the Holy Sepulchre, tell the tale of that fierce onslaught and defeat. The monument of this Roman triumph over a people left to their own devices and the wrath of the Almighty may be seen on the Arch of Titus at Rome, where Jewish captives bear the sacred furniture of the Temple, the golden candlesticks and silver trumpets, to adorn the triumphant show of their conqueror. In that one siege one million one hundred thousand Jews perished, about one sixth of the population of the whole of Palestine, at that period. Ninety-nine thousand prisoners of war were carried off, some of them to labour in the public works, others to march in the triumph of Titus; after which they appeared in the amphitheatres of Europe and Asia, and killed one another for the amusement of the popu- lace. Those under the age of seventeen were put up to auction with the women, and thirty of them weie sold for a denarius —about ten pence. The blood of the Just Jesus, as it has been finely said, was sold for thirty pieces of silver at Jerusalem, and the people had cried : " His blood be upon us and our children." God heard this wish of the Jews, and, for the last time, he granted their prayers, after which he turned his face from the Land of Promise, and chose for himself another people. It was only thirty-eight years after the death of Christ, that the Temple was burned, so that many of those who had heard the prediction of our Saviour, might, also, have witnessed its fulfilment. The Jerusalem that now lies extended before us, is but the seventeenth shadow of the primitive one, for it has been seventeen times captured. Looking from this spot, you may imagine that scene in the Crusaders' siege (1099), when, their army having taken up its position, Godfrey's troops left their encampments before the Damascus Gate, and turning to the East descended into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, whence they proceeded, like peaceful pilgrims, to offer up prayers on the Mount of Olives. It was on a Tuesday, the 13th of June, as chroniclers tell us, that the Crusaders attacked Jerusalem by escalade, having first beaten down the outer wall with their machines. The attack failed, although night, alone, put an end to the bloodshed. The Crusaders, feeling certain of success, had neglected to bring victuals, and for ten days were without bread, until their ships reached Jaffa ; even then they suffered greatly from thirst, their horses and mules having drank out Siloe, were sent six miles to water, while the soldiers dug holes in the ground and pressed the damp clods to their lips ; they licked the stones wet with dew ; they drank the putrid water caught in hides, and even abstained from eating in the hope of mitigating by hunger the pangs of thirst. On the 12th of July, the great attar-k was made. Godfrey and his two brothers, Baldwin and Eustace, fought on the towers " like two lions defending another," until "at the hour when the Saviour gave up the ghost,'' a Flemish warrior named Letolde leaped on the ramparts of the city. He was followed by Guicher, "Guicher, who had conquered a lion." Godfrey was the third and all the other knights followed their chief — sword in hand. The enemy fled, and the soldiers of Christ pursued them with loud shouts. The Count de St. Gilles, who was outside the Zion Gate, heard the tumult, and summoned the Emir there to surrender, which he did. "But (says the chronicler) Godfrey with the French was determined to avenge the Christian blood spilt by the infidels in Jerusalem, and to punish them for the railleries and outrages to which they had subjected the pilgrims. Never had he in any conflict appeared so terrible, not even when he encoun- tered the giant on the bridge of Autioch. Guicher and several thousands of chosen warriors cut the Saracens in two from the head to the waist, or severed their bodies in the middle. None of our soldiers showed timidity, for they met with no opposition. The enemy sought only to escape ; but to them flight was impossible ; they rushed along in such crowds that they embarrassed one another. The small number of those who contrived to escape took refuge in Solomon's Temple, and there defended themselves a considerable time. At dusk our soldiers gained possession of the Temple, and in their rage put to death all whom they found there. Such was the carnage, that the mutilated carcases were hurried by the torrents of blood into the court ; dis- severed hands and arms floated in the current, that caused them to be united to bodies to which they had never belonged." " The Holy Sepulchre," says another historian, " was now free, and the bloody victors pro- pared to accomplish their vow. Bareheaded and bare- foot, with contrite hearts, and in a humble posture, they ascended the Hill of Calvary, amidst the loud anthems of the clergy, kissed the stone which had covered the Saviour of the World, and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence the monuments of their redemption." The scenes of these fierce and tender passions we are now about to visit. III.— IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF OUR SAVIOUR. Following the example of all pilgrims to Jerusalem in ancient times, and imitating their undoubting faith and reverence, wo determined to resign ourselves to our feelings as Christians, and make it our first duty in the Holy City to follow the footsteps of our Lord in captivity, judgment, death, and entombment, up to his ascension. Catholic tradition, preserved through ages, by a succession of pious memories, — traditions as yet undisturbed, except by guesses and suggestions merely, always disputable and mostly fanciful — enables us to recall with sufficiently distinct identity, the scenes of sacred Scripture and the localities of our Lord's suffer- ings. We are contented so to receive them. We have found Jerusalem ; we shall see Bethlehem. Risingearly (it is hardly possible to sleep late in such a place), we set out from St. Stephen's Gate, to which we shall shortly return on our solemn path with the captive Saviour. Before going farther from this gate, we may ob- serve the Church of St. Anne, said to be the birth-place of the Virgin, raised upon the site of the house of Joachim and Anne, and the scene of the Immaculate Conception. In the grottoes beneath this church, the building of which is attributed to Justinian, is shown the humble chamber where dwelt the Holy Family. It was con- verted into a Turkish school by Saladin, and subse- quently a mosque, but has recently by the able inter- vention of M. Thouvenel, aided by M. Barrere, the consul of France at Jerusalem, been made over by the Sultan to the Emperor of the French, and restored to the worship of the Christian faith under the pious care of the Latin fathers. There are two Christian nations active in Jerusalem, France and Russia, and the aggrandisement of the Greek and Boman Church makes itself everywhere conspicuous. 1 I Tlie church of St. Anne is of great antiquity. Scewnlf, a pilgrim of tlie twelfth ceutury. describes it as the place where THE FIELD OF BLOOD, IN THE VALLEY OF HINNOM The Pool of Bethesda, now a broad deep ditcli without water, lies just within the gate, and is a specimen of the primitive architecture of the Jews at Jerusalem. It bounded the Temple on the north. It is a reservoir one hundred and fifty feet long and forty wide. The sides are walled and composed of a bed of large stones joined together by iron cramps, a wall of mixed materials run up on these large stones, a layer of flints stuck upon the surface of this wall, and a coating laid over these flints. The four beds are perpendicular with the bottom, and not horizontal ; the coating was on the side next to the water, and the large stones rested as they still do, against the ground. The pool is now dry and half filled up. It is used as a threshing-floor. Here grow some pomegranate-trees, and a species of wild tamarind of a bluish colour. On the west side may be seen two arches, probably leading to an aqueduct that carries the water into the interior of the Temple. 1 The western angle is full of nopals. (lie mother of the Blessed Mary lived with her husband, and she wa9 there delivered other daughter Mary. Sir John Maundeville, who travelled in 1322, says that before the church grew a great tree which began to grow the same night, that was the night of the conception, not of the birth. In Maundrell's time (1697) it was a convent or nunnery, the church of which was large and entire, as were also part of the lodgings; but both were desolate and neglected. i Scewulf describes the pool called, in Hebrew, Bethesda, ns having five porticoes, of which the Gospel speaks. Muundrcll describes it as 120 paces long and 40 broad, and at least 8 deep. Here the lambs destined for sacrifice were washed; and it was on the brink of this pool that Christ said to the paralytic man, ".Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." This is the only monument left of the primitive Jeru- salem of David and Solomon. Outside this gate we come upon the great Turkish burying ground, a place, it would seem, of parade as well as sorrow for the Turkish popula- tion, for they resort hither iu the evenings dressed out in their gayest attire — the women especially — who, flitting among the tombs, in their long white veils, are perhaps seeking, as widows, the consolation of a new husband, though many of them, it must be said, are seen for hours bending in faithful sorrow over the turbaned tombs of their lost lords. A rapid descent brings us across the narrow bridge of one arch that crosses the dry brook Kedron, and spans the gloomy and mysterious Jehoshaphat, the " Valley of the Tombs." Every step here is full of sacred associations ; the vast sepul- chral monuments all round ; the tombs ol Absalom, Zechariah, and Jehoshaphat, with the thousands of Jewish tombs everywhere about, tell a solemn story of death past, present, and to come. Hither wend the Jews, from the far corners of the earth, to purchase a final resting place near the Temple of the Lord in tlie land of their forefathers; the place allotted being and void of water. At its west end it discovers some old arches, now dammed up. " These," adds the quaint but trustworthy old traveller, " some will have to be the five porches in which sat that multitude of lame, halt, and blind (John v.) ; but the mischief is, instead of five there are but three of them." i Uf (4 M \ ' Pi" VvHL L FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 19 calculated at a price, which goes to the Jewish chest for the support of their poorer living brethren. Here Melchizedek met Abraham to congratulate him on his victory over the five kings. In this valley, the wicked Jews worshipped Moloch and Belphegor ; Solomon here planted his cedars; the Temple overshadowed it; here " flowed softly" the waters of Siloam ; here David sang his songs, and Jeremiah uttered his lamentations ; here Our Saviour underwent his agony; and here, according to the prophecy of Joel, all mankind will at last appear before one awful Judge. " I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there." (Joel iii , 2).i The Valley of Jehoshaphat is but a deep trench at this spot, sinking rapidly southward until near Zion, where it is nearly five hundred feet below the top of the Mount. Jerusalem is on one side : the Mount of Olives on the other, and the dark shadow of the Mount of Offence, — so denominated from Solomon's idolatiy, for there he had his gardens and his " women's'' palaces, and was led by them to the worship of strange gods. The stone on which we are now standing, just near the bridge, is reverenced as the spot of St. Stephen's martyrdom. 2 The two contiguous hills rise up close to us, nearly naked, and of a dull red colour. Their sides are bare, but of some scattered wild olive trees, and, here and there, a scanty few black and parched vines, with sparse chapels, oratories, and i The traditions connected with this point are curious. Bernard the Wise, a monkish pilgrim, who travelled in a.d. 867, describes a church in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, called that of St. Leon, " in which it is said that Our Lord will come at the Last Judgment." Sir John Maundeville says " Also in coming down from Mount Olivet is the place where our Lord wept over Jerusalem. And there beside is the place where our Lady appeared to St. Thomas the Apostle after her assumption, and gave him her girdle. And very near is the stone on which our Lord often sat when he preached ; and upon that same shall he sit at the day of doom, right as he said himself." The permanence of the tradition is not a little remarkable, the Muharomadaus have even availed themselves of it. Cpon the edge ofthe hill, on the opposite side of the valley, there runs along, in a direct line., the wall of the city, near the corner of which there is a short end of a pillar jutting out of the wall. Upon this pillar, the Mussulmans have a tradition that Muhammad will sit in judgment at the last day ; and that all the world will be gathered together in the valley below, to receive their doom from his mouth. J The traditions of olden times are so much the more deserving of attention as they were nearer to the time ofthe events to which they related. It can hardly be supposed that the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, under the Romans, did not preserve some authentic traditions concerning the localities of the more important events of Gospel History. The earliest notice we meet with of the site of the martyrdom of St. Stephen is that of Bishop Arculf, who travelled a.d. 700, who describes it as being on Mount Zion. Bernard the Wise, who followed in a.d. 867, also places the scene of the proto- martyrdom on Mount Zion, and describes a church as existing at the spot in commemoration of the event. Soewulf, who travelled in a.d. 1102, describes the stoning of St. Stephen as having occurred about two or three arbelist shots without the wall on Mount Zion to the north, where a very handsome church was built " which has been entirely destroyed by the Pagans." So far from the eighth till the twelfth centuries. Inthefourteenth century we first find the site ofthe tradition removed. Sir John Maundeville, who travelled in 1322, says "over agsinst that vale of Jehoshaphat, ont of the city, is the church of St. Stephen, where he was stoned to death." After this the tradition grow in strength, and we find Maundrell, in A.D. 1697, speaking of a broad stone on the way up the hill to the city, going from the Virgin's Tomb to St. Stephen's Gate, on which the Saint suffered martyr- dom. The gate which had previously been called that of Jehoshaphat, as in the time of Benjamin of Tudeln, that is in a.d. 1164, became the Gate of St. Stephen, and has remained so. mosques in ruins. The bottom of the Mount of Offence and its sides (no preferable place, and sold at small price to the poorer Jews) are covered with tombs in heaps, right up to the poor and badly charactered village of Siloam, whose houses seem like sepulchres themselves, and are so. The grave, melancholystillness of Jerusalem, the silence of a great city, smokeless, noiseless, suggests to the imagination that the tombs are here, the dead have not yet been summoned to awake. Mounting the 'Hill by a rocky path, the same along which David went lamenting when driven forth from his beloved Zion by the rebellion of Absalom, we proceed down a few steps to the left, leading us to an open court surrounded with rocky walls, at the end of which we reach a beautiful building of Gothic archi- tecture, of a severe and antique character, with a pic- turesque facade, opening by a marble door, into a sub- terranean chapel, where are the tombs of St. Joseph and the Virgin, excavated in the solid rock. Down from this solemn entrance, fifty marble steps, each twenty feet long, lead us to the floor. The tomb of the Virgin is on the right, in a large recess, with an altar over it, and a painting of her death, with the Saviour himself standing by her bedside to comfort her. The tomb of St. Joseph is higher up, as are also those of St. Anne and St. Joachim. Maiy, who died at Ephesus, was, as they tell us, miraculously buried here by tho Apostles, according to the tradition ofthe Fathers; for there is a full relation of this marvellous funeral by Euthymus, who tells how " St. Thomas," (who was always desirous to satisfy any doubt by ocular testi- mony,) " having caused the coffin to be opened, nothing was found in it but a virgin robe, the simple and mean garment of that Queen of Glory whom the angels had conveyed to Heaven." Arculf, a Gaulish Bishop, who travelled in a. i>. 700, speaks of the " round church of St. Mary, divided into two stories by slabs of stone. In the upper part are four altars ; on the eastern side, below, there is another, and to the right of it, an empty tomb of stone, in which the Virgin Mary is said to have been buried; but who removed her body, or when this took place, no one can say. On entering this chamber you see, on the right hand side, a stone, inserted in the wall, on which Christ knelt on the night on which he was betrayed, and the marks of his knees are still seen in the stone, as if it had been as softas wax." Arculf also tells another traditional story that he heard on the spot, of the disappearance of the body of the Virgin Mary, that "St. Mary expired in the middle of Jerusalem, in the place called St. Sion, and as the twelve apostles were carrying her body, the angels came and took her from their hands and earned her to Paradise." He adds that the church is called St. Mary, not becartse her body rests there, but in memory of it. 3 3 The traditions which associate the tomb of the Virgin Mnry with the locality in question appear, with the exception given above, never to have varied. Maundeville, who was partial to wonders, saw there " the stone which the angel brought to our Lady from Mount Sinai, which is of the same colour as the rock of St. Catherine." St. Thomas appears to have been of a very sceptical turn of mind ; for Maundeville describes a great stone as lying at the bottom of the Mount of Olives, " upon which you are told the Blessed Virgin let fall her girdle after her assumption, in order to convince St. Thomas, who, they say, was troubled with a fit of his old incredulity upon this occasion. There is still to be seen a small winding channel upon this stone which they will have to be the impression made by the girdle when it fell, and to be left for the conviction of all such as shall suspect the truth of their story of the assumption." 20 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. Thirty paces from the border of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, is an enclosure of about forty-seven paces long by forty- four wide — the Garden of Gethsemane. Tread reve- rently, for under the shade of that seared trunk of the oldest of those eight venerable olive trees, — so old that its roots are growing in strangely-shaped monstrosity out of the earth, — was the Saviour betrayed with a kiss by the traitor Judas. In a cavern outside is a sombre grotto, — the place where the Apostles hid themselves on their Master's being captured. The wall around is high, and plastered, and whitewashed. The garden has become the property of the Fathers of the Latin Con- vent, who have planted young trees among the old ones, the grim gnarled arms, pillar-like trunks, and thin foliage of which have a weird and solemn antiquity about them that strikes the beholder. The scene is one that has its fitness for the mournful scene of the Saviour's Passion. The deep valley, the dark and barren heights, the sorrowing moan of the streams below, and the shadow of the guilty city over all! They point to us a, stone marking the spot where Christ prayed that the cup might pass from him ; a little further the place where he swate great drops of blood, and, a little farther on, the spot where he found his disciples sleeping. The traditions of this place are innumerable. It is Easter week, and we have a host of pilgrims of all nations with us, mounting in long procession upwards towards t'.o Cnapel of the Ascension. About half way up, by a rugged winding path, worn with the footsteps of ages, are the ruins of a monastery — on the bite of the stone from which Christ, looking over towards the sinful City, bewailed the approaching desolation of Jerusalem. It, is just on this spot that the Sixth Roman Legion is said to have encamped during the siege by Titus. From the Rock of the Prediction we march up to some curious grotto excavations, called the Tombs of the Prophets. Their ground plan is very singular, something in the shape of a quadrant, and there are more than fifty tombs. Some have said they are the Apostles' tombs; others caves for the worship of Baal; others, again, consider them as belonging to the Priests of the Temple, but all this is guesswork. Going upwards from these tombs, and imagining the scene of the raising of Lazarus as taking place in some such place, we climb up a few more feet of the ascent, and stand before the Chapel of the Ascension — the last grand consummation of our Saviour's history in the form of man. We are now gnzing up to the same Heaven that opened to receive him ascending to His Father's right hand, upon the accomplishment of the atoning sacrifice which took place in that City, we have but to turn our heads to look upon. The chapel is a small octa',icius Severus. The foot is turned towards the north; Tradition says, the Saviour had his foot towards the north, at the moment of his Ascension, as if to renounce the south, involved in errors. The scene of the Ascension has not been without its describers. Traditions of the Fathers tell that the Lord "ascended to heaven, attended by the souls of the patriarchs and prophets, delivered by him from the chains of death. His mother and one hundred and twenty disciples witnessed his ascension." " He stretched out his arms like Moses," says St. Gregory Nazianzen, "and commended his disciples to his Father ; he then crossed his almighty hands, holding them down over the heads of his beloved friends, in the same manner that Jacob blessed his son Joseph ; then, rising from earth with inexpressible majesty, he slowly ascended toward the eternal mansion, till he was enveloped by a brilliant cloud." The Empress Mother Helena first identified the spot by the erection of a church, on which, however, says St Jerome, " it was found impossible to cover in that part of the roof through which Christ pursued his heavenward way." The Venerable Bede declares that in his time, on tli3 eve of the Ascension, the Mount of Olives was all night seen covered with flames. We find the meaning GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE MOUNT OF OLIVES FROM JERUSALEM. FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 21 of this story in Arculf's writings (lie visited Jerusalem in a.d. 700), and tells us that, " On the highest point of Olivet, where our Lord ascended into Heaven, is a large round church, having around it three vaulted porticoes. The inner part is not vaulted and covered, because of the passage of our Lord's body, but it has an altar on the east side, covered with a narrow roof. On the ground in the midst of it are to be seen the last prints in the dust of our Lord's feet, and the roof appearing open above where He ascended ; and although the earth is daily earned away by believers, yet still it remains as before, and retains the same impressions of the feet. In the western part of the same church are eight windows, and eight lamps, hanging by cords op- posite to them, cast their light through the glass as far as Jerusalem, striking the hearts of the beholders with a mixture of joy and divine fear. Every year, on the day of the Ascension, when mass is ended, a strong blast of wind comes down and casts to the ground all who are in the church. All that night lanterns are kept burning there, so that the mountain appears, not only lighted up, but actually on fire, and all that side of the city is illuminated by it." The foot-print is in the rock, enclosed by an oblong block of marble, and we bring away with us an im- pression in wax, which pilgrim after pilgrim treasures as one of his dearest reminiscences of the Holy Land. We are now about twenty minutes, — hardly a mile, from the walls of Jerusalem, so we finish our " Sabbath day's journey " by going over the crest of the hill to Bethany. As we walk down the footpath so often trodden by the Saviour on his friendly visits tothehouse of Lazarus, whom he loved, many landscapes of wildly pleasing variety open before us. We seem to have left the desolation in Judea on the other side, and pass through open coin-fields, across which, among groves of olives, are seen the white roofs of the little village that stands almost on the border of a desert laud. Here Jesus picked the corn by the way-side, and here the sister of Lazarus met him, as she came forth with the mourners from her brother's tomb. The house of Lazarus, where the Saviour so often received hospitality, has given place to a church founded by Queen Melisenda. A chapel marks the dwelling where Simon the Leper addressed the Lord, and perpetuates the memory of the devout Magdalen, who anointed the feet of Christ. Lastly, the rock, whose hallowed sides formed the tomb of Lazarus, has been surmounted by a mosque, the entrance to which is down a stair of twenty-four steps.! Christian and Moslem alike reverence this spot, and the pilgrimages to it are numerous. The sick children we see here have been brought by the Mahometans in the neigh- bourhood, from a persuasion that some trace of the divine virtue of the great Prophet Jesus, the Spirit of God, still rests upon these stones. Towards the left, about three-quarters-of-a-mile farther on, is Bethphage, the Village of the Figs, and a little farther some bold interpreter and guide ventures to show the very fig-tree that withered at the Saviour's word. It was very old, and certainly very withered, but we may not vouch further for the tradition. .Returning back over the crest of Olivet, after pausing to admire the view of Jerusalem, — the whole panorama of the Gospel narrative spread out before us, — we proceed obliquely, by a sloping path that brings us to the village of Siloam, where the natives have made their dismal dwellings among the rock-hewn tombs. Hence we look down upon the dry bed of Kedron and the platform of the Moriah (the Temple enclosure) over- hanging it. It slopes down, gray and bare, 500 feet. We gaze upon a perfect City of Tombs — everywhere along the valley. Opposito to us is the Fountain of the Virgin, where the water rises and falls with sudden-flowing swell. Here come the neighbouring flocks to water. There is a cavernous connection between this and the Pool of Siloam lower down, along which some topographers have crawled more than 1750 feet. It was once a sealed fountain — that is, closed with a stone. Tradition tells that here the mother of Jesus was accustomed to wash her garments. Mohammed declared that these waters flowed from Paradise, and some say it is the very stream brought down subterraneously by Hezekiah into the city when he ordered the fountains without Jerusalem, and the brook to be stopped, saying, " Why should the Kings of Assyria come and find much water ?" The stream has been ascertained to run down from the Temple area — indeed, it is said, from Zion. It is pleasant in the heat of the day to descend the flight of steps that lead under a dark arch- way down into this fountain, and, standing on the upper steps worn with the footsteps of ages, to look deep into a mysterious cavern, down into which again goes another flight of steps to the spring. The women coming up and down the steps with water-jars grace- fully balanced on their heads, the wayfarers trending hitherwards from all sides, and the horses and sheep that are being watered at the trough above, form a picture that reminds us of the patriarchal ages. There is an old Arabian tradition connected with this well which was in days very, very old, called the " Foun- tain of Accused Women." Women accused of adul- BETHANY. 1 Canon Stanley lias designated the religion of Palestine, from the moment it fell into tne hands of Europeans, as far as sacred traditions are concerned, as "a religion of caves;" but if we com- pare the reports of pilgrims and travellers between the ninth and seventeenth centuries, it will be readily seen that in the instance of the Grave of Lazarus that it was the Muhammadans who pro- fiteil by the passion for cave history and mythology, and who improved upon it by removing the site that was traditional in the eighth century, to a grotto of far larger dimensions before the seventeenth. 22 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. tery used to come here and drink the watei-, which, if they were innocent, did not hurt them, but poisoned them if guilty. When Sitti Miriam (the Virgin Mary) was found with child and accused, she submitted to this ordeal, and was thus proved guiltless : she then prayed that the water might never harm any faithful woman, and from that day the waters have been intermittent Following the arid path aboveKedron we now come to the Tomb of Absalom, one of the most striking monu- ments about Jerusalem. It is a monolith, or square mass of stone, measuring eight feet each way, cut from the solid rock of the neighbouring hill, from which it stands detached fifteen feet. Twenty-four columns of the plain Doric order, six on each front, are hewn from the rocky mass, and support a triangular pyramidal top, evidently not of the same scyle as the monument. It is forty feet in height. May not the old stone pillar, " which is in the king's dale;' (2 Samuel, xvii., 18,) have been thus ornamented by after hands; "it is called to this day Absalom's place." Eveiy pious pilgrim — Jew, Turk, or Christian — still shews his abhorrence of the rebellious sou of David, by flinging a stone at this monument as he passes : a circumstance of which Jeho- shaphat, the pious King of Judah, " who walked in the ways of the Lord," might justly complain ; for his tomb, also cut out of the rock, with a Doric portico, is just be- hind, and receives an undue proportion of the ungracious missiles. Close to this stands the tomb of Zachariah, similarly hswa away from the rock, and surrounded by a plain pyramid. This is without an entrance, in fact merely an ornamented stone. Further down the valley, and just above a dry pool, lies a garden, close upon the point of the junction of the valley of Jehosha- phat with the valley of Hinnom, that runs round at the foot of Mount Zion, now rising above us in rough terraced ground, dotted with scattered wild olive trees. Near this garden is a rugged old tree, raised on a rough broken bank, said to mark the spot of Isaiah's martyr- dom. The bank is protected by a wall of stones, half in ruins, and the old tree still puts forth green foliage from its scarred and aged trunk. ISAIAH'S GRAVE. Below this, in a little corn-covered hollow, we come upon the well of Job. It is the En Rogel where Adonijah summoned a meeting of his followers, to proclaim him king,— a deep old well, consisting of a fountain, a tank, and three drinking troughs, under an arched chamber of rough hewn stones, part of a byegone mosque. A constant train of donkeys, bearing its water to the city, are seen ascending and descending on the hillsides by a steep path to Zion Gate. In the winter, when the rains are abundant, the water of this well bubbles forth, from a hole, about fifty paces below and flows with a strong stream into the brook Kedron, which then becomes a real torrent for some weeks. At such times, in this dry parched land, such an over- flow causes a general holiday, and parties are made from the city to enjoy fixe f4te. The water collects for this purpose in the subterranean basins of tha Temple, which are mostly supplied from the collected rains drained off from the city in wet weather ; hence the overflow, but Muhammedan traditions give another reason. " The Haram Sherif (Mosque of Omar) is guarded at all hours, night and day, by a guard of honour consisting of 70,000 angels, always present in the holy precincts. By a decree of the Most High, while this celestial garrison watches and prays about the sacred rock (El Sahkarah), an equal number of infernal spirits are groaning in the depths of the mountain, condemned to support the sacred building, and the vast plain about it, upon their accursed heads. This weight is heavy enough, but, beyond this, every time a faithful Mussulman, in a pure state, places his foot on the platform, the mere weight of his body augments, by sixty times, the pressure of the burthen already piled on the demons. If the devout be numerous, the sufferings of these Shayatin (evil genii) are propor- tionately augmented, and they shed tears of agony and rage. The greater the fervour of the true believers at the sanctuary, the more plentiful these tears, until the reservoirs of the Temple vaults are filled by them and overflow into the neighbouring wells. The abundance of the water in the Bir Ayaub (Well of Job) is a measure of the Creator's goodness. Only prayers are wanting to ensure abundance of water, and a consequent good harvest." Such is the legend. These wells are called, by the Jews and Christians, the Wells of Nehemiah ; and it is here, we are told, that the prophet preserved the sacred fire of the Altar in concealment, after the depar- ture of the Hebrews in captivity to Babylon, and, here, he found it safe and burning on his return. Returning back up the valley, just as we come to the foot of Zion, is the Pool of Siloam ; — ' Siloah's brook that flowed Fast by the oracles of God." Milton. It is a square basin, about fifty feet long and twenty deep, from which trickles a small stream, spreading verdure where it goes, but soon exhausted in small gardens of radishes and cucumbers. The taste of the waters is no longer sweet — it is like that of rainwater too long standing in a cistern. It was different in Isaiah's time — out of this pool was drawn the water of separation, to be mingled with the ashes of the red heifer, at the Feast of Tabernacles, and hither was the blind man sent to wash and be clean ; (John ix., 11, 17,) and now, at this moment, we see the pilgrims bending over the walls and washing, like ourselves, in its hallowed waters. The scene is beautiful from the con- trastof this spot with the general nudity and arid sterility of the soil around Jerusalem. This was the " king's dale, near the king's garden and wine-press" — a garden and pleasant green, a sparkling gem — hard by Tophet — a paradise close upon Gehenna ! On reaching the briuk FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 23 above this pleasant place, the waters, that have thus far " run softly," tumble over, and dash, splash, and rush from a hundred little cascades, to be distributed in a thousand murmuring rills, for the irrigation of this delightful spot. Upon the rock in which this pool is dug down twenty steps, stood the pleasure palace of David. The stones comprising its walls are polished by ages, and carpeted with ivy and mosses — a solace and relief to the eyes, wearied with perpetual sunshine. The women of the valley — like the daughters of Judah of old — come down these steps which shine like marble from the tread of centuries, — come up and down the cool steps with naked feet, to fill their pitchers. "We bathe our hands and foreheads, and listen to the evening wind as it sighs up the valley, sweeping over us and rustling in the trees — a music the more delicious to the ear from its strangeness, in this otherwise treeless, bare and silent land. We now return, further upon our footsteps, upwards, nearly back to the tombs of the Jews, whence a few lingering mourners are hastening homewards, belated, from a funeral, to reach the gates ere nightfall. Here we cross the brook Kedron, by the passage, now dry, where the Saviour is said to have passed over, dragged along by the brutal hands of the servants of the High Priest. They point out to us a stone in its dry bed, bear- ing the impress of the knees, the mark left by Our Lord in falling on the spot. The path up here is steep and long, by the City wall, and it will be as well to pause awhile and admire the " Golden Gate," which opened, in Herod's time, under the eastern porch of the Temple. We have told you of the traditions among the Turks that a con- quering Christian King is to enter here, and how they have walled up both its arches, and keep a guard over it. Here you will observe enormous blocks of stone — be- velled round the edges — the characteristicsof the ancient Hebrew architecture, and just such as are to be found in the walls of Baalbec. Could we remove the stones from the archway, and enter within the walls, we should find the interior passage of the " Golden Gate," inside the tower, to be seventy feet high, and orna- mented with lofty pillars, bearing rich and elaborately carved capitals. There is a legend about the closing of this gate related by Scewulf (a.d. 1103), who tells usofale3son of humility given to the Emperor He- raclius, who rode up to this gate proudly after his victory over Chosroes, king of Persia, returning in all the pride of a conqueror, and with, as he thought, a justificatory oblation in the True Cross, which he had valorously recovered from the Infidel. He thus advanced victorious to enter the Golden Gate at the head of his chivalry ; but the stones fell down and closed up the passage, so that the gate became one solid mass, until Heraclius, at the admonition of an angel, humbling himself, got off his horse, and so the entrance was opened unto him. The lesson is a good one for human pride and human sufficiency in the face of God's all absorbing vastness. We are now under what were once the Temple walls. These very stones, if not so old as Solomon's time (which they are believed to be, nor is there any reason to suppose the contrary), are, at any rate, as old as King Herod. Josephus speaks of the enormous proportions of the materials used by that magnificent monarch, and these are the great stones spoken of (Mark xiii, 1, 2.) "And as he went out of the Temple, one of his disciples saith unto him : Master, Bee what manner of stones and what buildings are here ! And Jesus answering, said unto him : Seest thou these great buildings 1 There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down !" Keeping along the wall towards the south, we remark the end of a column jutting out like a cannon from an embrasure. This is the mortice on which will be sup- ported the abutment of the famous bridge, Sirath, that immense passage-way which is to be thrown over (as Mussulmans tell us) the abyss of infernal punishment, and over which, on the Day of the Great Judgment, all the good will have to risk a passage, before arriving at the mansions of peace. This bridge, not over wide, as we see, in its commencement, is to be no thicker than a hair, and as sharp as a Damascus blade. Many will fall at the first step, but the just will be held up by guardian angels — as many in number as they have done acts of charity and mercy in life. We have now reached the angle of the wall. Here is a projection like a seat, and on this the Prophet will stand on the Day of Judgment, near the foot of the throne, to intercede for the faithful. Jesus and Mary being by his side. Turn the angle of the southern portion of the eastern wall, and we are under the mosque El-Aksa, formerly the Church of the Presentation, and erected by Justinian. We now follow the course of the conduit- pipes conveying water from Solomon's Pool, just by Bethlehem, into the city, under the wall, by the Tyropceon. To the right is the grotto whither St. Peter withdrew to lament his fault after hearing the cock crow three times, and near to it — just above — on the hill top, separated by a small interval from the Zion Gate, is the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest, now covered by a small Armenian convent. In this chapel are shown a dark corner, where Christ was imprisoned till the morning, when he was carried before Pilate, and a little to the west is the place where, as some say, the Virgin died, and whence she was carried to her tomb on Mount Olivet by the disciples. They also show " the very stone " which secured Our Lord's Sepulchre, a stone two yards long, one yard deep, and one broad. It is now, after long argument, recognised, we learn, as the true stone ; but all say (and the Armenians do not deny the fact) that it was stolen from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. 24 ALL BOUND THE WORLD. Here, likewise is the small room where Peter was frightened into the denial of his master. The Ccenaculum or " large upper room," the scene of the Last Supper, is now a Turkish Mosque, which has succeeded to a church and monastery formerly oc- cupied by the Fathers of the Holy Land. The room is on the second story, is constructed of stone, and is large and dreary, about fifty or sixty feet long by some thirty in width. An ancient tradition says, that here Our Blessed Lord celebrated the Pass- over, and, at the close, instituted the Sacrament. Here, too, he gave us the great lesson of humility, in washing his disciples' feet. Here he appeared to his disciples on the day of his Resurrection. Here, too, the Apos- tles are said to have assembled together on the day of Pentecost, when the miracle of cloven tongues was shown. This sanctuary is equally celebrated in the Old Testament. Here David built himself a palace and a tomb : here he kept, for three months, the Ark of the Covenant. The place hallowed by the Last Supper was transformed into the first Christian church the world ever beheld. Here James the Less was consecrated first Christian Bishop of Jeru- salem, and St. Peter held his first council of the Church. From this spot set forth the Apostles, on their mission to seat their religion on all the thrones of the earth. Below this is t> z most sacred of all sacred places in the estimation of the Turks. This is the Neby Daud, or Tomb of the Prophet David — the word Neby mean- ing Prophet. It is situated beneath the Ccenaculum, or " Upper Room." Its traditional locality as con- nected with the Last Supper of our Lord, and the repute of its containing the ashes of the Sweet Singer of Israel and his son the wisest of men, as well as millions of buried treasure, has led to much bribery on the part both of the Jews and Christians to obtain admission ; but in vain, for the old Sheikh who has the care of the tomb invariably receives the bribe and palms off upon the spectator a tumulus of richly canopied stone and mortar on the floor of an upper room. To one person only, besides Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, (who were only allowed, at an immense cost, to "behold it through the lattice of a trellice door,") has it been permitted to see the sacred and royal deposit of the best and noblest of kings. This was the daughter of a physician, Dr. Barclay, who went disguised, and thus describes what she saw and did : — " The reputed Tomrj of David is just outside of Zion Gate, hard by the Coeuaculum or ' Upper Room,' and the Armenian cemetery. It is surrounded by an irre- gular pile of buildings, and surmounted by a dome and minaret. In the interior are some of the most grotes- que architectural embellishments imaginable, on the capitals of some remains of the Crusader's architecture — the frightful owl occupying the place of the classic acanthus and the mystic talus. We passed several halls and corridors before reaching the consecrated apartment, the entrance to which is guarded by double iron doors. In front of these, an aged dervish lay prostrate in earnest prayer on the stone floor, and, not being privi- leged to enter within the sacred precincts, he gazed eagerly at the tomb through the iron bars. The key was fetched, the dervish dismissed, and the doors closed and double locked behiud us. The room is insignifi- cant in its dimensions, but gorgeously furnished and decorated to produce a splendid effect. The tomb is apparently a sarcophagus of rough stone of very large size — (about four times the height of a man) covered by green satin tapestry, richly embroidered with gold. On this is fixed a tablature of black velvet, framed in gold embroidery, and having inscribed upon it in rich golden bordering certain verses of the Koran. A canopy formed of red, blue, green, and yellow satin, in stripes, is suspended over the tomb. At one end of the room hangs a piece of black velvet tapestry, embroidered in silver, with an arabesque pattern ; this, they told me, covers a door leading to a cave underneath. Besides this door, and fronting a grated niche in which is suspended a golden lamp, stand two tall silver candle- sticks, each about the height of a man. The ceiling of the room is vaulted, and the walls covered with blue and pink porcelain in floral figures. The golden lamp of which I have spoken is kept constantly burning, and, to my surprise, my devout companion took from it the wick, thoroughly saturated as it was with oil, and swallowed it eagerly, doubtless with unction, mut- tering to herself a prayer, with many a genuflexion. She then, in addition to the usual form of prayer, prostrated herself before the tomb, raised the covering, pressed her forehead to the stone, and then kissed it many times. Having remained hero an hour or more and completed my sketch, we left, and great was my rejoicing when I found myself once more at home, out of danger and, still better, out of my awkward costume." Josephus tells us how Hyrcanus the High Priest, when besieged by Antiochus the Pious, opened the tomb and took out three thousand talents, with which he bought off his attack ; and subsequently how Herod the king opened another chamber and took away some furniture of gold and precious goods ; and how two of Herod's guards were slain by a wrathful flame that burst forth from the tomb, (supposed to be tho mouth of the cave covered with tho black velvet tapestry) and how Herod the king built up a pro- pitiatory tomb of white stone. Another chronicler, in whom some trust is placed, Benjamin of Tudela, and who visited Jerusalem about 1 ICO — 1170, tells the following story of this tomb : — " On Mount Zion are the sepulchres of the House of David and those of the kings who reigned after him. In consequence of the following circumstance, however, this place is hardly to be recognised at present. Fifteen years ago, one of the walls of the place of worship on Mount Zion fell down, which the patriarch ordered the priest to repair. He commanded him to take stones from the original wall of Zion, and to employ them for that purpose, which command was obeyed. Two labourers who were engaged in digging stones from the very foundation of the walls of Zion, happened to meet with one which formed the mouth of a cavern. They agreed to enter the cave and search for treasure ; and in pursuit of this object they penetrated to a large hall, supported by pillars of" marble iucrusted with gold and silver, before which stood a table with a golden sceptre and crown. This was the Sepulchre of David, King of Israel, to the left of which they saw that of Solomon and of all the kings of Judah who were buried there : they further saw locked chests, and desired to enter the hall to examine them, but a blast of wind like a storm issued from the cavern, and prostrated them almost lifeless upon the ground. Tbey lay in this state till the evening, when they heard a voice commanding them to rise up and go FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 25 forth from the place. They proceeded, terror-stricken, to the patriarch, and informed him of what had oc- curred. He summoned Rabbi Abraham, of Constan- tini, a pious ascetic, one of the mourners of the down- full of Jerusalem, and caused the two labourers to repeat the occurrence in his presence. Rabbi Abraham hereupon informed the patriarch that they had dis- covered the Sepulchre of the House of David and of the Kings of Judah. The patriarch ordered the place to be walled up, so as to hide it effectually from every- one to the present day." THE TOMB OF DAVID. We come forth from the Tomb of David, and by the light of the moon, gaze down upon Jerusalem. The hill slopes down to the south by terraces, and is of a yellowish colour and barren appearance, opening in form of a crescent towards the city. By the full light of the harvest-moon of Judaea — in April — we look out iij>on what was once the loveliest scene in the world. ?■ ' ABSALOM'S TOMB POOL OF SILOAM. The eye rests upon the Valley of Jehoshaphat, once green with many waters, and pleasant with gardens and palaces. The opening in the eastern hills leads it from steep to steep across many heights, rising over each other like tumultuous waves, to where the Dead Sea lies shining in the distance. To the right i3 the beautiful esplanade of the Mosque of Omar, the glittering domes, and the embattled walls. Beneath and near are tombs and ruins. A universal silence reigns over all ; save where the voices of the muezzin from the top of the high minarets of the Mosque ring out in prayer, which murmurs agaiu as if an echo, from various parts of the City. Five times every day the sound of prayer may be heard around Jerusalem alone breaking the silence. These prayers or namaz are five in number, and have each their allotted hour. First, that of daybreak (salath Seribh) ; this, as we learn from the Multaka (a collection of the canons of the Mahomedan Faith), was composed by Adam, at the moment when, after his expul- sion from the terrestial Paradise, he saw, for the first time the light of day, and was released from the fear of perpetual darkness. Second, the prayer of midday (salath Dlialtur), recited by Abraham on the occasion of the sacrifice of his son Isaac. Third, that of the middle of the day (salath aser), the expression of Jonah's gratitude on coming forth from the belly of the whale. Fourth, the prayer at evening (salath 26 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. Mughrub) was uttered, towards twilight, by Jesus Clivist, to assure the Eternal of liis own submission and that of the Virgin Mary. Lastly, the fifth, that of the night (salath Ereba), has Moses for its author; that prophet, having lost himself while going forth from Miclian, was, just at nightfall, in the plain of Wady Eyham, comforted by the voice of God, and composed this prayer, in thankful acknowledgment of His mercy. And thus ends our first day in Jerusalem. IV.— MOUNT ZION AND THE JEWS. To "go round about Zion and mark well her bul- warks," and see her beauty and her strength, is a task that requires no slight pedestrian strength, as well as determination, in a pilgrim traveller, We are up and out early, strongly tempted everywhere throughout our route by narrow, intricate, half-covered streets, or rather alleys, darkened with canvas where not by arches, to turn aside hither and thither by celebrated localities, long before we have reached the gate of Zion. Passing through this, we place ourselves once more at the House of Caiaphas, where we paused last night in the footsteps of the Saviour, leaving him imprisoned, and awaiting the morning to be taken before the San- hedrim or Council of the Jews, by them to be con- demned, mocked, and blasphemously maltreated. We proceed on our v.'sy to the spot where was the Council-Chamber, first pausing to look down upon the Christian burying-grounds. That of the English is on the south slope of Zion, overlooking the Valley of Hin- nom. Here lie Bishop Alexander, Robert Bateson, M.P., Dr. Schultz, the Prussian Consul, and others. That of the American Missionaries, which is on the Hill of Zion itself, though but a few years established, has some remarkable names. The burial ground of the Roman Catholics is nearer to the gate; and the story of an unfortunate there buried is so curious as to be worth noting. This is Costigan, an Irish tra- veller, who was the first in modern days to navigate the Dead Sea (a feat since successfully performed in a thoroughly professional style by Lieutenant Lynch of the American Navy), and whose death from so doing the superstition of the people hereabouts — Jew as well as Christian — have invested with peculiar terrors. He had a boat brought over from the Mediterranean to Lake Tiberias and came down tho Jordan ; sliding through its rapids with some danger, and even enter- ing with it into the Dead Sea, into which its waters constantly pour, and where it loses itself. He had only a Maltese sailor with him, and they rowed toge- ther round the sea, taking eight days to accomplish that journey. On their return Costigan was exhausted. It was in the month of July, and from nine to five dreadfully hot ; every night a north wind blew, and the waves were worse than in the Gulf of Lyons. They had suffered exceedingly from the heat, so the sailor reported; Costigan taking his turn at the oars for the first five days ; on the sixth day the water was ex- hausted, and Costigan gave in. On the seventh day they were obliged to drink the water of the sea ; and on the eighth, they were near the head of it, the sailor also being exhausted, and unable any longer to pull an oar. There he made coffee from the water of the sea ; and a favourable wind springing up, they hoisted their sail for the first time, and in a few hours reached the head of the lake. Feeble as he was, the sailor set off for Jericho; and, in the meantime, poor Costigan was found by some Arabs on the shore, a dying man, and by the intercession of an old woman was carried to Jericho. He was next conveyed up to Jerusalem, where he died in the Latin Convent ; but he never once afterwards re- ferred to his unhappy wyage ; remaining silent and — as the people about him imagined — terror stricken at the horrors he had seen while floating over the doomed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. We now enter the city by the Zion Gate. Turn to the left towards the Jewish quarter where, even before reaching it, we find our- selves in the midst of all kind of filth, ruins, and desolate waste ground overrun with the cactus. The walls of the Armenian Convent rise high on one side, shutting out all view ; on the other side the ground slopes down towards the Tyropceon through half-ruinous houses over to the site where the Temple enclosure rises. A little on one side are the houses of tho lepers — a loathsome race — whom we must avoid. See where " the grass upon the house-tops" is "withered before it be grown up." See where the woman is sitting at that hovel-door, spinning woollen yarn with a spindle, while another near her is twirling tlis ancient distaff. JEWS' QUARTER JERUSALEM. As we are looking over the Tyropceon, the Valley of the Cheesemongers, in coming down the slope - , towards the Temple wall — that within the city — let us imagine one scene of the olden times. Take the Temple in its splendour ; the Priests in all their power. Let tho murderess-queen, Athaliah, hear across the Tyropceon, as she sits stately in the Zion Palace, the rejoicings of the people, as the High Priest points to the young kiug, — preserved within those sacred precincts from the wholesale murderof his race (2 Kings, xi. 16) — "Treason !" shecries, and rushes over the connecting bridge from the Palace to the Temple, but the High Priest orders her to be taken out immediately, "and they laid hands on her," and carried her out down by " the Horse Gate," to Kedron, and there was she slain. The " great stones " of part of one arch of this bridge that Athaliah crossed, on which, too, Titus stood in order to hold a parley with the Jews in the Temple — are still here. Let us measure this one ; it is twenty-five feet long, another, twenty ; the width of the bridge we can tell from the spring of the arch remaining, and its length must have been over the Tyropceon from Zion (as it were from Snow Hill to Holbom Hill, across the Valley of the Fleet) FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 27 not less than three hundred and fifty feet. Of course there must have been several piers and arches. What a magnificent passage along this causeway, from the south porch of the Temple to Zion ! But this is not the place to speak of the glory of Zion. We are now nearing her wall ; that narrow passage like a corridor open to the sky, with that huge massive wall rising about forty feet, and at the base of the wall which supports the west side of the Temple area, is the Wailing Place of the Jews. Doubtless these large stones with bevelled edges— some of them still preserving the polish so carefully tooled upon them, as you will notice on the old Egyptian monuments — formed part of the foundations of the Holy Temple itself, certainly they are not later than Herod's day. Here we see a sad and affecting sight, the most painful spectacle in Jerusalem ; there are at least fifty Jews, old and young, white-headed, turbanned, fur-capped, or broad-hatted, along the wall, praying and lamenting, with tears running down their cheeks. They lay their foreheads against the sacred stones, they kiss them. They lean against the wall, and seemingly try to pray through cracks and crevices. The tradition which leads them to pray through, as well as against this wall is, that during the building of the Temple, a cloud rested over it, so as to prevent any entrance; and Solomon stood at the door, and prayed that the cloud might be removed, and promised that the Temple should always be opened to men of every nation desiring to offer up prayers ; whereupon the Lord removed the cloud, and promised that the prayers of all people offered up in that place should fiud acceptance in his sight ; and now, as the Mussulman lords it over the place where the Temple stood, and the Jews ai-e not permitted to enter, they endeavour to insinuate their prayers through the crevices in the wall, that they may rise from the interior to the throne of Grace (see p.32). How long and fervent their prayers ! See how they stand, with the right foot extended, and the Bible in their hand, intoning the Lamentations of Jeremiah (v., 21, 22, 23), or the Psalms of David, or singing with Isaiah (lxiv., 9-11): "Be not wrath very sore, Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever. Behold ! see ! we beseech Thee ! we are all Thy people. Thy Holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee is burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste." Benjamin of Tudela mentions this touching custom in the twelfth century. After the capture of the city by Adrian, the Jews were excluded from entering within Jerusalem, and it was not until the age of Constantine that they were permitted to approach so as to behold Jerusalem from the neighbouring hills. At length they were allowed to enter the city once a year, on the day on which it was taken by Titus, in order to wail over the ruins of the Temple ; but this privilege they had to purchase of the Roman soldiers, The present condition of the Jew at Jerusalem is exactly what it was when Neheniiah attempted their restoration. " The remnant that are left in the cap- tivity, these are in great affliction and reproach." All the Jews in Palestine are under the spiritual domination of a Chief Rabbi, called Chackham Bashi, " the First in Zion." He is assisted by a special council of seven leading rabbis, and a large number of sub-rabbis. Hither, to the Holy City, askiug but to lay their bones in Jehoshaphat, Jews crowd from all parts of the world j but there is no trade, no employment, and they are, consequently, miserably poor. The sub- scription for the Jews, generally, throughout the world, does not avail to allow the poorer Jews more than thirty shillings a year, on which wretched pittance they live miserably, starve and die, constant in their faith, though strongly tempted aside by schools, and hospitals, and allowances, and employment, offered in pious zeal by the different divisions of Protestant Christians, who lay out large sums of money annually in Jerusalem for the purpose. The converted Jew is despised by his brethren and regarded as a dead man ; but the un- converted Jew is looked down upon alike by Christian and Turk, nay, it would cost a Jew his life, even at this moment, should he venture into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or even within the outer court of his beloved Temple. They aredivisible into Sephardimaud Askenarim, or the Spanish and German communities, or southern and northern Jews, the latter numbering 4,000, the former about 7,000. Each class has its own synagogues, and are again divided. The old Pharisees still remain in the Perous-choni, which means '• sepa- rated " or " isolated." The class assuming that title affect great piety, and a knowledge of the mysteries of the Kabala. Almost all agree, however, in adopting the Talmud and its traditions as their canon. Yet there is a sect of Jews which rejects everything but the sacred Scriptures ; but it is a very smal I community, and rarely represented in Jerusalem. That swarthy proud-looking fellow with the pitchfork in his hand (see p. 49), reminds us that the Rechabites, still exist, and boast their descent from Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses,and HighPriestof Midian. They are still dwellers in tents, and still, as in the time of Jeremiah, offer an example to the faithless sous of Israel (Jeremiah xxxv., 8). They drink no wine, and would deem it a trans- gression to dwell in houses or obtain a living otherwise than by agriculture. Near this wall or Wailing- Place is a hospital founded for the Jews by the humanity of M. de Rothschild, Each bed bears the name of one of the members of that family — a monument of their charity. Here, too, is a school for Jewish children recently erected — and bountifully supported by Sir Moses Montefiore, but here, as everywhere, the Jewish quarter is full of dirt, and dust, and nasty smells. The men have a magni- ficent appearance, in spite of all the poverty and the squalor around. Having seen the Jews in their present degradation, we now revert to the Jewish Sanhedrim, in its haughty pride, and look for the place whither the Saviour of the world was brought before the Council of the Jews to be questioned. We find it in the present Mehlcemeh or Council-house (or Guildhall), of the Turks, at the western wall of the Temple, just where Josephus tells us the " first wall " of Jerusalem abutted. We learn from the Psalmist that it was built on piers or arches, and that like the present building it had one entrance to the Temple area, and another to the city. It has now a splendid Saracenic portal, and here is the most beautiful Saracenic Fountain in Jerusalem, of which our artist has made a drawing (see p. 8), showing the women of Jerusalem as of old, fetching and carrying water from it. " You shall meet a man bearing a pitcher of water," was thus a special direction whereby to notice the individual, sure to engage the attention of the disciples of our Lord, when searching for a fit place and person to prepare the Last Supper. The San- 28 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. hedrira and its subalterns, having condemned, mocked, nnd blasphemously maltreated Christ, " then led they Jesus from Caiaphas, unto the judgment seat, of Pilate," and it was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they shoidd be defiled ; but that they might eat the passover. Pilate then went out to them. The judgment hall of Pilate was undoubtedly a large apartment in the Tower of Antonia, situated on the north-west corner of the Temple area. Pilate, without condemning him, sent him up to Herod Autipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, who had, no doubt, come up to the feast, and was occupying the magnificent Palace of Herod the Great, near the Tower of Hippicus, where the chief priests and scribes stood, and vehemently accused Jesus; and Herod, with his men of war, set him at nought and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate. The governor having examined him, in- formed the chief priests and the rulers and the people assembled in the yard of the Fort of Antonia, that as neither he nor Herod could find anything worthy of death in the Messiah, he would chastise and release him. But the malicious hierarchs having finally extorted his condemnation, he is taken into the Prsetorium by the soldiers, arrayed in mock royalty, and smitten, treated with the utmost indignity and cruelty, and finally Pilate, oceuj/ying his judgment seat out on Gabbatha, or "i,ho pavement," brought him out of the Proetorium. TOWER Of DAVID, JERUSALEM. V.- THE VIA DOLOROSA. The Via Dolorosa is a steep, narrow, crooked street, vaulted with arches, and gloomily impressive in ap- pearance, even were it not for the awful reminiscence that up this steep ascent — along this gloomy way reviled, spat upon, and beaten, the meek Saviour of mankind was compelled to toil, laden with his cross, from the judgment seat of Pilate, to the Hill of Calvary. Standing with our backs to the city wall, at St. Stephen's Gate, having on the right (behind us) the church of St. Anne, where the Virgin was born, and close to the spot where the woman was healed by touching his garment, and on the left the Pool of Bethesda, where " The angels used to come from heaven and bathe," we have, to the right, a small tower of modern construction upwards, but ancient below, which is regarded as one of the five towers of Fort Antonia, and stands by an archway of pointed architecture. A few paces to the left of this is a small porch ; here w,as said to have been the celebrated Scala Sancta, or Sacred Staircase, up and down which, on his way to Herod's Palace and back, and also, after his delivery to the soldiers, the Saviour must have severaltiines ascended and descended. Itwas removed by the pious care of the Emperor Constantine to St. John the Lateran's convent. This gate opened into the Prse- toriumbytheguard-roomof the Roman soldiers. An iron, door under a gateway here, about twenty paces further up, leads into the Convent of the Flagellation, which marks the place where the soldiers mocked and scourged Our Lord. The early Christians raised a chapel on this spot ; one Quaresmius will tell you how this church was in ruins in 1618, and how the son of the Governor of that day repaired it and made a stable of it, and how on the night of the 14th January, 1619, the fete of the Holy Name — all the horses placed in it died, and so the Turks abandoned the buildings. A pious Pilgrim, Duke Maximilian, of Bavaria, saw it in 1838, deplored its condition, and paid for rebuild- ing the convent and chapel. There is still to be seen a beautiful mosaic pavement, whether of the Praetorium or the original Chapel is doubtful. Coming out of this gate we have before us the Palace of Pilate, now only a ruined portion of ahouse. A Turkish post use it for barracks. It commands a charming view of the (Temple) Esplanade of the Mosque of Omar, and the gardens and corridors, and marble pulpit of that sacred locality tsee p. 33), from that upper chamber, where you may see the Turkish colonel smoking at the window as he tranquilly enjoys the prospect. Christ having been scourged with rods, crowned with thorns (probably of the cactus, as thorny and common) and dressed in a purple robe, was presented to the Jews by Pilate. Ecce Homo ! " Behold the man !" exclaimed the Judge, and you still see the window from which these memorable words were pronounced. Over against the northern corner of Pilate's house the arch of the Ecce Homo crosses the street. A lofty gateway with a narrow gallery at the top, from which Pilate is said to have addressed the Jews on delivering the Saviour into their hands. Ecclesiastical tradition commences from these points, the numbering of what are called "The Stations" of our Lord's.journey to the crucifixion. Passing through the arch with the procession of people, soldiers, and the meek Saviour, sorely burthened with his cross, we lock up the narrow street, and we see it rapidly ascending, sometimes open, at others, gloomily covered with arches. The walls on either side rise like those of a prison. There is just such a place within Newgate, whence the prisoners pass from the cell to the gallows. It is called the Debtor's Yard, and has a passage just such as this — no wider; with just such walls and stones, which, marked with numbers, the turnkey will point out to your shuddering attention as denoting the graves of murderers, the very mention of whose names, with the memory of the awful crimes associated with them, is appalling. Go there and imagine this Via Dolorosa. The stones are rugged and slippery. A few small doorways or grated windows, or a rare wooden lattice, open into it; and at these bend the spectators, gazing on the Procession of Death. We mount the steep FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 29 ascent until we turn the street by which stands the neatly built house of the Austrian Consulate. At this corner, on the left, is a column, which marks the " Third Station," being the place where Our Saviour first sank down under the weight of the Cross. Turning our backs to this column, we see on the side of this street a dilapidated church, — what is left of the ruins of " Our Lady of Sorrows," — built on the spot where the Holy Mary — who had been atfiistdrivenaway by the guards — met her Son, bending beneath the weight of the Cross. St. Boniface and St. Anselm have preserved the tra- dition, which the love of every Christian mother has perpetuated. Mary, we know, was at the foot of the Cross, with Mary, the wife of Cleophas and Mary Mag- dalen (John xix., 25). St. Boniface tells us, that the Virgin "sank to the ground as if lifeless, and could not utter a single word." St. Anselm asserts that Christ said, "Hail, mother!" "Eighteen centuries of persecution without end," says Chateaubriand, " of in- cessant revolutions, of continually increasing ruins, have not been able to erase or hide the traces of a mother going to weep over her son." This is the " Fourth Station." The road, which before ran east and west, makes here a sharp angle, and turns to the north and south, the Via Dolorosa continuing in the latter direction — the former trending up to the Damascus Gate. Pro- ceeding southwards, about sixty yards to the left, we come to the House of the Rich Man (Lukexvi. 1.), now a Military Hospital. The stones of which it is built are laid in courses of red and white, so that you can easily recognise it. Close by here, the Jews, seeing that their victim was not able to carry his Cross any longer, caught hold of Simon the Cyreneau, who was just going into the city towards the Gate of Ephraini (a street from which leads up here), and made hiru assist in carrying it. This is the "Fifth Station." A niche in the wall at the angle of the street on our right hand, shows at a short distance on the left the broken shaft of a column marking the situation of the house, on the threshold of which Berenice, afterwards known as Saint Veronica (or the Holy Woman of the True Image), came forth to wipe the sweat of agony from the suffering Saviour's brow, and received on her hand- kerchief the full impress and character of His Holy visage. This is the " Sixth Station." Here ends the Via Dolorosa and commences the descent of Calvary. Here begins what an American missionary has called " the most interesting half acre on the face of the earth ;" for within that space are Mount Calvary, Golgotha, and the Holy Sepulchre, the scene of our Lord's Passion. We have reached the top end of the Via Dolorosa, and begin now to descend. We now pass through a portion of a vaulted Turkish bazaar, and on coming out again, see three columns denoting the spot of another, the third, fall of Our Saviour under his oppressive burthen. Each time was he driven forward as we are told, by the blows and revilings of the im- patient soldiers, amid the tears of his followers, and the pitying daughters of Jerusalem, and the outcries of the fanatic party of the Jews, many of whom — strangers from the outer country — were present for the Feast. Up the little street to the right, and we reach the square of the church of Calvary, or of the Resurrection, which is included, together with that of the Discovery of the Holy Cross — three Churches, under the one roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. "-. ----- fc-5 v VIA DOLOROSA. Thus far we have traced the Sacred Scene. It is impossible even to peruse, in the Gospels, the mournful history of Our Lord's sufferings, without the most pain- ful emotion. What must be the feelings of a Christian mind, when, with profound and melancholy admiration, it traces the scenes around, and follows the very foot- steps of the Saviour at the foot of Mount Zion, in sight of the Temple, and within the very walls of Jerusalem ! The Via Dolorosa itself is only a mile in length, but it has taken just two hours to ascend it to the present point. It has been calculated that the distance traversed by the Saviour between the " Upper Room" and Golgotha, was from four to live miles; from Zion to Gethsemane, 900 yards ; Gethsemane to House of Annas, 2,400 ; House of Annas to High Priest's Palace, 2,100; High Priest's Palace to Council House, 400 ; Council House to Prcetorium (in Anto- nia),400;Praetoriumto Herod's Palace, 1,000; Herod's Palace, back to Prsetorium, 1,000; Pratorium to Gol- gotha, 600. Total yards, 8,000. We may now step across the square and proceed on to the awful consummation of the day's proceedings as set forth before us in the magnificent and world-renowned Church of the Holy Sepulchre. VI.— THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. The representation we have given of this noble Church (page 9), taken as it is, from a photograph, and therefore unexaggerated, will give a correct notion of 30 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. the magnificent character of this august edifice, which, in its combination of style, calls to mind memories of the Crusaders, as well as the Byzantine age of its erection. The Convents that cluster round it, as if under its sacred shelter, add to its impressive ma- jesty by increase of area, and to its picturesqueness by their harmonious irregularity. Constantine's mother, the Empress Helena, built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It has been fired and ravaged, but not destroyed ; and though restored and in some parts re- built by the Crusaders and other Christians, ancient or otherwise, retains its ancient form . When Jerusalem last fell under the Muhammadan yoke, the Syrian Christians ransomed the Church of the Holy Sepulclme with a considerable sum, and monks repaired thither to defend with their prayers a spot entrusted in vain to the arms of kings. It is said that, within three centuries of Our Lord's sacrifice, the Christians obtained permis- sion to build, or rather rebuild, a church over the Tomb, and to enclose in the new City the spot venerated by the Christians. These places were afterwards pro- faned, but recovered and restored by the Princess Helena. The letter of Constantine the Emperor, to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, is still extant, in which he commands him to erect a church on the place where the great njjrsiery of Salvation was accomplished. Comings mto the court, we observe the pavement — vorn under the feet of innumerable pilgrims — the high tower, the Saracenic arches of the windows and the entrance, as well as the ruins of pillars of Byzantine architecture. This court is paved, you see, with the common flag-stone of Jerusalem, and is about ninety feet long by seventy wide. The two ample doorways are elaborately ornamented, but the whole is greatly dilapidated. The tower on the west has a grand effect : there are now but two stories, and the ruins of a third, but there were once five. The under story is the Chapel of St. John ; south of it is that of Mary Mag- dalene, and adjoining this is the Chapel of St. James ; connected with it and facing the western side of the court, is a range of chapels ; the apse, or semicircular opening behind the altar, (by which the priest passes to pre- pare the Host), appearing externally as buttresses. The whole is a vast and beautiful monument of the Byzantine age, of an architecture severe, solemn, grand and rich. The monument appears, if not worthy of the Tomb of the Son of Man, certainly of those whose wish has been to do it honor. The small Mosque which faces this magnificent edifice was built by Omar, when, after conquering the city, he came to offer his prayer at the Holy Tomb. But a difficulty arose in the generous mind of the pious Chief of the Faithful. The act of his kneeling there would immediately, accord- ing to usage, have converted the whole building into a mosque, and so deprived the Christians of their most cherished monument. Desirous, withal, of not passing the Tomb of the Prophet Jesus without offering up his thanks for the victory he had obtained, Omar ordered the place on which this mosque stands to be cleared of the filth and ruins which encumbered it, and, prostrating himself there, addressed a namaz, or prayer, to the Eternal, of which the mosque itself was, subsequently, erected in commemoration. The property in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is vested in the Sultan, as a means of ensuring free and joint access to all communities of the Christians and Turks ; whose representatives, resident on the spot, would otherwise, as they too often do even now, profane it by their indecent quarrels. Even now, Turks and Christians alike unanimously refuse admission to the .Jew, who, as a descendant of the Saviour's murderers, would enter at the sure peril of his life. The key is in the hands of the governor of the Crty. The door is opened only at fixed hours, and then only with the consent of the three convents, Armenian, Latin, and Greek. The rush of pilgrims this day is something tremendous: we have some difficulty in pushing our way through the motley throng. Every man of any sensibility must feel affected at the sight of so many people of all nations, thus pressing to the tomb of Christ the Saviour of all, and at hearing prayers offered up to Him in so many different languages, here on the very spot where the Holy Spirit gave to twelve humble men, the Apostles of God, the gift of speaking in all the tongues of the earth. With this serious and solemn impression we enter the nave, passing the Turkish guard, who, sitting on a divan, in the western entrance, have their coffee cups and pipes placed before them on the carpet. Pilgrims, travellersand visitors of every hue and dye of the Frank order, are ex- pected, if not required, to make bare both head and foot on entering any of the sacred localities of the Holy City, whether Jesuit, Moslem, or Christian ; and at the Holy Sepulchre, the visitor is expected to doff his shoes as well as his hat : nor must you cross your hands behind your back, or show the slightest gesture of "taking it easy," or longing disrespect — if such vul- garity of mind could bypossibility display itself within such precincts, or in the presence of such memories. We see, at once, on issuing from the vestibule, that we are in the first of the three churches that constitute the great whole, and that the Church of Calvary, the first we enter, is built in- the form of a cross, the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre constituting in fact the nave of the edifice. We stand at once under the large cupola of the dome. This grand rotunda is most striking and impressive. It rises to a height of about one hundred feet, and the circular opening at the top, for light, is about fifteen feet in dia- meter. We have to observe, that to the shame of Christendom the roof is out of repair, for the covering of lead has been torn off by the wind, and there is a contest for the right of repairing it. Sixteen marble columns adorn the circumference of this rotunda. They are connected by seventeen arches, and support an upper gallery, likewise composed of sixteen columns and seventeen arches, of smaller dimensions than those of the lower range. Niches corresponding with the arches appear above the frieze of the second gallery, and the dome springs from the arches of these niches. The pictures of the twelve apostles, St. Helena and the Emperor Constantine, with some other portraits, unknown, that once adorned these niches, were destroyed by the fire in 1808. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands at the foot of Calvary, its eastern front adjoins that eminence, beneath and upon which are the two other churches connected with it by courts and staircases. We have omitted to mention that in this original dome were large beams of the cedars of Lebanon, 1 1 The Cedar of the Bible is now confined to one locality. The celebrated Cedars of Lebanon are situated high up in the mountains, ten hours (or about twenty -eight miles) south cast from Tripoli. Besherrah is directly west in the romantic gorge of the Khadisha, two thousand feet below them, and Ehden is three hours' distant on the road to Tripoli. In no other part of Syria are the mountains iflwe THE WARING PLACE-JEWS PRAYING AT THE WALL OF THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. VOL. I. FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 85 destroyed by the fire of 1808, and impossible to be replaced. 1 The Greek church opens from the Rotunda, and is in a lino with it, though separated by a partition of uainted wood hung with pictures, and singularly profuse with ornaments of every description. It is a gorgeous affair, blazing with gold quite up to the dome. It has a high altar at the east end, and wide transepts at the west, and is about a hundred feet from west to east, and the same from north to south. The dark-looking chapel of the Latins, opening from the north-east, will not sustain a comparison with the gorgeous glitter of the Greeks ; nevertheless, these churches altogether do not fail to create a solemn and impressive feeling. Erected as they are on an unequal surface, illumined by a multitude of lamps, a sombre, dim, religious light pervades the whole, and is singularly mysterious. Priests of the different divisions of Christianity are seen moving about the building. From the arches above, from the chapels below, and subterranean vaults, their songs are heard, the organ of the Latin fathers, the cymbals of the Abyssinian priest, or the plaintive accents of the Coptic friar, alternately or at once assail the ear. You inhale the perfume of incense all around, and merely perceive the pontiff — who is going to cele- brate the most awful of mysteries on the very spot where they were accomplished — pass quickly by, glide so alpine, the proportions so gigantic, the ravines so profound and awful. The platform on which they stand is more than six thou- sand feet ahove the Mediterranean, and around it are gathered the very tallest and grayest heads of Lebanon. The forest is not large, not more than five hundred trees, great and small, grouped irregularly on the sides of shallow ravines which mark the birth of the Khadisha river. A night among the cedars is never for- gotten — beneath the giant arms of these old patriarchs there comes a solemn hush upon the soul. Some of the trees are struck down by lightning, broken by enormous loads of snow, or torn to frag- ments by tempests. There is a complete gradation from old to young — young trees are constantly springing up from the roots of old ones and from seeds of ripe cones. 'The girth of the largest is more than forty-two feet : the height of the highest may be one hundred. These largest, however, part into two or three only a few feet from the ground. Their age is very uncertain, judging from what are called the growths or annual concentric circles. The birth of some of them may be carried back three thousand five hundred years. They are carved full of names and dates, and the growth since the earliest date has been almost nothing. At this rate of increase they must have been growing ever since the Flood ! 1 Of the fire which attacked- the tomb in 1808, the fol- lowing account is given by an eye-witness : — " The heat was so excessive, that the marble columns which surrounded the circular building, in the centre of which stood the sacred grotto, were completely pulverised. The lamps and chan- deliers, with the other vessels of the Church — brass, and silver, and gold — were melted like wax ; the molten lend from the immense dome, which crowned the Holy Sepulchre, poured down in torrents; the Chapel erected by the Crusaders on the top of the monolith was entirely consumed ; half the ornamental hangings in the ante-chapel of the Angel were scorched; hut the cave itself, though deluged with a shower of lead and buried in a mountain of fire, received not the slightest injury internally ; the silk hangings and the painting of the liesurreetion remaining, in the midst of the volcanic eruption, unscathed by flame, the smell of fire not having passed upon them." This was not the first escape of the Holy Sepulchre from destruction by fire. In 969 the Kaliph Slue/, gave orders to destroy the buildings, as far, at least, as destruction could be compassed by fire; and during the Klialifate of El-Hakim, the prophet of the Druses, in 1010 the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre was defaced and special eilbrts made to destroy it. Glaher, a contemporary chronicler, relates that they endeavoured to break in pieces even the hollow tomb of the sepulchre with iron hammers, but without success, and Andemar, another chronicler and pilgrim, states that when they found it impossible to break in pieces the stones of the monument, they tried to destroy it by the help of fire, but that it remained firm and solid as adamant. behind the columns, and vanish in the gloom of the sanctuary. There are some seventy "stations" within, and con- nected with this mass of buildings, and a visit to them all is no light achievement. The whole pile of edifices is three hundred and fifty feet long from St. Joseph's sepulchre, within the "aisle on the west of the Rotunda, down to the extremity of the Chapel of the ' Inven- tion' on the east, and it is not less than two hundred and eighty feet to the north side of the apartments belonging to the Latins. We will, therefore, for the sake of a more lucid order in visiting the shrines, resume our footsteps in the procession of Our Lord towards Calvary, and pass through the localities of the last impressive scenes described in the Evangelists. We enter the Latin Chapel, and cross it to where, at the right hand, is the Altar of the Scourging, where, through an iron railing, is a portion of the pillar to which the Saviour was attached while flogged by the soldiers in Pilate's court-yard. There are pilgrims here, like the curious country folks who, when they visit London exhibitions, desire to touch everything. For these is provided a long stick, with a handle outside, which the pilgrim thrusts in to touch the pillar, and then draws out to kiss the point, made sacred, as he supposes, by the contact. Passing hence, to the ex- treme of the left nave, we enter a small vaulted chapel — seven feet long, and six wide — called the Chapel of the Bonds, where Our Lord was confined pending the preparations for his crucifixion. This chapel is on the opposite side to Mount Calvary. In the circular cave adjoining is the shrine of St. Lon- ginus, the Jewish soldier who pierced Our Lord's side after his death. Here he retired after the deed, and reflecting on what he had seen, received the inspiration of his new faith. In this chapel the inscription on the Cross is said to have been long preserved. Very close to this is the " Chapel of the Division of the Gar- ments," five paces long and three broad, standing on the very spot where Jesus was stripped by the Soldiers before he was nailed to the Cross, where they mocked him, cast lots for his apparel, and divided it among them (John xix., 23). This is called the "Tenth Sta- tion." Leaving this chapel, and turning to the left as we come out of it, we find a great staircase pierced through the wall — (on the other side of this opening is the small "Chapel of the Mocking") — and, diving down, dark and mysteriously, into a kind of cellar dug out of the rock, pass by a flight of thirty broad stairs down to a most striking spot, on the left. This is the Chapel of St. Helena, a large chamber, nearly a square (>f eighteen paces, with a small cupola in the centre, having four small windows, that admit a dim light. The cupola springs from arches supported by four short Byzantine pillars, with ponderous but picturesque capi- tals. Strings of ostrich eggs, suspended from pillar to pillar, and a few silver lamps, are the only ornaments. The pavement is broken and rugged. Here the Empress Helena offered up her prayers, and here is the marble chair on which she sat and watched the workmen digging for the True Cross. Lower and lower we descend, by thirteen steps, into the subterra- nean cave. This is covered with red tapestry; and a marble slab, bearing on it a figure of the Cross, closes up the mouth of the pit from which the venerated relics of the True Cross were dug out, "togetherwith the nails, the crown oi thorns, and the head of the spear, after lying buried in this place upwards of three hundred years. " 36 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. There are but few lights here — the scene is solemn and impressive: what wonder that the o'erwrought feelings of enthusiastic pilgrims have regarded even the moisture exuding from the heai't of the rock as tears wept for sorrow at Our Lord's sufferings ! Returning up the double flight of steps, emerging from the sombre cavern to the still dim light of St. Helena's chapel, into the full- er twilight, as it then looked to us, of the great church, studded with lamps like stars, we feel the full effect of its solemn antiquity and sacred gloom, its dim retiring arches, and shadowy corridors, its lamps, and lights, and pictures, its pealing organs and chanted prayers; while fancy called before our mind the long array of knights and pilgrims who, century after century, through so many perils, had come to kneel around the Sacred Tomb, and, like us, turned their feet, shuddering and awe-struck, towards Calvary. Immediately after coming up the forty-nine stairs, we see, on our right, the " Chapel of the Mocking," a little place four yards long and two and a half broad, under the altar of which is a pillar of gray marble spotted with black, two feet high, on which Jesus ■was forced to sit down while the soldiersin mockery crowned him with thorns, and cried, "Hail ! King of the Jews !" and smote him. Forty yards far- ther on we come to a narrow staircase of eighteen marble steps, up which we ascended to the top of Mount Calvary, the place of the crucifixion. This place, once so ignominious, having been sanctified by the blood of Our Lord, was an object of particular attention of the first Christians. Having removed every impurity, and all the earth which was upon it, they surrounded it with walls, so that it is now like a lofty chapel inclosed within this spa- cious church. It is fifteen feet square, paved with marble in mosaic, and hung on all sides with silken tapestry, with lamps descending from the ceiling. Two short pillars support the spring of two arches ; that towards the north is the spot where Our Lord was nailed to the cross, and is the "Twelfth Station" of the Pil- grimage. Here thirty -two lamps are kept continually burning, which are attended by the Franciscan brothers, who daily perform mass in this sacred place. In the other part, which is to the south, is where the Holy Cross was erected. You still see the hole dug in the rock to the depth of about a foot and a-half, besides the earth that was about it at the time. This is at the foot of a large FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 37 altar at the end, adorned with paintings and figures. Tinder that altar is a round plate of silver, with a hole in the centre. On each side, rather close, is another, wherein the crosses of the two thieves were erected. That of the penitent thief was to the north, and the other to the south, so that the first was on the Saviour's right hand, who had his face turned towards the west and his back to Jerusalem, which lies to the east. Fifty lamps are kept constantly burning on this spot, which is the " Thirteenth Station." The thieves, it must be noticed, are said to have been buried, as was the custom with such culprits, close by their crosses — generally with them — and it is said that, under the pavement of St. Helena's chapel is a hollow place that was used for that purpose. Look down on this same platform of marble (for all is richly encased), and you will see some brass bars, having a silk cover over them. Lift that silken cover, and you will observe a fissure or crevice in a rock, — the rock that was rent asunder by the dying cry of Our Lord — in the agonies of Death — "My God! My God! why hast thou forsaken me !"' There is an iron grating, with steps, down which you may descend and see the cleft, going further into, and splitting the rock. 1 Opposite this place is a large monument, said to be erected over the skull of Adam, — a singular Arab tradition strangely connecting with the Saviour's death on this spot the first man through whom all sinned, and the God in man through whom the sins of man are remitted. There is evidently some very ancient tradition respecting a skull connected with this locality, for the names of Golgotha and Calvary given to it in the old times are, otherwise, inexplicable; and the learned, who have not taken this tradition into ac- count, or perhaps have never heard of it, seem to have puzzled themselves greatly about the interpretation of these words. We descend from Calvary down by a second stair- case, that brings us out again to the porch of the Church ; so that we now see before us, level with its pavement, surrounded by a railing, with six colossal candlesticks burning beside it, a long flat slab of white marble, not quite eight feet in length and about ten feet in width, round which crowds of pilgrims, old men, young women, and children are prostrating themselves — the rich man and the beggar, the pale Frenchman and the swarthy Copt, kneeling, praying in all attitudes, and kissing the " Stone of Unction," for such it is; that upon which the body of our Lord was said to have been anointed with myrrhs and aloes before it was laid in the Sepulchre. This consequently is the '•' Four- teenth Station." This stone is by some said to be of the same rock as Mount Calvary ; others assert that it 1 Henry Maundrell, in his journal (1697), says : " At about one yard and a-lialf distance from the hole in which the foot of the cross was fixed, is seen that memorable cleft in the rock, said to have been made by the earthquake which happened at the suffering of the God of nature, when, as St. Matthew witnesseth (Math, xxvii., 51.), ' The rocks rent, and the very graves were opened.' This cleft, as to what now appears of it, is about a span wide at its upper part, and two deep, after which it closes, but it opens again below, as you may see at another chapel, contiguous to the side of Calvary, and runs down to an unknown depth in the earth. That this rent was made by the earthquake that happened at Our Lord's passion, there is only tradition to prove, but that it is a natural and genuine breach, and not counterfeited by any art, the sense and reason of every one that sees it may convince him ; for the sides of it fit like two tallies to each other, and yet it runs in such intricate windings, as cannot well be counterfeited by art, nor arrived at by any instruments." was brought to this place by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who were secret disciples of Jesus Christ. There are pieces of it to be seen in different parts ot Europe, which are of a greenish colour; indeed, so indiscreet were pilgrims in breaking away relics that the whole would have been lost, and it was at last found necessary to cover it with white marble and surround it with an iron railing. On the left is another spot encircled also with railing, and having a lamp burning within it. Here stood " the women," the Virgin Mother and Mary Magdalene, and the sister of Lazarus, sadly gazing on the loved and honoured dead during the anointing. The Entombment follows the Anointing. It is the last stage (the Fifteenth Station of the pilgrimage) in the awful story. Thirty paces further on, to the right, we are under the cupola ; just in the centre of the great dome, approached by a slightly elevated platform, reached by two steps from the side, but gradually led irp to from the front, we perceive sixteen golden candlesticks, exceeding the height of a man, with blazing wax candles of colossal dimensions, placed in front of a beautiful Gidicula or small marble church enclosing the tomb in which the Lord of Life lay in death. It stands quite alone, and is about ten feet in breadth and twenty feet in height, and twenty-six feet long. It is here that the pilgrim is expected to throw off his shoes, " for the place is holy." We enter within the first of the two sanctuaries into which it is divided ; here is the stone where the Angel was seated when he addressed the two Maries " He is not here, but he is risen ;" and, as well on account of this, and to prevent the Sepulchre from being entered, the first Christians erected before it a little chapel, which is called the Angel's Chapel. The second Sanctuary incloses the Sepulchre itself, which is, in fact, the rock that contained the Sepulchre hewn bodily away, as the rock itself can be seen under the lintel of the low entrance. Within is a sarcophagus covered with white marble, and the rock itself is all cased round with greenish marble, like verd-antique. Forty lamps of gold and silver, always burning night and day, light this chapel. The air is warm and balmy with perfume. You enter through a curtain, and if possible — except on such days as this, of Easter festival — alone, with but one guardian monk. The interior of the Sepulchre is nearly square; it is six feet in length, (except an inch), and six feet (all but two inches) in breadth ; and eight feet high from the floor to the roof. The entrance, which faces the east, is only four feet high, and two feet and a quarter broad, so that all must stoop that enter. Nor ■within is there much room, for the solid block of the same stone, left in excavating the other part, and hewn into the sarcophagus shape, is two feet four high, and being six feet (but one inch) long, and two feet wide, it occu- pies half the Sepulchre. On this table the body of Our Lord was laid, with his head towards the west, and the feet to the east; but on account of a notion of the Oriental Christians that, if they place their hail- on this stone, God will never forsake them, and also because the pilgrims broke off pieces, it was covered with white marble. We enter with reverence, and we come forth with awe. Such impressions admit not of words. " Death," says Chateaubriand, "lies conquered and enchained in this monument." '•' All the pious emotions," says Lamartine, " which have affected our souls in every 38 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. period of life ; all the prayers that have been breathed from our hearts and our lips in the name of Him who taught us to pray to his Father and to ours ; all the joys and griefs, of which these prayers were the inter- preters, are awakened in the depths of the soul, and produce by their echoes, by their very confusion, a bewildering of the understanding and a melting of the heart which seeks not language, but transpires in moistened eyes, a heaving breast, a prostrate forehead, and lips glued in silence to the sepulchral stone." This stone has been aptly called the material visible foundation of the whole edifice of Christians. The respect which all men acknowledge to have felt on coming near to these relics is one of the most remark- able facts in the modern world. An incontestable truth seems to take its departure from this spot. Doubt, hesitate, suggest, as many do, — it has been found impossible by any to approach this one spot without awe and veneration. " To the Christian or the philo- sopher," as has been finely said, "to the moralist, or to the historian, this tomb is the boundary of two worlds — the ancient and the modern. From this point issued a truth that has reversed the universe ; a civili- sation that has transformed all things ; a word which has echoed over the whole globe. This tomb is the sepulchre of the old world, cradle of the new; never was earthly stone the foundation of so vast an edifice ; never was tomb so prolific ; never did doctrine, inhumed for three days or three centuries, so victoriously rend the rocks which men had sealed over it, give the lie to death by so transcendent a resurrection." 1 Twelve yards from the Holy Sepulchre is a chapel containing a large block of grey marble, about four feet in diameter, placed there to mark the spot where Our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene in the form of a gardener. (John xx., 15.) Farther on is the " Chapel of the Apparition," where, as tradition asserts, Our Lord first appeared to the Virgin Mary, after his resurrection. The Copts, a very small community, have an altar immediately behind the Holy Sepulchre itself. In a straight line from this, the Syrians have a chapel, behind which is a small door between two pillars to the left, as we stand with our backs to the Holy Sepulchre. In this cavern are two openings, constituting, as we are told, the Tombs of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. As you pass from the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre, into the Greek Church, you see in the centre, under the cupola, a spot marked out as the navel or centre of the world. But it is Easter Sunday, and the Turkish Guards are enter- ing, for it is now mid-day, and the great Greek cere- mony of the Sacred Fire is about to take place. We must pass, therefore, with rapid gknee, the Tombs of Adam and Melchisedek, an Arab and Turkish intro- duction into the Church. Greeks, Arabs, and Copts, Germans, French and Italians crowd in upon the entrance, | According to Eusebins, the Emperor Constantine, being divinely moved thereto soon after his memorable vision of the Cross, "In hoc aigno vinces"—{" Under this banner sbalt tlion conquer") caused the dirt and other obstructions with which Hiidrian had covered the rocky cavern, as well as the sanctuai-v of Venus, that had been erected by his order upon a vast hill of earth heaped over the ancient Christian chapel which marked his shrine, to be removed, and a magni6ecnt Temple to be built about it. The monticule containing the sepulchre of our Lord was cut away until it became only a foot or two in thickness around the cavern, which seems at that time to have been converted into a double-roomed sepulchre, and was covered with marble within and without and all rush tumultuously towards the orifice on the right side of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek Arch- bishop, with a long retinue of priests, marches in pro- cession round the tomb. At last the Archbishop enters the Chapel of the Angel, and, after a few moments of I awe-stricken silence, — the multitude expecting the Divine presence, and a miraculous fire from within, — thrusts through an opening in the (Edicula, a bunch of thirty -three wax candles — one for each year of the Saviour's life. These are alight, and are received from him by a person specially privileged. It is impossible to describe the tumult that ensues. There were thousands of pilgrims of all nations present, all in a state of frantic excitement, and they shouted and screamed. The tremulous motion of the arms of so many people at once raised above their heads was in itself surprising. Hands were crossed in every direction, torches blazed in every hand, and a mounted horseman waiting at the gate rides off full speed to Bethlehem to light up the Greek altars there from this sicred fire. The Arch- bishop was carried back in triumph to his sanctuary, brandishing his torches as he went, and looking like one possessed. The smoke of the torches, and the waving lights, and the shouts of the people, create an intensely exciting scene. The first hurry is to get a light for the candle each carries, and then each tries to snuff out his candle, after a short time, with his skull-cap of linen, called lekie, and worn under the turban, tarbush, or fez. This is to be reserved for his burial head-dress. The noise increases, until fervour rises to fuiy, and enthusiasm becomes con- verted to a riot ; so, at last, the Turkish soldiers quietly but unceremoniously clear the church of its excited and exulting congregation. As we go forth, we look in at the side of the vestibule, at the tombs of Earls Baldwin and Godfrey de Bouillon, the cru- sading Kings of Jerusalem, which are two stone coffins supported by four little pillars. The epitaphs, which were inscribed in Gothic letters, but are now efikced, may be Englished as follows: — " Here lies the renowned chieftain Godfrey of Bou- illon, who gained over the whole of this land to the worship of Christ. May his soul reign with Christ. Amen." "Baldwin the king, another Judas Maccabeus, his country's hope, the strength of the Church, the valor of both, whom Candia, and Egypt, and Dan, and even the murderous Damascus, held iu terror, and paid tribute to, lies below, inclosed within this narrow tomb." The pious deliverers of Jerusalem were worthy of reposing near the tomb they rescued from the infidels. These are the only mortal remains interred near the shadow of the tomb. of Christ. VII. —THE TEMPLE, AND THE MOSQUE OF OMAR. From whatever part we view Jerusalem, the Moriah or Temple Enclosure, with its cypresses, minarets with esplanade, and its domes and colonnades, and the Mosque of Omar the Great, forms a conspicuous object in the grand picture. To enter within these precincts is not easy. It was worth a man's head to do so a few years ago; but an Englishman first got in under the disguise of an engineer, then an American doctor, then an English artist, then some ordnance officers, then some naval officers of our own country, then a number of Omar Pacha's Hungarian and Polish friends : until, FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 39 finally, tolerable interest with either Consul, and the companyofan artist, supposed by the fanatic Mussulmans to be sketching for the purpose of repairs by the Architect Effendi, will open the way to you, or any one else, as it did to us. "We have seen the Temple of Solomon and of Herod fall under the arms of Titus, while not even the device of the Emperor Julian the Apostate, who desired to raise it in aggravation as he thought of the Christians, sufficed to execute the work. Fire springing from the earth, and terrible utterances, as we learn from Ammianus Marcelinus (xxiii., 1.), prevented the accomplishment of his impious defiant boast. But when the Caliph Omar took the city, he searched on this spot, the ancient mountain, of Moriah, where Abraham had offered up his son, for the sacred stone on. which the Prophet Jacob, 'The dreamer of God,' (Israel Allah) had laid his head during his vision. (Genesis xxviii., 1 0.) This he found, and cleared from the dirt that covered and surrounded it, and built upon it the Mosque, which he called Kubbali, orKubbet eshSakhra, (the Dome of the Stone or Rock). 1 Abdul Malik the First, when he prohibited the pil- grimage to Mecca, and placed the Mosque of Jerusalem on a level with the Kaaba at Mecca, aggrandized the value of the spot in Muhammedan eyes. The Cru- saders converted the Mosque into a Church. But Saladin restored the rights of Mosleuiisin, and they tell us how he caused the Holy Place to be purified by washing the whole with rose water, brought for the purpose on the backs of five hundred camels. At this day, Jerusalem stands next in Moslem estimation to Mecca and Medina, as the present concourse of pilgrims shows us, as well as the perpetual muttering of the pious, while reading the Koran for themselves and others. The Guard of seventy thousand angels is repre- sented, visibly, by two hundred negroes, whose post or barracks disguise the beauty of the esplanade (see p 33). In our view the area is free, the photograph having been taken early in the morning ; but, when we were there, you might have seen in every direction numerous groups, many of them composed of females, some kneeling in prayer, others gossiping, as is their custom on a warm afternoon. Dervishes in various costume, and people drawing water at the many fountains (there are 34) are also visible. The " Dome of the Chain," an exqui- sitely elegant building, a mosque on a small scale, stands in front of the Great Mosque on the Eastern side, between it and the Eastern Gate, where are some steps up which Burak, the steed that bore Mahomet 1 The only meritorious attempt that has been made to arrive at some knowledge of what this Temple of Solomon and of Zerubbabel was, has been made by Mr. S. Sharpe. That gentle- man propounds, upon sound data, that it was not a covered building, as the English word might lead us to suppose. The Hebrew and Greek words mean a holy place, which included several courts, in one of which stood the covered building of the House of the Lord. Mr. Sharpe believes that Solomon copied the plan of some of the Egyptian temples, the simplest of which consisted of a covered building, with a court in front surrounded by a wall or colonnade. Such are the plans of the temples of Upper Egypt. In the Temple of Bubastis, in Lower Egypt, there was a wall surrounding the whole, so that the building stood not at one end of a court, as in the Theban temples, but in the middle of it. Solomon's Temple resembled in some respects both of these. There was a court in front of the house, and a yet larger court which inclosed the house with the inner court. The porch of this temple with two square pillars— Jachin and Boaz— may be explained by the pillars in front of an Egyptian temple. to Heaven, carried the prophet to his sacred rock. It is supported by seventeen marble columns, and here it is that the Prophet, as tradition says, saw the Houris during his nocturnal journey heavenwards. Here is a praying place turned towards Mecca, said to be the Mihrab, or Praying Place of David; for, here was " David's Judgment Seat," they tell us. Nor was his task difficult, as to this spot came down a chain from Heaven — (hence the " Dome of the Chain")— to which each party in the suit stretched out his hand in swearing to his evidence, and from which a link dropped off in case of perjury. David's people were not over- strict in evidence: for they swore away the whole chain during his reign, and not a link of it, says Turkish tradition, existed in Solomon's time. The Eastern Gate here is called " The Gate of Death." The northern gate (in front of us) is the gate of Paradise. On coming up into this second esplanade which rises from the great enclosure, we had to take off our shoes and put on red slippers, which are sold for the pur- pose in the bazars. The whole of the Haram enclosure as it is called, is very large, containing about thirty-five acres, or 1500 feet on the east side, 1600 on the west, 1000 on the north and 900 on the south — including Fort Antonia on the north and the Mosque of El Aksa on the south. At the eastern end was, according to an Arabic MS. by Kadi Mejr-eddin, the Gate of Repent- ance. " When an Israelite transgressed, his sin was found in the morning written on the door of his house ; then he went to this place to repent and beseech God. The sign of his pardon was the disappearance of the writing ; and so long as it was not obliterated, he dared not approach any one." The Great Mosque is pannelled outside with beau- tiful arabesque and mosaic work, and verses of the Koran in letters of gold, and both courts are paved with white marble. The Mosque, it will be seen, is octagonal, with a dome of an egg shape covered with lead, and a lantern with eight sides, having a window in each, a pinnacle under a crescent overtopping all. The eight windows in the lantern are fitted with stained glass, and the whole has a Saracenic appearance. 1 here are twelve porticoes like the cloisters of the Alhambra, of three or four arches, the largest of which is said to be the Beautiful Gate of St. Paul. Near the one on the south side, not visible in our illustration, stands a beautiful Muhammadan pulpit and staircase, the stair- case, pillars and arches of which are exquisite specimens of Arabian taste. Within the Mosque the light is dimmed by the stained glass windows; the effect is one of a rich simplicity. The pavement as well as the walls is of marble, grey or white ; 2S columns of porphyry form a concentric nave, a second range of sixteen columns sup- ports a dome covered with golden arabesque ; but the general prevalence of pillars gives a Byzantine appear- ance to the building, and has led, in some quarters, to a suggestion that this may have been a superstructure raised by Constantine.* ' Father Roger tells of a curious legend. " Besides the thirty- two colums which support the vault and dome, there are two of smaller dimensions very near the west door, which arc shewn to foreign pilgrims, who are made to believe that if they can pass with ease between those columns, they are are predestined to share the jovs of Mahomet's paradise." It is likewise said, that "if a Christian were lo pass between these columns, they would close upon him and crush him to death." 40 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. Immediately under this dome is El Sakrah, or the Rock, also called Hadjar, or the Stone par excellence, a mass of native rock, the sole remnant of the top of Moriah, some sixty feet long by fifty wide, and ten or twelve feet high on the lower side. It is sur- rounded here by a railing of wood elaborately carved and gilt. Soewulf, speaking of this rock in the Crusaders' time, when he made his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, says, " In this place Solomon placed the Ark of the Covenant, having the manna, and the rod of Aaron, which flourished and budded there, and produced almonds, and the two tables of the Old Testament. Here Our Lord Jesus Christ, wearied with the violence of the Jews, was accustomed to repose; here was the place of confession, where his disciples confessed themselves to him ; here the Angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias, saying, ' Thou shalt receive a child in thy old age ; ' here Zacharias, the son of Berachias, was slain between the Temple and the Altar; here was the offering of Our Lord ; and here he was found sitting in the midst of the Doctors ; the footmarks of the Lord were here made when he concealed himself, and went out of the Temple, lest the Jews should stone him; and, finally here the woman taken in adultery was brought before him for judgment." There are many more traditions, but we will go on with the Turkish legend. .From this rock, Mahomet, after his celebrated night journey from Mecca, on the beast El Burak, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel (as described in the seventeenth chapter of the Koran) ascended to Heaven, leaving the print of his foot, which is an object of veneration to all true believers. Some say that the impression of the foot is that of the prophet Enoch, called in Arab Ur Idriss, or the studious. He was a great astrologer and the inventor of writing. His charity was equal to his knowledge, and to reward him God preserved him from death, and translated him alive to Heaven. This also is the rock from which the four great rivers of the East flow. It is said to be suspended in space, or supported on an invisible palm-tree, which is itself held up by the mothers of the two great prophets, Jesus and Muhanmu-d. The Blessed Mothers sit at the universal spring, busied in weaving garments for the just who have traversed Sirath (the invisible bridge), without falling. Jewish tradition makes this rook that on which the Ark rested, within the Holiest of Holies. It was hidden by the curtain behind which the High Priest alone had the right of entering to pronounce there the holy name of God, — the pronunciation of which word, the Rabbis tell us, is now lost, — the letters only, of Jehovah, remaining to us. Down eight steps, we come to a large chamber or cave hewn in the Rock. Around this are five hollow places, at which Abra- ham, David, Solomon, Jesus, and Muhamraed are said to have successively prayed. The cave is 8 feet high and 15 feet square. The ceiling of this cave is about four or five feet below the surface of the rock, from four to six feet thick, and pierced with an oval-shaped hole about three feet in diametei - . The sides are plastered, " in order," as is said, " to produce the impression that this immense rock is now supported by a wall of masonry," people having been frightened at seeing so large a rock sup- ported on nothing ! There is a round piece of stone about the centre of the floor, which marks the site of the Bir Arruah (Well of Souls), formerly kept open for the convenience of holding intercourse with departed spirits— of the wicked, we ought to say, for this is supposed to be the entrance to the Muhammedan Hell. There is something like a tongue cut in the rock above the entrance, and this, they say, spoke to the Caliph Omar very much after the fashion of the Irish echo, which i*eplied to Pat's " How d'ye do I" with a " Very well, I thank you;" for when Omar, in his CAVE UNDER THE TEMPLE HILL lirib JEWS AT JERUSALEM. FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 43 delight at finding Jacob's Pillow, said to the stone, Esh salam aleik, ("Health to you") ; the stone, not to be behind in civility to the Prophet's nephew, replied at once "-the same to yon '.'' Aleiki esh salam ! Down in the cave we saw the mark of Muhammad's turban, where he knocked his brad against the wall in his fervour after the ride in one night from heaven to this place. Up stairs we go — unable to believe any more — but here we are shown on a desk the Caliph Omar's copy of the Koran, a MS. with pages four feet long, the sword and standard of Ali, the shield of Hamzeh, the Prophet's companion, and a stone strangely shaped, the saddle of Barak, the Prophet's mule ! There is a few paces from the rock, a green slab of marble, with the marks of eighteen nails, said to have been of gold, ten only remaining. There are now only three iron nails left in it, and the priests say that at certain great events a nail is drawn, and that the three remainingjinark the distance of time before the destruc- tion of the world, there being three ages only between us and that consummation. Then Issrafil is to sound Burun (the trumpet of Death) and forty years after- wards, the trumpet of Resurrection, upon which the judgment will ensue. 1 Cuming out of the mosque by the Gate of Heaven, which faces us in the view (see page 33), and turning to the loft, we come to two little domed mosques or shrines, with marble pillars. The nearest is that of Fatima, the Prophet's Daughter, whose descendants ruled in Egypt and Morocco as the Fatimite dynast}'. The other is the Chapel of Muhammed's Ascension, and at the wall, close by, is the staple to which he fastened Burak, while he made a short prayer before he started on that wonderful voyage, which was so rapidly exe- cuted, that although he held various conversations with Moses and others whom he saw in Heaven, he returned in time to prevent the falling of a silver urn, which Gabriel's wing happened to strike as they mounted on high. Just within the east gate is the famous Well of the Leaf, concerning which there is a pretty legend, as follows : — " The Prophet said, ' One of my people shall enter into Paradise walking, while yet alive.' It happened in the time of Omar that some persons came to Jeru- salem to pray. A man of the tribe of the BeniTemin, named Sherif Ibn Habasha, went to bring water for his companions, and his bucket fell into the well. He went down to recover it, and found a door in the well which led to gardens. He entered the door to the gardens, and walked in the gardens, and took a leaf from their trees, which he placed behind his ear. He returned by the well, came to the governor, and re- Father Roper tells a different story. He snys, speaking of the Bock, " At the distance of three paces from these two column*" (mentioned in a former note) " there is a stone in the pavement, which appears to he black marble, about two and a half feet square, and raised a little above the pavement. In this stone are twenty-three holes, in which it seems as if there had formerly been nails, and indeed two are yet remaining. The purpose of these is not known; the Muhammedans themselves believe that it was on this stone the prophets set their feet when they alighted tram their horses to go into the Temple, and that Muhammed also alighted upon it when he arrived from Arabia Felix, on his journey to .Paradise to hold consultation with God." «^i 0f ''^ Fatl 'f, Eogf ' r - Iiut Ali Bc y re P orts t] »s stone to be I be I)oor of Paradise," and says that the devil pulled out the nails when he tried to enter there, but was prevented by not beingable to pull out those that remain. To this mixture of Old ported what he had found in the gardens, and about his entering them. He sent some men with him to the well, who descended with him, but they did rot find any door, nor arrive at the gardens. And he wrote to Omar, who answered, that the tradition of the Prophet concerning the man that should enter Paradise alive, was true; but it should be ascertaintd whether the leaf was fresh or dry ; for if it had changed colour it could not be from Paradise, where nothing changes." The tradition adds, that the leaf had not changed. At the west gate, outside, are two birds, or something like them, in the veins of the marble, said to be two wicked magpies fixed in stone by Solomon as a perpetual punishment and sign to all birds, that even the air was subject to his power, and that the birds of the air were bound to reverence the sanctity of the Temple he was then building to the Lord. We now turn to the South and proceed to the Mosque El-Aksa, originally a Christian foundation by Justinian on a potion of the Temple of Herod; then again a Muhammedan building; then again, a Cima- ders' Church and the seat of the Knights Templars, • and now a mosque of the highest sanctity. It is SCO feet in length, and includes the Mosque Abu Eehen, a large Hall, principally used for educational purposes, 400 in breadth. Itis supposed to cover the spot of our Saviour's Presentation or Purification, the old church having borne that title. The front has a piazza of se-\ en slightly pointed arches. This portico is said to have been at one time completely plated ■with gold. The ceiling is flat, and supported by six rows of pillars, of brown marble, and there are three naves on each side. There is an enormous octagonal pillar, dedicated to Sidi or Lady Omar, and two granite columns, dedicated to the Lady Fatima, which are said to have replaced the famous brazen pillars, Jachin and Bcaz. One hunched and seventy lamps are here burning brightly, being only ten less than blaze in the Great Mosque of Omar. Below this mosque are vast vaults, the true sub- structure of the Temple of Solomon. There is an en- trance hall, fifty feet long and forty-two wide; and in the centre of this hall is a column formed of cne stone (see page 48), six and a quarter feet in diameter, and barely one foot high, with foliated capital of no special order, but yet tasteful. This is certainly of the time of Solomon. From the top of this spring the arches that support the fine dome constituting the ceiling. There is another pillar of an oval shape (see page 51), at the northern end, and four white Corinthian pillars attached to the doorway. There are nine steps right across the hall at the western end, winch are blocked up. There is talk of the furniture and trea- sures of the Old Temple being concealed on the one side or the other of this passage; and a closed door on the eastern side seems to indicate a vacant space, but r.o attempt to open it has been made in modern times. At the south-east corner of the Temple espla- nade, there are open vast substructures, known as Solomon's stables. These are piazza-like structures, on square pillars of gigantic bevelled stones, such as are seen in the most ancient portions of the hall. The whole of the under portion of the Temple area is pierced with caverns, and tanks, and archways, for sewerage and running water. Indeed, the under-ground of Jerusalem is really more ancient, and may ulti- ..-...,. .....v. w mil uul Liiose mat remain. Jo tins mixture nt Cllil — — J .. i V« r ±t. v ± and New Testament Saints with Mohammedan legend, later mately prove more fruitful in sacred relics of the earliest _ages have added the name of George of Cappadoeia. I ages, than what remains to be seen above ground. 44 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. About midway in the easternmost range of these subterranean arcades a rock is pointed out to us, and we are told that this is the place where Solomon tortured the demon. Some bold fellow in the olden time, who thought that treasures were hidden under it, struck at it with a pick-axe; but, at the first blow, the devil cried out, " Let me alone !" We need not say that the affrighted searcher after other people's property complied with this request. This rock is six feet high, four and a-half long, and four broad. Hun- dreds of small pyramidal piles of stones are seen about the floor, deposited by Moslem devotees from all parts of the world, and the roots of old pine-trees hang down in many places from the roof into which they have penetrated from the Haram above. VESTIBULE WITHIN THE GOLDEN GATE. • -_ VAULTS BENEATH SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. VIIL— ROUND AND ABOUT JERUSALEM. A sound night's sleep — nowhere does a man sleep so soundly as at Jerusalem, where he is all day employed in walking about from one famous object to another — serves to clear our brains from the confusion and distortion of the grandeur of Old Testament History, and the simplicity of Christian truths, into the monstrous legends of Arab imposture; and we stai't forth, at early dawn, with a party of Arab attendants, to finish our pilgrimage round the walls of Jerusalem. Our journey from St. Stephen's Gate up the Mount of Olives down through the Valley of Jehoshaphat and up to Mount Zion, has already earned us halfway in the circuit, and made us masters of the eastern and southern sides. We have already crossed and recrossed the City either way, and a journey, therefore, from St. Stephen's Gate round by the north and western sides, ending where the Valley of Hinnom unites with that of Jehoshaphat, will com- plete our circuit. Turning to the left from St. Stephen's Gate by a narrow path, under the walls, suspended on a ridge along the precipice of Gethsemane, we gradually ascend to the north-east angle of the City wall, which here goes off sqviare and sharp. Turning by this angle, we perceive that the wall is here protected by a fosse, and rests upon a foundation of rocks, rising up into high cliffs, while there is another rocky ridge on the other side, the roadway round the City pass- ing between them. In fact, we are now upon the ridge or crest of Bezetha, cut away by Herod. It shoots up here to a hundred feet, a solid tower of rock. Between this point and the north east angle was the part selected by Tancred for his attack; hence, too, Saladin forced his way into the City. A short distance farther is the mouth of a cavern in the rock on which the wall is built. It leads under the houses of the city, the first hall extending seven hundred and fifty feet, and being three thousand feet in circumference. It is evidently the quarry from which the stone of the Temple and other great Jewish buildings were cut, and it seems to have been known to the Crusaders, though not opened to modern inspection until within the last ten years. There are many intricately meandering passages leading to larger halls farther within, with walls white "as driven snow," and supported on colossal pillars of irregular shape, as left by the stone- hewers. These are evidently the quarries of King Solomon, and, not improbably, King Herod cut through them in digging out the fosse in which we arc now walking ; for we are only two hundred feet ■•~~ ' 111 ' ^rui.*. REMAINS OF ANCIENT TEMPLE BRlOGt. FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 45 CASTLE OF SION. from a similar cavernous excavation, the reputed Grotto or Cave of Jeremiah, on the opposite hill of Zahara, near to a Turkish burial-ground of such bad repute, for the living at least, that no one will venture near it after sunset. This cave is deeply sunk in a brown ridge of rock, by the way-side, and is a profound and gloomy cavern, about fifty yards deep, supported by two enormous natural pillars of rock. There is a court or open passage in front of it, and a wall with several houses, for the place has been used as a quaran- tine station, a dervish (a very civil personage) acting as its guard and showman. There is a miniature lake or vast cistei-n, generally on the floor, and under- neath, the water of which is bright and pure. The cave is divided into partitions, nests or dwelling for the sick or suspected, and is otherwise, with plaster and whitewash, made to look clean, tidy, and actually comfortable. For its being Jeremiah's Pool or Cave there is, of course, no sufficient authority. The place where the prophet was confined, and the pit where he sank in the mire, were in the King s court ( Jer. x xxvii. 21.,) This cavern, though of great size, has a limited aspect in comparison with the unknown vastness of the quarries on the other side, in which the whole City, for aught we know, might be stowed away. Their range is as immense as that of the catacombs of Paris, but they have been unexplored for ages past. A little to the left — as we stand with our faces towards the City wall— a whole mile of towers and battlements at one view, in a bright sunlight — old and yellowish in tint, and crumbling minutely, yet large and massive in their whole aspect — is " Herod's Gate," now closed up. It is also called " the Gate of Flowers," and is the gate where the Empress Helena, the mother of our countryman — for Constantine the Great, and the first Christian Emperor, was an English- man, and born at York — entered in penance, as a humble suppliant, in all her power, for God's mercy and forgiveness of her sins. We are now at about the highest part of the wall, and this gate towers high on the hill which hence begins to descend to the Gate of Damascus. All along here the olive trees grow close up to the wall, and it is a pretty sight to see the doves and other birds flying backwards and forwards from JAFFA GATE, JERUSALEM. the trees to the old wall and from the old wall to the trees. The Jews of old, it will be remembered, were great pigeon fanciers, and the dove houses and pigeon towers of old Jerusalem were quite an institution. This Damascus gate, " the tower that looketh over towards Damascus," is, as it now stands, externally, a charming monument of Arab taste, flanked by two towers and crowned with arabesque battlements of stone in the form of turbans (see page lo). It is undeniably the finest of all the gates of Jerusalem, and in its gateway we notice what is remarkable as a first example of the pointed arch, which the Crusaders are considered to have carried back with them into Europe. In the base of the towers of this gate may be seen great stones bevelled, round the edges, similar to those in what remains of the wall of Solomon's Temple. This gate is said to be identical with the " Old Gate " of Nehemiah, which " Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired ; they laid the beams thereof, and the bars thereof, and set up the doors thereof" (Nehemiah, iii., 6). The very ancient, massive, and characteristic Jewish remains which we see in the two turret chambers on each side indicate this as a portion of the "Second Wall." TOMB OF KINGS. 46 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. These chambers, and the pillars in the vault of Solo- mon's Temple (see pages 48, 51), are almost the only relics which the battering ram, the corroding tooth of Time, and the vengeance of God, have left us. The winding square - shaped staircase within the chambers lately discovered in both towers is the kind of ascent by which '-they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber," (1 Kings, vi. 8). One of the stones lying there is seven and a- half feet long, by three and a-half feet high, and another six and a-half feet long, by the same height. These apartments are conjectured, by the learned in such matters, to have been guard rooms of the old gates ; built upon and round by Nehemiah, then by Herod, and afterwards by the Saracens. They are vaulted, and their massiveness is very impressive. Before passing on we step within these gates into the City, curious to see the condition of the vicinity. The streets about here are filthy, and almost in solitude, into a kind of ante-room, about 20 feet square, a place for the mourners, while the body was carried on to its last receptacle. This opens into another room, thirteen feet square, in which are a dozen catacombs for coffins and a passage to another apartment 10 feetsquare. The south side of the ante-room has a door leading into other rooms, in many of which are relics of rich sarcophagi, torn from their places and thrown upon the ground. One of these has been preserved entire and carried to the Mehkemeh, or Council House, in Jerusalem, just by the beautiful fountain we have illustrated (in page 8). Here it supplies the Divan of Jerusalem Effendis with water ! The contrivance of the doors of stone, which, fitted in with mortice and tenon hinges is noticeable, and should be seen by some of our stone- masons, as a good hint for a tire proof closet j so also is a round disk, shaped like a mill-stone, curiously contrived to close a tomb, and then be itself concealed by a pool of water. An inspection of these cunning overshadowed with darkness from the numerous vaulted | contrivances, for an apparently unnecessary security, arches which cover them. Everywhere there aro ruins | assists us in understanding the question in relation and rags. As for inhabitants, you see them seldom, and j to the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre : " Who shall when seen thev appear to be eaten up with idleness j roll us away the si»ne from the door of the sepulchre 1" and wretchedness. The passers by creep close to the Of what kings the rocky excavations in which we stand houses, and look as if they have no purpose, only walk- ing for the sake of walking; the shopkeepers appear to be always waiting for custom that never comes, and everywhere there is a lack of life, interest, and activity. The rocky mound opposite this gate, within, has evidently been the foundation of some great building, for it is excavated in many places, but not into tombs. There was a St. Stephen's Church along here once, and this nv.iy be the spot. We gladly quit the dreary scene, and hasten to the free air without the walls. About half a mile right out of the are the tombs, is an unsettled question. Not so of that tomb on the other side of the valley of Kedron, which sweeps all round here, and into which we descend and go over it to reach the tomb — just in time to see a flock of sheep, who have been folded there, come streaming forth into the open valley. This is the tomb of Simon the Just, a Jewish Saint, if we may use the term, who spent his great wealth in providing a feast for the poor yearly, and having been allowed a great age as a reward for his charity, was so afflicted at the sorrows he saw coining on his nation from their gate, a little to the right, after pas-ing a heap or hill of obstinacy in resisting Titus, as to find the burthen of ashes and soapmaker's waste, we pass along the level life too heavy, and so pray to be released from it. surface of a reddish rock, with a few olive trees, hardly His prayer was granted, and his tomb provided under enough to call a grove, growing upon it, and then this little hill. But his wealth having been buried come upon an excavation in the middle of a field, like with him, Simon the Just feels conscientious scruples a neglected quarry. In front is a square court hewn J respecting the feast he had annually promised to the out of the rock and open to the air, just like a deep | poor, — a promise from which, as his death was by his trench. It is entered by an archway. This court is own wish, his scrupulous justice does not consider him ninety feet square. The arch is in the centre of the wall, and to the left, as we enter, we see something resembling a large portico, nine yards long, supported evidently, at one time, on two pillars, which mischievous people of various ages, bye-gone simpletons, and profane fools now grown grey or gone to their account, have knocked away, one after the other. The architrave has fruit and flowers sculptured upon it, but these also are sorely defaced — a shameful outrage, of which the Arabs must not be accused, as none but civilised Europeans, for the most part — we are sorry ti have to say it, for both our sakes — Americans and English, violate the habitations of the dead. Our torches are lighted, let us enter. We seem to be going into a rock, the interior of which has been hewn out, and the face of which has been cut into architectural designs. Such is really the fact; but the grapes, garlauds, and festoons, the Corinthian capitals, and the pillars, have all been ruthlessly broken and chipped away. When whole they must have resembled a very large and very handsome marble chimney-piece, from which the grate has been removed. Through a low door in the south-west corner, we ad vance — candles in hand, and not without attendant Arabs, for this is not a pleasant place in which to find oneself alone in the dark — opening to be discharged. Every year, therefore, he comes to life, at the feast of Pnrim, and places a piece of money outside to provide food for the poor. A great pilgrimage is held to his tomb by the Jews. To make a profit out of this veneration, as well as to keep in the sheep, the Turks have put up an iron door to the tomb, and appointed a guardian, who, being a shepherd of the dead, fleeces to the best of his capability the living. We now re cross the Kedron valley, and coming to a junction of two roads, take the one that leads us to the north-west angle of the wall, the towers of which, rising prominently before us, are evidently of modem construction. The ground rises from the hol- low by the Damascus gate to a low ridge, just over which lies, in the deeper hollow, the Valley of Gihon, under the western wall, sloping down towards Hinnom, under the southern. At this corner, near us, is a Terebinth tree, conspicuous as rising at the highest por- tion of the city. Hereabout, the vine and the olive begin to be more abundant, and have been made — of late years only, as we learn — to take root in the scanty, but prolific soil. Jerusalem grows good wine, and the Greeks have planted it pretty extensively in the new purchases of land they havo made. Every FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 47 where that water is collected and distributed, the grateful land, all bare as it looks, returns most abundant crops. The fields of barley in this vicinity (about a quarter of a mile from the walls), are full in the ear, and the grain of the finest. It is now just ready (it is April), for the sickle. They say this new spirit of cultivation is due to Russian gold ; but money is of no nation, and its profitable employment an universal good. We should have thought some English money might have been advantageously employed here. How is it that persons who are obliged to leave England in search of a milder climate, or others who prefer living abroad, do not choose the most interesting country in the world for their residence! Why should not young clergymen at least, spend one yearamong Bible scenes, and in acquiring Bible languages before enter- ing upon their active duties. Sixty pounds per annum would be quite enough for all expense of board and lodging (including the keeping a horse) for a single person, and sixty pounds more would cover the expense of a journey there and back. The mighty tide which during three centuries impelled half the nations of Europe towards the rocky shores of Palestine — has not yet subsided. It is rising again. Travellers from every nation, and 10,000 pilgrims from the East, visit the shrines of Bethlehem and Calvary ; Moslems from Arabia, Tartary and India, and from the utmost shores of Africa, come to worship at the (so-called) Tomb of Moses. The Jewish people go to pray over the rains of their city and Temple that the time of their deliverance may be hastened. The deep religious interest which has for two thousand years been gaining strength among the nations of the earth is becoming more intense, and high and mighty potentates, study with anxious care politics, whose interest centres in Jerusalem. Here however, where, above all places, Christianity should be most Catholic, it is most sectarian. But God disposes and all are working, and can only be working to his glorious and final purpose. We now approach the Jaffa or Bethlehem Gate, and fall into the road that takes us across the Valley of Rephaim — which runs down on the right, past the Greek convent of St. George, to the Valley of Hinnom — proceeding on our way to the Tombs- of the Judges, by a road lying between that to Jaffa and that to Bethlehem, both of which begin, one to the right and the other to the left from this gate ; hence called, at option, the Jaffa or the Bethlehem Gate, and, univer- sally, the Gate of the Pilgrims. On our left lies the Upper Pool of Gihon, or Birket-Mamittah — the Pool of Serpents — at about one hundred and fifty rods from the City Gate, near the bend of the shallow valley. This is about three hundred feet long, two hundred wide, and twenty deep. There is sometimes no water in it, as it is now supplied only by rain-water drained from the surrounding basin, its former feeder by a water- course from Etham having been broken. In the season of winter, and just now, boys and men bathe in it. We leave on our left some Moslem tombs, the remem- bered graves of Saladin's warriors, and turning to the right, at about a mile's distance from the city, reach the "Tombs of the Judges," Martyrs or Prophets. These are of the same character as the " Tombs of the Kings," although ornamented in a different pattern. They constitute a catacomb of sixty tombs, hewn in the solid rock of limestone. The pediment is sculp- tured in the Grecian style, and the main room is twenty feet square by eight in height. This is even more re- markable than the Tombs of the Kings, and is said to have been hollowed out for the use of the Sanhedrim, the Jewish Council, numbering seventy-two members. Hence we return back to the head of the Valley of Rephaim or Gihon, and, bending towards the right, as we face the Jaffa Gate, go down its sloping declivity along by the western wall. We come along by the Bethlehem road from the Gate down into the Valley of Gihon, and across open fields of corn that thinly cover the stony, dry soil. A few struggling olives, silver- topped, are scattered on the hill. Above all frowns the City Wall, and "the huge Towers of the Citadel. This deep excavation of 200 feet by 600 is "The Lower Pool of Gihon," — the " Great Pool" that once held four acres of water — the Pool Solomon was s'o proud of (Ecclesiasticus, xlviii., 17), and at which he was anointed King of Israel ; hence it is even now called "Birket esh Sultan" or the "King's Pool." It has been formed by building two walls across the valley (the lower very massive, the upper rather slight), connect- ing them by side walls, scarping the shelving edges of rocks on its sides, and plastering the whole over with water-cement. The Pool is now ruinous and dry; the bottom is used as a thrashing ground. From this, looking upwards, on the left, to the lowest part of Zion, we see, enclosed with a wall, the English burial ground ; a little below runs an aqueduct on nine small arches, which conveys the water from Hezekiah's Pool into the City. From this point we enter the valley of Ben Hinnom — the " Valley of Shrieking Children" — crying out in agony at their murderous sacrifice in the red-hot, brazen arms and lap of the statue of the idol of Moloch, from which they fell into the blazing furnace below ! — the Valley of Tophet, or the Drum, beaten with hurried hands, and accompanied with shouts to prevent those childish cries of suffering from being heard by mothers. Oh ! the horrors of these ancient and modern heathen practices ! This crime of the Jews, — so carefully separated by God as his chosen people, from these and other hideous rites of Paganism, — was punished afterwards in this very place ; for, in this same valley, says Josephus, " no fewer than 118,880 dead bodies were carried for burial under the charge of one officer during the siege of Titus." King Josiah, to prevent such sacrifices to idols as we have mentioned, polluted the place by throwing filth and dead men's bones into it (2 Kings, xxiii, 10). Fires were kept constantly burning in it to consume the filth thrown here. It became at last the emblem of everlasting punishment among the Rabbinical writers — Gehenna ! — Tophet ! " — Molocb, horrid king, besmeared with blood Of human sacrifice and parents' tears, Though for the noise of drums and trumpets loud Their children's cries unheard, but passed through fire To this grim idol, In the pleasant vale of Hinnom, Tophet thenee, And black Gehenna called, the type of hell ! " JIilton. It was here, that standing on one of the rugged emi- nences which overhang Tophet, the Prophet Jeremiah, at the inspiration of God, did, in the presence of the_ wor- shippers and the Priests, address himself to Jehoiakim and his courtiers, and lifting up a pitcher, dashed it to the earth, after denouncing terrible judgments upon them. (Jer., xix., 1-12). You will remember how Napoleon, during the conferences for the peace of Campo Formo, dashed a porcelain jar to atoms at his feet, 43 ALL ROUJSD THE WORLD. A PILLAR IN THE VAULTS OF THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON AT JERUSALEM. as he said to the Austrian Plenipoteutaries, " In one month your monarchy would have been shattered like that vase." The people here, about Jerusalem, have the same custom of breaking a jar when they wish to express their detestation of any one. They come behind a man and smash the jar to atoms, thus imprecating, upon him and his, a hopeless ruin. You will remark from this and from- many other instances perpetually comiug under your notice in the Holy Land as common objects, that the Bible minutely narrates, does not invent; and thus many circumstances, though to us novel and surprising, are to those on the spot now, and were then— for Eastern life never changes its habits — ordinary and every day circumstances and allusions. The valley descends rapidly into a rugged glen. On the other side of this rises abrupt, broken, and frown- ing, with precipitous banks, the Hill of Evil Counsel. The ruins on its top are those of the house of Annas, the High Priest, or a convent that succeeded them. Here it was "-the Scribes and Pharisees took counsel against Jesus to put him to death," (Mat. xxvii. 1 ), and just here, on the brow, about a hundred yards away from the house (just time for repentance in the distance), is that accursed tree stretching its ominous arms, darkly frowning, with crooked branches, and as if with stretching lingers, — that tree on which the traitor Judas hung himself. There — close by it, is what he sold himself for— the Potter's-field— " the Field of Blood " (see p. 16). A precipice overhangs it, and it looks down another into the glen below where there is a deep charnel house. The pious pilgrims used to be buried there. St. Jerome marked the locality. Annas himself was buried here. 1 1 We nre told by Monroe, that " by order of the Empress Helena, two hundred and seventy shiploads of its earth were trans- lated to Rome, and deposited in the Campo Santo, near the Vatican ; where it was wont to reject the bodies of the Romans, and only consume those of stranger*." " The interior of the Campo Santo at Pisa is also," says Dr. Barclay, " filled with this soil, which I saw two years ago (1858) producing a rank crop of alopecurus and other grasses." VCI,. [ FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. Gl nSwii iiriliL. ANOTHER PILLAR IN THE VAULTS OF THE TEMPLE. There are tombs of all kinds in this vicinity — down the slopes all about, some of them ornamented like the Tombs of the Judges and the Kings, but none with chambers except one, in which it is said the Apostles hid themselves. It is called " The Apostles' Retreat " — 'and is scarcely large enough to hold eleven ; but St. Peter we know was away, and all were not together. The view of Jerusalem, from here, is a remarkable one. We can see the Valley of Hinhom in its full extent, with all "the dark idolatries of alienated Judah" full under our eyes. The hewn tombs, the dark rugged hill, the accursed tree, and the fatal field — the grey gloom of the trees, and the old time worn wall of Zion overhanging all, constitute together a wild and mourn- ful picture of Jerusalem in her desolation. Sadness and gloom attend our parting : we entered in disap- pointment, and depart in mournful stillness. The curse of God seems to us still to hang like a darkening cloud over the doomed city. IX.— TO BETHLEHEM AND TO HEBRON. Having started with the earliest dawn, we have even now most of the day before us, and at this part of the Valley we take horse, for we have a long journey before us of five hours' riding ere we visit the biith- l^lace of our Lord, and Hebron, and return to Jeru- salem. We leave the hill of Evil Counsel on our left, and ascend up the steep sides of the Valley of Hinnom, to where the broad, green, long Valley of Rephaiin spreads itself before us. As we know that relays of horses will be provided for us by the joint care of our own clever and excellent consul, Mr. Finn, and the French Consul — for we are travelling with French artists high in favor — we stretch towards the right to the extreme westernmost part of theValley, to where the Convent of the Holy Cross lies prettily retired within a sheltered hollow, one of the pleasantest spots about Jerusalem, which city lies behind us in a white 52 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. line level with the plain. You would hardly think there existed the deep opening of the two valleys between us; the citadel towers, the Armenian convent, and the minaret over the Mosque alone breaking the line, above which towers Ramah (of Benjamin) high on the dark hill beyond. It is known as Nebi Samwel— the Tomb of Samuel. « A very fair and delicious place," says Sir John Maun- deville, " and it is called ' Mount Joy,' because it gives joy to pilgrims' hearts, for from that place men first see Jerusalem." One reminiscence is pleasing to us Englishmen. Here the noble Richard Coeur de Lion, advancing from his camp at Askelon, stood in sight of the city, and buried his face in his armour, with the grand exclamation, so full of chivalry and piety: "Oh! Lord God! I pray that I may never see thy Holy City, if so be that I may not rescue it from the hands of thine enemies." We shall soon have this hill on out- right. Half an hour brings us to the Convent of the Cross. It looks like a fortress; and it is well that it is so in this wild country, for one Superior has already been murdered by plundering Arabs. Now, it lies all peaceful, surrounded with rich olive-grounds, with a back-ground of hills, and every semblance of wealth and comfort. It owes this wealth alid fame to its covering the spot where the tree from which the Cross was made grew; the good-natured Greek papas shows the hole under the high altar. The church is richly decorated with mosaics, and has a splendidly gilded choir and an admirable Byzantine pulpit. The old priest will show you a very strange ptofcnre here, like a long panorama — a singular heterogeneous mixture of devils, priests, and allegorical personages of all ages, and castles and groves. It relates to some story about Lot, the gist of which is, that having repented of the sin into which he had been deluded by intoxication, the Patriarch, on waking, sought at once some means of expiation, by consulting a Levite. The holy man ordered him to plant in his garden three branches of trees, and to nourish them with water from the Jordan, to be fetched by him every morning on foot. If the branches took root, he would then know that he was forgiven. Next morniug Lot planted the three cuttings, and started off to the Jordan — no short dis- tance — for the water; while returning he was accosted by an old beggar man, exhausted with the heat, who asked for a drink of water; this Lot gave to him, know- ing that he should still have enough left to water the cuttings. A little farther on, the same demand was made upon him by a traveller, which request he knew not how to refuse ; and so on, he met so many people on his way, and was so charitable, that when he got home he had not a drop of water left for himself. Tired as he was he must go back to the Jordan, or see the trees perish and with them his hopes of pardon. As he rose up to set off again an angel appeared to him in his extremity, and comforted him with the assurance that his charity had caused him to find grace before the Eternal, informing him that it was the Devil, who, unable to bear the thoughts that Lot's mischance should notplace the Patriarch in his power, had assumed different forms on his homeward path, and thus drank all Lot's provision of water. So Lot was pardoned, and the trees took root and flourished ; in after years one of them supplied the wood for the Holy Cross. We quit the hospitable Georgians (for this is the last and only Convent of that church of Christians, their sole possession and evidence of faith, and they claim it as given them by their POOLS OF SOLOMON. Emperor Tatian,) and going down by a rapid descent to where they say was the threshing-floor of Obed- edom, half an hour brings us to the " Valley of the Terebinthus" or Turpentine, a dark and deep and narrow valley, with the bed of a dry torrent scoring a white line along its bottom, which tradition declares to have marked the separation of the camp of Saul from that of the Philistines. Here David slew Goliath, — (others say this happened at Shuweikeh, the Socoh of the plain of Judah (Josh, xv., 35), beyond Gaza, and near Beit Sybim). The situation is sublime, and we halt at a little spring, under some olive-trees, before descending the steep declivity into the valley by which we must mount up to the Convent of St. John by steps hewn in the rock. There is " a mountain on the one side and a mountain on the other, and a valley between them," just the place for the fight as described, and there, too, is the brook, and there some smooth stones that would have just answered the young shepherd- boy's bold purpose. Up in these rocky mountains southward, is the cavern wherein St. John dwelt in the Wilderness ; but we must first stop at the Convent, CHUROH OF THE NATIVITY. FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. HEBRON, WITH THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. which is high-walled ami strong outside. Here, having obtained admission for ourselves and horses through the low iron door that admits but one at a time, — a sure precaution,- — we visit their subterranean chapel, a cave in which St. John was born ; then gaze upon the scene from the insulated hill on which this strong convent-fortress stands, down into deep and dark valleys, whose grey rocks, where they face the convent, have been hollowed by nature into caves, such as the hermits of the early Church loved to dwell in. Occa- sionally, where sufficient soil can be found for roots, fig-trees, with vines clinging round their trunks, may be seen scattered about. The village under the convent- walls is called Ain-Karim, the fountain of the Virgin, for hither, they fay, came the Virgin to draw- water when on a visit to Zachariah and Elizabeth, whose house, about a quarter of a mile from the con- vent, is covered with a ruined oratory and small chapel, called the Chapel of the Visitation (Luke i., 39). 53 It took us an hour to reach the Desert of St. John, which we found to be no desert at all ; for the green foliage of the vines, and the silver tops of the olives, and the large dark-leaved wide- spreadingcarobs, on whose husks fed the swine and the Prodigal Son, and which are said to be the locust tree, on which the Baptist also lived, were to be seen every- where. A turn in the deep valley brought into sight, on the side of a rocky peak, the Grotto where St. John the Precursor passed fifteen years of his youth (Luke i. 80). It is a natural excavation about three yards wide by two in depth. The place is lonely and a wilderness, but not a desert. A spring rises cool and pleasant froui within, and trickles down THE DEAD SEA. PLAIN OF JERICHO. the rock. Abrief pause here, and then backasquicklyasour horses will carry us under such a burn- ing sun, to the Convent of St. John for a relay of cattle and a new escort, sent on before, as well as refreshment, hospitably fur- nished by the good fathers. At first starting our road was bad and dreary enough, rock after rock, like great slices of a moun- tain cut off with a knife, and stored up as gigantic paving stones. By this road trending southward, in which direction we have been all along proceed- ing, we approach the traditional spot of the Conversion of the Eunuch, by Philip. How he managed to ride ina chariot(Acts viii. 28) on such a road is almost a miracle, and the meeting any one upon it, now-a-days, would be another. 54 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. A fountain marks the spot — not a stream. It was once highly adorned, and the numerous carved stones lying about evidently formed a portion of the channel by which its water was conveyed into the Sorec. Another hour brought us to Beit-jala, where the Latin Patriarch has a noble foundation for the edu- cation of the native clergy. Hence by a toilsome road until we reach the plain of Rephaim once more, from which, by a gentle bias towards the left, we arrive at a small oblong Turkish mosque, slightly elevated on the way-side, with a little white dome on the top, and a pointed arch on its side at the other end. We now know "There is but a little way to Ephratah, which is Bethlehem " for we are travelling in the foosteps of Jacob on his way from Beth-el to Edom, and we have reached the place where he buried his beautiful and well-favoured Rachel, who named her son Ben-oni (Son of Sorrow) as she died (Gen. xxxv., 18, 20). We halt here for a few minutes under the influence of tender and respectful feelings, the sympathy for a bereaved husband three thousand years ago ; — the homage of tears paid to a Jewish wife's humble tomb, which golden mausoleums of Zenobia and Cleopatra would failtoelicit. "Rachel died by me ! " Whatpower to wake emotion is in those simple words, while here we stand upon the spot where the patriarch lifted up his face and wept, and "there was great weeping and lamentation." RACHEL'S GRAVE. As we go on we see Bethlehem. Wo are hardly half-an-hour from it. The road is nothing more than a mule track, but well trodden for some thousands of years. The ascent is gentle : the narrow ridge, on whose side is placed the little city, with its flat-roofed houses, and its clump of convents thick clustering round the spot of the Nativity, is not of great height It is a confused and Irregular pile of white buildings, but has a gay and smiling look, as if the Star of the East still sheds its light and brightness over it. Over the town hangs a plain of green ; below it the hill is fashioned into terraces of olive trees, and vines, and fig trees. At its feet, sloping down in the valley, are the corn fields— yes, tho very corn fields in which Ruth gleaned —there is the very farm of Boaz himself. It must be so. Already our artist is sketching the labourers who worked with Ruth (see p. 56), and there, along that path across the fields, going towards the deep gateway, is Naomi herself, just as she looks in the pictures painted by the great old painters, who so happily caught the spirit of the Scriptures — in the long gown of dark blue, and her veil of white cotton cloth to shade away the burn- ing glare of the sun. She is returning from the land of strangers to her native village (Ruth, i., 7). Close by the gate is the well, for tho water from which David longed. All about, we see the vineyards of Judali on every hillside, with watch-towers and walls. Every place about is glowing with wild flowers, daisies, and the white Star of Bethlehem ; with a blaze of scarlet flowers, anemones, wild tulips, and the like ; the first pilgrims used to call them " the Saviour's blood drops." Bare and barren as is all around, these flowers, in this spring time, are a brilliant contrast. Behind Bethle- hem, we see rising a huge wall of mountains, high, massive, and overshadowing. You know the effect of the distant Helvellyn over the surrounding district — that is the appearance of the mountains of Moab over Bethlehem. The Dead Sea lies between, but there are the mountains, brown, huge, impending, never to be forgotten ; and this is why David, who as a boy had them always before his eyes, took care to secure refuge for his old father and mother in their heights when there was no longer safety for them in Bethlehem. An opening in these mountains shows the spot where Lot's wife was changed into a Pillar of Salt, and in the distance is the Wilderness of Engedi. The Church of the Nativity, is an enormous pile of buildings, covering a large space, originally built by the Empress Helena, repaired and enlarged by various Christian contributions, but still imperfect and in some parts ruinous. This ought not to be. There are three convents, Latin, Greek, and Christian, with the Church of the Nativity common to all. The nave, with its double lines of Corinthian columns and roof of Lebanon cedar, is what remains to us of the grand Basilica. The Church of the. Nativity itself has a roof of English oak, the gift of our own Edward IV. Here Baldwin was crowned King of Jerusalem. On the columns of the side naves may yet be traced vestiges of the armorial bearings of the Crusaders, and the walls of the central nave still show the remains of Byzantine mosaics. It now seems but as a passage between the convents, and you will observe that it is also a place of meeting for the peasants of the vicinity, where they enjoy the shelter it affords from heat or rain, and tranquilly smoke their pipes, as they are now doing, while their children arc- receiving instruction from the pious brethren. From this we descend to the subterranean vaults under the floor of theChurch, and going through a long narrow pas- sage belonging to the Latins — the Greeks have another entrance — find ourselves in a little chapel, twenty- seven feet long and eleven wide, with a marble floor, adorned with tapestry and pictures, and lighted dimly with silver lamps. This is the Grotto of the Nativity. There are two small recesses, nearly opposite to each other; a marble slab in the northernmost, which is semi-circular, and marks the spot of the Nativity, having upon it a silver star to designate where the Star of the East rested. There is also an inscription — " Hie natus est Jesus Christus de Virgine" (" Here Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin"). On the right, or on the south, is a chamber, down two steps, paved and lined with marble, at one end of which is a block of stone hewn out, — the stall, — from which was taken the wooden man- ger now at Rome in the Basilica of Santa Maria Mag- giore, and exhibited every Christmas in the presence of the Pope. Justin Martyr, who was born at Nablus and martyred at Rome in the second century, mentions this stone, and St. Jerome, who wrote the Vulgate in achamber but a few paces from this spot, has vouched for its FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 55 identity, by choosing it for his residence. Here lived and died, that most illustrious of pilgrims to the Holy Land. Here he fasted, prayed, and studied ; here he gathered those bands of Christians together who still survive, in the numerous convents of the Holy Laud. Over the altar in this Chamber of the Manger, is a picture of a stable and cattle, and, behind a little railing of iron, five lamps are kept constantly burning. Eight opposite to this is an altar, that of the Magi, or Three Eastern Kings, on the spot where they sat, when they came to otter presents to the Son of God. There is a picture of this over the altar, in which one of the kings is painted as a negro. Near the door of the chapel of the Latin Convent you go down two flights of steps to a small chapel, dedi- cated to St. Joseph, where he waited during the con- finement of the Virgin. At the end of this passage is St. Jerome's Chamber; and just out of the door, on the right hand, is his tomb. Opposite are the tombs of Santa Paula and her daughter, Saint Eustochia, two holy ladies who accompanied St. Jerome, and provided him with means during his lengthened and pious labours. Here also is the grave of his faithful and earnest disciple, St. Eusebius, of Cremona. Just by, in the first passage to the left, is a deep pit, into which, they say, the bodies of the infants, murdered by Herod's cruel mandate, were thrown at the time. There is an altar over it, but we looked down into the pit through an iron grating, and saw nothing. Be all this as it may, we know that, anywhere here, we are within a few paces of the birthplace of the Saviour of mankind ; and cold indeed must be the heart, and dead the very soul, of that man who, once on this spot, does not earnestly and sincerely share the enthusiasm of those poor pilgrims whom we now seeindeepemotion,and with fervent thankfulness for His great mercy, prostrating themselves at the shrine of the Nativity. Local traditions abound. There is a grotto in the rock, just out of the village, to the south, whei'e the Virgin sat down to suckle the infant Jesus, and the milk over- flowing from the divine child's lips, has given to the grotto the virtue of assisting all weak mothers who pray at the altar therein erected. Turks, Greeks and Armenians alikevouchforthis,and,you see, thelimestone is scraped away in all directions ; in one part a chamber has been scraped out, that women may drink water in which the powder from it has been mixed. There is also another gi-otto in which the Virgin remained hidden with her child during forty days, to escape the wrathful persecution of Herod, after the Magi had made known the successful results of their search for the Son of God and future King of Men. Passing through Bethlehem town — for we are now rapidly journeying towards Hebron — it is impossible not to notice the manly and spirited bearing of its people, or the beautiful form and fine expression of countenance in the daughters of Ruth. The men have a sturdy bearing and fearless look, something like the High- landers. David came from here, and so did Joab and David's other valiant captains. These men are naturally hardy, fov they are brought up as shepherds. There are large flocks in the plain and on the hills ; and see, where the reapers are cutting the barley, and their women and children gleaning, just as Ruth did— when Boaz came to look after his labourers (Ruth ii., 5-7). There, too, is a woman beating out the grain on a stone, as Ruth did (Ruth ii., 4), and they " dip their morsel in the vinegar," and eat "parched corn" — that is, the roasted ears, the chaff being burned off over a flame. We go on to the "Grotto of the Shepherds," where they lay at night, watching their flocks, and make our modest offering, as pilgrims, of a few wax caudles to the little humble shrine, adorned with some poor paintings. Thence, a three-quarters of an hour's march to the Cave of Adullam, in the mountainous wilderness of Engedi. It is situated in a great rock that hangs on the edge of a narrow shelf of rocks in a fearful gorge, with tower- ing cliffs above it, and to get to it you have to leap into a low window-hole. Within, it is a very large grotto, quite dry but very dark, with numerous passages rami- fying in all directions; a veritable stronghold and hiding- place, such as a few bold men could hold against a host, armed as soldiers were in Saul's time. The ravine here is excessively precipitous. The cave has been made use of, even in late years, as a place of refuge for the inhabitants of the district in time of war. You read, in the accounts of the French Algerine campaign, of Marshal Pelissier and General Lamoriciere having suffocated some hundreds of peasant Arabs with their wives and children, in just such a cave, by lighting fires at the entrance, when they could by no means drive them out or venture in themselves. A rugged road brings us back to the mules' path and up the green valley of waters to the "Three Pools of Solomon," which lie all in a row, one below the other; each of an oblong form, of the respective lengths of 360, 423, and 582 feet. The largest, the easternmost, is 200 feet wide and 50 deep, so that when full — which it now is, and running over to the second and the third — it would float the largest man of war that ever ploughed the ocean. How beautiful must have been the gardens, hereabouts, iu Solomon's time ! the vine- yards and the orchards on the neighbouring hills and the valley to the north-west. Along the mountain side, winding in a conduit, is the channel to pupply Jerusalem, made by the wise king and restored by Pontius Pilate, as we learn from Josephus. It runs and meanders in various sinuosities for nine miles' distance, just as used to wind and wander, through the meadows of Islington and Homsey, our own New River, .in its old leaden conduit, from Ware to London. The high steep hill to the left — that enormous natural mound, rising 800 feet from the valley — is the Herodium of Josephus, a great fighting-place and fortress of the olden time, the " Frank Mountain" of the Crusaders, who had their last fight out here, and made here .their last stand after they were driven out of Jerusalem. The old castle, the towers, and the walls connecting between them, still remain, but in ruins. At its feet lies Tekoah, whence came the clever woman to seek for the rebel Ab- salom's pardon from his father. We are now approaching, along the Valley of Eshkol (oi;t of which came the great bunch of grapes that so surprised the Israelites), to Hebron, the oldest city in Canaan ; one of the oldest, also, in the world ; for it was built seven years before Memphis, and has survived it. It was the border city of the Promised Land, the city of Arba, the Prince of Giants, the city of Ephron the Gittite, of whom Abraham bought his tomb-field, Machpelah (Gen. xxiit., 10), the first home of the patriarchs, as it is their last, "for here," says St. Jerome, "are buried Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Caleb chose it for his portion, for he had seen it when out with the spies. The vale that leads up to it is delicious, rich in orchards and iu vineyards, abounding in wells and fertile in soil. BETHLEHEM. Harvest groups pass us on the road, with reapers and gleaners, pictures of the patriarchal time. The mosque is the most prominent object in the landscape. Once a convent built by Helena the Empress, it covers the tomb of Abraham in Machpelah, and lie3 on a sloping hill-side. At its base, in the valley, is the town in three divisions, each on a separate small hill. The green vallies and the corn-fields, the olive groves and the vineyards, stretching up into it, run right away to the desert, whence advanced the Israelites. The mountains of Moab look down, frowning, brown, and glcomy over all. About two miles before reaching the town, but still within view, we come upon a noble old oak, standing alone, in the centre of a beautiful green sward. It is a fine ancient evergreen oak, twenty-six feet in girth, and its thick spreading branches extend over an area of ninety-three feet in diameter. See how it throws out its three giant arms, which again break into in- numerable limbs ! The valley is full of figs, carobs, nut and fruit trees in all variety. Under that oak, as tradition tells, Abraham entertained the angels ; but here another tradition interferes, which says that the oak of Abraham withered at the moment of our Lord's crucifixion. We had introductions to a venerable Jew resident in this town, where there is no hospitable convent to receive travellers ; so that after due refresh- ment some enlightened conversation followed on the condition of the Jews in Palestine, which our host considered to be improving, as the Turks were certainly humbled, though no less fanatic. We entered the town through a labyrinth of streets and ruins. The bazaar, however, was full of people, and all seemed brisk, active, busy, bustling, and interested. The mosque, to which access is denied, is a remarkable building with a strong high wall — built at the base with large stones, said to have been brought from the Temple rains — and with two square minarets. The wallisribbed with square pilasters. The Torab of Abraham is in a chapel, within the square of the mosque ; under its dome is what is called the Tomb of Esau. On the right of the mosque-door is Sarah's Tomb, and just beyond it that of Abraham ; corresponding to these are the Tombs of Isaac and Rebecca, and near them is a recess for prayer, with a pulpit. These tombs re- semble small huts, with a window on each side. They open with folding doors of wood and iron. Within each of these is an imitation of the sarcophagus which lies in the cave below the mosque. On the opposite side of the mosque are two larger tombs, where are deposited the bodies of Jacob and Leah. There are also in this mosque the Sarcophagi of Jacob and Leah. A canopy in the centre of the mosque hangs over the cave of Machpelah, and through a hole in the floor a lamp is let down which is kept perpetually burning. No one is admitted to the actual cave below. 1 1 Tbe "Torch of Hearts," an essay on the authenticity of the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by tlie learned Ali, son of Jafer-ar-Uuyz, gravely states, on the testimony of Abu-Horairah, a dependable witness, who heard it. : '■ It was said by the Apostle of God (Mahomet) : Wben the Angel Gabriel made me take tbe nocturnal flight to Jerusalem, we passed over tl'.o tomb of Abraham, and he said, 'Descend, and make a prayer with two genuflexions, for bere is the sepulchre of thy father Abraham. Then we passed Dethlehem, and he said, ' Descend, for here was born thy brother Jesus.' Then we came to Jerusalem." I ft INHABITANTS OF BETHLEHEM. FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 59 There is a legend that a descent into this cave would be fatal. For a certain Seid-Omar Ettoher, a pious Mussulman, having been invited by Abraham to come down, lost his eyesight through his temerity. The fact is, that within these few years a Christian so attempting it would have lost not only his eyes but his head. There are two immense Pools in the town, very ancient, but they are rarely full of water. The people go down to them by stone steps, and you see them constantly coming up and going down with goat- skin bottles on their backs. A large monument is shown near the bazaar as the Tomb of Abner. Just beyond the mosque, on a rising ground, is the Fountain of Sarah, where she washed the clothes of Abraham and Isaac — a service, in those times, by no means unusual in the wives of great men or even queens — those good old days, when queens and princesses came down to the river side to wash their own and their husbands' garments. The country all round presents fine landscapes, and the land is richly cultivated ; but beyond rural life — the Moslems so religiously closing the mosque to us dogs of Christians — there is little to be seen. So we mount our fresh horses, and make the best of our way back to Jerusalem, where we arrive at a late hour, having stopped in the moonlight to see the Convent of Mar Elias, opposite to which Elijah left the imprint of his wearied body on a rock. There is behind this a mound from which you can see the Mediterranean on the one side and the Dead Sea on the other. From the Convent of Elias a few paces brought us to the Well near to which the Magi were reposing when the Star of Bethlehem appeared to them. We arrived in Jerusalem the same night, having accomplished in the most satisfactory manner a journey which is very unusual for the generally slow- pacing pilgrims who visit the Holy City. X.— TO JORDAN AND TO NAZARETH. The pilgrims for Jordan, in a numerous and motley band of many thousands of all nations, having started from St. Stephen's gate over the Mount of Olives through Bethany, early on the previous day, with an escort of soldiers under the command of the Governor, we resolved^ — by means of relays, previously arranged — to follow them this morning, and, contrary to the usual course of travellers, to take the Convent of St. Saba on our way ; as our purpose was not to return again to Jerusalem, but to proceed onward from the Jordan to Nazareth, and so homewards to the sea coast. So we came out of the Zion Gate, and down the steep way to the bottom of the hill, whence, turning to the right, we halted at Eu-Rogel, or the Well of Job, at the junction of the Valleys of Hinnom and Jeho- shaphat,the locality ofatrailition, preserved by Josephus, of a tremendous earthquake in the close of the reign of Uzziah, when the leprosy struck him (1 Kings, xv., 5). " Just as Uzzias was entering the Temple, the building suddenly started asunder; the light flashed through, and the same moment the leprosy rushed into the king's face ; the hills around felt the shock, and a memorial of the crash was long preserved, in a large fragment of the rock, or landslip, which, rolling down from the western hill (of Evil Counsel), blocked up the royal gardens between that hill and the Mount of Olives, at the junction of the two valleys by the spring of En-Rogel." We now make for the bed of the Kedrou — called from its dryness, the Wad-en-Nar, or Valley of the Stream of Fire — a wonderful gorge, that leads down by a long descent through precipitous, overhanging rocks, to the Plain of Jericho. We worked, over a steep and difficult way, through tangled ravines, and shelving gullies, and in two hours and a half, before the sun was too high and scorching, reached the convent of Santo Saba. Perched up high among the rocks — as if a portion added to the cliffs — with towers, bastions, walls, church and dome in picturesque array, an embattled fortress garrisoned by monks, over- hanging a dark abyss, whose sides are pierced with caverns and hermits' cells hewn in the rocks by pious hands, now untenanted but by night birds or the vulture and the eagle, — this convent is one of the most remarkable localities in the Holy Land. The Wilder- ness and grim rocks present an extraordinary scene from the convent terrace under the two square towers. The buildings rise in terraces overtopping each other, and, to the monastery above access is permitted only through a low iron door, from which a basket is let down and the stranger is hauled up. To pilgrims there is admission to the lower tower up a ladder and through a low door to a large room, while, for guests of distinc- tion, a smaller chamber, and separate, is allotted ; but to all a kindly and never -failing hospitality is extended. mi INTERIOR OF CONVENT, MAR SABA. It is the richest convent of the Holy Land, and stands in need of the good guarding which it enjoys. We saw the Grotto of St. Saba and the Lion, where the pious and hospitable saint used to live, and in which, returning late one evening, he found a lion had taken up his quarters. Too hospitable to drive him out, the hermit gave the King of Beasts a corner of his cell, and dwelt there a long time afterwards with his strange lay brother. Having breakfasted handsomely, we started off' with fresh horses for Jericho, down an ever-descending road, that seemed almost to rush down to the deep de- pression of the Dead Sea. As soon as we had reached the bottom of one deep valley, another still deeper succeeded— naked and calcined rocks— a burnt up soil— all nature in desolation! the whole landscape bears the grim aspect of an immense convulsion ; and below us, in the tar horizon, stretches, like a mirror, the wan motionless surface of the Accursed Sea, buried amongst dreary and silent rocky hills. A narrow pass in the rocks ends in a plateau, whence a full view of the Dead Sea. from end to end, is obtained. The Jordan 60 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. streams along, from the distance in a long, apparently narrow, line of green, where all about is sandy and bare, except where the barley harvest of the plains of Jeru- salem is being gathered in — for we have arrived just at the same season as the Israelites, in " barley harvest ;" (Joshua, it., 19 ,) though the river no longer overflows all its banks, for the venerable trees and thick bushes in the upper of the three terraces, through which it flows at this spot, show that, for a long time, the river has not tilled that part of its own channel, as a current. We now stand between the Mountains of M oab and the mountain ranges of Palestine, Judea, and Ephraim; the "hills about Jerusalem," down which we have just come, rising majestically from between. Jericho may be seen clearly below, on our left, with its wall of faggots of cactus, audits straggling white houses, in a dark green oasis, made by the waters of the Ain Hajld, (identified by Robinson with Beth Hoglah), the Wadi-kelt or brook Cherith (or the Cleft) and the Ain-es-Sultan, or Fountain of Elisha, where the prophet, out of compassion, made the bitter waters sweet (2 Kings, ii., 19). This fountain rises on a tell or mamelon, or mound, such as abound in Palestine, near large cities, and have apparently, in some cases, been raised originally for defensive purposes, but are in others, as is well known, mere heaps of ruin. They are not, however, always artificial, but mounds of rock, and, as in the Hauran, even extinct volcanoes. The water is transparent, sweet, cool and abundant, having in it small fish — a very rare thingin this country, especially so near the Dead Sea. In its neighbourhood grows a tree, bearing fruit, that looks like an apricot, beautiful to the eye, but nauseous to the taste, and said to be poisonous — in fact, the " bitter apples." Hereabouts must have lain the old city of Jericho; the modern village of Ridah, or Riha, is but a collection of poor dwellings. Hereabouts, also, must surely have stood the "City of Palm trees," — the key to Judsea; for here, by the meeting waters of Eli- sha's Fountain and the other streams, are woody thickets and patches of com and melons, that still wear the plea- sant semblance of gardens from where we are standing; although much of the spot is thorny shrubs, where the wild boar haunts, and the lion of Judah might even now find a fitting lair. There is an ancient square tower, the rest of the castle is in ruins ; we shall be down there speedily to refresh our horses and seek a night's shelter for ourselves. The Jordan rises far north in snowy Hermon, flows through the high lake Merom, and running down 300 feet, passes, next, right NABLOUS, THE ANCIENT SHEGHEM. through the Sea of Tiberias, and out of it, with un- associating waters J then, comes out to lose itself — after a course of sixty miles — the latter part through twenty- Beven rapids and a fall of 1,000 feet — in the Dead Sea, which absorbs it for ever into its withering bosom. That dreary lake lies fifteen hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and at the northern end is 1300, at the southern only thirteen feet below the surface ; the shallow part of the Sea being fifteen miles in length, and said to cover the Plain of Sodom and the submerged cities. At this end, the southern and farthest from our sight, is a ridge of rock salt, but a parly of the artists, who came with us, have started to make photographs of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities which it is now argued were not submerged but destroyed by fire. M. de Saulcy says he found them ; M. Van der Velde has disputed this fact ; but, nevertheless, it is by no means improbable, and we believe the photo- graphs are now in England. For ourselves we could not make the ruins, but we may have been too hurried, and, not impossibly, off the right track. To return to Jericho. There was, years ago, one venerable palm tree, near that old square tower, but like other recorded -■ THE JORDAN LEAVING THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. BETHEL MOUNT TABOR. palm trees of the Holy Land, that one has gone, the last of that " forest of palm trees," for which the loca- lity was distinguished. We must not altogether des- pise those thorn bushes — one of them is the Zukkum, and bears a nut, from which a liquid balsam is made by the monks and soldiers — the famous "Balm of Gilead." The vista of twelve miles that lies open- ed before us in the spread of the valley of Jordan, just here, is the locality of extraordinary scenes. From Pisgah, in the mountains, and more clearly visible on the other side (but no one knoweth where Pisgah is), Moses looked down on the Promised Laud and saw this plain and this valley, then fertile as the valley of the Nile. Here, on the spot where the pilgrims are about to enter, the Jordan rolled back twenty miles. The river had dried up from north to south (Josh., iii, 16), and the host of Israel came ovt of the deep channel, (here eight feet deep), and pitched their tents in the desert plains. They had seen Jericho from Gilgal, (where pilgrims still cany their children yearly to be cir- cumcised), about five miles from the eastern bank, on the skirt of the forest, a vast grove of majestic palms, about three miles broad and eight miles long. Above the trees could be seen Jericho, " high and fenced up to heaven ;" behind it, the white limestone mountains of Judea, in which the spies had taken refuge ; just as the hermits did in the after Christian period, when they hewed out cells in that hill, now called the " Quarantania," which they regarded as the sceneof the "Forty days Fast of the Temptation." Down that pass from Jericho went Elijah and Elisha to the Jordan banks, and smote the waters and divided them, the sons of the prophets standing on the terraces to see the great prophet ascend. Those palm groves, now no more, were given by Antony to Cleopatra as a love- gift ; and Herod the Great farmed them for her, and afterwards bought them for himself, and built here a, sumptuous palace, and died here, stricken, in his pride. Our Lord passed through here on his last journey to Jerusalem, and, along the road by which grew the Sycamore Tree (Luke, xiv.,4), went up into the wild dreary mountains, and so up the long ascent towards the City, past the old khan or inn that now marks the locality of the Parable of the Good MOUNTS EBAL AND GERIZIM. MAIN. 62 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. Samaritan (an English traveller was robbed aad mur- dered there in 1820), and so to the friendly house of Lazarus at Bethany. Night falls, and we look for and obtain a kind lodg- ing from the captain of the guard in the old tower. Here we snatch a few hours' repose, which early is broken, in th e dead waste and middle of the night, or rather about three o'clock in the morning, by loud shouts from the neighbouring camp. Lights are flashing about and drums beaten, and then come, in a long line, — all carry- ing blazing torches of the turpentine, — the pilgrims who now advance towards the Jordan in solemn silence, the moon shining brightly above their heads. Before reaching the shore, we perceive the white cliffs and green thickets on each bank, just where the Greeks and Armenians bathe, which they do, rushing head- long, men, women, and children, in one undistinguished mass. The banks are perpendicular, and the stream flows strong ; and is ten feet deep, and rather muddy. We are more used to rivers, and wisely prefer a lower spot, which the Latin pilgrims use, and which our artist has sketched (see page 49), where the beach on one side is low. You will see fathers and mothers, de- lightedly, bathing their children, that they may enjoy the advantages of a pilgrimage without the toil. There is little noise and shouting, though much haste and tumult- uousness, but at the same time, no indecorous con- duct. The bath is delightful, and the intermixture of the reeds, wild vines, and climbing plants, imparts much beauty of contrast. Copts, Greeks, Armenians, Catholics, Protestants, from Abyssinia, Egypt, Asia, Turkey, Greece, Malta, Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Poland, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, America, and all Christian lands ; even Cossacks from Tartary, and Negroes from Abyssinia, were thronging along the shores. The forest of thorns was all alive with them. All brought back some memorial from the banks — long branches of the Jordan willow ; some even carry away trunks of trees, loaded on their asses, horses and mules, as a store from which to cut out relics for profitable sale at a distance. All, on their return, were engaged in sing- ing hymns, the confused sound of which from so great a multitude, when harmonised into one sonorous hum or trumpet murmur by the effect of distance, had a surpris- ing effect. At the camp are a large body of Turkish pilgrims, it is the time of their Moslem pilgrimage to Nebi-Moussim, the supposed tomb of Moses, which lies in the vicinity ; matters being so politically arranged that, to guard against the capture of the Holy City by Christian pilgrims mustered every year at Easter, a similar pilgrimage of Turks is convoked for the same time; and Nebi-Moussim, or the Tomb of Moses, a small hillock near Jericho, is one of their important shrines. 1 A short distance above the Dead Sea the Jordan is 40 yards wide, and 12 feet deep ; then 50 yards wide, and 1 1 feet deep ; then 80 yards wide, and 7 feet deep ; and, finally, 100 yards wide and only 3 feet deep at the bar, by its entrance. We proved the buoyancy of the Dead Sea by attempting to sink in it, but found the 1 Van Egmont (speaks of this tomb as of a modern Mussulman Saint. lint the prefix of Nebi (I'ropliet) to Monsa (Moses), Canon Stanley remarks, is nearly conclusive in favour of its being intended for the grave of Moses. Such is the opinion also of Jelal-ed-din. Schwartz describes a Keber Mosheh, or Moses' Grave, south of Hams, when it is well known, the Kabbi adds, that the sepulchre of this holy man is east of the Jordan (Deut. xxxjv., 6). water very buoyant, and, at the same time, extremely bitter, and far salter than that of the ocean. It acts like alum upon the tongue, smarts likecamphor when applied to the eyes, and stiffens the hair like cerate. Here are no fish, nor did we see any birds, and an unnatural gloom hangs over the sea and over the plain. One analysis of the water shows chloride of sodium, 8 ; of potassium, 1 ; of calcium, 3. Another says, chloride of calcium, 2f ; of magnesium, 10£ ; of potassium, 1| ; of sodium, Ci. The specific gravity is as 1200 to distilled water at 1 000 ; but this varies, as do also the amount of saline substances according to the time or place at which the water may be taken. We made the best of our way up the Valley of the Jordan, but found the attempt to reach Jerusalem in that direction would be fruitless ; so we at once hastened back with the pil- grims, now in advance — who halted, however, at the castle, — in a long picturesque line towards Jerusalem. This, by taking up again the relay of horses we had left at Mar Saba, we were enabled to do before the evening fell. Next morning, at day-break, we started on the tuna] route out of the Damascus Gate to Nablus, and soon cleared the hills and rocks that skirt the city, and entered on the Plain of Jezreel, or Esdraelon. El Bireh, or the Well, the ancient Beeroth, is the first halting place of caravans on this route. One day a band of pious pilgrims were returning to Nazareth, after offering their humble sacrifices at the Temple. On their reaching this fountain, when the scattered caravan joined up to halt, a mother and her husband perceived with great terror that their only child was not with them. Devoured with anxiety, they retraced their steps towards Jeru- salem, inquiring everywhere on the way for their little son, and found him in the Holy City, in the Temple, in the midst of the doctors or teachers of the law. A little chapel was built here to commemorate the "Virgin's anxiety. The path winds through an uneven valley, covered with bare spots of rock. A little to the east are some blocks of stone, recording how Jacob had his dream on this spot. This is all that remains of Bethel, leaving it just what it was when the wanderer "who went out from Beersheba " slept on the brown bare rocks, and the beaten thoroughfare, and erected the stone which had been his pillow, in memorial of his dream. In the valley below was the " Oak of Tears," near where Deborah, the mine of Jacob, was buried (Gen., xxxv., 6-8). Yet here, at Luz, as it was then called, 5 was the place of council — the Wit- tenagemote — of the old Canaanites. This place small as it was, held out against Benjamin, until the strong family of Joseph captured it by storm, and made it their own (Judges, i., 22-25). The Jews then assembled here in the House of God. Beth-el. Next, Jeroboam built a Temple, which Josiah destroyed ; the old Canaanitish relish for idols hovered over the spot ; and Jeroboam him- self, while in this Temple, by the altar which stood before the Golden Calf, was confounded by the terrible denun- ciation of the Man of God from Judah (1 Kings, xiii., 1). Thence it was called Bethanen, the House of Idols, which Josiah destroyed, with all its groves, and Ahaz and Hosea pronounced their emphatic curses upon the spot. It now bears the mark of their accomplishment. 2 The ruins at Beitin and Bethel occupy the whole surface of the hill-point and cover a space of three or four acres. They consist of very many foundations and half stauding walls of churches, towers, and other buildings. FIVE DAYS AT JERUSALEM. 03 The hills of the main road from Jerusalem are passed, and we descend into a wide stretching plain, full of growing wheat, or barley being harvested, with here and there an olive grove peeping from the midst of the waving mass. Beyond us, to the right, lies the snowy brow of Mount Hermon. The crests of Mounts Gerizim and Ebal warn us of our approach to Nablus, the ancient Sichein or Shechem. The Samari- tans claim that it was here Melchisedek met Abraham, and that on Mount Gerizim, and not on Moriah, was Isaac offered in sacrifice by Abraham. We are in the Vale of Shechem, a valley green with grass, grey with olives in the gardens sloping down on each side, with fresh springs running in all directions. Here was the fh-st halting-place of Abraham, and here, at Moriah, he built the first altar of the Holy Land. Here was the first settlement of Jacob ; the first capital of the con- quest; upon Mount Gerizim was the blessing pronounced, upon Mount Ebal the curse (Deuteronomy, xi., 29-30). l There was a famous temple here, 24 1 feet from east to west, and 255 feet from north to south. The stones are bevelled after the ancient fashion. The temple was destroyed 130 years before Christ, but they persevere, even to this very day, in " worshipping the Father " on this very spot. The place is a singular one ; the streets are dark and vaulted, and the brooks rush uncovered over their pavements in wet weather, threatening to sweep away the passera by. The houses have gardens, and the mulberry, orange, pome- granate, and fruit trees, load the air with delicious perfumes. Here are nightingales and hundreds of other birds, and the valley — for the city lies right across between two prodigious masses of high moun- tains — is excessively picturesque. Mount Ebal is on the north, Gerizim on the south, and the city between. This was the locality of Abimelech's murder of his brothers. Sechem was the government seat of old Canaan, and it was easy to get up an insurrection there against the conquerors. From Mount Gerizim Jotham addressed his famous parable to the people (Judges, ix., 7), and you can see that from his position he would have time to escape before he could be reached on the overhanging mountain. It was on Ebal and on Gerizim that Moses, by the Lord's com- mand, placed "the blessings and the curses" (Deu- teronomy, xxvii., 4, 8 ; Joshua, viii., 30, 32). At the mouth of the valley we see, on one side, the white cupola of a Mussulman Chapel — that is the "Tomb of Joseph" — that i3 "the parcel of ground" left to him by Jacob on his death-bed (Genesis, xlviii., 22, as carried out in Joshua, xxiv., 32). A remarkable point is noticeable in this will of Jacob's, as, according to it, the distribution of property used to be regulated. What he inherited, no man- thought Ins own, but for life, and therefore suffered it always to go in the fair order of his generation ; but what he had earned, or himself obtained or added — " which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow" — that the patriarch considered himself entitled 1 " In their humble synagogues, at the foot of the mountain," says Canon Stanley, the most perfect and judicious, as well as the most picturesque writer of all the travellers in the Holy Land, " the Samaritans still worship — the oldest and the smallest s"ct in the world, distinguished by their noble physiognomy and stately appear- ranee from all other branches of the House of Israel. In their prostrations at the elevation of their revised copy of the Penta- teuch, they throw themselves on their faces in the direction, not of priest, or town, or any object within the building, but, obliquely, to give as a special gifo to his favourite son; the rest he equitably distributed.- On the other side are a few broken stones, where was the well sunk by " our father Jacob," "to give drink thereof to himself, his children, and his cattle" (John i v. 12). « Jacob's Well" is the undisputed scene of Our Lord's conversation with the Woman of Samaria. He halted, as we and all travellers do, at this well ; his disciples went up the city ; and down the gorge, from it, came the woman, as do all women in the East, to the well to draw water. The same mountain, Gerizim, looked down upon that con- versation, and the same fields of waving corn sur- rounded them as they talked. Six miles from Shechem, along the valley, in a wide basin, rises a steep hill, a position unequalled for strength, beauty, and fertility. Thisis thehillof Samaria, looking over the Plain of Sharon, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and up the green Valley of Shechem, to the East. It was the capital of the Kings of Israel, and second only to Jerusalem. Here is a grand gothic ruin, the church of the beheading and grave of St. John the Baptist, and a second "Holy Sepulchre." It is now a mosque, and carefully guarded by the people of Sebaste (the modern appellation of the town). There is a broken reservoir, which they tell us was the pool in which the chariot of Ahab was washed, which had brought up the dying king from the valley of the Jordan after the fatal fight of Ramoth-Gilead. (Stanley's Palestine.) (1 Kings, xxii.,'38.) The martyr has a tomb, and his memory is revered; but of the proud Herod, of his palace and his terraces, his sumptuous halls, and his feasts and dances, nothing remains, but a few broken pillars on the hill. All nature smiles around, as she then smiled ; groves of trees, of corn and olives, rise in the valley, and up the hill sides; but the plough passes over the King's palace every season, and the peasant who drives it knows not the very name of Herod. Over the mountains of Manasseh and into the Plain of Esdraelon, after a night's halt, we hast- en, across Galilee, leaving Tabor, or the Mountain towards the Eastern summit of Mount Gerizim ; in the far back histories of the mysterious old time, the actual presence of God on Mount Gerizim is stated." An American traveller says, "The brother of my host was particularly fond of talking about them. He was very old, and the most deformed man I ever saw, who lived to a great age. He seemed to think there were many Samaritans in England and America, and told me to tell them, wherever I found them, that they believed in one God Omnipotent and Eternal, the five books of Moses, and a future Messiah, and the day of the Messiah's coming to be near at hand ; that they prac- tised circumcision; went three times a-year up to Mount Gerizim, 'the everlasting mountain,' to worship and offer sacrifice; and once a-year pitched their tents nnd left their virgins alone on the Mount for seven days, expecting that one of them should conceive and bear a son, who should be the Messiah ; that they allowed two wives, and, in case of barrenness, four; that the women were not permitted to enter the synagogue, except once a year, during fast, but on no account were they suffered to touch the sacred scroll; and that, although the Jews and Samaritans had dealings in the market-place, &c, they hated each other now, as much as their fathers did before them. I asked about Jacob's Well: he said he knew the place, and that he knew Our Saviour, or Jesus Chriit, as he familiarly called him, very- well; he was Joseph the carpenter's son, of Nazarclh; but that the story which the Christians had about the woman at the well was all a fiction ; that Christ did not convert her, but that, on the contrary, she laughed at him, and eren refused to give him water to drink." 2 The exploration of the tomb of Joseph at Shechem, the stone set up by Joshua at the same place to perpetuate the law of Sinai, and a description of the ruins on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, are still desiderata. 64 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. of the Transfiguration, green to its very summit, and towering in the prospect like a dome, as if isolated in the mountain range, on our right. Carmel, for eighteen miles, is on our left, stretching towards the sea, all verdant to its top with groves and glades, like Tabor. Gilboa all bare, and little Hermon, we have left behind. We now enter the Valley of Nazareth from the broader Valley of Jezreel, or Esdraelon. Nazareth, the dwelling place of Our Lord, is built on the steep slope of a hill, as will be seen from our illustration, and fifteen gently-rounded green hills form a barrier round the beautiful fields abounding in bright flowers, fig trees, and hedged gardens, in the midst of which sits Nazareth like a rose, with the mountains i'or its leaves, according to the poetic image of an old topographer, Quaresmins. Innumerable files of cattle and black goats may be seen winding towards it, and under a large pomegranate tree. On the way towards Saphorah (Sephorieh) the traditional residence of the Virgin's parents, may be seen a party of women and girls, with regular and delicate features, dancing under a pome- granate tree. We are now at the very source and first spring of Christianity. Here for thirty years resided the Saviour of mankind : " The word was made flesh and dwelt among us." At the north-west end of the town, we encamped by a well, which is called the " Spring of the Annunciation," where, says the early Greek tradition, the Angel saluted Mary as she went to it, as we see her countrywomen now coming with their jars and their skins, to draw water. Dismounting from our horses, we proceed to look at " The Mount of Precipitation" (Luke, iv., 1), the brow of the hill on the slope of which the town is built. This is just above the Maronite Convent, at the south- west coiner of the town. The women here are very pretty ; nor did we notice that boldness in their looks which made a reverend American put the question to himself over again that Philip once put to Nathaniel, " Can any good come out of Nazareth 1 " The Church of the Annunciation, -within, is very handsome, and without is very strongly guarded. We leave the Convent walls, and by a flight of steps descend to an altar, with a recess cut in the solid rock, but cased in marble, where the Angel addressed the Virgin ; under that is an inscription, " Verlmm caro hie factum est:" "Here the word was made flesh." A broken column, hanging from its capital in the roof, designates the place where the Angel stood. Below the altar is the house of Joseph and Mary, — that cave, the kitchen, keeping room and bedroom. The House that miraculously transported itself from this spot to Loretto, is said, here, to have been the other half of the holy dwelling. Close by, however, the "Workshop of Josejih" is left us, though in a very different style of Architecture and material ; there is also, the little Synagogue where Christ, by read- ing the book of Isaiah, and applying the passages to himself, exasperated his townsmen to thrust him out of their city. It may not be generally known, perhaps, that Pope Sixtus V. had actually negotiated a treaty with the Sublime Porte, to purchase the Holy Sepulchre, and convey it bodily to Rome, with the sur- rounding shrines, so that Chi-istendom might possess the actual sites of the Conception, Birth, and Burial of our Saviour. We were strongly tempted to continue our tour, and visit Cana, Nain, and Tiberias ; but an intimation of the steamer's departure drew us once more from the Sacred Past into the regions of the busy present ; and diverging to the left, from Nazareth, we worked our way on to Caifla, and thence to Jaffa, where we re- embarked, thus concluding our seven days' journey in the Holy Land, out of which we had spent Five Days at Jerusalem. NAZAREtHl. vcj,. r SICILY AS IT IS. I.— IN AND ABOUT PALERMO. The triumphal entrance of Garibaldi into Naples having released us from the charge of attending his vic- torious career, which we might have accompanied from his landing in Marsala and during his progress across Sicily to Palermo, we are enabled to turn to that island which is now likely to assume a very interesting position in European affairs, and complete our know- ledge of its present condition and the prospects of its possible future, by a tour completely round and across it. This is no very difficult task apparently, for the whole island is only 560 miles in circumference, 220 miles in length, and 150 miles in breadth; but there are 500 cities, although there are only two post-roads and one stage-coach ! Palermo is reached in the steam-boat from Naples in seven hours. This ancient Cityt stands on the margin of its beautiful bay, in a wide rich valley, backed by an extensive plain, and sur- rounded by a grand amphitheatre of mountains, verdant to their summits, andof a varied and picturesque outline. It looks clown smiling upon dark blue waves, while around it the palm, the orange tree, the fig, the olive and the vine, cheered by the brightest sun and re- freshed by cool breezes, shed forth their verdure, and fringe the shell of gold,— the Conca d'Oro,— for so the plain is called— that contains " Palermo the Beautiful," as if within a frame. The town has an eastern appear- ance ; white and square houses with flat roofs. We could fancy the Saracens were again in possession of the place, and that the gongs sounding so loudly were intended to call the Moslems to their prayers. 2 1 The origin of Palermo is lost in the night of antiquity. Tbucydides says it was originally a Phoenician citv, which passed under the Greeks, and eventually Carthaginians, the principal seat of whose dominions it was. Eventually the Romans won it. During the decline of the empire, it was overrun by the Barbarians and Goths, until, by the valour of Belisarius, it was restored awhile to the Byzantine Emperor. Then the Saracens took it then the Normans, then the French, then the Spanish. At one time there were three codes of Law , the Normans had the Custom of Normandy, the Saracens the Koran, and the Greeks and the Sicilians the Roman Law. Six Languages were spoken at the same time ; French, German, Italian, Greek, Latin, and Arabic. 1 lie city, like the country, has been Phoenician, Greek, Roman Gothic Byzantine, Norman, French, Spanish, Sardinian, and -Neapolitan, and preserves traces of each one in its buildings as well as the language, manners, habits, and appearance of its inhabitants. 2 But how did the Saracens come here? Dux faminafacti. There was a woman at the bottom of it. Goths, Vandals and Byzantines followed the Romans, and it happened that at one of the gratings, justsuch as we nowsee npairof bright eyes and apale lace under a white muslin veil looking down from the balconied The lovely bay is eight miles broad. To the west it is closed by Mount Pellegrino, where once was Hyccara, whence Nicias, who did little else, brought away the fair Lais, who fascinated all Athens, and seduced the great Pericles to listen and admire. The Eastern headland is Mount Catalfano — the ancient Solus or Soluntum, and at the foot of which is a small port, with a fort called Castelli di Solauto. The Marina, the loveliest ride, walk, or drive in Europe, open to the sea, and guarded only by a dwarf wall] with flagged pavement for pedestrians, is a broad road] along which, on the other side, are the palaces of the nobility. Even now, there is a procession of carnages every one rides in Palermo— and a band, whose music from above floats softened over the sea. We have very little trouble in landing, and as for the Custom House that used to be so vexatious, "we" and Garibaldi, nous avom change tout eela. Farewell, for a while at any rate, to official extortion in Sicily. We hasten to the Victoria Hotel, on the Upper Marina, where we "greatly daring dine;" and then, out to enjoy the evening fragrance of the orange groves and the amphi- theatre of lights round the bay, and the busy, bustling scene of the Marine Promenade. The sweet silvery bells chime out here for vespers— Sicilian vespers ! It is only half a mile from here to the Church of San Spirito, in a field by which took place that famous assassination on so huge a scale, 3 that set people second story in the High Street, he saw a pretty nun and fell in love with her. Love laughs at locksmiths, so the nun got out of her window at night, and was just stepping off the rope-ladder mtothe arms of her lover, when a friar, returning late to hisconvent, discovered her. The power of the Church in those days (it was in the same year that Egbert was crowned King of England,) wasr.ot to be trifled with even by Byzantine Generals; so Euphemius was sentenced to be flogged through the streets, the nun being com- pelled to stand at her grating and witness the degradation of her lover. But by the aid of some of his fellow officers, he ventured upon a most hazardous escape. The keeper of his prison was poisoned before midnight and the keys obtained; he then swain out into the bay, where he remained floating, until a fishing boat took him up, and for a heavy bribe put him on board a vessel bound for Africa. Once there he instigated the Muhainraedans to an easy conquest of Sicily ; and they .ruled the Island with rigour for upwards of two hundred years, enriching its cities with graceful palaces. 3 It was here, on Easter Tuesday, March 30th, 1382, about half a mile from the city at the Church of San Spirito, that, when a great concourse of the citizens had taken place, ostensibly for the purpose of attending vespers, a party of French soldiers, to the number of two hundred, under suspicion of the people wearing arms, began to search for thein, and one insolent young officer, named Drouette, stepped up to a very handsome young married lady who was walking surrounded by her friends, under pre- tence of searching for a weapon, rudely thrust his hand into her 68 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. thinking that it was not always necessary to endure oppression, and that a people when resolute were equal to any disciplined force with a bad cause. 1 bosom. The lady fainted in her husband's arms, who, furious with rage, struck at Drouette, crying *' Death to the French !" " Death to the French !" echoed the crowd, and armed with knives and clubs they fell desperately upon the soldiers and killed them to a man. Inflamed with rage and blood, the mob then hurried to the city, where they broke into the convents and killed every French monk they could trace. A horrible butchery followed— not even the altars afforded refuge— men, women, and children were alike sacrificed to the national hate. The French were hunted to their homes everywhere, and murdered without mercy. Eight thousand fell miserably murdered in this impetus of fury, which long repressed, now suddenly and awfully burst forth. In the universal massacre a single individual was saved, William of Porceletta, the governor of a small town. He had stood aloof from the tyrannies and insolence of his countrymen, and had made himself beloved. The Sicilians, who, through- out the country, had risen on the tolling of the vesper bell of San Spirito, refrained from injuring his abode, and honourably conducted him on board one of his own vessels to Provence, first compelling him, as it were, to receive the price of the pos- sessions he left in Sicily. A remarkable example of popular justice and the power of virtue. This insurrection had been carefully prepared beforehand by John of Procida. " His birth was humble," says Gibbon, " but his education was learned, and, in the poverty of exile, he was relievod by the practice of physic, which he had studied in the school of Salerno. Fortune had left him nothing to lose except life, and to despise life is the first qualification of a rebel. The island was roused to a sense of freedom by his eloquence, and he displayed to every baron his private interest in the common cause. In the confidence of foreign aid, he successively visited the courts of the Greek Emperor, and of Peter, King of Arragon, who possessed the maritime countries of Yalentia and Catalonia. To the ambitious Peter a crown was presented which he might justly claim by his marriage with the daughter of the sister" (Constantia, the daughter,) " of Manfred " (the last of the Norman Kings), " and, by the dying voice of Conradino," (the young grandson of the Emperor Frederick's son, ruthlessly slain by Charles of Anjou), " who, from the scaffold, had cast a ring to his heir and avenger. Paleologus was easily persuaded to divert his enemy from a foreign war by a rebellion. at home; and a Greek subsidy of 25,000 ounces of gold was most profitably employed to arm a Catalan fleet, which sailed under a holy banner to the specious attack of the Saracens of Africa. In the disguise of a monk or a beggar, the indefUtigable missionary of revolt flew from Constantinople to Rome, and from Sicily to £aragossa ; the treaty was signed with the seal of Pope Nicholas, himself the enemy of Charles ; and his deed of gift transferred the fiefs of St. Peter from the house of Anjou to that of Arragon. So widely diffused, and so freely cir- culated, the secret was preserved for above two years with im- penetrable discretion ; and each of the conspirators imbibed the maxim of Peter " (of Aragon), " who declared that he would cut off his left hand if it were conscious of the intention of his right. The mine was prepared with deep and dangerous artifice; but it may be questioned whether the instant of explosion at Palermo were an effort of accident or design." The French were long taught to remember this bloody lesson. " If I am provoked," said Henry the Fourth, " I will breakfast at Milan and dine at Naples." " Your Majesty," replied the Spanish Ambassador, " may, perhaps, arrive in Sicily for vespers." Charles threatened dreadful revenge, but the Messinese, who were the first attacked, defeated his army most ingloriously, and in the meantime Peter of Arragon had been sent for and arrived. Since that day, until the coining of a new John of Procida in Garibaldi, the Spanish family have reigned in Sicily, personally or by viceroy. The island having, in 1713, only for a brief period passed to the House of Savoy, was by them exchanged with Carlos, son of Philip the Fifth of Spain, for the Island of Sardinia. In this manner the Spanish Bourbon dynasty entered into Sicily. 1 But how did the French come into Sicily ? A woman did this also. At a festive entertainment, held in the French Court, Beatrice, Countess of Savoy, married to Charles of Anjou, brother to Louis IX. of France, was removed from the superior range of seats occupied by her two younger sisters, the Queen (Eleanor) of England and the Queen of France. Mortified by this humili- ation, she returned to her apartment, excited by ill humour, and dissolved in tears. On learning the cause of her chagrin and on There are the strange Sicilian nobility in their car- riages, with every trace of Spanish blood, — proud, lazy, and polite. Many a one of them half starves himself, and lives in a humble lodging up a dirty back street, for the sake of rolling along in that elegant equipage on the Marina every evening. The Spanish veil is not yet uncommon with the women ; but the best dressed ladies wear Paris bonnets and cloaks. All the men are smoking, and the gay uniforms and the bright eyes and the rapid animated conver- sation, the strange black-looking priests, and the pale-faced nuns peeping from their grated windows in the upper story, combine to form an extra- ordinary scene. There are 200,000 inhabitants in Palermo, and it is a tolerably busy town. They are about to have a Parliament in it, and yon will hear of some strange goings on before all is over, for the Sicilians are famous in history for winning their liberty, and not knowing how to use it or to keep it. They have done this several times before ; the last time was in 1812, when King Ferdinand, then a refugee from Naples, convoked his barons in a Parliament, and im- prisoned them for protesting against an arbitrary tax. Then Lord William Bentinck landed troops, and threatened to depose the king, and drew from him a constitution. But the Sicilians quarrelled amongst themselves, flew off into parties, and the king tricked them out of the constitution, as a toy too cum- bersome and troublesome for them to play with. In 1847 they earned another revolution, and they beat the soldiers in Palermo, and they captured the citadel, and the Capuchins distributed arms, and led them on, as they did this year. In 1848 they defied the king, and Lord Minto interfered in their behalf, but they unwisely sent an expedition to Calabria, which failed ; and then the king threw them all over, and bombarded the town and gained the day, and, as they tell us, imprisoned, flogged, tortured, shot, and hung them, up to the coming ol Garibaldi. Whether they will manage better nowa- days is the question. However, all are enjoying the present. Gallant cavaliers dash past, pedestrians press along from their evening walk in crowds. It is the hour of enjoyment. The children of the rich, dressed like dolls — of the poor, dark-eyed, fine, and beautifully graceful, are all at play on this cool evening; the artisan sits at his door ; the coffee-house loungers occupy the pavement with their chairs ; ices and refreshments are handed about — the bay is silvered over with the moon ; Pellegrino stands out like a giant in the shade ; the sea breeze blows in fresh ; and the song of the homeward fishermen comes over the gleaming waters. It was about midnight before we could tear ourselves from the scene. Palermo is a pleasant and easy place for travellers. No street directory is required; there are only two streets besides the Marina, and these crossing at right angles, divide it necessarily into four parts. Out of these her saying she would give her life to be able to confine her tresses for one hour beneath a diadem, Charles embraced her affectionately, and added, " Set your heart at rest, Countess, for before long I will make you a greater queen than either of your sisters." So he promised to her. He defeated Manfred, who died bravely fighting, and caused Conradino to he executed, ho himself and Beatrice witnessing the bloody spectacle. A similar promise is said to have been made by the late Emperor of Russia to his Empress, when they were stopping together in the vicinity of Mount Etna, who promised his Empress Sicily for a summer residence, after he had taken Constantinople, — which he did not. SICILY AS IT IS. THE CHAPEL OF ST. ROSALIA NEAR PALERMO, IN SICILY. great streets shelve and slope narrow alleys and lanes, in which clothes, hung out to dry, are ludicrously con- spicuous. There is a fine St. Giles' element about the prospect, in spite of the arches and archways, and the deep blue sky, and the bright blue sea, and the occasional palm tree. The first great street is called the Cassaro, and was the Al Kasr or Street of Palaces, also called Via de Toledo, of the Saracens — it is a mile long. The houses on either side are tall and stately, with bold cornices and projecting balconies ; the flowers and striped blinds of the windows give colour and effect ; the ground-floors are all shops, of a second- rate, country-town-shop-like description. The front of each is an arch ; the proprietors live above ; hence the lodgers have almost all the house. A circus adorns the intersection of the streets ; this is orna- mented with statues of the Seasons, of sovereigns, and of saints. The gates of the city are very handsome, with fountains and marble columns. The second street is the Macqueda, which at the close opens out into the mountains, which seem as if they were exactly at the end, though in reality at least three miles distant. Both streets are lined with churches and convents innumerable, a small piazza, part of the Cassaro, contains a very elaborate fountain, extremely hand- some, but too complicated in its machinery ever to throw up water. It is circular, and of white marble, and gleams with statues of exquisite workmanship. It has no business to be in a public street. It was designed and executed for a private garden, but was be- queathed to the Senate, who caused it to be erected here. We now hire mules and start oft' — three boyshave tired us out with asking us to do so. Our object is to reach Monte Pellegrino and the Grotto of Santa Rosalia. 1 1 This glorious virgin, says the legend, was born at Palermo, in 1130, of noble progenitors, the descendants of Charlemagne. Edu- cated with the utmost refinement of the period, she fled, at the age of twelve, from her father's house to the neighbouring mountains, where she passed her whole time in acts of devotion and penance. At length she retired to a cavern on Monte Pellegrino, where she died, without her place of refuge having been discovered. During that terrible plague of 1624, when all efforts to stay its ravages proved ineffectual, the Saint appeared in a dream to a certain inhabitant of Palermo, and disclosed to him the spot where her mortal relics yet remained unburied, which were reverently gathered up and deposited in the custody of the Archbishop. Still the pestilence refused to leave Palermo, until one day a certain Vincenzio Bonelli, a soap-maker, wandering about the mountain to deplore the loss of his better half, was encountered by a beautiful damsel, who said to him, " Come hither with me, Vincenzio, and I will show you my grotto." Bonelli, all in a tremble, demanded her name. " I am Rosalia," replied the virgin. " Then why," asked the soap-maker, plucking up courage to address her, " do you abandon your country to so many afflictions ? " " Such has been the will of Heaven," interrupted the saint, " but I am now sent to announce to you, that so soon as my body shall be carried in procession through the city, the pestilence shall cease." She then showed Bonelli her place of retreat, advised him to confide all that ho had seen and heard to his confessor, and, moreover, predicted that in four days he should be with her in Paradise. Bonelli, of course, fulfilled his mission, and died himself four days afterwards in corroboration of it. Her bones were carried through the City, and the plague was stayed. In honour of this, a yearly festival takes place in Palermo, a magnificent car is conducted about, 20,000 wax-lights are lighted in the Cassaro, and a splendid exhibition of fireworks takes place. ALL ROUND THE WORLD. Monte Pellegrino has been compared to the Rock of Gibraltar, and is about the same height — 1,963 feet above the level of the sea. It was an impregnable stronghold in the Carthaginian period. 1 The grotto of the celebrated cavern of Rosalia is extremely curious. The chapel is hewn in the rock, and contains a white marble statue of the fair young saint of sixteen, arrayed in gold and siver, jewels, flowers, and lamps, that hang around all night and day (see p. 69)- The annual festival is very gay. St. Rosalia parades in an immense car, as high as the highest palaces of the Toledo or Cassaro. ft is splendidly fitted up with gold and silver embroidery and painting, the body being formed of a huge mount of orange-trees, corals, vases of flowers, and on the top of all is St. Rosalia herself — a silver statue. There is a grand show of fireworks to close the scene. Returning into Palermo, we observed the fruit ex- posed for sale in the market. Pine cones, which are eaten roasted, the produce of a flat-topped pine ; red- cheeked apples; figs of the cactus, of which the seller strips the skin oft' and hands them to you to swallow, and delicious they are when you are once used to them ; chesnuts — the chesnuts of the sunny south, fine and mealy; dried figs; tender green lemons — the most charming of fruit; ripe oranges, nuts, and melons. We saw, too, whatwill soon be the last lottery (for one of Garibaldi's first steps was to abolish this cheating method of taxation), where, in a red balcony, in a great house in the Piazza, standing where the Inquisition used to be, a little child in white, with due ceremonies, — such as we ourselves used to have in Guildhall about thirty years ago, — drew the lucky ticket from the wheel, and made one man happy with a few pounds extra, while he disappointed a thousand others. What im- port? the Government raised £200,000 a year by it. There was now no end of sight-seeing, all within easy j distance. The Convent of St. Maria di Gesu, at the foot of a mountain, buried in cypresses, round-topped pines, olives, 2 oleanders, the vine, the date-bearing palm, and aloes innumerable ; the aloe here being thick and strong — a hard trunk of fibres a foot round, and strong enough for a beam. The pathway behind this convent goes up to an ivy-clad hermitage, with a wide-spreading yew tree of giant size. The view hence over the plain of Palermo, the sea, the bay, and the City, to Mount Pellegrino, which heaves up as the back ground to the picture, is something never to be forgotten for beauty and brilliancy. Coming back, we pass the Church of San Spirito, surrounded by a cluster of cypresses, the scene of the Sicilian Vespers. There is the large Campo, or burying- ground of the City, and a convent, which enjoys a vaulted burial ground, where the occupants are dried into mummies ; and there they are, in coffins with ' Of course the Carthaginians and the Romans had a battle here. It came off on the banks of the river Oreti, now a mere mountain stream. Uasdrubal came from the eastern plain with an immense army of elephants, trained for war, on whose terrific aspect he relied to scare the Roman troops at the first onset. Rut Marcellus opposed cralt by courage, and told Lis soldiers to affect fear at the slow, desperate march of the beasts, and fall back. As soon as a number of the elephants had crossed the river, and while others were crowding in and to the ford, a volley of darts, discharged upon them by the Romans, threw them into confusion, and they turned upon their leaders, and, trampling down the Carthaginian ranks, threw their army into such confu- sion that the Carthaginians lost 20,000 men. 2 The olive trees take long to grow. The Saracens exempted from taxation, during thirty years, those who made a plantation of glass cases, in the very clothes they used to wear in life — a well- dressed skeleton in white kid gloves ; a soldier in regimentals ; a child preserved with glass eyes ! But we have had our seven penny-worth of carriage out (it costs you two tari, of about three pence half- penny each, fifty-seven — there ought to be sixty — to a jwund), the fare in Palermo, for a carriage, — and it is time we started to survey the curiosities of the town. Out' of the greatest of these would be, if we could collect them together, its four thousand lawyers, or at the rate of one attorney to every five hundred inhabitants, which, allowing the usual set-off of wives, women, and children, would be about oue per cent, for every able-bodied man in the town; deduct from this a liberal per centage of noblemen, all the members of whom are forbidden, by their rank, to trade, deduct also the clergy and the monks, and how few will be left to earn a living for themselves and the rest ? Yet all day long there are processions, and incense, and prayers; every other day, almost, is a holiday, and every third evening a " festa," with fireworks. We once heard tell of a Staffordshire working week as follows : "Monday a holiday ; Tuesday we go on an excursion ; Wednesday we talk about it ; Thursday we go to work; Friday we get our wages; Saturday we all drink ; and Sunday we go to sleep." A Sicilian week would be nearly the same, but that the Saturday and Sunday would be better spent ; the evening of both, however, being enlivened with a dance, — one night to celebrate the close of labour, and the other, after prayers. Milking the cows, pruning the vines, i ir crushing the grapes and tending the silkworms,' 1 or basking in the sunshine, constitute the most of a Sicilian peasant's labours, unless in the sulphur district, where he really works hard. There are three hundred churches in Palermo, and therefore we cannot see them all. Let us begin with the Cathedral on the light hand of the large open square at the head of the city. Severe and simple in the exterior, with its stone burnt to a yellow by the sun's heat, it is impossible to say whether it be Sicilian, Norman, Gothic, or Saracen in its construction, but it lias all the characteristics of a noble Spanish Cathedral. There is a grand Saracenic old door for front entrance, and its interior contains numerous side-chapels, each enclosed by marble balustrades and dedicated to special sin. Its altar of lapis lazuli is magnificent, and Gagini, the Sicilian Michael Angelo, has adorned it with olive trees. The olives fall in August, but then are green and email ; they swell and grow greener, until quite black and ripe in October. Then the olive plantations are crowded with men, women, and boys harvesting the crop; the women and chil- dren pick up the fallen fruit ; the men climb up ladders, sit on the trees, and shake down the olives into the sheets spread out below. The olives are crushed in a rude mill— very rude indeed, and here there is much room for improvement and capital. a In the month of May the women take the eggs, wrap them in a fine linen cloth, and place it in their beds when they get up in the morning. The chilling influence of the air is sedulously- avoided. When hatched the young worms are placed in a basket with the tenderest mulberry leaves. These are given fresh every night, being merely laid on the worms' backs. When full-sized the worms arc fed no more. The women take it out of the basket and drawing it back see the silk protruding from its mouth; they then place it on a dry tray, where they weave their cocoons. They are taken hence and baked in an oven or roasted in the hot noon- day sun. Then, in the month of August, when the two crops of silk are in — the second begins in June — the cocoons are thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, which loosens the silk, the loose threads are dexterously caught and thrown on a reel, and the silk is wound off. SICILY AS IT IS. 71 a fine picture of the Redeemer ; mosaics of porphyry and verde antique brighten its pavement, and among the five grand Sarcophagi is one containing the body of Frederick Barbarossa, opened in 1781 by barbarous hands, when the Emperor's dress, of a gorgeous triple robe embroidered with gold and jewels, was found to be still in excellent preservation. Here lies Roger the first King, 1 there too, lie the two Constantia's, Queen and Empress, and the Norman King Henry VI. 1 Our own William the Conqueror was not tlio only knight adventurer of tlie Norman race about the same period as lie in- vaded England. It was in the year 1003 that Drogo, a Norman chief, from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, landed with about forty companions at Salerno. The Saracens attacked the town whilst the Normans were there. Drogo, with his companions, put him- self at the head of the people, and repulsed the invaders. The Duke of Salerno having witnessed the prowess of the strangers, pressed them to remain. Tho pilgrims excused themselves at the time, but engaged to return. In the following spring, Drogo, with a hand, augmented by no small number of bold adventurer?, fulfilled his promise, returned to Italy, and entered into the service of the Duke of Salerno. Profiting by the dissensions of tho Pope, the Lombards, the Byzantines, and the Saracens, they sent over in 1022 for a reinforcement of their country- men to reap the golden harvest; whereupon William, Drogo, Tristan, and Raynulfus, four of the twelve sons of Tancred, n Norman gentleman of small fortune, came out with a party of martial adventurers to Italy. The threo entered into the service of the Greek Emperor, on condition of half-shares in tho spoil; and the eldest, William, the very model of a knight of romance, signalised himself by transfixing on the point of his lance the Saracen Governor of Syracuse, and his brethren largely aided in tho release of Sicily from their new invaders. But the Greek general tried to cheat them of their reward, and made the worst of the bargain ; for the Normans elected Iron-Arm (the name given to William) as their chief, and crossed to Calabria, where they seized several cities. William was made Count of Apulia; and on his death, two more of his brothers, Robert (afterwards surmimed "the Devil") and Hubert, camo out iu the disguise of pilgrims. A Sicilian party assassinated Drogo, and attempted to shake off the invaders, but in vain. Even the Pope himself, when he attacked them, at the head of his own army in person, was taken prisoner. The Normans now gave a proof that they possessed as much wisdom as courage. A ware of the spiritual influence of Rome on the minds of men, they knew that any injurious treatment offered to the head of the Church would infallibly bring down upon them a deluge of indignation. Instead, therefore, of treating the Pope as a captive, the Normans fell at his feet and implored his pardon and his blessing. They welcomed and conducted him as it were in triumph to Bencvento. Leo IX. was so touched by a conduct the very opposite of what he expected, that he confirmed to the Normans all they had conquered, or might conquer, in Apulia or Calabria, and made an alliance with the very men whom he came to expel. Humphry was now Count of Apulia, and Robert made himself Duke of Calabria, by movements which obtained for him the appellation of Guiscard, or " the wily." On one occasion, when, from the natural strength of its situation, he despaired of taking the citadel of Malvito, he sent word to the monks of a convent within its walls, that one of his officers was dead, and besought them to give him burial in their church. The bier was carried and accompanied by unarmed men. Iu the middle of the funeral service, the corpse started up in complete steel, and put swords into the hands of the escort. The gar- rison, taken by surpriso, laid down their arms, and the gates of the fortress were opened to Robert by his own soldiers. Finally, in 1059, Roger the youngest son of Tancred, came over, the last and most fortunate of the adventurous band. History here repeated itself. A fugitive Greek general had brought over the Saracens; a Saracen chief, Benct- Themmah, dispossessed of the government of Catania, revenged himself by persuading Count Roger, whom he found at Mileto, in 1061, to invade Sicily. * Roger, nothing loth, crossed the Straits of Messina, defeated the Muhammedans, and finally won the island. His son succeeding him, reduced into order what his father had conquered, and his fellow-adventurers saluted him king ; and thus it came to pass that the son of the youngest of the twelve sons of a poor Norman gentleman, who had left his country with no posession but his sword, was crowned at Paler- mo, the first monarch who had ever ruled over the whole of Sicily. The Sarcophagus of Roger is supported by kneeling Saracens. There are four large sarcophagi on a pedes- tal, under a marble canopy, supported by four pillars. The interior of the Cathedral no longer produces the same harmony of effect as of old, for some Sicilian churchwarden has whitewashed it. All the fine orna- ments produced by the taste of the founder, Archbishop Walter, the English prime minister of the Good King of Sicily — whose plans are said, however, to have been mainly chosen from those bequeathed by King William the Bad — have been defaced by the rude hand of over- careful cleanliness. 3 Proceed we next to the Palazzo Reale, — royal palace no more ; for poor old Prince Castelcicala, long its lieutenant-governor, has vanished out of the way. The world got too fast for him, and has pushed the old diplo- matist aside. While he cut and shuffled, the game was lost. We have just passed Cicero's house in the Cathedral square, and the Romans have gone ; we have seen where Hasdrubal fought, and the Cartha- ginians are gone ; we have seen Barbarossa's tomb, and the Suabians are gone ; and the great Count Roger's, but where are the Normans 1 The bells of St. Spirito have told us how the French went. Here is the King's Palace, and the Bourbons have gone. What next, and next 1 Beautiful stair- cases, furniture delicately classical, roofs fretted and arched, floors of marble, and prospects the most charming ; but there stands a fellow in a red shirt, with an English rifle on his shoulder, and he is explaining to another fellow without a shirt, and with his mouth full of figs, how to give his vote ; while yonder beggar, reclining against a wall on the shady side of the way, just raises his hat, and taking his cigar (about a foot long) out of his mouth as we pass, asks us " Charity for the love of God." We walk on ; another beggar meets us without a cigar. He follows and begs — " what, not a farthing !" We have no change — " he will give it to us." We don't wish to trouble him. " Then will the siguor give him the cigar he is smoking, ' in charity for,' " &c. Aroused and angry, we rebuff" him, but not comprehending why - Walter op Ofamilio — whom William II. the son of William the Bad selected for his prime minister when he came of age— was an Englishman of humble birth — the son of a miller, it is said. He had been recommended to the Court of Sicily by our Henry the II., who wished to bring about an alliance between his daugh- ter Joan and the young King. Walter was a man of great ability, and faithful to his English as well as his Sicilian master. William the Bad, the successor of the first king Roger, was a weak and indolent prince, addicted to luxury and governed by unworthy favourites. He shuthimself up in his palace and neglected the affairs of his kingdom. Whilst indulging witl i the ministers of his pleasures, a formidable insurrection aroused him, the conspira- tors seized upon his youthful son, the Duke of Apulia, and threat- ened to depose William, who at length awoke, and with a vigour becoming his bold ancestors suppressed the dangerous commotion. But a melancholy domestic tragedy darkened his triumph. The young duke, as soon as the tumult was over, ran open-armed to his father, when William, irritated by the supposed complicity of his own child with the conspirators against his throne and life, dashed him off with such great force, that the poor boy fell back, expiring, into his mother's arms. • ; • Nothing could assuage the grief of the wretched king, who throwing aside his royal mantle, cast himself on the ground in an agony of deep remorse. Recovering at length from his dejection, he shut himself up in his palace, and desiring his servants hence, forth to exclude anything that could occasion him the least anxiety, gave himself up to his favourite pursuit of architecture, until suddenly cut off in the very prime of an inglorious and unhappy existence. ALL ROUND THE WORLD. we are angry, he finally beats ns l>y " At least the signor will give him half the cigar, ' in charity for,' " on which the bright sea dashes, sparkles, and foams; its hamlets, hills, and vales, backed with ranges of far-rising mountains, overtopping each other, and Mount Etna rising over all ; the tall, waving palms, that rise across its blue sky, the dark cypress alleys, the magnolias, the brilliant verdure of the lemon and the yucca (Adam's needle), eastern and tropical, all growing free without hot-houses ; the fountains and the flowers; the sparkling anemones and rare scarlet flowers, and shrubs with bells of blue or darkest purple, with velvet variegated leaves, and the wide sea, sweeping around all, below; then, too, the ! women, with their dark petticoats and bright short- ! skirted pelisses and jackets. The purple mountains were almost veiled with mists of heat, and the country lay rich and luxuriant to the mountain's feet, beyond which a thin white sheet, like smoke, marked the cone of Etna, lost in the greyness of the distant sky. We passed through a little village, the maccaroni and onions hanging in streaks across the grated win- dows, orchards of fruit trees skirted the winding road, above hedges of tall, slender laurels, and quaint, grim- fingered, cactuses, with aloes twenty feet high, and geraniums and fuchsias enlivening the dense dark green background. Observe, as we roll along, those white-hooded peasant girls, those fishermen and mule- teers, and a carriage and six, a regular drag, with post horses, belonging to some rich Count ; mules laden with sulphur, mules laden with tobacco, a butcher killing an ox by the road-side, and peasants squeezing oil from olives in a rush basket, squadrons of rural cavalry, the mounted National Guard, in French kepis and red shirts, with long boots, volunteers, cacciatori (felt-hatted riflemen of Lombardy), squadri (Sicilian militia), volunteers and pressed men ; the box, the priest, and the cross by the way-side, to remind us to say our prayers and leave a few tari; but a taro, which is just less than a fourpenny-piece, goes as far as a franc (which is tenpence) in France, or eighteen-pence in England. The friars of various orders are the best men in Sicily, and showed them- selves so in the late conflict. It is only a pity that, like the nobility, they are too well off to have to work for their living. A country without trade and commerce, with no education, and no industry, requires something even more than religious feeling to regenerate it. Ha ! the Sirocco ! The air is hot and dry; then up gets the wind until it blows a hurricane, and then, for two or three days, a gale ! The mention of a wind makes you think of coolness and refreshing ; but this sirocco is a hot blast — it dries you, suffocates you, and presses down your spirits with a weight like lead. No! let them boast their sunshine and their blue sky — we will give them their moonlight, their flowers, and their music ; better a Lambeth fog any evening thau a Sicilian sirocco. We hasten home, and shut ourselves up, to make preparations for our tour round the island, and to read and write letters. Letters ! A Sicilian letter is indeed a curiosity. It is just like what they bring in to the clown, in a pantomime, for a letter — a large square thing, with an immense seal, and a paper of the roughest and least white. It can't be that they have no rags to make it of ; for next to Ireland, Sicily carries the palm in rags ; and as for fibrous material, they have aloes enough — all fibre — to furnish paper-stuff for all the possible paper in Europe— no bad addition, on some future day, to their general exports of sulphur, wine, oil, marble, amber, coral, alum, antimony, salt, hemp, sumach, vanilla, fish, figs, honey, oranges, lemons, and a few minor articles. It is one o'clock, and the shops even in the main street are, almost all of them, half-closed. The shop- keepers are asleep, or enjoying a bath. Every one takes it easy — though, save the sirocco, there is nothing very enervating or relaxing about the climate ; the tem- perature in summer being about 80°, and seldom without a cooling breeze from the sea, and in winter about 45°, but then the breeze is warm. But they are a pleasure-seeking people, and the climate tempts them to late hours — for with the hour of sunset a new life seems to begin. Then, along the Marine Parade, is heard the music of the regimental bands, while the whole merry-hearted populace turn out, to ride or drive, or walk or gamble, — prince, count, shopkeeper, and beggar, — to quaff lemonade, drink ices, smoke, and play cards until twelve. Cards, too,are an amusementall day ; the poorest and the lowest may be seen " making their gamo" in the streets, in the doorways, even in the church porches. The Sicilian ladies of the higher oi'der are of the Spanish breed, short and slim, with fine lustrous dark eyes, but their mouths are large and their faces too thin. The children are lovely. The gentlemen are finer looking than the ladies, with pale clear skins, fine dark eyes, and an intellectual expression, tall and well-made, and fastidious in dress in public. They all follow French fashions, but their favourite colours are claret and brown. Of the clergy the Jesuits are the most aristocratic-looking, and are a talented class of men, but they avoid foreigners and take no part in politics, content with that primary power which their having the main control of education of the male and female population gives them. The Capuchins, on the contrary, are more of and with the people, as they showed themselves in the late fight at Palermo. Their care of the sick and dying endears them to all, and they go about in all weathers, barefooted and bare- headed, in their common woollen frocks, aiding, strength- ening, and supporting, while they themselves live on charity, for they have no more lands but those gardens round the convents. The brave benevolence of the brethren of this order during the raging of the cholera will never be forgotten by the grateful Sicilians. Out of doors, amusement is the fashion ; they only eat, drink, (very moderately), and sleep at home, and get up in the morning to do — what do you think? — to fly kites! The Kensington Gardens of Palermo are at the west 76 end. They arc called the English Gardens, because of the long avenue of trees that leads up to them and their general style. This is the place where fashionables walk. Trees, intertwining roses and honeysuckles, and green sloping banks, and every variety of shade, and shrubberies of myrtle, and little lakes, and marble seats, about which hover the gay throng J these are their delights. Up and down the long shady avenue go the carriages of all sorts, from a tandem to a drag, crowded with ladies in blue and green, and mauve, festooned, and bonneted, and flounced, and crinolined to the last Paris fashion ; but all of a gaudy hue. The very maid in attendance on the over-dressed children (in pink satin or blue silk, — close resemblance of their mammas) are gay with yellow shawls over their heads. On Sundays, both these, and the Flora or Botanical Gardens, with the orange walks, and vast bird cages, and fountains, are crowded with the middle class, and even the poorest. Not but that Sunday in Palermo is very much like Sunday in London. All the shops are shut (after ten o'clock) and all the streets are quiet ; the people only being seen on their way to or from their churches at all hours in the clay, espe- cially in the early morning. I L— ALONG SHORE TO MESSINA. Our bargain for travelling was of a satisfactory nature. For six piastres (somewhere in the whole about five and twenty shillings) a day, we contracted with a muleteer, one Luigi, or Louis, for four mules, two for our own riding, one for our baggage (princi- pally consisting of wine and victual, and cloaks), and one for the muleteer himself : besides this, we were to be provided with beds at the best inns, and have breakfast and dinner found us. So that travelling in Sicily is by no means dear, as you can see; indeed, when we tell you that good wine is twopence a quart, that a fowl costs not quite fourpence, and that the finest wheaten bread never exceeds a penny a pound, and is generally less, that salad vegetables are thrown in, and apples, peaches, and oranges given in any quantity for a halfpenny, you may judge that our muleteer was not the loser even by such an apparently bad bargain. We start with the dawn, in the Eastern fashion, carrying with us knives, cups and plates, with a due provision of cold pork and baked cream, univer- sally used throughout Sicily in place of butter. Our first start into the country was through high walls, just like those about Richmond and Brent- ford — only of stone — and belonging to the villa gardens, sadly knocked about in the last fight here. Then came the sea shore, and the murmur of the breaking waves, and the tinkling bells of the goats browsing on the mountain sides rising to the clouds ; olives waving in the fresh morning breeze, and the pink flowers of the tall oleander glittering in the early sunlight. The bees were up and out, and humming amongst the meadow anemones and daffodils. A string of mules, bearing grain, meets us Then a herd of cows, with bells, going to be milked, into the villages, in which not one chimney rises up, and most of the inhabi- tants are stirring, and, already, coming outside their doors to transact all their business, according to the Sicilian custom. All along we could see the fishing boats going out, and coming in with the spalelta, a huge fish like a small shark, that cuts up into something ALL ROUND THE WORLD. like hard beef-steaks, and has a wooden taste, with a coarse pork flavour; horses and mules, very lean, but dressed out very fine, drawing pointed little two-wheel carts, set far back in the shafts, and driven, a lit, coster- monger, at a rattling pace, by picturesque blackguards in white jackets, bell buttons, and black velvet breeches or leather gaiters. The horses have no collars but the broad leather strap across their chests, like our funeral-coach horses. We had an early cup of coflee with milk — they always serve it so in Sicily, and the peasants habitually come to the village inn for it in the earliest morning — the charge for it to us, with bread and butter, was threepence half-penny. We breakfasted and dined at village inns on the way, and just before •sunset came to the Fiume Grande, a great river, one of the largest streams in Sicily, which obstructed the road and must be crossed before we entered Termini. This is one of the interesting events of Sicilian travelling, for you can't always get across ; the river won't let you. The stream runs shallow, it may be, but is furious as a torrent ; the bottom is sandy and the banks steep, and travellers in carriages are sorely pested ; all the luggage has to be taken out, and the unhappy pair — for it sometimes happens to honey- moon travellers, as it did to Sir Robert and Lady Feel — are compelled to sleep in a little riverside inn, where waiters spend most of their time in the metamorphosis of fleas. We contrived to get over with our mules and reach Termini at sunset. Cicero tells us of the citizens of Himera, a town higher up, — where there are some fine remains of an amphitheatre and an aqueduct four miles long to be seen, — coming down to this spot, where were their baths (Thermic Himerenses), and building a small town, when their own had been destroyed by a siege during the Carthaginian and Roman quarrel, of which the poor Sicilians paid all the expenses. Termini is said to mark the spot where Hercules rested from his Mediter- ranean labours. We found the little place — it has 12,000 inhabitants, (22,046 according to A. J. Du Pays' Ilin. de L'ltalie et de La Sidle,) — all agog with music and singing and dancing. It stands on a green hill, by the sea-side, and has some handsome churches. They tell us it is a thriving town, and drives a pros- perous trade in anchovies, oil, and wine. Anywhere else it would be run after for its beauty, for the numerous antiquities in the neighbourhood and in its museums, for its churches and convents paved with mosaics and adorned with antique columns, its thermal springs, and its romantic castle on the top of the hill : but here such beauties are common. Our twenty-four miles' ride, or rather crawl, on mule-back, gave us a good appetite for sleep. So we left our muleteer dancing the tarantella, and after a saunter through the street and up the valley to the castle on the rock behind the town, retired to rest, not conscious that we constituted a raree show for all the beggars and the idlers, and that the chinks in the wall and the key-hole had each their curious occupant. Early in the morning, as we had a three-and- twenty miles stage before us to Cefalu, we took our coffee and mounted our mules. Our ride was such as poets love to sing about — through myrtle groves and orange bowers, and almond trees. Indeed, it was like a Swiss scene, with goats and cows and sheep in the sloping meadows. You never see a cottage or a farm house alone — they are always collected, like stone blocks, in some snug cranny on the SICILY AS IT IS. 77 mountain slope. The hills on the other side of the bay, at the extreme front of which stands Cefalu, and its* ancient cathedral, founded hy the great Count Rofer, in gratitude for his escape from a storm off the coast, are clothed with olives, and as we look back we can see capes and promontories jutting out into the bright sea from beyond Palermo. Every one was at work in the streets, outside the shop doors, as we crept on— for your mules at a journey's end make no such clattering and noise as a French courier on entering a country town. There are 20,000 inhabitants, and the town, which was built in the middle ages, and abounds in gothic-painted windows, stands on a ledge of rock just above the sea ; the harbour is full of xebecs, feluccas, and speroneras — their sails furled, and the boats run up on shore. The Cathedral is a fine one, and the outside, at the east end, is richly ornamented. The building is Roman Gothic, and the decorations Byzantine. But the most interesting feature of Cefalu is a Cyclopean wall of enormous unhewn stones, a relic of the old great city of Cephaledium. 1 "We had nothing to com- plain of in lodging, food, or beds, and rose refreshed. Everywhere at the inns we observed the frugal, tem- perate living of the people — fruit, fish, and maccaroni, and no strong drink. Their highest luxury is a water- ice and a melon ; and with a penny a day you can send home a beggar happy. The rest of the day seems to us to be taken out in singing, and dancing, and sunshine ; not but that Cefalu has its mournful reminiscences, for here, many a Sicilian patriot broke his heart in prison. The fresh morning air made us look out our capulos, or brown cloaks with pointed hoods — the general wear throughout the island for all who don't wear shaggy sheep skins, which the peasant labourers do, — for there is a cold wind in the morning and evening. We pushed on for Tusa, where there was nothing to see ; and then on for St. Stefano, a stage of twenty-four miles, passing through which we entered Caronia (anc. Calacte), a small town on a rugged hill, with the sea in front, and a forest on its skirts. It was on this beach that Verres the Pro- consul (whom Cicero so abused, tin- private reasons, as he took his place afterwards), halted and robbed the people of Aluntium of their valuable bronzes, just as coolly as the great Spaniard Balboa, and the rest, did the chiefs of New Granada of their golden ornaments. The forest is noticeable for its extent of twenty miles, and its containing oak (old and well grown), elm (a sure sign of a good soil), ash and pine. We halted here for the night, and next day we came to a village on a little plain, called St. Agatha ; the fair Good- ness (such is the meaning of her name,) has not availed to preserve the village from malaria, a dismal complaint, that leaves you half insane when quite cured, and poisons all your blood ; so we pricked our mules with the spur, and jogged apace through the fever district, until we reached San Marco, where we managed to get some tea out of our own stores, and were served with the milk from an Etruscan-shaped vase, and the tea from a Wedgewood black tea-pot. We had an excellent dinner of veal and maccaroni, 1 Cephaledium derives its name from its situation on a lofty precipitous rock projecting into the sea. Roger I. transferred it lroin its almost impregnable position to one at the foot of the rock. The Cyclopean relic, tlie only one of the kind in Sicily, is an edifice consisting of various apartments. Rude mouldings, approximating to those of the Doric order, are hewn on the face of the massive blocks. flavoured with " a suspicion of garlic," as Ude used to call that artistic tonic, and then pushed on to Naso, the ancient Agathyrna, 3 where the ancients bored Artesian hot springs for rheumatism and nervous complaints. One of the springs is well impregnated with iron, for if you put into it a white cloth, it comes out a black one. The knowledge of a spring of this j character may be useful to our travelling countrymen. A mixture of iron and sulphur in a hot spring is rare, I and for some disorders likely to be exceedingly effica- I cious. We slept on mattresses, with clean sheets, laid ! on boards, as in convents or barracks. Borro, twelve ! miles distant, with castle on a sea-beaten rock, was our next halting-place; thence to Patti, where the coast is mountainous, and the rugged slopes are covered with olives. The town stands high on a pyramidal hill of its own, backed by lofty mountains. The streets are narrow, winding, and ill-paved, and there is a little cathedral of romantic associations ; for there are the bones of Queen Adelaisia, the widow of the great Count Roger, whose hand was sought in marriage by Baldwin, King of Jerusalem. The monarch wanted the lady's wealth, and she, dazzled by ambition, ac- cepted the offer ; but discovering after two years that King Baldwin had another wife alive, she returned home in disgust, and buried herself in a convent on tbia spot, where she lived in grief and despair for a short period, and then died of a broken heart. Her pious son, then King of Sicily, raised this cathedral over her remains. The old tomb has fallen to pieces, but a modern one, with a recumbent figure of the injured wife, has been raised by the piety of her descendants. They make tasteful earthenware at Patti ; which is celebrated throughout Italy for elegance of its design. There is a fine view from the height, of which the cathedral tower forms the apex, over grounds that seem to heave and rise tumultuously, and vineyards and olive groves. On one side you see Gioiosa, a little village in ruins, that we passed on the road, perched on a hill-top, and deserted, because too much exposed and often struck by lightning ; and on the other, rises Tyndaris — to which we are making, on a height seven miles distant. We mount up to it through a beautiful pass, with a fine view, on our left, of the Lipari Isles, Vulcano, Stromboli and the rest. The ancient port off which Octavius, with Caesar, defeated the fleet of Sextus Pompeius, and won the empire of Rome, is now choked up with sand. Tyndaris, 3 so named from the father of Castor and Pollux, and where Dionysius of Syracuse placed the colonists of Lacedae- monia, banished from their own country, is now but a wretched village, with little to profit its inhabitants but the tunny fishery. 1 There is a glorious view from 2 The site of Agathyrna or Agathyrnum, so called from a sou of Mollis, may possibly be at Naso, but this has been much dis- puted, on account of the great discrepancy between the authorities as to its distance from Tyndaris and Calacte. 3 There is a legend that the earthquake at Our Lord's crucifixion shook down all the temples at Tyndaris ; some say that the whole town was destroyed, nothing being left but one crag and some idols, which the waves refused to retain, and threw them upon the shore. 4 The chief monuments of which the ruins are still extant ol this city — ore of the latest of all the cities in Sicily that could claim a purely Greek origin— arc the theatre, of which the remains are in imperfect condition, a large edifice with two handsome stone arches, commonly called a Gymnasium, the remains of the place where the cliff has fallen in, in the manner recorded by Pliny, two gates, and some Roman tombs. 78 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. the convent of the Madonna, oval' the sea and along the coast of hill villages and convent towers on project- ing points. "We proceeded along the bay towards princely Milazzo, famous for the recent battle. Its castle, standing on a high granite promontory, would seem impregnable but to those who saw it, as we did, so gallantly captured by Garibaldi and his little army ; the town, which is divided into upper and lower, about a mile in length, is surrounded by a fortified wall. It rises on a peninsula, three miles in length, with a lighthouse on the point, and has always been regarded as a strong position in Sicilian warfare. Here Hannibal and Drusillus fought a hard battle in the first Punic War ; here Caesar and Sextus Pompey fought for the empire; here the Saracens had a long sea-fight with the Emperor Basilius; and here, finally, was the crowning and liberating victory won by Garibaldi. There is a large tunny fishing here of two seasons, from April to June, and from August to September; and hither come the great people of Messina to spend their winter months. It is here that the fabled oxen of the Sun were pastured, the slaughter of which by the companions of Ulysses led to the fatal prolongation of his voyage, consequent on the just anger of the offended deities. You must read the story in the "Odyssey," and carry Homer with you (we advise Lempriere also, if you have still got your school books), for we are in the very centre of mytho- logical localities, and scarcely a town but has a classical allusion in its name. By the bye, the Ulysses of modern history, Louis Philippe, found refuge in the Milazzo dining his first long exile from France. III.— STROMBOLI AND THE LIPARI ISLES. On the beach at Milazzo a speronara was lying, the wind was fair for the ^Eolian Islands 1 that lay out in the sparkling sea, and we resolved upon a sail there and back. Now a speronara is a large open boat that can either sail or be rowed, and as we had six stout fellows with us to pull us back again, we stowed a basket of provisions and wines, and made up our minds, if needful, to sleep under the sail thrown over the boom. We had just twenty miles run out to the open with a spanking breeze that sent us spinning before it, until we reached Vulcano, the nearest of the eight ^Eolian Islands, consisting, with it, of Lipari, Salina, Felicudi, Alicudi, Panaria, Stromboli, and Baziluzzo. 3 1 These wild, fantastic looking rocks, starting from the sea, were supposed by the ancients to be the chimneys of a vast sub- terranean cavity, inhabited by Meropes, Brontes and Arge, and the cavern in which iEolus imprisoned the winds (that he let out to worry .Eneas and the Trojans) were also In this archipelago of fires. Here also Diana was placed by Latona In her infancy. Here Vulcan forged the bolts of Jove, and here the sooty Brontes embraced a rainbow instead of the Queen of Chastity. iEolus, a clever navigator and weather-wise, here lived with his wife, the daughter of Liparus, the son of Anson, who passed over from Italy and built a city. 8 The yEolian Islands were also called Vulcanire or Hephajstia?, from their volcanic character. They were— 1. Lipara, still called Lipari. 2. Hiera, sacred to "Vulcan, from whence its modern appellation of Vulcano. 3. Strongyle, now Stromboli, so called from the roundness of its form. Sir Charles Lyell says, the volcano of Stromboli serves as a barometer to the Lipareans, being quiescent in fine weather and disturbed previous to the coming of bad. 4. Didyme, now called Salina or Isola delle Saline. It was called Didyme from its two high conical mountains, which rise to a height of 3,500 feet. 5. Phumicusa, so called from the palms in which it abounded, now Felicnli. 6. Ericusa, from the abund- Yulcano, which is said to have been thrown op out of the sea five hundred years before the Christian era, was consecrated, by the Greeks to Vulcan. It is eight miles round, and has a silent crater three miles broad and half a mile deep. It is a " lonesome place," and inhabited only by a few goatherds, whose flocks may be seen browsing happily, and skipping merrily under very difficult circumstances of locality. The bottom of the crater has an awful look of stillness, and all around are shining pieces of black and green glass (obsidian), and above, pumice and sulphur. There ought to be something well worth looking after in such a Plutonic formation ; but somehow or other no one likes to interfere with the place. The hares, rabbits, and wild fowls, of many kinds, have a pleasure-place of their own, and seem to have multi- plied accordingly. A dashing run of five miles brought us overto Lipari, which is quite a large place, comparatively, fifteen miles round, and with twenty thousand inha- bitants. The soil, being broken lava and pumice-stone, yields excellent crops, and the mountain sides smile with cornfields, orange groves, and vines. The town of Lipari, as you enter, looks like a beautiful scene in a play. A castle and ramparts standing out upon a rock, and an ancient tower and cathedral right oppo- site to you, with a mountain rising high behind. Those who like sulphur baths ought to come here. It is hardly pleasant to think, as wo stand away for the next volcano — Stromboli — a real one, that has never ceased smoking, burning, blowing and belching out lava for a thousand years — that here we are sailing over what must once have been one united crater, which the sea has detached and broken through into separate islands. Fortunately, Stromboli catches what it throws up in its own mouth, or else the sand, black ashes, and red- hot stones which it sometimes ejects to such a height, might render its aspect even more awfully grand. Even at the present moment, when a long banner of smoke ascends from its top (which is like a pyramid with the cone cut off) it would render the approach and the r.scent, which we are meditating, not very desirable. 3 There are about thirty houses on the island, for the most part built of lava, and the whole island is only one mountain, which is more than a mile high, green almost to the top, but most unpleasant to ascend, as emitting sulphurous vapour in the higher regions. Up through a path of shifting sands, among vines and thistles and prickly cactuses, but not without trusty guides and stout staffs, we ascend to the point where vegetation ance of heath, now Alicudi. 7. Euonymus, or "that which lies on the left hand," now Panaria. Several small inlets adjacent to Panaria are now called the Dattole, the largest of which, Baziluzzo, the Hicesia of Ptolemy, may be considered an eighth island. Vulcano and Stromboli are the only two active volcanoes. 3 "Superstition" says Smythe, " is not idle with respect to this wonderful abyss, and even Pope Gregory I. seemingly believed it to be the abode of the damned. Here Theodoric, the great Ostrogoth, despite of his virtues, was plunged by the ministers of divine vengance on earth ; while William the Bad of Sicily, and poor Henry the VIII. of England, have both been detected en- deavouring to make their escape from this fiery cauldron. An eminent contractor of biscuit for the supply of the British Navy is supposed, among English sailors, to be in durance there; and by a remarkable trial at Doctor's Commons about seventy or eighty- years ago, the judge in his deoision seemed to acquiesce in the opinion of the 'baker's' being confined to its domains for ever. The culprit was a Mr. B — , I have forgotten the name, but I can never lose the remembrance of the effect that reading this trial from the Naval Chronicle had on a naval audience while passing the Island." SICILY AS IT IS. 79 disappears. In three hours we reach the top. of the old cone, 600 feet above the present crater, and on our arrival are saluted by the demon of old Stromboli with an eruption. The abyss kindles below us, and a jet of fire rushes up with the roar of a cannon. This is no despicable crater, for it encloses six mouths ; two are ejecting smoke with the agreeable accompaniments of hydrochloric and hydro-sulphuric acid gas, — the third is vomiting fiery stones, that, in their uninter- mitted rise and fall, have the sound of a heavy surf breaking on a beach. This gives fewer eruptions than the rest, but emits the highest jets of burning rocks and cinders, and makes the sharpest and loudest noise. The other three mouths are intermit- tent in their fiery vomitings, two of them kindling and going out at the same time. Such a sight was worth waiting for until evening, when in the dark- ness the red brightness of the lava shone terrifically, and the three mouths playing together in a magnificent eruption, lighted up the triple enclosure of the crater. We made our way down, not without difficulty and perhaps danger, and lay off the island during the night, under the sail, the dim rays of a suspended lanthorn alone interfering with the grand light of the stars, the moon, and the volcano. The sea too added its silver fire to the illumination in the phosphorescent luminosity of those glow-worms of the deep, the free acalephate, and medusae with which this sea abounds. We took out a bucket of the sea-water, and as we poured it back again it looked like molten lead • while the waves breaking against the shore encircled it with a shining border, and every cliff had its wreath of fire. 80 we lay, lulled upon the gently heaving waves, until volcano and heaven and sea went softening into one dreamy light ; and we slept, on the bosom of the friendly sea, soothed by the suppressed murmur of the distant waves as they broke on Scylla. In the morning, with the first fresh breeze, our bark bore back to Milazzo, where we landed as men do who have returned from fairy land. Our route hence to Messina was through deliciously romantic scenery over the mountains, and past several small towns, that looked like illustrations of the romances of our boyish days ; Romalletta, especially, on the top of a high, straight, uprising rock, with old Moorish castles and towers. We look down upon Messina ; what a glorious panorama ! We could see the sickle shape of the port, — the Greeks called it Zancle, or the sickle, and say that here Ceres, in her sorrow for her daughter Proserpine's loss, when Pluto carried her off from the fertile plains of Enna, dropped the sickle from her hand, and so gave to its shores their lovely curve. 1 And there stands the bright city in a semicircle of hills, having the Faro Straits in front, with their rushing, free, flowing waters, and the high Calabrian coasts on the opposite side to bind in their wandering waves, which, passing the white palaces of Messina, go smiling by the proud statue of Don John, that confronts them at the pier head; past the forts on the heights, the convents on the greenest of slopes, the woods, the mountains, the whirling Charybdis, and the treacherous Scylla — round to the poetic shores under Mount Etna, and the beautiful bay of ancient Taorminium. IV.— MESSINA. Tlie word Zancle has boon supposed to be of Sicilian origin, and hence it lias been argued that there was a Sicilian settlement at the Messana or Messene of the Greeks before it was occupied by the latter ; but no mention of this is found in history, and all ancient writers describe Z:mclo as n Clialcidic colony. We found Messina, which, from the port of Cape Faro that forms its bay, is but three and a half miles from the Calabrian coast, all in an agony of excitement and impatience for news of further progress in Italy. 2 But for all that, Punch was screeching funnily to a laughing crowd on its beautiful marine promenade (see p. 81), and in spite of politics and war, the convent bells were ringing, and they were celebrating a festa, or holiday, in the name of some pleasure-giving saint. Bombarded so frequently by its later sovereigns, and worried with earthquakes by the vicine Etna,'' it is a miracle that Messina stands bright, shining, and beautiful as it now does, though the palace along its Marina, and the half-dismantled fort and broken-down castle, still bear evidences of both. The environs are lovely, and the view, from wherever taken, over towards the higher rising mountains of Calabria, — the back-bone between the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, — is magnificent : not even the views on the Bos- phorus can surpass that of the Straits of Messina. The Marina Drive, or Corso (as will be seen from our illustration), is along the sea shore, at the foot of the hills that rise in gentle slopes, covered with fruit- bearing trees in their gardens, hedged with the aloe and the prickly pear, and blooming with vines, figs, and olives, You are never further than five minutes from a grove in any part of the town ; Messina being as celebrated for its walks, as Palermo is for its drives. There is another parallel street with the Marina, which used to be called the Ferdinanda, but has changed that now odious name for one more popular. We took up our abode at the Victoria Hotel on the Marina, and enjoyed the sight of the gay equipages, and bright coloured dresses of the promenaders — ladies and child- ren — as we sat at our dinner. On the one side of tho town (the right of our illustration), is the terrace where Goethe wrote the famous lines, — " Know est thou the land where citrons scent the gale f " and on the other side is the fort built by our King Richard Cceur de Lion, 1 and beyond, over the deep blue sea, rise - The distance from the castle on the promontory of Scylla to the Torre del Faro, is stated by Admiral Smyth at 6,047 yards, or rather' less than 3 J English miles, but the strait afterwards con- tracts considerably, so that its width between the Punta del Pezzo (Cumys Prom.) and the nearest point of Sicily does not exceed 3971 yards, or little more than two English miles. :i A terrible earthquake, in 1783, threw down all the splendid buildings of the city, with the exception of the cathedral and a few other edifices of uncommon strength and solidity. The first shock drove all the inhabitants to the sea-shore, where they awaited in dismay two days and nights. The greatest shock came at eight o'clock on the second night. The sea swelled suddenly, and precipitated its towering waves on the beach, en- gulphing upwards of 2,000 souls. The same tremendous swell sank ten vessels in the port and destroyed the quay. The dogs in Calabria seemed to anticipate this awful convulsion of nature, by howling piteously; the sea-fowl flew wildly into the mountains; and a noise like carriage-wheels running round with great velocity over stone pavements preceded the shock ; while a dense vapour extended over Calabria and Messina, accompanied with a strong sulphurous odour. In 1852 there were thirty shocks felt at Messina in one night. In 1713 the plague carried off thousands of its inhabitants. In 1851 the cholera raged fearfully, twenty thousand persons died, and the Government was obliged to release the galley-slaves of Palermo, on condition of their coining to Messina to bury the dead. They did so, and not one of them died. 1 Philip Augustus of France and Richard ol England, having agreed to meet in Sicily, on their way to the Holy Land, arrived at Messina, Tancred hastened from Palermo to show every mark STROMBOLI-ONE OF THE LIPARI ISLES, NEAR SICILY. the magnificent heights of the Italian Appenines ; the town seen under them is Reggio. There are some fine churches, but the most conspicuous is the old Norman cathedral, founded by the first king, Roger, the nave of which was burnt in 1254, on the occasion of the funeral of Conrad, son of the Emperor Frederick II. of courtesy to liis illustrious guests, and contributed to the expe- dition an armament of one hundred sail, to fulfil completely an engagement of his predecessor in the sovereignty. But the king of England demanded, in addition, the cession of the County of St. Angelo in Apulia, with several towns and castles, by way of dowry, for his sister, the wife of the late king. Tancred, astonished at a demand so unexpected, interposed delays. The impetuous Hichard, whose forces were encamped without the walls of the city, attacked and took possession of the fortress near the Faro, as the shortest way of bringing matters to a conclusion. This aggression led to a skirmish between the Messinese and the English ; upon which Richard put himself at the head of his men, stormed one of the gates, entered the city sword in hand, slew many Sicilians, and planted his leopard standard on the walls of Messina. Hut this act of violence led to a further imbroglio; for Philip Augustus, the French King, considered it to be so dis- respectful to himself, as well as unjust to Tancred, that he offered the King of Sicily the use of his whole army to revenge the insult. The prudent Tancred, however, aware how inexpedient it was to add the wrath of Richard to all his other embarrassments, preferred moderation, and made the King of England so handsome a pro- position, in satisfaction of his demands, that the misunderstanding was terminated, and the Kings of France and England remained six months at Messina, in the course of which Richard learnt to admire the frank and gallant character of Tancred. On the return of spring the two royal visitors set snU for Palestine, to the DO small relief of their host. The catafalque, or funeral trophy, was so lofty, that the lights on its summit caught the rafters of the nave and the roof; and it and the body of the Prince were all consumed together. The Madonna is, herself, the patron saint of the city ; indeed there is a letter in Latin, said to have been written with her own hand, (preserved in the Cathedral, and exhibited once a year,) in which she specially adopts this city and its inhabitants, who, from this cause, have almost all of them " Letterio," or " Letteria," in the feminine, as one of their Christian names. 1 There is a tolerable theatre, the Santa Elizabetta, and an. excellent '• Flora," or Botanical Garden. The port is generally full of foreign vessels, and the brisk trade has brought to the place a large mercantile population, very greatly to the improvement of its society. The number of inhabi- tants is somewhere about 100,000, and Messina vies with Palermo for the honour of being the capital of Sicily. Messina is not famous for the fine arts ; but in the Church of " The Cross-bearing Fathers" you may see a large picture of the Raising of Lazarus by Cara- vaggio, and in St. Andrew's Church is an Ecce Homo, by Michael Angelo. The Convent of St. Gregorio stands high on the hill, on the site of Jupiter's Temple, 1 The discovery of this letter has been attributed to Coiistantine Lascaris. The Jesuit Melchior Inchofer wrote a volume in folio (1629) to prove its authenticity. vol. r. SICILY AS IT IS. 83 but we could not obtain admittance, the Lady Abbess being absent, so we missed seeing its fine marbles and relics. We walked down to the quay, where stands a broken statue of Don John of Austria, who sailed hence on his expedition against the Turks, and joined a party on a cruise over to Scylla, on the opposite coast. The Channel widens as we leave Messina, where it is three- and-a-half miles across, but below the Faro point, it di- minishes to little more than two miles in width. Just beyond this, we enter upon the circling eddies of Charybdis, a whirlpool formed by the meeting of the currents from the straits and the harbour. In a northerly wind, the vessel clearing Charybdis on the left is not unlikely to be carried full on to the crags of Scylla on the right, a jagged rock, rising just above the surface, as will be seen in our illustration (p. 73) under a high rock, where are caverns, into which the waves rush, murmuring and roaring, when there is any wind. Homer and Virgil describe the sea monster Scylla — as fastened down in these vast caverns, and tormented by wolves and mastiffs. There are shells, stones, and strange sea animals in the museum of the little city below, which are said to have been found in these rocks, which rise boldly and abruptly 200 feet out of the sea. 1 On the other side are the fruitful hills of Sicily, and at the extreme point of the island is Cape Pelorus. 2 V.— ROUND AND UP MOUNT ETNA. Wherever you go on this side of Sicily, you have Mount Etna rising, as a great fact, before you, and compelling your attention. Not that it appears so very- high ; for its hugeness and vast upheaving circumference of a hundred miles partially detract from its height, but it seems omnipresent, and weighing upon your mind until you have ascended it, which you know to be your fate, a consciousness that impels you to the per- formance of the task. To get a good idea of Etna, it 1 Anaxillas, the despot of Rhegium, being struck with the natural strength of the position of the promontory of Scyllsenm, fortified the rock, and established a naval station there for the purpose of checking the incursions of the Tyrrhenian pirates. This was the origin of the "Oppidum Scyllseum," and of the existing fort and small town which stretches down the slopes towards the two bays. 2 Hannibal is said to have put his pilot to death, off here, on suspicion of treachery, from finding that he was about to take his ship through the Faro Straits, and afterwards, on discovering his error, erected a temple on the spot, to his memory. A modern naval authority remarks, that as the Athenians and Syracusans, as well as Locrians and Bhegians, did not hesitate to fight in the Faro Straits, they could not have been considered so fearfully horrible by ancient sailors as they were by ancient poets. Charybdis, however, is known to be from seventy to eighty fathoms deep, and its eddies are strong enough to whirl round a seventy-four gun ship, when the current and the wind arc con- trary to each other, and both in great violence. Especially when the sirocco blows, the swelling and dashing of the waves in Charybdis is more impetuous and extensive ; it then circles in eddies, and if, at this time, vessels are driven into it, they rock and slightly whirl round, but are never drawn into the vortex ; they only sink by the waves beating over them, and this would be frequently the case with the undecked vessels of the ancients. When larger vessels are forced into it, whatever wind they have, they cannot extricate themselves without the aid of pilots, who know how to bring them out of the course of the current. These are always ready along the shores, and rush out, like our Deal boatmen, to vessels in distress. Admiral Smyth says he has seen several men-of-war, and even a seventy-four gun ship, whirled round ou its surface. is necessary to know that it is 100 miles round, though its immediate base is only from thirty to forty miles in circumference, and that it rises in a pyramidal shape to 10,874 or 10,882 feet, according to the best authorities. It is twenty-five miles to the top, by an easy and gracefully winding-road. The Zones of Etna are celebrated. Around its lower slopes cluster villages, farms, and villas, with gardens and fruitful fields. Next comes the temperate zone — of woods and waterfalls, and herds and shepherds, and balmy air. Above this is the cold region — where are the pine forests. Next is the frozen zone — where ice and snow make the traveller shiver. Then comes the region of tire and ashes, and smoke and desolation. The first day took us up to Bronte, where Nelson's vineyards grow right up to the snows, and a short distance from which there is an old con- vent, which the farmer of the estate has made into a snug dwelling. The only agrarian disturbance in the last revolution took place here, from a mistaken notion of the peasantry that the Nelson estates were about to be divided amongst the cultivators ; but the error was explained away by the presence of a few of Garibaldi's riflemen, one or two of whom, being Englishmen, found means to announce emphatically that no robbery of Horatio Lord Nelson was intended by the liberating army. They call Bronte a small town in their books, but it contains 14,000 inhabitants, and makes no slight figure on the slope of Etna, which has been good enough to spare it by dividing every stream of lava just at its extremities, leaving it complete in the middle, with all its glowing vineyards. There is a valley just beneath, with a river flowing in its bottom, and both sides green with olives. All the land round is arable, and the distant heights are covered with woods. We saw the point at the green vineyard where the lava had stopped, after creeping for miles up to it, slowly and silently. There was the streak of the lava from the volcano, darkening wood and vineyard, above and on either side, but just here was the line — the point of separation, and Bronte — as an oasis blooming in the midst of a burning desert. There are churches, and convents, and Norman walls and ruins, and it is pleasant to stop the night here, and get up in the morning and stroll over the lava, through the wild looking country, seeing Etna's top covered with snow, on our right ; centred in groves of oak and chesnut, till we reach the old walls, the old houses, the winding streets, and fine churches of the old Lombardian Randazzo. There are some houses here of a very moderate size, richly decorated, and offering very desirable models for domestic architecture for our young students, — examples to be met with no- where else. Thence, by a picturesquo country, abound- ing in oaks and chesnut trees, past Malvagna to Luigna, or Lingua Grossa, where there is a poor inn, at which we advise you not to attempt sleeping, but keep on descending through the rich country over lava streams until you reach Giardini on the sea beach, and finish the evening, as we did, at that lovely village, amidst orange trees and rocks, diverging only to Naxos, the first settlement of the Greeks in Sicily. To Taurominium early in the morning is a two-mile walkover the beds of torrent streams, fiumare, rushing down to the sea, past hills topped with castles or white villages, shining in the sunlight, and at every opening vista the deep blue sea. Taorminia, the ancient Taurominium, which contains five thousand inhabitants. 84 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. is still famous for its salubrious air and glorious view of Etna (see p. 65). The houses are built in the Moorish style, and adorned outside with arabesque patterns, in black and white ; a striking and novel effect. On the ridge of a height outside the town, fronting the mountain and looking down upon the sea, stands the ruins of the old Greek Theatre, whose walls once were lined with marble and adorned with statues and Corinthian columns. The Greeks built it, and the Romans completed. It held 40,000 spectators, andnau- machia, or naval battles, — in which real ships fought in real water, and real sailors (prisoners) were killed, — used to take place here. There was a corridor all round for protection to the spectators from stones, and, vast as its structure, a whisper or a sigh could be heard in its remotest exti emity. The Mediterranean, seen from this spot at sunrise, is, of itself, a sight of surpassing loveliness ; but add to this the magnificent sweep of one side of Etna — the fortress — the old tower — the peaks — the heights, and, on the other side, Messina, and the whole coast up to it, dotted with towns, trees and bushes, and you can imagine, even did our illustration not suffice, how exquisitely beautiful is Taurominium. Next came Riposto, whence Poly- phemus threw the rock that disturbed the loves of Acis and Galatea at Aci Reale, a town on the moun- tain, standing " on seven beds of lava," each with a stratum of earth over it, every one of which they say takes 400 years to form. Diodorus Siculus mentions one stream of lava coming down here which stopped a body of troops marching to aid the Syra- cusans, who were besieged by the Romans in the second Punic War. At La Trezza, but a short distance away, is the Bay of Ulysses, where are the Lava Islands, said to have been thrown at his ship by the Cyclops. This port rounded, we come upon the white and bright- looking city of Catania; but just before reaching it we made an excursion to Giarra, and six miles beyond it up the mountains, to see the famous chesnut tree called Cento Cavalli, said to be a hundred and ninety feet in girth, and to have covered a hundred horses (cento cavalli) with its shade. The old stock is in the earth, but young trees have sprung from it; just such a growth may be seen in Kew Gardens. Catania is a modern town, standing on four beds of lava. Its very harbour has been filled up by an eruption in 1699, which sent down a stream of lava that rose sixty feet in height, over-topped the walls, and poured upon the devoted city. You go down seventy feet into what looks like a well, but it is the old city wall ; and over it hangs what looks like a rock, but is actually lava. There is a Benedictine Monastery hard by, which the lava spared by dividing and running on each side of it, as at Bronte. The fiery flood came within ten yards on one side, and five on the other. We had no time to stop for other cui-iosities, for rumours of a lost battle here reached us, and our duties superseded further excursion. So we passed through Catania (observing how its houses wei'e built of lava, and its streets paved with it — how the liquid fire had filled up its harbour, consumed its gardens, and overturned its walls), and pushed on, over lava pavement first, and black sand afterwards, through cactus hedges with scarlet flowers, for Mount Etna. Fourteen miles, after passing two obelisks that mark the Etna road, brought lis at a creeping pace to Nicolosi, where we got some wine and cold meat, as if going over Helvellyn or up Snowdon. They tell us here, as everywhere on the mountain, that the village has been, some time or other, a victim to its treacherous parent, fire, and they speak of earthquakes as we do at home of great storms. Behind the houses of Nicolosi we see rising the double summit of Monti Rossi, or the Red Hills, so called from the dark red colour of its scori*. This was the crater that threw up the lava by which Catania was nearly buried. It consists of two cones, close to each other, and nearly 1,000 feet high. We hero received the kind hospitality of Dr. Gemellaro, to whom, and his two brothers, tra- vellers on Etna have been so much indebted. In 1 804, they built and furnished a cottage for travellers at an elevation of 9,587 ft. above the level of the sea. Two years afterwards it was destroyed, but soon re- placed. Then, the English troops being here, Lord Forbes and his officers subscribed and built a more solid shelter — now called the Casa Irtghse — or English Cottage. The herdsmen of Mount Etna stole the furniture, and when it had been replaced, the Austrian officers, quartered at Catania, broke open the door (this was in 1820), and burnt the furniture as firewood. After passing through forests, broken down in many places by lava torrents, in which we roused herds of affrighted cattle, we saw above us the enor- mous lava beds of the Boccarelle del Fuoco — the "Little Mouths of Smoke" which, not quite a century ago (1666), destroyed a million of oaks in the forest ! At a hut in the wood, a mere shed, we rested, and then entered the desert region. At the foot of Monte Minar- do, one of the largest secondary cones, are seen the glaciers of Catania. Bitter, indeed, was the cold, and great were our sufferings from difficulty of respiration ; but we pushed our way, with the undaunted " pluck ' ' of English travellers, and at last, just before dawn, looked down from the edge of the crater into the very bowels of Etna. Beneath us yawned the great crater, a deep and irregular valley, bristling with blocks of blue, green, and white lava, and variegated with lines of curling vapour issuing from a hundred rents, and almost suffocating us with their sharp, acid emanations. The sun, rising from an eastward sea, now gave us a most astonishing prospect. The whole of Sicily lay before us westward. The hundred smaller cones and hills immediately around, rose up as from a flat surface of overspreading mist, and beyond was a sea of mountains rising like waves, over which, like the shade of some vast cloud, was thrown, as the sun rose, the gigantic shadow of the mountain itself, — a purple darkness, reaching across the entire island to the re- motest horizon, and gradually shortening as the sun rose above the Ionian Sea. Now the mists rose from below, and standing, as we were, two miles above it, all Sicily lay at our feet. We saw the whole triangle of the island, its three promontories, and all its fabled and storied localities, — the Boot of Italy, Calabria, the Adriatic, Lipari Islands, and the Mediterranean. The shade of Etna was clearly defined, a cone slightly curved on one side, — the last earthquake of 12th December, 1857, had toppled down a large portion of it — and we could see clearly the whole circumference of the water, about three miles, and its depth, about 700 feet. Down below us were the plains of Enna, where Proserpine went a-maying, and found herself entrapped by Pluto. After a parting look at the crater, the guides lead us to the brink of another crater, which, in 1842, threw its lava into the Val di Bove (Valley of the Ox), so culled from its resemblance to a pair of horns. The scene SICILY AS IT IS. 87 is strange and terrific. Eddies of fiery smoke issuing from a large vent, with deafening and whistling noises following, and thousands of crossing and re-crossing streams of smoke, whose sulphurous vapours speedily forced us to retreat. From the Caso di Bosco we de- scended to the Torre del Filosofor, or house of Empedocles, the vain philosopher, who wished to be thought to have been carried up to the skies, but whose brazen slipper, thrown up by the crater, betrayed the method of his self- sought death. From hence we saw the Val di Bove, six miles long, and three broad, enclosed by perpendicular walls of lava, older than the human race, and rising in places to more than a thousand feet from the base. From here we soon found our way back to the road and into Catania, where, after inspecting the silk manufactory, which is its chief industry, and is made two yards in width, we left our neat hotel, with its cool red-tiled floor, and hastened on to Syracuse ; passing La Braca, famous for oysters; Agosta, with 12,000 inhabitants, who export wine, oil, and honey, and where there is still a plantation of sugar canes, the last remnant of the Moors : across Erineus, where Demosthenes (not the orator,) fought a battle with the Syracusans, which he lost ; and thence to old Syracuse (see p. 88), where we heard the Sicilian sailors chanting the evening hymn, in the ancient harbour. The city is interesting from its classical association, and its olive groves are said to be the oldest in the world, those about Jerusalem a'.one excepted. The Syracusans have all Greek features ; and there is a population of about 25,000, as against a million in ancient days, with an army, besides, of 100,000 infantry, and a navy of 500 armed ships. The fountain of Arethusa, the patron goddess of Syracuse, once so famous, is now a washing-tank, the common rendezvous, not of nymphs, but of washerwomen ; and the site of the Temple of Minerva is occupied by the Cathedral, although some of the ancient columns are still standing, Santa Lucien occupying the place of the Goddess of Wisdom. A Grecian basin forms the baptismal font. The Church of St. John here is said to be theoldest Christian church in the world, and they say that St. Paul preached there. There are miles of catacombs under the city, marked with Christian symbols, when the early Christians sought refuge there from persecution. The amphitheatre, that once held 00,000 spectators, is a mass of ruins ; but the semicircle of seats is still defined, and there are yet remains of the Nymphaeum, or music-hall, that held the tripod of Apollo. The castle seen in our illustration (see p. 88), was built by Maniaces, the Byzantine general. In this castle died the Dutch Admiral De Ruyter, and in this harbour Lord Nelson stopped to water his fleet before sailing to Aboukir Bay, for the victory of the Nile. Down in the Latomias, or excavations which abound at Syracuse, and at the one called Latomia del Paradiso, is the famous Ear of Dionysius. It is an excavation sixty-feet in height, which gradually tapers to a point, whence a narrow channel conveys sound to a chamber in the rock ; the crumpling of a piece of paper below can be heard above, but there is at present no way of access to the chamber, except by being let down to it by a rope. The reputed tomb of Archimedes 1 lies near this; and at the gate of Agrigentum we hired a boat and crossed the harbour 1 The art of finding the specific gravities of bodies is generally understood to have been invented by Archimedes, the cele- brated mechanist and mathematician of Syracuse, who flourished to the mouth of the Anapus, which we found rather a ditch than a river, passing through plantations of flax, its flat muddy banks on either side being rank with vegetation. We had to pole and push our way up, but at last succeeded in discovering the papyrus — the plant (whose stem, split into thin slices, sufficed the ancients for paper.) growing on its banks. This is a curiosity, for the plant grows nowhere else in Europe. It is a tall rush of veiy great height, with a naked stem terminating in brown tufts. Satisfied with our voyage, we returned to our wine, and fortified ourselves against the malaria with pleasant draughts of the Syracusan Muscat wine, whose qualily is such that should recommend it to English consumers, and its price something between fourpence and sixpence a bottle. We crossan angle of theisland to Terranova, the ancient Gela, where -ZfCschylus is said to have been killed while walkiug on the beach, by an eagle dropping a tor- toise on his baldhead, which the bird mistook fora stone. Hence, through wild heaths and lovely mule tracks, to Girgenti, the site of the ancient Agrigentum, a Greek colony, the site of which is now covered with luxuriant groves of fig, orange and olive. It was here that Pha- about 200 years before Christ. The story goes, that a goldsmith having been employed by Hiero, king ot Syracuse, to make a crown, a mass ot gold was given him fir that purpose. But it was suspected that the workman had kept back part of the gold for his own use, and made up the weight by alloying the crown with copper. Hiero. not knowing how to ascertain the truth in relation to this circumstance, referred the matter to Archimedes. The philosopher, after having long studied the subject in vain, at last accidentally hit upon a method of verify- ing the king's suspicion. Going one day into a bath, he observed that the water rose higher in the tub or bath than it was before, and immediately began to reflect that any body of an equal bulk with himself would have raised the water just to the same height, though a body of equal weight, but not of equal bulk would not raise it so much. This idea suggested to him the mode ot finding out what he so much desired to ascertain; and, in the transports of his joy on making such a discovery, he rushed out of the bath, and ran naked ttirough the streets of Syracuse, ex- claiming in the Greek language, "Eureka! Eureka!" " I have found it ! I have found it !" Now, since gold was the heaviest of all metals known to Archimedes, it appeared evident that it must be of less bulk, according to its weight, than any other metal. He procured a mass of pure gold equally heavy with the cmwii wueu weighed in air, and desired that it should be wi ighed against the crown in water, and if the crown was not alloyed, it would counterbalance the mass of gold when they were both immersed in water, as well as it did when they, were immersed in air. But, on making the trial, he found that the mass of gold weighed much heavier in water than did the crown: not only so, but when the mass and crown. were im- mersed separately m one vessel of water, the crown raised the water much higher than the mass of gold did ; which proved that it was alloyed with some lighter metal wbichincreased its bulk. By making, in this manner, trials of different metals, equally heavy as the crown, he lound out the quantity of alloy wliich had been introduced into it. A body immersed in a fluid will sink to the bottom of it if it be heavier than its bulk of the fluid ; and if it be suspended in it, it will lose as much of what it weighed in air as its bulk of the fluid weighs. Hence all bodies of equal bulks, which would sink in fluids, lose equal weights when suspended in them ; and unequal bodies lose in proportion to their bulks. This is the foundation of the whole doctrine of specific gravities.— The specific gravities of all bodies that sink in water may be found first by weighing the body in air and then in water, and dividing the weight in air by theloss of weight in water. For example, a guinea weighs one hundred and twenty-nine grains in air. and when weighed in water it loses seven and one quarter grains, which shows that a quan- tity of water of equal bulk with the guinea weighs seven and one quarter grains. Divide one hundred and twenty-nine by seven and one quarter, the quotient will be 17.7!<3, or a little more than seventeen and three quarters, which proves the guinea to be seventeen and three quarter tim s heavier than its bulk of water. The instrument used to tind the specific gravities of bodies is called the Hydro-Italic Balance, wliich differs but little from a common balance, only it has a honk at the bottom of one of the scales on which different substances that are to be examined may be hung by horse hairs, or silk threads, so as to be immersed iu a vessel ot water without Wetting the scale. 8S ALL ROUND THE WORLD. laris had his brazen bull, and made Perillus, the inventor, the first victim, by enclosinghimin it when heated red hot. It was this lovely city that a population of 200,000 Sybaritic citizens quitted in one nightrather than endure the shortness of a few days' provision when besieged by the Carthaginians. Our sketch shows on the right the ruins of the Temple of Concord, and, on the left, that of Juno Lucina. The former stands, grand and simple, on a lonely crag looking over the sea. The view, from a distance, of the high plateau, on which the town stands, is delicious. The population is 25,000, and it is an emporium for the sulphur which comes here from the neighbourhood of Siculiana. Zeuxis selected five women of Agrigentum, and painted, from their combined beauties, his celebrated picture of Juno — using them as models of grace, expression, symmetry, elegance, and modesty. The town of Siculiana contains 5,G16 inhabitants, who are engaged in working the mines of sulphur which, being mixed with lime, is easily burnt and run out, pure, into moulds and boxes. The occu- pation is very profitable, and numerous moderate fortunes and incomes are realised in this trade. We now crossed over to Palermo, leaving Segestum with its Temple, and Mount Eryx — where was the celebrated Temple of Venus Erycina, the most voluptuous and vicious, in her rites, of all the Venuses — to our left. At Palermo we took the steam boat, and reached Naples in time to welcome the installation of the new dynasty. VIEW OF SYRACUSE, IN SICILY. CHINESE BOAT. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 1.— HONG KONG. The sending an army and a fleet to the mouth of the Peiho River, with the intention of advancing by a short cut across the country direct to Pekin itself, entailed an amount of commissariat preparation which necessitated our reaching China for some months in advance of the Expedition, as well for the making our- selves acquainted not only with the means of obtaining ready supplies for the present, as for acquiring such a knowledge of the habits and manners and language of the people, as well as the resources of the several parts of the country as would render us masters of every means, and prepared for every contingency, in case of a longer continuation of the campaign. As we near Hong Kong, it reminds us, as it has done others, of the Western Highlands. The moun- tains rise apparently barren and uncultivated, but on passing Green Island an agreeable surprise awaits us. The town of Victoria spreads out in a semicircle at the water's edge, stretching three or four miles on each side of the Bay, and going back from the water's edge, one building above another, right to the mountain's side. The Bay is full of shipping, but as seen from the town appears land-locked ; so that in going out and coming in, the city springs up before you directly behind the island which you pass. Hong Kong is 26 miles in circumference, 9 miles long, and 8 broad. These seas, on every side, are full of such islands ; but we got this one as a bonus for 23,393 chests of opium de- stroyed by Lin, and paid for by the Chinese, and once getting a foothold, in spite of all obstacles of position 90 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. and climate, we liave changed the Lilliputian fishing- town to another Singapore. The 1,500 poverty-stricken Cninese of 1840 have increased to nearly a quarter of a million. Hong Kong is to China what Gibraltar is to Spain — or rather it is the Liverpool of China. It is afflicted with a Governor, a Council of Five, a Chief Justice, and an Attorney-General, who quarrel with each other, stand upon dignity, and make distinction iu rank between gentry and merchants, wholesale and retail dealers, and such kind of " genteel " nonsense. Of course there is a race-course, aud there are two roads, and the watering-place once used to be called Chuckee, but it is now known as Stanley, — the place where the Chinese, who did not know what they were going to do, tried to steal Mr. Chisholm Anstey. There are barracks, where the soldiers cannot live ; and a prison, which is so overrun with rats, that the poorer Chinese consider it a favour to be sent there. The club-house is most creditable to the place, and the strauger, not caring for the hotel, is very comfortably off if introduced by one of his friends who may be a member. A good library, and all the English periodicals are on the table and iu the book- case; while good chow-chow, — which means food and all a man can want, — good attendance, and good beds, can be had for about fifteen shillings a-day; but, in China, most gentlemen are immediately taken possession of by those who may be known to them,and then their house is your home, according to the established usage of the land. The first tiling that strikes the stranger is the busy, untiring industry of the Chinese in their little shops. Women and men, and sometimes even little children 1 , are hard at work, making combs, trunks, or shoes, some chopping up meat, others arranging their vegetables for sale. 2 Here a party of masons erecting a bamboo stage, and there a chain gang of convicts, ascending the hill under a soldier's bayonet ; coolies carrying water, an enormous load ; sedan chairs borne by two or four ; boys hawking about candies and sweetmeats ; boatmen and house servants, coming and going, all dressed in that peculiar national blue, wide trowsers and butcher jackets, aud their long tails either wound about their head or trailing 1 In China, the children begin to work very early — almost too young j they get serious and sedate, are wonderfully old fashioned, and think for themselves very soon. Though there is great respect shown to old age, juveniles are not snubbed for beinir prec eious, on the contrary, the little fellows may often be noticed giving their opinions treely before their elders. The first thing a child longs for is a sapeck (a coin of about the 10th of a farthing) ; the first use it makes of its speech and intel- ligence is to learn to articulate the names ot coins. When his little fingers are big enough to hold the pencil, it is with making figures that he amuses himself, and as soon as the tiny creature can see and walk, he is capable of buying and selling. In t hina ynu need never fear sending a child to make a purchase j you may rely upon it he will not allow himself to be cheated. Even the games, at which the little Chinese play, are always impregnated with this mercantile spirit ; they amuse themselves with keeping shops, and opening little pawnbroker's e-tablislnnents, and fami- liarise themselves thus with the jargon, the tricks, and the frauds of tradesmen. 2 The Chinese grow a cabbage expressly for its oil aud seed. The Sratsica sinensis is its botanical name. It ought to be bred in the open air by English farmers. It produces flower stems, three or four feet high (just as our cabbage,) with yellow flowers and long pods. In April, when the fields are in bloom, the whole country seems tinged with gold, and after a shower of rain, the fragrance emitted is delicious. The seeds are ripe in Hay, when they are cleaned and pressed. There is a great demand for the oil, the refuse is used as oil-cake, or broken up as a manure, which is highly advantageous to the land. down behind 3 . The streets of Hong Kong oner a thousand reflections to those who have never been brought in contact with the Celestial race. There are drawbacks : the Chinese are not of the most respectable classes ; the summers are hot ; the town of Victoria is not the most healthy in the world; but there never was a colony established without some sacrifices. Perseverance is an especial British character- istic, and manifold precautions and sanitary measures are being taken to diminish the amount of sickness. There are grievances of a more amusing character, and which take strangers aback on arrival. The first is the system of transport, which is by palanquin. Chinese porters, especially in Hong-Kong, are by no means so tractable as Hindoos ; and it has happened that a gentleman invited to dine at Government House, has, through their pig-tail obstinacy, been too late for the repast. Again, it is customary in Hong-Kong that guests should take their " boy " with them, and certain members of the French embassy declare that, not being provided with a young Chinese fresh from the barbers, with his tail gracefully twisted and a long white robe, they ran great risk of perishing from hunger and thirst at a table spread with every imaginary delicacy. The bazaars, the curiosity shops, and the studios of the native artists are among the lions of Hong-Kong; but the sing-songs, which might be mistaken for an Englishism, ortheatrical representations, which are given by wealthy Chinese merchants, carry the day. The stage is a great platform of bamboos, and the crowd is inces- santly on the move, going and coming, for the repre- sentation begins at eight in the morning and lasts till eight at night, without a place remaining in want of a spectator. Heroes of all descriptions, genii, demons, and gods, have thi-ir turn on the stage, and engage in fabulous combats. Nothing can surpass the pantomime of the Chinese actors, or the luxury of their costumes. They are glittering with silk aud gold. Women never appear on the stage in the Middle Empire ; their parts are taken by young Chinese. But the voices of the performers are so like shrieking, and the music is so noisy, that after a short time European spectators generally have quite enough of it, and get away as soon as manners will permit. Then there is the Happy "Valley, where the turf is rolled every day, equescnans take their exercise, and the races are held. The name of the place is said, comically enough by a traveller totally ignorant of the Chinese language, to have been given to it from its being situated amidst burial grounds, and a Parsee cemetery or charnel house, where bodies are burned. The Chinese cemet3ry*is decorated with upright stones, 3 The tail of a Chinaman is not a little tuft on the crown of tho head, but is torined by hair suffered to grow luxuriantly in a mass at least four inches in diameter. The hair is smoothed down, and the tail, plaited from it, begins at the nape of the neck, and hangs below the waist, often to the ankles, and labouring men while at work generally have it wrapped round the head. 4 The more wealthy individuals often convey their dead a con- siderable distance, and employ a kind of fortune-teller, whose duty it is to find out the most appropriate resting place. This man goes with the corpse to the place appointed, and, of course, pre- tends to be very wise in the selection of the spot, as well as in the choice of the soil with which the ashes of the dead are to mingle in alter years ; and, upon trial, should the earth appear unsuitable, he immediately orders the procession off to another place in the neighbourhood, where he expects to be more sum ss- fal. "I believe," says Mr. Fortune, "many of the Chinese have this point settled before they die ; for one day wh' n one of our principal merchants went to call on old Howqua, the late Hong CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 91 planted amid rocks and pines, with a bench for the ghost of the departed to rest upon occasionally, and silver and tissue paper scattered about to deceive malignant spirits. These, tempted by the glitter, and thinking they are money, stop to pick them up, and thus give time to the ghosts that are out for an airing, to get back into their graves. The Chinese, who are such adepts in cheating Europeans, fancy that they can even deceive the bad spirits. The Chinese have, it is well known, a national idiosyncracy for getting rid of a redundant population. The Sisters of St. Paul have, much to their credit, founded an establishment at Hong-Kong for succour- ing children unnaturally abandoned by their parents, and they bring them up to useful occupations. If the future traveller wishes to dine, as we did, in Chinese style, there are no want of restaurants. He may there, by the aid of chop-sticks, make a very satisfactory repast oft" eggs a year old, preserved in clay, sharks' fins and radishes, pared and boiled into a thick soup, bicke de mer, or sea slugs, shrimps made up into a paste with sea-chesnuts, bamboo roots, and garlic, rendered piquant by the addition of soy and sundry other pickles and condiments, and washed down with warm samshu in minute cups. Dishes and plates are all on the smallest possible scale, and pieces of square brown paper (made of silk, an article not used for that purpose in England) serve the purpose of napkins. 1 A walk in Hong Kong soon shows you why China is called the Central Flowery Land. The red, white, merchant at Canton, a tray was brought into the room with several kinds of earth upon it, which the old man examined with great care, and then fixed on the one in which he wished To be buried." 1 It is certain, however, that a real Chinese dinner would lie very odd in the eyes of a stranger, especially if he was one of those who think, as some people do, that there is only one way of living. To begin dinner with the dessert and end it with the soup ; to drink the wine smoking hot out of the little china cups ; and to have your food brought to you ready cut up into small pieces, and presented with a couple of sticks instead of a knife and fork to eat it with ; to have, instead of napkins, a provision of little bits of coloured silk paper by the side of your plate, which, as you use, the attendants carry off; to leave your places between the courses to smoke or amuse yourself; and to raise your chop-sticks horizon- tally upon your cup to signify that you have finished jour dinner. All these tiling! would, doubtless, seem very odd. and create the curiosity of Europeans. The Chinese, on the other band, can never get over their surprise at our way of dining. Tliey ask how one can like to drink cold fluids, and what can have put it into our heads to use a trident to carry food to our mouths at the risk of pricking our lips or putting our eyes out. They think it very droll to see nuts put on the table in their shells, and ask why our servants cannot take the trouble to peel the fruit, and take the bones out of the meat. They are themselves certainly not very difficult in the nature of their food, and like such things as fried ■ilk-worms and preserved larvae, but they cannot understand the predilection of our epicures for high game, or for cheese that seems to belong to the class of animated beings. One day at Macao, we had the honour to be seated at the dinner table of a representative of a European power, when a magnificent dish of snipes was brought in. But what a disappointment ! The Chinese Vatel bad taken out the entrails of tliis incomparable bird. He knew not what a perfume and savoury treasure the snipe holds in the stomach. The cook was forced to appear before the arbiters of taste, who received him with wrathful looks, and the delinquent was struck with consternation, on hearing that he had committed a culinary crime, too heavy to be a second time pardoned. Hoping to make amends, the unfortunate cook, a few days afterwards, took care to serve up, in all their integrity, some birds that were not snipes, and thereupon a new storm of wrath fell on the devoted head of the poor Chinese, and was followed by his dismissal, in a state of utter despair, that he should never be able to exercise bis art in a manner conformable to the astoundingly capricious tastes of Europeans. and purple flowers of the Layerslrtemia are as common in the low grounds as hawthorns are with us. The scarlet heads of bloom of the beautiful Ixora coccinea are flowering in profusion in the clefts of the rocks. The ravines are full of ferns, and the elegant lilac bell flowers of the Chirola sinensis peep out under the next rocks. Up in the mountains, high up iu the hill, valleys — fifteen hundred feet above the sea — you all know the azalea and its gorgeous striking beauty, here they spring wild in masses of dazzling bright- ness, with myrtles, dahlias, wild roses, honeysuckles, and the Glycine sinensis hanging its flowering branches in graceful fashion along the mountain path. Everything here comes from the mainland, and the Chinese Mandarins thereby hold a kind of power over their own people; but one of them in the late war having mis-used it they resisted and drove him off to the other shore. Now that they understand themselves to be subjects of Queen Victoria, they go on very dif- ferently; indeed, your Chinaman is never so great as when following an example. 3 Give him the best model and he will imitate itexactly; show him roguery and cunning and he will beat you at the game. Industrial arts and mechanical science are what are wanted in China. The men who have heretofore visit- ed them have not beeu of a character to teach any people much that is good. They have bought, and sold, and smuggled, and they have cheated, and lied and bullied, mutually. It is time that both parties came to a better understanding. II.— MACAO. We leave Hong-Kong as quickly as any man should do, who has no business to keep him there, and taking the steamer a pleasant voyage of thirty miles, the last four of which is through shallow water, arrive at the Praya Grande, the celebrated prome- nade and landing place {see p. 97) ,to the quaint old settle - ment of the early Portuguese kings, Macao. This voy- age, short as it is, and through a narrow sea, as crowded as the Thames, was not until the present year secure from disorderly, roving bands of Chinese seamen and boatmen, who organise themselves into fleets as pirates, and way-lay vessels, not even excepting the passage steam-boats, one of which,"The Queen,"it will be remem- bered that they captured, and murdered all the foreign passengers. 3 ' There are few things your Chinaman cannot do as well as an Englishmen or a Yankee. For several years many Chinese have been employed in steam boats as deputy engineers and stokers, their rkill, sobriety and carefulness are exemplary. In men-of-war steamers the employment of them as firemen and supernumerary stokers, while coining within the Tropics, or on the last side of the Capcof Good Hope, would be desirable. They aregood sailors always, and in the last war, "The Bamboo Rifle" or "Coolie Transport Service," deserved mention from Lord Elgin. As ship carpenters, it would be difficult to find better workmen, and lately some who have been employed in setting up iron tteamers, speedily learnt to perfection the art of rivetting, under the guidance of a clever engineer, sent out by Messrs. R. Stfphenson & Co. 3 We were not lucky enough to have a brush with the pirates ourselves ; but Mr. Fortune has given us a good account of what befel himself on his way in a Chinese junk from theFow-choo-loo, bv the mouth of the Min river to Chusan. " About four o'clock in the afternoon, and when we were some fifty or sixty miles frf m the Min, the captain and pilot came hurriedly down to my cabin and informed me that they saw a number otjan-dous right ahead, lying in wait for us. I ridiculed the idea, and told them they 92 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. PAGODA The first thing an European landing at Macao in olden times did, was to go and see the Chinese Pagoda at the Rocks. (See page 96.) He could wend his way WHAMPOA. there and back in a tanka, or Hative boat, or he could stroll there by the sea-side. Now we can visit pagodas of far more imposing aspect and dimensions ; nay, we imagined every junk they saw to be a pirate; but tliey still main- tained that they were so, and I therefore considered it prudent to he prepared for the worst. I got out of bed, ill and feverish as I was, and carefully examined my fire-arms, clearing the nipples of my gun and pistols, and putting on fresh caps. I also rammed down a ball upon the top of each charge of shot in my gun, and put a pistol in side pocket, and patiently waited for the result. By the aid of a small pocket telescope, I could see, as the nearest junk approached, that her deck was crowded with men. I then had no longer any doubts regarding their intentions. The pilot, an intelligent old man, now came up to me, and said that he thought resistance was of no use ; I might manage to beat off one junk, or even two, but that I had no chance with five of them. Being at that time in no mood to take advice, or to be dictated to by any one, I ordered him off to look after his own duty. I knew perfectly well that if we were taken by the pirates I had not the slightest chance of escape, for the first thing they would do would be to knock me on the head and throw me overboard, as they would deem it dangerous to themselves were 1 to get away. At the same time I must confess I had little hope of being able to beat off such a number, and devoutly wished myself anywhere rather than where I was. " The scene around me was a strange one. The captain, pilot, and one or two native passengers were taking up the boards of the cabin-floor and putting their money and other valuables out of sight amongst the ballast. The common sailors, too, had their copper rash or trien to hide; and the whole place was in a state of bustle and confusion. When all their more valuable property was hidden, they began to make some preparations for defence. Baskets of small stones were brought up from the hold, and emptied out on the most convenient parts of the deck, and were intended to be used instead of fire-arms when the pirate came to close quarters. This is a common mode of defence in various parts of China, and is effectual enough when the CHINA, COCHIN CHINA. AND JAPAN. 93 HONG KONG. even meet one that far surpasses it on bis way — the great Pagoda of Singapore. But if the temple of Macao is poor and badly kept, its position is highly enemy has only similar weapons to bring against them ; but on the coast of Fo-kieu, where we were now, all the pirate junks carried guns, and, consequently, a whole deck-load of stones could be of very little use against them. " During the general bustle I missed my own servant for a short time. When he returned to me, ho had made such a change in his appearance that I did not recognise him. He was literally clothed in rags, which he had borrowed from the sailors, all of whom had also put on their worst clothes. When I asked him the reason of this change in the outward man, he told me the pirates only made those prisoners who had money, and were likely to pay handsomely for their ransom, and that they would not think it worth their while to lay hold of a man in rags. "I was suirounded by several of the crew, who might well be called ' Job's comforters,' some suggesting one thing and some another, and many proposed that we should bring the junk round and run back to the Min. The nearest pirate was now within 200 or 300 yards of us, and, putting her helm down, gave us a broadside from her guns. All was now dismay and con- sternation on bjard our junk, as every man ran below except two, who were at the helm. I expected every moment that these also would leave their post ; and then we should have been an easy prey to the pirates. '" My gun is nearer you than those of t\ie jan-dous,' said I to the two men j * and if you move from the helm, depend upon it I will shoot you.' The poor fellows looked very uncomfortable, but I suppose thought they had better stand the fire of the pirates than mine, and kept at their post j large boards, heaps of old clothes, masts, and things of that sort which were at hand, were thrown up to protect us from the shot ; and as we had every stitch of sad set, and a fair wind, we were going through the picturesque. The inner harbour, with its legion of junks and tankas, lies at its feet ; above it are huge blocks of granite, and secular trees, whose vigorous water at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour. The shot from the pirates fell considerably short of us, and I was therefore enabled to form an opinion of the range and power of their guns, which was of some use to me. " Assistance from our cowardly crew was quite out of the question ; for there was not a man amongst them brave enough to use the stones which had been brought on deck, and which, perhaps, might have been of some little use when the pirates came nearer. 'The fair wind, and all the press of sail we had crowded on the junk, proved of no use; for our pursuers, who had much faster sailing vessels, were gaining rapidly upon us. Again the nearest pirate fired upon us. The shot, this time, fell just under cur stern. I still remained quiet, as I had determined not to fire a single shot until I was quite certain my gun would take effect. The third shot which followed this came whizzing over our heads and through the sails, without, however, wounding either the men at the wheel, or myself. "The pirates now seemed quito sure of their prize, and came down upon us, hooting and yelling like demons, at the same time loading their guns, and evidently determined not to spare their shot. This was a moment of intense anxiety. The plan which I had formed from the first was now about to be put to the proof; and if the pirates were not the cowards which I believed them to be, nothing could save us from falling into their hands. Their fearful yells seem to be ringing in my ears even now, after this lapse of time, and when I am on the other side of the globe. "The nearest junk was now within thirty yards of ours; their guns were now loaded and I knew that the next discharge would completely rake our decks. ' Now,' said I to our helmsman. 'Keep your eye fixed on me, and the moment you see m9.fall flat on the deck yon must do the same, or you will be shot. ' I knew 01 ALL ROUND THE WOULD. roots fasten in the crevices ; while close by are kiosks and little oratories in honour of inferior divinities. On the portico is a great junk painted in red, and there is an inscription in Chinese on the neighbouring rock. The air of respectable antiquity presented by the old Portuguese settlement of Macao is refreshing after the parvenu character with which its ostentatious magnifi- cence invests Hong-Kong. The narrow streets and crass-grown plazas, the handsome facade of the fine old cathedral crumbling to decay, the shady walks and cool grottoes, once the haunts of the Portuguese poet, his tomb, and the view from it, all combine to produce a soothing and tranquilising effect. Hong-Kong represents the commercial and political movement of the present ; Macao is the city of calm and of the past. The time is gone by when the intre- pid Portuguese navigators dominated in these seas. Their degenerate descendants are now reduced, in order to obtain a livelihood, to seek for employment in the great English or American houses. The bright day for Portugal is gone by, and fickle fortune rallies under other standards. If the colony passes by chance into the hands of a man of genius like Amaral, he is assassi- nated by the emissaries of the mandarins ; and if the Court of Lisbon, bent upon avenging the outrage, de- spatches its best frigate to the Chinese seas, it is blown up in the very harbour of Macao by a reprobate who gluts his vengeful fury for a slight punishment by the destruction of 300 of his countrymen ! Amaral, a captain in the Portuguese navy, had dis- tliat the pirate, who was now on our stern, could not bring his puns to bear upon os without putting his holm down and bring- ing his gangway at right angles with our stern, as his guns were fired from the gangway. I therefore kept a sharp eye upon his helmsman, and the moment I saw him putting the helm down I ordered our steersmen to fall flat upon their faces behind some wood, and at the same moment did so myself. We had scarcely done so when bang, bang, went their guns, and the shot came whizzing close over us, splintering the wood about us in all directions. Fortunately none of us were struck. ' Now, M now (hey are quite close enough,' cried out ray companions, who did not wish to have another broadside like the last. I being of the same opinion, raised myself above the high stern of our junk, and while the pirates were not more than twenty yards from us, hooting and yelling, I raked their decks, fore and aft, with shot and ball from my double-barclled gun. " Had a thunderbolt fallen among6t them they could not have been much more surprised; doubtless many were wounded, and probably some killed. " At all events, the whole of the crew, not fewer than forty or fifty men, who a moment before crowded the deck, disappeared in a marvellous manner. Another was now bearing down upon us as boldly as his companion had done, and commenced filing in the same manner. Having been so successful with the first, 1 deter- mined to follow the same plan with this one, and to pay no atten- tion to his firing until he should come to close quarters. The plot now began to thicken; for the first junk had gathered way again, and was following in our wake, although keeping at a respectful distance, and three others, although still further distant, were making for the scene of action as fast as they could. In the meantime, the second was almost alongside, and continued raking our decks in a steady manner with their guns. Watching their helm as before, we sheltered ourselves as well as we could ; at the same time, my two fellows, who were steering, kept begging and praying that I would fire into our pursuers as soon as possible, or we should be all killed. As soon as they came within twenty or thirty yards of us, I gave them the contents of both barrels, raking their decks as before. This time the helmsman fell, and doubtless several others were wounded. In a minute or two, I could see nothing but boards and shields which were held up by the pirates to protect themselves from my firing ; their junk went up into the wind for want of a helmsman, and was soon left some distance Ix'hind us." played so much energy and ability as Governor of Macao as to have drawn upon himself the most malevolent feelings of a reprobate race of people and mandarins. He had defeated organized bands of robbers on several occasions, and visited piracy with condign punishment. A price had in consequence been set upon his head ; but the brave old captain, who had lost one arm in the ser- vice of his country, disdained to take any precautions. Every evening he used to ride out, accompanied only by his aide-de-camp, and with only a brace of pistols in his holsters. On the 22nd of August, 1S49, he was return- ing from his usual ride at sunset, when a number of Chinese suddenly presented themselves to obstruct his progress. A child, who carried a bamboo, to the ex- tremity of which it aj peared as if a bouquet had been attached, moved out from the crowd towards the Gover- nor. Amaral, thinking that he came to present a j petition, was about 10 stoop, when he felt himself struck violently on the face. " JJanto," rascal ! he exclaimed, and pushed his horse on as if to punish his assailant. But at the same moment six men rushed upon him, whilst two others attacked his aide-de-camp. The assassins drew from beneath their garments their long, straight, and not very sharp swords x generally used by the Chinese, and repeatedly struck the governor with these upon his only arm. Taking the bridle in his teeth, A maral made vain efforts to get at his pistols. Attacked on all sides and covered with wounds, he was soon struck down from his horse, when his murderers, throw- ing themselves upon him, tore off his head rather than cut it off, and added to their horrid trophy the only hand that remained. This accomplished, they fled into the interior; the Chinese soldiers, who were on duty at the town gates close by, witnessing the tragedy, with- out condescending to interfere. In the meantime the terrified horse had galloped into the town without a master ; the first who saw it felt that an accident had happened and hastened towards the gate, but on their way they wei - e met by the aide-de-camp, who had only received some slight wounds, and whose torn habiliments and expression of horror told too plainly of the sad event, which was soon confirmed by the discovery of the unfortunate old Governor's mutilated remains. The neighbourhood of Hong-Kong takes from Macao almost all its advantages as a free port ; add to which, the sea is daily invading its harbour, as it does the whole of the right shore of the Canton river. Vessels of considerable tonnage are obliged to anchor a mile or two from the harbour, and only small gunboats can lay off the quay of Praya-Grande. Nevertheless, Macao, notwithstanding its decline, is not wanting in claims to interest — the claims of memory more especially. This town was, for a long period of time, the sole centre of the relations of Europeans with the Chinese. Camoens, Saint Francois Xavier, and other great men, have lived there. Its churches. its convents, its public monuments, dark with age, attest of splendour long gone by. The garden of Camoens is in the present day private property ; it belongs to a Portuguese gentleman of the name of Marques, who allows strangers to saunter be- neath shady recesses so rare in China. Within this garden is the celebrated grotto where the poet is said to have in main part composed his " Lusiad." Quota- tions from that immortal epic are now cut into the marble, and what is more delightful to French visitors, some Gallic verses in honour of the poet and the locality. The inner port can be contemplated from a flmm VOL. T CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 99 terrace in this garden as from the Pagoda of Rocks, but with a less oppressive noise, the shouts of the tankaderes, or boatmen and boatwomen, and terrible gongs, heard so assiduously beaten to drive away the evil spirits from B junk about to proceed on its journey, come here softened by distance. The Parsees have a cemetery that rises in successive steps or terraces above the sea ; and this, with the little Portuguese forts, built like eagles' nests, the so-called Green Island, the narrow strip that encircles Macao to the main island, and the wide extent of the Celestial Empire beyond, fill up a picture that is not easily forgotten by those who have once seen it. We wandered about this splendid relic of gaiety and wealth, now a disjointed collection of deserted palaces, haggard boat women, ugly dames of Portuguese descent, with handkerchiefs pinned over their faces, long narrow alleys, decaying churches, walks, parades, gardens, forts, all corroded by time. From the top of a great stone arbour, in the old palace garden, we had a fine view of the old town and both harbours, the inuer and the outer. We came back through the Chinese town, where, with restless activity, mechanics were working at their respective trades. Shopmen were doing a thriving business, while barbers never were busier — and your barber is an important personage here, as elsewhere, as such a man needs must be where every man has his head shaved twice a week. No Chinaman uses anything but hot water; his razor is only two inches long, by an inch wide, which is sold for twopence, and the strop, a piece of stout calico, may be had for a penny. See here the sallow Chinaman, stretched at full length in an easy chair, is enjoying his shampooing and pommellings. Shaving the head costs half a farthing, yet there are seven thousand barbers in the city of Canton only. To which city we will now go, steaming on as fast as the crowd of boats will let us. III.— UP THE CANTON RIVER. The tankas (see p. 89), or wherries of the Canton river, constitute one of the essential features of its waters. It is well known what a variety, what a number, and what gorgeousness of display every great Chinese river, canal, or port, exhibits in its junks and boats of various descriptions. Yet do none of these strike the stranger more forcibly than do at first the humble tanka, and its still more humble and indus- trious yet lively occupants — the " jnjeusea batdiires," or "happy boatwomen," as a Frenchman calls them. The tanka is a small boat, almost as wide as long, and differing therein much from the sharp and narrow canoes of the Malays. The crew generally consists of an elderly woman, who sits or stands at the stern, rotating with a vigorous and experienced arm the long oar which is the great propeller of all boats in the Celestial Empire. There is also a younger woman, who, seated at the bows, sweeps the waters far more lightly, and with less effect, with the flat of her oar. Not unfrequently one or two urchins, as represented in our illustration (see p. 89), help to give animation to this boat-scene. But where, we might ask, are the father and grandfather, for the urchins are manifestly the children of the junior tankadere — probably engaged on bo;ird some larger junk, whilst the women ply the more humble wherry. Some, however, hint th:tt the tankaiieres arc a kind of gypsies, and do not trouble themselves with any permanent engagements with the other sex, but livo solely in and with their boats, sheltered from the burning heats of the sun and the severities of winter alike by the circular roof of bam- boo so graphically depicted here. A few moveable boards cover in the daytime the bed on which they repose; the fire destined to cook their frugal repast sparkles near the poop ; gravely seated on the mat of rattan, and with the quiet aspect of a precocious man- hood, the copper-coloured urchins wait in silence for the anticipated plate of rice, whilst the protecting genii, secreted in a more obscure corner, are not for- gotten, but have their daily allowance, the incense of sticks, and perfume of sam-chu. These tanka3 positively swarm in the waters of the much-frequented harbours of Hong Kong aud Macao. And it is not aa easy matter for a stranger to know how to select one ; for if the touters and boatmen of Europe are sometimes noisy and importunate, the gipsy boatwomen of China are a thousand times more so. And if any hesitation is manifested, they will carry the happy party off bodily to the shelter of their bamboo and rattan canopy. But neither tankas nor taukaderes are met with in the north of China: they belong especially to the river of Canton. 1 The son of a tankadere canuot become a mandarin : if, disguising his origin, one such should succeed in passing his examinations, and obtain the blue globule, and then his origin should be discovered, he would be imme- diately degraded. The shape of the boats tell of the different districts from which they come ; thus, from Kiang-soo, where there is little but water-travelling, as in Holland of old, the boats, which pass through a net-work of large canals, are roomy and wide, affording every convenience, as if you were in a house. In Cheh-Kiang, where are the coal mines, the boats are narrow and flat-sided, as in Staffordshire, to push easily through the narrow sluices ; in Fo-kien they have mat sails and an immense plank out at the stern, which acts as a rudder to assist the helmsman in working his boat quickly through the rapids ; and the Kwansi boats have long and flat bows at an angle of 45 degrees from the floor, that the boats may not rush under the water in rapidly passing down the sluices. A child overboard ! Observe the hubbub. The little amphibious yellow thing has a gourd attached to it as a life-preserver; it is quite safe; see the mother has picked it up and hushes it on her bosom. Are these the people with whom infanticide is universal ? There must be some mistake. Yet that horrible story of the Tower near Shanghai ! Let us give the Chinese women, poor illused creatures, the benefit of the doubt. They do sell their children, we know; perhaps they may not destroy them. There goes a young girl, twelve years old, with full charge of the boat, sculling away with the large poised scull, and flying about through crowds of boats, and hark to her little sharp tongue 1 as saucy as a London cabman in a crowded throughfare during a stoppage. 1 Ilere, too, we first see the Loreha (the " ah" is pronounced as"ur"m lurcher) a name made so familiar in Parliamentary debates. It is nothing more than a junk slightly improved. They are owned indifferently by Chinese or foreigners, and have sailing letters accordingly. There never would have been a dis« pute about the "Arrow," had there been an interpreter present; but how much these useful persona are wanting can be judged from the fact that at one time in Singapore there were 70,000 Chinese, and no one that could understand them. 100 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. One of the most striking sights on the Canton river ] is the immense number of boats which are moored all along the shore, near the foreign factory. There are hundreds of thousands of all kinds and size, from the splendid flower-boat, as it is called, down to the small barber's boat, forming a large floating city, peopled by an immense number of human beings. In sailing up the river you may observe a very small boat, perhaps the smallest you ever saw exposed on the water, being nothingmore than a fewplanks fastened together. This is the barber's boat, who is going about, or rather swimming about, following his daily avocation of shaving the heads and tickling the ears and eyes of Chinamen. By the by, this same barber has much to answer for; for his practice has a most prejudicial effect upon the eyes and ears of his countrymen. He, however, works his little boat with great dexterity, and with his scull manages to propel himself with care and swiftness through the floating city of boats, larger and more powerful than his own. Then you see boats of various sizes, such as those at Macao and Hong Kong, covered over, divided into three compartments, and kept re- markably clean and neat. These aro hired by either natives or foreigners for the purpose of going off to the large junks or other vessels moored out in the river, or for short excursions to the island of Honan, the Fa-Tee Gardens, or such places. The centre division of the boat forms a very neat little room, having windows in the sides, ornamented with pictures and flowers of various kinds. The compartment at the bow is occu- pied by the rowers, and that at the stern is used for preparing the food of the family for whom the boat belongs. The boats of the Hong merchants and the large flower-boats are very splendid. They are arranged in compartments like the others, but are built in a more superb and costly manner. The reader must imagine a kind of wooden house raised vipon the floor of the boat, having the entrance near the bows, space being left there for the boatmen to stand and row. This entrance being the front, is carved in a most superb style, forming a prelude to what may be seen within. Numerous lanterns hang from the roof of these splendid showy cabins; looking-glasses, pictures, and poetry adorn their sides ; and all the peculiarities of this sin- gular people are exposed to our view in these their floating palaces. Then there are the chop boats, which are used by the merchants for conveying goods to the vessels at Whain- poa, — the passage boats to Hong-kong, Macao, and various parts of the country ; the Mandarin boats, with their numerous oars, which have a strange appear- ance as they pass up and down the river; and lastly, the large unwieldly sea-going junks. There are various modifications of all these kind of boats, each adapted for the particular purpose for which it is designed. At festival times, the river has a singularly gay and striking appearance, particularly at night, when the lanterns are lighted, and numberless boats, gaily decorated with them, move up and down in front of the factory. The effect produced upon a stranger at these times, by the wild and occasionally plaintive strains of Chinese music, the noisy gong, the close and sultry air, the strange people full of peculiarities and conceit, is such that he can never forget, and leaves upon his mind a mixed impression of pleasure, pity, admiration, and contempt. Throughout the whole of this immense floating city, the greatest regularity prevails. The large boats are arranged in rows, forming streets, through which the smaller craft pass and repass, like coaches and other vehicles in a large town. The families who live in this manner seem to have a great partiality for flowers, which they keep in pots, either upon the high stern of their boats, or in their little parlours. The Chinese Arbor vita?, Gardenias, Cycas revoluta, cockscombs, and oranges, seem to be the greatest favourites with them. A joss-house — small indeed in many cases, but yet a place of worship — is indispensable to all these floating houses. There the joss-stick and the oil are daily burned, and form the incense which these poor people offer to their imaginary deity. Inside the Bogue, or Bocca Tigris, as it is called, the river widens very much, and presents the appearance of an inland sea. The view now becomes beautiful and highly picturesque, the flat cultivated land near the shores forming a striking contrast to the barren hills on the outside of the forts ; the mountains in the distance appear to encircle the extensive plain ; and although, like the others, they are barren, yet they make a fine back -ground to the picture. A few miles further up the river, the shipping in Blenheim and Whampoa reaches come into view, and the celebrated Whampoa Pagoda, with several more of less note, besides numerous other towers and joss-houses, all remind the traveller that he is approaching the far- famed city of Canton, one of the richest and most important in the Celestial Empire. The noble river, with its numerous ramifications, forms many islands, on one of which the small town or village of Whampoa is built. Large quantities of rice arc grown, both on the islands formed by the river, and on the flats on the main land. The tide is kept out by embankments, and the ground can be overflowed at will. These embankments are not allowed to lie idle, but are made to produce crops of plantains. When the land is tco high to be flooded by the tide, the water-wheel is brought into play, and it is perfectly astonishing how much water can be raised by this simple contrivance in a very short space of time. Sugar-cane is also grown rather extensively near Whampoa, and in its raw state is an article in great demand amongst the Chinese. It is manufactured into sugar-candy and brown sugar ; many kinds of the latter being particularly fine, though not much used by the foreigners residing in the country, who generally prefer the candy reduced to powder, in which state it is very fine and white. The Pagoda of Whampoa (see p. 92), exhibits some peculiarity of design. It stands upon a terrace, its porch is a flight of steps, its vestibule or anti-sanctuary is a covered building, and its inner sanctuary is one of those Taas or lofty towers which are so characteristic of Chinese ecclesiastical architecture, and which con- sist of several stones, diminishing in height and width as they ascend, each having a projecting roof of glazed tiles, and generally ornamented with bells. The imitation taa or pagoda in Kew Gardens, erected by Sir W. Chambers, is well known to our readers, and is a lofty and fair specimen of what it is intended to represent. The celebrated taa or tower at Nankin, composed of porcelain, is, like most others, an octagon upwards of 210 feet high, and divided into ten stones, each of which has a marble gallery, with gilt lattices, the stairs being formed within the thickness of the walls. The summit is surmounted by a cupola, from CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 101 CHINESE BOAT WOMAN. which rises a lofty pole or mast with oritianiuie, as we see erected in front of the Pagoda of the Rocks at Macao, about 30 feet high. There is a similar tower at Ting tshang fu, the exterior of which is of porcelain, but the walls themselves are of marble. Others have a siugle staircase in the centre, carried up through all the different stories. Although so completely dis- similar in style, their towers bear a strong analogy to the Gopuras and Vinanas, or lofty pyramid tower- temples, of the Hindoos. Both seem to have originated in a common idea, differently modified, according to the taste and mode of building of the respective nations. Whampoa island is the last but one, and, indeed the last island of any size or importance met with on ascending the Bocca Tigris- to Canton. On the left bank are French Folly, Lin's Fort, and the Barnes' Forts ; on the other, Honan and the French Islands. Hence it was, that, during the late war, Whampoa, which was formerly a place of importance, and has two pagodas, became a great rendezvous, and a conference was held there on the 21st of December, 1857, by the plenipotentiaries and naval and military commanders, shortly before the assault and capture of Canton. " Our principal amusement," says one present on the occasion, " was rambling over that picturesque spot : though not above five miles in circumfer- ence, the island was broken into hill and dale and fertile glens, where a rural population lived peaceably amid all the troubles, and seemed utterly indifferent as to the fate of their provincial city. In- deed, many of them who had suffered severely by the interruption of trade, rather hoped for our success than otherwise ; and in one of the villages, a man was met who had formerly lived at Whampoa, and spoke a little 102 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. English, who assured us that he expressed a sentiment very common among his countrymen when he said, " You takee Canton chop-chop, my no gotchie money." IV.— CANTON. From Macao to Canton, is from Gravesend to Black- ball — only more densely crowded ; and, by all the powers of Cockneyism, there is a boat race. 1 Pull away, lads ! on she goes, and our little steamer after her, stem on, and close up! on they go. No, by all that's unlucky, over they go ! Surely these are wager boats, and Mr. Searle ia umpire. They are all righted again. Now by rice-groves, lichen trees, and banyan forests, by docks, by the battle-ground of the Fatshan River (where the brave Keppel won his laurels), the whole looked down upon by a kind of Richmond Hill, where the fort used to be under which the " Coromandel" ran aground — by the old and picturesque shipping, with the many flags flying. There is nothing pic- turesque about the city itself, no more than there is in Wapping. The grey roofs stretch in long lines, out of which rise pert -pigeon-houses on poles, with ladders 1 It is customary in China, at certain seasons of the year, to have junk races, and for the towns near navigable rivers and the sea ports this is an occasion of great rejoicing; the magistrates and sometimes the rich merchants of the locality distribute the prizes to the victors ; and those who wish to enter the lists organize themselves into a company, and appoint a chief. The junks that serve for these games arc very long and narrow, so that there is only just room for two benches of rowers ; they are most richly carved and ornamented with gilding and designs in bright colours. The prow and the poop represent the head and tail of the Imperial Dragon, they arc therefore called louvij-tchouan, that is to say dragon boats. They are hung with silks and tinsel, and along their whole length are displayed numerous streamers ; bright red pennants float in the wind, and on each side of the little mast that supports the national flag arc placed two men, who leave off striking the turn-turn and executing rolls on the drum, whilst the mariners, leaning over their oars, row on vigorously, and make the dragon junk skim rapidly along the surface of the water. Whilst these elegant boats are contending with one another the people throng the quays, the shore, and the roofs of the neighbouring houses, and the vessels that are lying in the port. They animate the rowers by their cries and plaudits; they let off fireworks; they perform at various points deafening music, in which the sonorous noise of the tmn-tum, and the sharp sound of a sort of clarionet, giving perpetually the samo note, predominate over all the rest. The Chinese relish this infernal harmony. It happens, sometimes, that a dragon boat is upset in a moment and emptied of its double line of rowers, but the crowd greets the incident with a shout of laughter ; nobody is at all disturbed, for the men who row are always good swimmers. You soon see them emerge from beneath the water, swimming about in all directions to cutch their oars again and their rattan helmets; the water springs up beneath their abrupt and rapid movements, you might take them (or a troop of porpoises disporting in the middle of the waves. When every man has found his oar and his hat, again the dragon boat is placed once more on her keel, the streamers are put to rights as well as circumstances will permit, and then comes the grand diffi- culty of how to get into her again ; but these people are so agile, adroit, and supple that they always manage it somehow. The public have often the satisfaction of witnessing these little inci- dents on fete days, for the boats are so frail and light that the slightest fault in the movements of the rowers may capsize them, 'these nautical games last for several days together, and are con- tinued from morning till night, the spectators remaining faith- fully at their posts all the time. The ambulatory kitchens and the dialers in provisions circulate through all parts of the crowd to feed this immense multitude, which, under pretext of having no regular meal at- home that day, is eating and drinking con- tinually, whilst rope dancers, jugglers, pickpockets, and thieves of every species profit by the opportunity to turn their talents to account, and vary the amusements of the day. The official fete is terminated by the distribution of prizes, and the rowers wind up with merrymaking, and sometimes also with quarrelling and fighting. to them, which they tell us are watch-boxes. (The Chinese do all things by contraries : ' we used to place our watchboxes on the ground — they put theirs in the sky.) Then mandarin poles with flying streamers; then, the line is broken by high square warehouses, just such as you see about our docks, and these, we are told, are the pawnbrokers' shops; for pawning and money-lending are carried on in Canton and throughout China on an enormous scale. 3 2 We mourn in black — they mourn in white ; we regard coro- nets and crowns as badges of dignity — they respect the boots; we build solid walls — they mukc them hollow ; we pull a boat — they push it; we place the orchestra in front of the stage— they hide it behind ; we feed the living — they get dinner ready for the dead. " In a country," says Mr. Wingrovc Cooke, " where the roses have no fragrance, and the women no petticoats ; where the labourer has no sabbath, and the magistrate no sense of honour; where the roads have no vehicles, and the ships no keels ; where old men fly kites; where the needle points to the south, and the sign of being puzzled is to scratch the antipodes of the head; where the place of honour is on the left hand, and the seat of in- tellect is in the stomach; where to take off your hat is an insolent gesture; we ought not to be astonished to find a literature with- out an alphabet, and a language without a grammar. We use a white flag for peace', they brandish it in war; and a want 01 knowledge of this fact led to the rebels firing upon Lord Elgin's party in the Yang-tse-kiang river — the return of which fire has brought on an awkward imbroglio between foreigners and the insurgents, who accuse us of favouring the Anti-Chinese party of the Tartar Mandarins. 5 A part of the pawnbroking establishments, so numerous in China, also belong to the government. 'J he rate of interest is 2 per cent, per month, for jewels, and articles of ihe metallic kind. The legal interest of money has been fixed at £0 per cent, per annum, which makes 3 per cent, ptr month, as the sixth, the twelfth, and the intercalaiy moon (when there is cne,) do not bear interest. One would like to know what ebject the Chinese government had in view, in iixirg the interest of money at so enor- mous a rate, ai.elto understand their mede of regarding questions of political end social economy. According to Tchao-ynng, a distin- guished writer of the Celestial Impire,thcpurpcsewnstopreveiit the value of land from increasing, and that of money from diminish- ing, by the mediocrity of interest. In fixing it at a very high rate, it has endeavoured to render the distribution of land prepoitiorate with the jiuml er of families, and the circulation of money more active and uniform. 'iient-sehch, an economical writer. c.ccs further into this mbje< t, in a planner of which the late Mr. Wilson might not have been ashamed, us follows : — "How is it that the high rate of interest fxed by the law affords advantage to commerce? lie cause it cptns a career to those who have the talent, and favours its division among a greater number, 'ihe genius for commerce is a peculiar one', like that for letters, for government, for the arts; ] e ssibly, even one might say that, in some respects, it embraces them nil. Now this genius for commerce is lost to the empire in all these whe follow a different career; it remains, therefoie, to dcvelope it in those who have no other rescure e. Although commerce is indis- putably necessary to the State, yet the administration which goes to so much expense to fucilitate study, and to form bj that means men capable of pditical business, docs nothing for those who linve a genius for commerce to assist them in its development. Now the high interest of money makes amends for this kind of neglect. However poor a young man may be, if he is well-conducted and clever he will be able to borrow enough to make an attempt, and as soon as this succeeds all purses will be open to him ;— and this interest now will have given to the cmpiie a useful citizen, who would have been lost if a helping hand had not been held out to him. Now when men can enter into business without haying any money of their own, commerce must necessarily he dividend among a great number, and that is what the present state of the population render desirable. " A man, whatever he may be, has hut a certain amount of time and strength to empby : if his business demands more he must call in help, that is to say, he must buy the services of others ; they cost him little, for the most part, and he endeavours to obtain the utmost advantage from them. What he gains by these assistants, by degrees releases him from the necessity of working himself, and the public is charged with his idleness. It CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 103 BehiuJ the city rise odd-shaped, jagged, green inoimtains and hills, with forts upon them — forts that resemble gigantic frames or hot-houses in a suburban garden ; down to the water-side are shed-houses, built on piles, and jnsfc behind are the walls. All about are from 50,000 to 60,000 boatmen, who live on the river ; and there is no end of veilings and jabberings, pulling and hauling, poshing, punting, rowing, and sculling, screeching and gesticulating ; the tide running a perfect sluice. Some of the women are comely, and in their peculiar Bloomer style of costume andstrikingly original style of head-dress, are attractive. The fare for a boat load to the shore is a shilling, and that is a trifle to give a pretty gild after a hard pull. Once landed, you have plenty to do ; with excursions up to the Hills, and to the Pagoda, and the Parsee Gardens, and the Curiosity Shops. After you have been through the hongs and gardens, scanned the tea prepared for shipment, and talked with some of the Chinese merchants, whom you find flying kites 1 and who insist on your taking with them a cup of tea without milk or sugar, the grounds in the cup, each made ex- pressly for each person ; after you have chin-chinned several of these Hong merchants, and heard them ex- pound commercial affairs ; after you have been over the Dutch Folly, the pavilion of the Fire Genii, the large Pngoda at Whampoa (see p. 92), the wonderful Gardens— r wonderful, because so singular and so novel, — after you have seen the duck-hatching (in the cupboard of an old fisherman) up the river, where the young ducks are nursed in all their stages ; after you have had a ride on a Chinese pony up the Chiuese hills, and looked down upon Canton and its 124 temples and halls and pavilions, all on the ground-floor, and gazed with never-ending pleasure on the flower-boats (see p.l29),and the fantastically-dressed women, whom you must not mistake for respectable ladies, — for they are scarcely ever visible, — you will have seen almost aU that there is to see of the thousand-year-old Canton. On every side pigeon English, — that horrible jargon of mutilated baby-talk, — meets your ear. You hear nothing else. An American tells of a translation of Hamlet's soliloquy into pigeon English (which, by the by, means business English), in which " To be, or not to be," reads "Can, no can." Send for your hat, and this would be the style : " Go top-side, sabe, that hat, bring my." A noise is heard in the adjoining street, the cause, says the servant, is, " Chiney woman have catchee one piece cow chilo," ill other words, "Mrs. Pigtail, of a girl." You call upon some ladies, boy returns, " No man can see," intima- was asked of Se-ling why lie hud lent 20,000 ounces of silver from the public treasury to twelve small traders. ' It was,' lie replied, ' in order that the public might no longer have to pay for tbe lacquered work, the shows, the festivals, concubines, and slaves of him who lias monopolised the silk-factories. Rivalry in trade obliges traders to emulate each other in labour and industry, that is to say, to be less extortionate towards the pnblic.' " 1 The Chinese, as everybody knows, arc great in kites. It is strange to see sober and sedate merchants tugging away at a long string, guiding a kite very effectually in the air. Some are mado in the shape of birds; and the hovering of the kestrel, or the quick dive of the sparrow-hawk, are beautifully imitated by expert guid- ance of the string. The Chinese beat us hollow in these things, especially in the "messenger" that they send spinning up the string. They send up pretty painted gigantic butterflies, with outspread wings, at the back of which, is a simple contrivance to make them collapse when the butterfly reaches the kite, and, as soon as they collapse, down comes the butterfly, sliding along the string, ready to be adjusted for another flight. ting probably they were not at home. For " yes " read "can do." "How many to dinner this evening? " Your boy presently replies, "Some piece man — two piece missie." 3 Sometimes the stranger in Canton for the first clay finds it impossible to believe in anything he sees. Yoti feel just as if you had got by mistake on to the stage of a theatre instead of the boxes, and find yourself, uncomfortably, one of the dramati* persona in a Chinese ballet. Everything seems sham and unsub- stantial; the houses look like so many painted sheds. The place is very intricate, and the alleys innumerable. There is the Tartar barrack, with its two colossal lions — anything but lions did the men show themselves when the fighting came. 3 It has an exercise ground of sixteen acres, with a temple in the centre, and some fine trees scattered about in park-like fashion. The streets to the east and west — the streets of Love and Benevolence, as they are called — and the Curiosity street, are not for our pockets, which are reserved for Japan. Otherwise you may buy their lacquered ware and sandal-wood boxes, and carved ivory, enough to eat up a year's income, and leave you no better at the end than the experience of having found out how many things there are in the world that a man can do entirely without, and never feel the want of. Come with us, in the country, to the " Potter's Field," the execution ground where Yeh, the hideous pagan, cut 2 Mr. Wingrove Cooke gives an amusing illustration of this : — "The basis of this Canton Kugliih, which is a tongue and a litera- ture, consists," as he tells us, " of turning the r into the /, adding final vowi -Is to every word, and a constant use of " savoy " for " know," " talkce " for " speak," " piecey " for " piece," " number one " for " first class," hut especially and above all the continued employment of the word " pigeon." " figeon " means " buMness " in the most extended sense of the word. " Heaven pigeons bab got " means that "church service has commenced ; " "jos pigeon" means the " Buddhist ceremonial ; " " any pigeon Canton ? " means "have any operations taken place at Canton?" "That no boy pigeon, that coolie pigeon," is the form of your servant's remon- strance if asked to take a letter. It also means profit, advan- tage, observation. " Him wrong too much foolo, him no savoy, wely good pigeon have got," was the commentary of the Chinese pilot at the Fatsham Creek business. 3 A Chinese battle is as good as a farce. Mr. Scarth, a twelve years' resident in China, gives us a description. " Sonic of the little fights at Shanghai," he c ays, " were very amusing. One day, when a great many soldiers were out, 1 saw more of the combat than was pleasant. Having got into the line of fire, I was forced to take shelter behind a grave, the bullets striking the grave from each side every second. Why they came my way it was difficult to discover, lor they ought to liaie passed on the other side of a creek about twenty yards distant, to the people they were intended for; but to sec the dodging of the soldiers (the ' Braves,' see p. 120), then of the rebels, each trying to evade the other, was almost amusing. One fellow, ready primed and loaded, would rush up the side of a grave hillock, drop his match- lock on the top, and without taking aim, blaze away. There is no ramrod required for the shot they use, the bullet or bar of iron being merely dropped in upon the powder. There was a fine scene en one occasion when the Shanghai rebels made a sortie; one of the men was cut off by an Imperial skirmisher, who had his piece loaded. The rebel had no time to charge his, so he ran round and round a grave which was high enough to keep his enemy from shooting him when on the oppos.te side. Hare- hunting is nothing to it ; Bed Cap described parts of circles, and the Iioyahst was fast getting blown, when by sonic unlucky chance the rebel tripped and fell ! The soldier was at him in a moment, and, to make sure of his prize, put the muzzle of his matchlock to Bed Cap's head, fired, and took to his heels as fast as he could go! It is difficult to say who was most astonished when Mr. Bed Cap did exactly the same. The bullet that dropped down readily upon the powder, fell out as easily when the baircl was depressed. The rebel got off with a good singing of his long hair." 104 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. CHINESE MERCHANT. off 70,000 men's heads, several English being amongst them. 1 • "These crosses" — Mr. Wingrove Cooke Is speaking of the same place, — "are the instruments to which those victims were tied who were condemned to the special torture of being sliced to death." Upon one of these the wife of a rebel general was stretched, and, by Yeb's orders, her flesh was cut from her body. After the battle at Whampoa the rebel leader escaped, but his wife fell into the hands of Yeh : this was how he treated hit prisoners. Her breasts were first cut off, then her forehead was slashed, and the skin turned down over the face, then the fleshy parts of the body were sliced away. There are Englishmen yet alive who saw this done, but at what period of the butchery sensation ceased and death came to this poor innocent woman none can tell. The criminals were brought down in gangs, if they could walk, or carried down in chains, and shot out into the yard. The execu- tioners then arranged them in rows, giving them a blow behind which forced out the head and neck, and laid them convenient for the stroke. Then comes the Warrant of death ; it is a banner. As soon as it is waved in sight, without verbal order given, the work began. There was a rapid succession of dull crunching sounds — chop, chop, chop, chop. No second blow is ever dealt, for the dexterous manslayers are educated to their work, until they can with their heavy swords slice a great bulbous vegetable as thin as we slice a cucumber. Three seconds n head suffice. In oue minute five executioners clear off a hundred lives. It There is a street up to the north a mile long, with shops of every kind. On the left are streets leading up to private houses, which have no windows to the streets. It is all very quiet now ; to-morrow there is a holiday. Then the sam-shu houses (grog shops) are open, and the sing-song women come in all painted and brocaded ; and the gravest and the oldest hang strings of crackers outside their houses, and paint lanterns, and make noises. Then there is a screeching of song and a twanging of the stringed lutes, and a burning of paper, and occasional tipsiuess, and a riot where you see an English or American sailor. Dinner is being got up in all directions in a wonderfully ex- temporaneous manner ;~ and occasionally you may get takes rather longer for the assistants to cram the bodies into rough coffins, especially as you might see them cramming two into one shell, that they might embezzle the spare coffin. The heads were carried off in boxes; the saturated earth was of value as manure. 2 A Chinaman will bake n dinner for a dozen with a mere hand- ful of fuel. Their boiler is cone-shaped and large; say two feet in diameter by one foot deep; it covers the whole of the fire merely with a small portion of the lower part of the case, but tha CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. a glimpse of a pretty 'woman — a real Chinese lady (see p. 108) — modestly and becomingly dressed, her hair built up with false " -whisks," (as the hairdressers call them) underneath, made up into something like a shoe-shape, and butterflies on pins stuck in it, with flowers, and jewels, and combs ; nor is the use of ban- doline, or stiffening gum, foreign to the Chinese toilet ; the loose fitting silk tunic, of bright colour, from the throat to the ankles, and silk trousers, embroidered in gold or silver, with minute feet, complete the costume. The ladies of distinction are seldom permitted to stir abroad, except to visit their nearest relations; and, on these occasions, they are always carried in close chairs, and attended by their servants. The women of all ranks stay pretty much at home. The smallness of their feet, which renders them unable to walk to any considerable distance, makes their confinement less disagreeable. As soon as a girl comes into the world, they bind her tender feet with tight bandages, which are renewed as occasion requires, to prevent their growing. This custom prevails universally, the Tartar ladies residing in China only excepted, who appear to liave no inclination to conform to this fashion. This fashion was introduced into China by a great princess, who lived some ages ago. She was a lady of extraordinary beauty and virtue, and has obtained the reputation of a saint; but, it is reported, her feet re- sembled those of birds; ou which account she kept them always carefully wrapped up, and concealed even from the Emperor her husband. The ladies of the Court followed her example, which, of course, soon became general. The Chinese women never pare their nails, but suffer them to grow to the full length. This proves no impediment in embroidery, and other needle- work, in which they are constantly employed. These they finish with extraordinary neatness, as fully appears from some specimens of them brought to Europe. It is needless to remark, that the tale told of a great lady having bird's feet has no origin in truth. The evasion, however, shows that the Chinese are ashamed of a custom which has its origin in a puerile and dis- reputable jealousy. The dress of the women, among the lower orders, differs little from that of the men. A cotton frock, tawdry coloured trowsers, drawn tight by the calf of the leg, to show off an overgrown ankle, swathed round with party-coloured bandages, and a dwarfish foot or- namented with embroidery, are the principal articles in the female dress, which are decorated with artificial flowers, &c, according to the taste and circumstances of the wearer. Paints are used universally ; the teeth are tinged green and yellow : and the nails, among the higher classes, kept unpared till they often reach a length of 1 2 inches. Bamboo sheaths are used to preserve them. Owing to the preposterous use of small shoes, instead of walking, the Chinese lady hobbles with an awkward and painful motion, so that a Chinese beauty is what in other countries would be called a cripple. The laws of China prohibit the dressing of children hi silks and furs, the head cannot be covered till the individual be of a certain age. The assumption of the cap, like heat and flames enfold the rest. Water and rice are put at the bottom, with an open frame over them about half the deptli of pan ; on this are placed dishes of fish, fowl, or vegetables to boil. The whole is covered witli a wooden cover, in the centre of which is a round hole about four inches in diameter, and in this another dish is often placed, the contents of which are cooked by the steam. 105 that of the toga among the Romans, is accompanied with considerable ceremony. The person is informed that now he has assumed the dress of a man, that he ceases to be a boy, and that he ought, therefore, to dis- tinguish himself by his actions, as well as by the manly habit. When the British and French Embassies were at Tient-sin, the fair sex, they declare, was almost in- visible. It was by the rarest accident that a glimpse was caught of a woman, not belonging to the lowest class. Even these latter all cramped their feet — a practice not so general among the same class in the south. Some of the little girls they saw were pretty, and with their heads decorated with bright flowers, and their gaudy skirts fluttering in the wind, they looked piquant and graceful ; but as a rule, the women generally seen were hideous. This use of flowers seems to be universal. Another traveller describes the ladies of Fu-chu-fu, as being particularly fond of flowers — artificial as well as natural — for the decoration of their hair. The rustic cottage beauty employs the more large and gaudy, such as the red hibiscus, while the refined damsels prefer the jasmine, tuberose, and others of that description ; artificial flowers, however, are more in use than natural ones. But it is time for us to attend to business. We have with us our comprador — that is a party to whom we may be said to belong, individually, during our stay. He does all for us ; buys, sells, pays, hires servants, and arranges everything. He is our contractor ; every one is responsible to him, and he to us. So, armed with an interpreter and our comprador, we proceed to business, and call upon a merchant respecting certain arrangements for future commissariat supplies. In China, as in all other countries, there are not only very different classes of society, but there are also very different grades in the same position, fiom that of a mandarin to a merchant and a tradesman. Mr. Fortune, for example, who had to do with a truculent class of men to procure plants and seeds from the interior, declares that no dependence can be placed upon the veracity of the Chinese. It may seem uncharitable, he says, but such is the case. There is no doubt that, as a mass, the Chinese are eminently deceitful, distrustful, and non-veracious, and that even to one another ; but experience has shown, since the opening of the ports, that as there are many really learned and wise men among their philosophers, so there are many most civil, upright, and honourable men among their merchants. They constitute, how- ever, most decidedly the exception to the rule — not the rule itself. In this land of ceremonies, the farther you are to the left of your host, the more highly honoured is your position. There, seated in the presence of some dignitary of the land, who is supposed to have taken a place to the right, the following elaborate interchange of compliments takes place — the visitor having re- signed himself entirely to the good offices of the inter- preter, who, in all probability, throws them into some- what the following shape : — English gentleman, who has never seen his Chinese host before, expresses his pleasure at meeting him. Interpreter. — His Excellency has long looked forward to this day. Chinese Dignitary — I meet him now as an old friend, and request to know his honourable age. Int.— His Excellency has profitlessly passed years. 10G ALL ROUND THE WORLD. Chin. Dig. — The ears of his Excellency are long, and betoken great ability. Int. — Ah ! oh ! he is unworthy of the compliment. Chin. Dig — You have had an arduous journey. Int. — We deserved it. Chin. Dig.-,-! trust your honourable health is good? Int. — Relying on your happy auspices, his Excel- lency's health is still robust. Int. — The great Enrperor of your honourable nation, is he well? Chin. Dig. — He is well. The great Sovereign of your honourable nation, is she well? ' Int. — She is well. Do the troublesome pests (rebels) still infest the country? Chin. Dig. — The insects are being speedilv extermi- nated. The information we wished for was obtained, and the bargain made. On this occasion our accomplished host overwhelmed us with civilities, constructed pyra- mids of delicacies on our plates, and insisted on our drinking a quantity of hot wine, obliging us to turn over our glasses each time, as a security against heel- taps. Cha-ci's yamun was a far handsomer residence than any similar official abode at Canton. The inte- rior was invested with an air of comfort unusual in China, the walls nicely papered, and the floor carpeted. The whole establishment has been recently put into good order, and was altogether a fit residence for so elevated a functionary At last we " begged to take our leave," and began violently to " tsing-tsing," a ceremony which consists in clasping your hands before your breasts, and making a crouching baboon-like gesture. It is the equivalent of shaking hands, only one shakes one's own hands, instead of another person's, which may or not have its advantages ; in China the custom of the country is the preferable one. This is followed by a scene very like that which occurs on similar occasions among our- selves. Our host insists upon following us to our chairs. We remonstrate, " Stop, stop, stop, we are unworthy," say we. " What langtiage is this," he re- plies. " We really are unworthy," we reiterate. " You are in my house," he insists, and so we back to our chairs, perpetually imploring him not to trouble himself by accompanying us, which he vehemently resists, until at last, when we are in our chairs, he reluctantly con- sents to return, apologising to the last for being so rude as to leave us even then. It is just possible that, under the circumstances, his satisfaction at getting quit of us had as much to do with this " empressement" as his sense of politeness. Let us now look at the soldiers belonging to the Emperor — some of whom are on guard even in Canton, which we have taken from them. Let us regard their " Braves," or volunteers, we had better call them. The Chinese soldiers of the Imperial Guard have received the designation of " tigers," not, as might be imagined, from their courage and ferocity, but from their yellow tunics, upon which the head, eyes, and even part of the back of a tiger is represented, some- times with mane erect, as if to inspire greater awe into the beholder. The idea, like that of the grotesque standards and shields with terror-inspiring monsters of the Chinese, seems to us absurd, from the mode of their application ; but if we consider the matter more closely, we shall find that we have admitted the same kind of thing into our own civilisation, only modified into a form and system known to the initiated as the science of heraldry, and, in some instances, we have almost as quaint an attire in our own civil and military departments. The assimilation of the Chinese theology with that of Europe was not a dream on the part of the old missionary, Father Ricci. We have seen in modern times that M. Hue has found that, in Thibet, the Romanists have been anticipated both in doctrine and practice, and that many of the tenets of the Buddhists foreshadow the principles of Christianity. And so it is also of Chinese civilisation, which recent researches have shown to have far more analogy and closer rela- tions to European civilisation than people were at one time prepared to admit, and that even in its most absurd and ridiculous aspects ; for are not the dragon standards and tiger adorned shields found emblazoned in the heraldry of the West ? and are not the analogies of the red and blue mantles, conical caps with diverse coloured stripes, and other grotesque military and official insignia, to be met with in European costumes, in great hirsute head-gear, feather-topped helmets, cocked hats, and other strange attire ? It is not, after all, for us to laugh at the tigers of the Middle Empire, more especially when it is remembered that not many years back the command of " Rosto feroz al inimigo " was included in the Portuguese drill, and thereupon the soldiery showed their teeth, and looked ferocious at an imaginary enemy. The costume of the patriot rebel or bravo (brave of the Erench) of China, partakes moie of a civil cha- racter. It is that of the old Chinese or Ming dynasty, as distinguished from that of the Mantchu Tartar dynasty and soldiery. All those who joined the move- ment under Tian-tah, " Celestial virtue," also called Tai-ping-wai, the great pacificator, whence his follow- ers have been called Tae-pings, were obliged to cut olf their pig-tails, a practice borrowed from the Tartars, to allow their hair to gro>v long, and to replace the Tartar cloak by the old garment, opening in front, which was worn in the time of the Mings. It would be of little interest to our readers to narrate here the rise and progress of the Chinese insurrection, and the varying successes and failures of the patriots; still, it is a movement of vast importance, and as that of a purely Chinese party who are now in possession of Nankin — the ancient capital of their dynasty — against an usurping Mantchu-Tartar dynasty, seated at Pekin, it deserves much greater attention than it has hitherto received, and is pregnant with interest in connection with the proceedings of the Allies against the existing government, as well as to the future of China itself. Add to all this, albeit as yet much corrupted by imperfect knowledge and vain and empty tradi- tions and ceremonies, still, it seems certain that there is in connection vith the same movement the dawn of a more enlightened, moral, and religious condition for this vast and populous empire. When Tai-ping had obtained possession of Naukiii, he is described as having with him four kings, his colleagues ; Tung-wang, king of the east, a little spare man, about thirty -five years of age, and pitted with smallpox; Hwang, king of the west, young, active, and brave, the Achille3 of this pleiad of kings, but since dead ; Nan-wang, king of the south, a man of letters; and Pay-wang, king of the north, young, and of great strength and intrepidity > the hero of the in- surrection. Such were the five chiefs whose army now acted in concert, and they were aided and abetted by CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. • great bomber of inferior officers. Two ministers are also deserving of mention, as they may play an impor- tant part, should the Chinese party be successful, and carry the day against the Mantchu Tartars. One is a little sharp, clever personage, Fung-y-chang, by name; the other is thin, ugly, and bony, but a highly educated man, and the author, it is supposed, of most of the proclamations issued by the insurgents ; this is the person who is believed to be a Chang si, or Protestant, and a member of the " Chinese Union," if not an actual disciple of GutzlafF's. His name is Chi-ta-kai. But soldiers, Tartars, ladies, mandarins, and mer- chants, and people making holiday in Canton — a bastard population between that of Wapping and tho worst part of Liverpool — are not the Chinese people. We must tsacli you something about them before we go further along the coast, or else we shall always be on the outside of things. We will therefore tell you a story, which being true, will give you a complete insight into the habits and manners of that portion of the Chinese people who are not on the seaboard. V.— THE FIRST OF THE MINGS Possibly our readers, by lending their attention to a short and interesting narrative, may be the better enabled to learn sufficient of the modern history of the Chinese dynasties, and some special peculiarities of Chinese religious and political systems, to give them a useful insight, in an agreeable manner, into a subject more than usually confused and unintelligible, such as Chinese history is in general. The story we are about to tell them of the elevation of Hung-woo, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, is translated, and of course abridged, from the Hungwoo-Tsuen-Chuen, in ten small volumes, itself a partial abridgment of the history of the Ming emperors, in sixty-eight volumes ; and this abridgment is regarded not as a rjmance, but as an historical text book. 1 It happsnei in the 13th century of our era, that the M >mrpls, a tribe of wretched barbarians living on the frontiers of Siberia, thought it a very hard thing that they should pass all their days under snow and ice, while other beings, made of the same flesh and blood, revelled in all the luxuries of the South. They, therefore, held a council, in which it was resolved to follow in its winter flight the wild goose, a bird, in their opinion, more sagacious than stupid. Home may be sweet, but no oue likes to starve in it : nor could anv fatigues or perils of the way equal what they had to suffer in their native steppes, — a day's hard labour in the snow for the chance of half a day's food. There- fore, Living once bidden farewell to the icy mountains, and found their way, through snows knee deep, to a more genial region, all traces of their former habitations were obliterated, and they buried the remembrance of their tents in oblivion, until nearly a century after- wards the Chiuese reminded them of their lost comforts, and sent them back, attended by a military escort. How this happened we shall now relate. Central Asia is an immense plateau, where little grows but stunted grass — : whcre sand is plentiful, and shining pebbles which, (according to accounts of Kus- 1 There is another text-book : " The Tai-tien," by an emperor of tho Ming dynasty, iu 22,897 chapters, and nearly that num- ber of volumes. 107 sian embassies) all but lapidaries mistake for diamonds, abound. Through this country the Mongols 2 pushed their way, fighting with tribe after tribe, and aggre- gating them under their "standards." The further they advanced, the greater grew their numbers; and they increased by degrees like a rolling snowball, imperceptibly larger and larger, till men beheld them in the beginning of the thirteenth centuiy a complete avalauche, which at last came plunging down upon the frontiers of the Kin empire — where these wanderers were not only requested not to move any further, but even ordered to pay tribute for being allowed to dwell where they were in safety. Having no alternative, they yielded to circumstances — and be- came, in the language of the Kin court, " humble vassals, most reverentially obedient, like the kings of the - The Mongol tribes generally are a stout, squat, swnrtliy, ill- favoured race of men, having high and broad shoulders, short, broad noses, pointed and prominent chins, long teeth distant from each other,— eyes black, elliptical, and unsteady,— thick short necks, extremities bony and nervous, muscular thighs, but short legs, with a stature nearly or quite equal to the European. They are nomadic in their habits, and subsist on animal food, derived chiefly from their flocks and herds. They have a written language, but their literature is limited and mostly religious ; the same language is spoken by all the tribes, with slight variations, and only a small admixture of foreign words. Most of the accounts Europeans possess of their origin, their wars, and their habits, were written by foreigners living or travelling among thcin ; hut they themselves, as Ji'Culioch remarks, know as little of these things as rats or marmots do of their descent. The fate of the vast swarms of this race which have descended from the table lands of Central A sin, and overrun the plains of India, China, Syria, Kgypt, and Eastern Europe in different ages, and the rise and fall of the gigantic empire they themselves erected under tho Genghis in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, are among the most remarkable episodes in the world's history. They have always maintained the same character in their native wilds, and tlieir conquests have been exterminations rather than subjugations. The number of petty tribes and families of this race within the limits of the Chinese empire is not known. In Inner Mongolia, there are twenty-four aimaks, or tribes, arranged undor six ehalkans. In Outer Mongolia, the Kalkas are governed by four khans. The Ortous, Tsakhars, Eleuths, and Kortchin, are tho largest tribes next to the Kalkas. The Tourgoths, Horsoits, Choros, and Khoits, are among the tribes dwelling in Koko-nor. In 111, the Mongols are mixed up with and subordinate to tribes of Turkish origin ; the former are mostly Buddhists, while the latter are bigoted Muhammadiins. According to Abulgazi Bayadur Khan, who wag himself a descendant of Zinghis Khan, commonly tailed Genghis, Alanza Khan, who was the sixth in descent from Japhet, had twin sons, one calhd Tatar, from whan descended the Tartars, and the other Munge, " the sorrowful or morose," whence the Moguls or Mongols, both by corruption. (RiUoiie Genealogique des Tatars traduite du manusrrit Tatare d'Abulgazi Bayadur Khan. Fo. Leiden, 1726, p. 23 et srq.) In our own times the Mongolians of the East present some marked features of distinction from those of the West. The one live in towns and fixed dwellings, the others are nomades. They differ also in their language and religion, and in their habits, manners, dress, and appiarance. The Mongols proptr arc divided into three great nations; the Tshakar, Khalkhas, and Suniiit, the Western Mongols into Kalinuks, Bashkirs, Buriats, and other roving tribes. Besides the twenty-four, or, according to some, twenty-six, Aimaks in the former, with their hereditury princes and four Great Khans, there are numerous tribes of greater or less power and importance, as above noticed, but the relations of which have not been accurately determined. The best authorities, Abulgazi, leyden in the Memoirs of Baber, Pallas, Klaproth, Ritter in the "Erdkinde von Asien," and Ilulhnan, " Gesichte des Mongolen," are all agreed, however— notwithstand- ing the confusion that has so long prevailed with regard to the Turkish and Tartar and the Mongolian races — as to these primary distinctions, more especially as regards the Mongolians, as distinguished from the other Turanian races, whether Tungusian, Hyperborean, Chinese or Thibetian. 108 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. West." As for these Kin, they had in times of yore been called Nioutchi, and lived on the banks of the Black Dragon rivers (UiMung Keang), having from similar motives, and in a similar mauner with the Mongols, removed from the South. There they first overthrew the Ketaus, a Tartar horde, who had for many years dictated laws to China ; but were surprised that their less civilised brethren wished to imitate their example. The Chinese at first rejoiced at their doughty deeds, and sent them presents and exhortations to per- severe; but the Kin, without further dispute, took possession of all the territory to the north of Hwang- ho, and the river Hwoe, and then made arrangements with the Ketaus, that, to prevent further fighting, each should keep as much of the Chinese territory as they could defend. Thus was one-third of China, comprising most of the northern provinces, Hoopih, Shan-tung, Shansi, Shen-si, Honan, all under the rule of barbarians. They had been in quiet possession of these fertile tracts for about a century, and had given up the idea of ceding them to anybody, for they lived upon their manors — as comfortably as did the Mantchous, until within the last ten years — when lo ! the Mongols put in a word, to claim an equal right to the booty. At that time the terrible Genghis was the Mongol chief, and as this hero thought proper to claim the whole globe as his rightful possession by the decrees of heaven, he naturally included also the Kin monarchy. The veterans of the desert appeared — and within a few years all northern China lay prostrate before them. The Chinese lived at that time under a line of princes, who by their ill-success against the Kin had lost all courage and influence. Availing themselves of this fine opportunity for punishing their hated enemies, they concluded an alliance with the Mongols, expecting, when the common enemy was vanquished, to share the spoil. But Genghis had no such intention — his was the lion's share. The Chinese, by way of making sure, took possession of the most important fortresses to the south of the Yellow River. This, though patriotic on their part, did not suit the disposition of the Mongols, who regarded it as an act of treachery. The Tartars declared war, and the struggle lasted from 1234 to 1279; when it terminated in the submission of the Chinese toKublai (orKoubilai) Khan as their emperor. 1 1 It may not be uninteresting here to give Marco Polo's account of Kublai Khan and his style of warfare. "A certain chief, named Nayan, who, although only thirty years of age, was uncle to Kublai, had succeeded to the dominion of many cities and pro- vinces, which enabled him to bring into the field an army of ■100,000 horse. His predecessors, however, had been vassals of the great Khan. Actuated by youthful vanity, upon finding himself at the head of so great a force, he formed, in the year 1286, the design of throwing oft' his allegiance, and usurping the sovereignty. With this view, he privately dispatched messengers to Kaidu, another powerful chief whose territories lay towards the greater Tartary (l'urkistan), and who, although a nephew of the (Jrand Khan, was in rebellion against him. As soon as Kublai had received notice of this, he collected 360,000 horse, and 100,000 foot, consisting of those individuals who were usually about his person, and principally his falconers and domestic ser- vants (he must have had a great many). But this was not his whole army ; many thousand Mongols, scattered throughout the provinces, were not only maintained from the pay they received from thc_ imperial treasury, but also from the cattle and their milk. Kublai reached within twenty-five days the camp of his enemy; he called his astrologers to ascertain," by virtue of their art, and to declare in presence of their whole army, to which side victory would incline. They ascended the hill with alacrity which separated them from their enemy, who was negligently posted. In front of each battalion of horse were placed 500 infantry. The Mongols had thus arrived at the goal of their wishes; and they now commenced sleeping on their laurels, as the Mantchus have done, whilst they very rapaciously appropriated to themselves the hard-earned possessions of the Chinese. These at first, seeing no alternative, quietly submitted ; but, in course of time, Chinese eyes, though small, being piercing, they saw that their masters, the Mongols, being quite out of their element, were getting stupid and weary, and, one generation after another, effeminate. They therefore began to part with their chattels not without grumbling; and imagining that the Mongols of their day, like the "men of the eight standards" at present, were not likely again to fight over the battles of their ancestors, watched for an opportunity to show how much they despised their insolent lords. CHINESE LADY. Eight Mongol emperors had sat upon the throne, and the last of the race, Toh.wan Temur, or Shun-te, a boy of thirteen, now ascended it. He was veiy timid, and devoid of talent ; women reigned at court ; ministers did as they pleased ; and eunuchs arranged and de- ranged everything. But all would not go right — omens, earthquakes, a rain of bloody hail, and sundry other potents of no good succeeded each other. Then armed with short lances and swords, who, whenever the cavalry made a show of flight, were practised to mount behind their riders, and accompany them, alighting again when they returned to the charge, and killing with their lances the horses of the enemy. As soon as the battle was arranged, an infinite number of wind instruments of various kinds were sounded, and those were succeeded by songs, according to the custom of the Tartais before they engage in fight. The order for fighting was given ; a bloody conflict began ; a cloud of arrows poured down on every side, and then the hostile parties engaged in close combat, witli lances, swords, and maces shod with iron. Nayan's forces were devoted to their master, and rather chose to meet death than to turn their back upon the enemy. Nayan was made prisoner, and shaken between two carpets until the spirit had departed from him. The motive for this peculiar sentence being, that the nun and the air should not witness the shedding of the blood of one who belonged to the imperial family. The troops which sur- vived swore allegiance to Kublai. After this signal victory ho returned to Kambalu." CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 109 again some prince of the blood, thinking he had a greater right to the royal diadem, conspired and even stormed the palace. But these attempts failed. The empress daughter, an accomplice, forfeited her life ; and the boy-emperor preferring, like all boys, play to busi- ness, left everything to his eunuchs. Scarcely had he entered his 17th year, having taken one of his father's widows to wife, and forced the imperial princesses into his harem (says this veracious history,) when insurgents, 1 in four different places, without being connected with each other, simulta- neously proclaimed their intention to subvert the reigning dynasty. Two of these arose in the pro- vince of Kwaugtung ; but, as this was at a very great distance from the capital, (as far, in fact, as from Edin- burgh to Madrid,) the Emperor cared as little about it as the late Taou-kwang used. Matters were, however, discussed in council, and one amongst the ministers declared, that these revolts ought to be ascribed to the avarice of the Mongol officers, who burdened the un- happy people beyond endurance. This was a homely truth the young prince could not digest. At a public audience, he therefore addressed his ministers, saying, " I have been five years on the throne, and perceive that the government is in a state of confusion, so that I am restless day and night, and can never enjoy myself. I ask, my lords, whether you cannot prepare for me any satisfactory pastime J" Oneof thosepresent, called Sat-un, speedily answered, ,; Let us enjoy life, carouse and drink, and you may make sure of real mirth." But another statesman present, advised the emperor to put to death the insidious counsellor, and quoted several instances where love of pleasure had accelerated the ruin of princes. This being undeniable, the prince wished to bestow valuable presents on the speaker ; but he re- fused them all, saying, that his only reward was to do his duty. Greatly content with the issue of his admo- nition, the faithful minister rejoiced in the unenviable fall of his enemy, when some unforeseen circumstances deranged the whole plan. A creature of Sat-un, the depraved courtier, had on the same day collected a company of most beautiful play-actresses, and was just wending his way towards the palace, when he met Sat-un, with clouded brow and a look bespeaking dis- tress of mind. He immediately engaged himself to settle the subject of his master's uneasiness, went ur.det the windows of the harem, and presented to the asto- nished queens his cortrge. From this moment, the prince's mind was changed ; and as soon as he had given audience, he immediately repaired to the inner apartment, and there spent day and night in witnessing plays. 1 " Itobbers," says Dr. Newman, in his " Translation of the History of the Chinese Pirates," " are unsuccessful conquerors. If the founder of the Ming dynasty had failed in his rebellion against the Mongols, history would have called him a robber ; and if auy one of the various robber chiefs who in the course of the two last centuries made war aguinst the reigning Mantchu had over- thrown the governmeutof the foreigners, the official historiographers of the ' Middle Empire ' would have called him the far-famed illus- trious elder father of the new dynasty. The fruit of labour is too often taken out of their hands, justice sold for money, and nothing is safe from their rapacious and luxurious masters. People arise to oppose and act according to the philosophical principles of unman society, without any clear idea about them. Kobbers and Pirates are, in fact, the opposition party in the despotical empires of the East ; and their history is far more interesting than that of the reigning despot." On a certain night he fell weary on his couch, and then dreamt that wasps and ants filled the harem. Having ordered his attendants to sweep the hall, there started from the south a man dressed in purple, who bore on his left shoulder the sign of the sun, and on his right the moon ; in his hand he held a besom, and soon swept the whole clear. The emperor hastily asked, " Who are you 1" The stranger did not answer, but drew his sword, and made towards the emperor, who wishing to avoid him, endeavoured to run out of the palace, the door of which the man clad in purple imme- diately closed. The alarmed monarch called aloud for the assistance of his servants, and then awoke. This dream, as afterwards appeared, had reference to his successor. His majesty was just relating the curious vision to his dear spouse, when on a sudden a tremendous crash, resembling a clap of thunder, was heard. The soothsayers were at the moment inter- preting what the said dream might signify, and all as one man ran to ascertain the cause of this noise. They found that a wing of the palace had fallen in, and that, under it, was to be seen a deep cavern, from whence rose a black vapour. Anxious to ascertain what this might lead to, the emperor caused a criminal, under sentence of death, to be let down, who brought up a stone tablet, upon which, in the obscure language of a Sybil, a sudden revolution coming from the south-west, and the expulsion of the Mongols, were foretold. Nobody, however, would understand the meaning of it this way; but the courtiers suggested it might be necessary to change the name of the reign, as that would, at once, settle the matter. In the meanwhile the chasm had closed, and the infatuated monarch gave himself up to the superstitious rites of Buddhist priests, and the most infamous debaucheries. Inaccessible to all but the companions of his vices, the government of so vast an empire was entirely neglected by him, and whilst robbers traversed the land with impunity, the most dreadful scourges from on high afflicted the suffering nation. All was ripe for revolt; a leader only was wanting. Let us leave the palace for a while, and descend to a temple. In Keaug-su there is a place called Tun- yung-fu, and in its neighbourhood a small town named Ohung-le-tung-Keang. Close to this is a romantic temple, where a number of fat Buddhist priests enjoyed their indolent life. One cold winter's day the abbot assembled all his brethren, and told them that he wished to spend the evening in contemplation, and therefore must not be disturbed. He suddenly found himself transported to the elysium of all the idols he worshipped, and there was open court held. The general conversation of the gods referred to the troubles which then disturbed the empire, and they were unanimously of opinion that a sage ou^ht to be born in order to set matters to rights ; but thought it best that some worthy of a former glorious age should again be born of a virtuous woman. But those good kings of old, having in the interval been metamorphosed into stars, 3 they did not relish the proposed change as far as * " It is a common opinion among the Chinese," says a writer in the Missionary Herald, 1852, "that the regions of the dead are placed under the government of a single individual, who acts as criminal judge, and punishes the soul according to its sins in this life. For this purpose he is said to have eighteen places of punishment, each varying in intensity according to the degree of the guilt of those who are consigned to them. The Chinese divide the universe into three divisions, the first including the 110 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. they "were concerned. Their silence availed to hinder all the other constellations from accepting the proffered honour, until two little prying stars (of which we do not know exactly the names in English, but they keep their court somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Great Bear), after much wriggling and coyness, took the Sun and Moon gently in their hands, and putting them together, agreed that the name of the new dynasty should be Ming — " Brightness " (formed by the two Chinese characters representing the Sun and Moon being united) and that one of the luminaries should become emperor and the other his consort, (that is, the male andfemale principles of thoDualism, Yin and Yang, should rule the world in righteousness). 1 This being lower regions, the second the present world, find the third the upper regions, or the dwelling-place of the gods celestial. The inhabitants of the first are called kwuy, 'spirits' or * ghosts,' and those of the third are called shin, 'gods.' In respect to the hwuy, it is supposed that some descend in the scale of animal existence, and are born brutes ; some continue in a separate state, in the form of hungry and famishing ghosts; some are again born in a human form ; while few rise in the scale of being and become 'gods.' Hence the practice of presenting offerings of food to the dead, which prevails so universally among the Chinese. This is done for the benefit of the ' spirits' of the dead, and to prevent thorn from doing injury to the living. " According to the Chinese, the three souls and seven spirits of each individual ore uncreated; and though separated from the body at death, they may again be collected, and constitute another person, when they will lose all consciousness of a former life. Thus the Chinese acknowledge no Creator as the author of their existence; and, consequently, they recognise no obligation or duties to such a Being." 1 This is the great metaphysical mystery of the Chinese religion First, they imag iue matter — the first material principle — this they call tai-kih, and by the operation of this upon itself (!) it evolves the dual powers, Yin and Yang. Tai-keih is described as "the first link in the chain of causes" — the extreme limit — the root and spring of all principle and existence, but without power, wisdom, justice, or goodness. The motion of Tai-keih generates (they say I a masculine power, Yani (" light and perfection ") ; the rest of Tai-keih originates a feminine power, Yin (" darkness or imperfection'). From these two are derived 4 Seang, or images of things both physical and moral. These 4 Seang multiplied by 2 produce 8 Kwa, or lineal diagrams (!) of Fohi; and these, in their ever-varying existence, are the images, symbols, or emblems of all existences, states, characters, and circumstances. The just proportions of Yin and Yang produce harmony in the universe and virtue in the human system : excess in either produces discord. The alternating circulation of motion and rest produce Yih, " change." This motion and rest must have a Le, " principle of oraer," by which they move and rest. Beyond Tai-keih there is nothing: one writer culls it "the utmost limit in the midst of illimitubleness," by which he was believed to express "that in the mid^t of nonentity there existed an infinite Le " (!). The Le is called illimitable by its being impossible to represent it by any figure "because it was antecedent to nothingness" (!), and further, " subject to existences, as it always has being " (!). Yang is explained to mean the centre or middle— benevolence and excitement— and by these the Tai-keih operates : covetousness, righteousness, and stillness constitute Yin, and by these the sub- stance of the Tae-kcih is established. These six are blended, and form one complete substance or body, but rest is always chief lord ; and man is by these established ; and heaven, earth, sun, moon, and the seasons : also demons and gods are thus regulated by a power which they cannot oppose. The good man, by caution, and care, and fear, cultivates respect for these principles of nature : the bad man, by carelessness, depravity, and extravagance, opposes them, and is involved in calamity. There is another principle opposite to Le, " cause," viz., Ke, the grosser substances of existence, — matter as "form and substance." Two singular expressions of Chinese metaphysics may be quoted. "In the J ~ang principle, hardness and benevo- lence go together. In the Yin principle, softness and righteous- mss are conjoined," and " Heaven, earth, and man have each a Tae-keih ;— but the three Keih are really only one Tae-keih." This is from the 3rd book of the Yih-kiug, containing the notified, they agreed to take, in the ninth month of the next year, their departure to the earth. The grand question was now to find out a family worthy to bring this new sovereign into the world. This caused amazing trouble ; since only to sterling virtue of several generations' endurance would the honour be awarded. In the meanwhile the entranced priest was sent about his business ; and found, on awakening, that he was lying on a hard cold couch, in a room very different from the blissful regions which he had just left. Being, however, of a very inquisitive cast of mind, he regretted not having inquired the names of the people who were to produce the future august personages, and determined, in order to get at the secret at once, to transport himself by rigid abstraction (which is done by looking steadily at one's navel) 2 to the idols' court. There he was told that heaven's decrees must not be betrayed, and that he must wait with patience until they were executed. Time sped on, and the old abbot had nearly forgotten the vision, when on a sudden he was informed that the true "heaven's son" had now come. Anxiously he looked out at the foot of the hill, near to which he was standing, to perceive this wonderful personage ; when lo ! to his disappointment, he saw a poor vagrant- looking man, with his pregnant wife, who told him, in a few words, that he had been driven from his house by Mongols, and was seeking a relative, hoping to earn with him a livelihood by spinning. " Can this be the ' heaven's sou V " said the abbot to himself, doubtingly. His heart sank, and he retained scarcely courage enough to ask the hopeless stranger, who could move no farther, to take up his abode in the neighbouring village. This man's name was Choo Shechin, and the father of the hero of our story — the founder of the Ming dynasty. On the following day the old friar received from a stranger, who immediately afterwards disappeared, a pill to facilitate the deliveiy of the said lady. When her hour was come, the villagers heard the music of the spheres, the very birds fluttered about rejoicing, and a brilliant halo, proceeding from the sun, was reflected by the clouds. Under all these phenomena the child came into the world ; and the bolus, when Doctrine of Changes, and the Dual Powers of Nature, 'the author of The Vestiges of Creation must here acknowledge himself defeated. This is the philosophy that all the wise men of old travelled to the East to learn, and this is an undoubted fragmentary tradition of the most ancient metaphysical system in the world. Alas for human intellect, lelt to itselt ! All that we learn from the Chinese metaphysicians is, that, from two nothings, put into a bag by nobody, and left to lie quiet, something is generated, which, by fermentation, produces some- lodu; and this somebody, by dividing itself, becomes two contraries, that act upon each other anddevelope something; out of which gradually emanates everything, 2 The Gnostics, who in the second and third centuries blended with the sublime and pure faith of Christ many wondrous but obscure tenets, derived from oriental philosophy, and even from the religion of Zoroaster, concerning the eternity of matter, the existence of two principles, and the mysterious hierarchy of the invisible world, adopted this nonsensical notion among others. They believed that the divine spirit of the world, by long con- templation, would strike " upon them, on the stomach !" It would not be out of place to note here, that the Taou (rationalist) and Buddha priests use mesmerism and animal magnetism largely and mischievously in their rites; and that the Chinese priists, who combine the idolatry of both sects with the cold, sentimental philosophy of Confucius, are also conversant not only with much of the "magic" of the ancient "fire- worshippers," but also those tricks and secrets by which the piie*thood of the Pagans exercised such influence over the worshippers of their cods. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. eaten by his mother, filled the room with the sweetest perfume. His father then went out bathing; and there floated down the river, as very seldom happens, a splendid piece of red satin, of which he immediately made a dress for the babe. He was yet a puling infant when his father presented him before the idols, where he received the name of Choo Yuen- hung. Poverty obliged the father to leave the place with his three elder children, and hire himself as a common labourer, whilst Choo Yuen-hung, who frequently played about in the temple, was ap- pointed a cowboy. When rambling with the other boys over hill and dale, they proposed to play the emperor, and for this purpose raised a mound of earth to represent the throne. All the urchins surrounded it, but none of them dared to personify the monarch, until Hung- woo, the name by which we shall in future call him, ascended it, and with a gracious and grave air received the homage of his playfellows. This being frequently repeated, gave him a great name amongst those little fellows ; and he had, moreover, the knack of making his cows march in a row, like soldiers, in token of his future generalship. In one of these frolics he killed a calf, took some brushwood, roasted the flesh, and feasted his companions. His master, dis- covering the trick, by the treason of one of his con- federates, turned him out of doors; and the future emperor of China, like the great Napoleon in his youth at Paris, was hard put to it for a dinner. After several miracles performed in his favour to no pur|x>se, he was admitted a priest, aud appointed scullery-boy to the temple, in which resided the old abbot who first saw the heavenly vision respecting him. Hung-woo finally obtained employ with his mother's brother, his father being dead. It was summer, and our hero having never troubled himself much about books, was now for the first time, in his eighteenth year, sent to school. 1 Here he had to suffer very much town, blows, ground. Ill An unfortunate quarrel on the road led to and their pntigonist was laid lifeless on the This was i ather a ticklish affair ; 3 and, meet- and bought a plum, which they gave the priest. He bowing, thanked them, and turning to the crowd said, ' I do not wish to be stingy, and request you; my friends, to partake with me of this delicious plum.' One of them replied, '.Now vou have it, why do you not eat it yourself?' ' I want only the "stone to plant,' said he, eatmg it up at a munch. When eaten, he held the stone in Ins hand, and taking a spade off his shoulder, dug a hole in the ground several inches deep, into which ho put it, and covered it with earth. Then, turning to the market-pcople, he procured some broth, with which he watered and fertilized it : and others, wish- ing to see what would turn up, brought him boiling dregs from shops near by, which he poured upon the hole just du«\ Every one's eyes being fixed upon the spot, they saw a crooked shoot issuing forth, which gradually increased till it became a tree having branches and leaves; flowers and then fruit succeeded, large and very fragrant, which covered the tree, a he priest then approved the tree, plucked the fruit, and gave the be- holders ; and when all were consumed he felled the tree with a colter-chopping for a good while, until at last, having cut it off, lie shouldered the foliage in an easy manner, and leisurely walked away. •'When first the priest began to perform his magic arts, the villager was also among the crowd, with outstretched neek and gazing eyes, and completely forgot his own business. When the priest hud gone, he besan to lo.ik into his wagon, and lo! it was empty of plums; and for the first time he perceived that what had just been distributed were all iiis own goods. Moreover, looking narrowly about his wagon he saw that the dashboard was gone, having just been cut off .with a chisel. Much excited and incensed, he ran after him, and as lie turned the corner of the wall, he saw the board thrown down beneath the hedge, it being that with which the plum-tree was felled. Nobody knew where the priest had gone, and all the market folks laughed heartily." Lynch Law is not unknown in China. Here are two instances ■ One large village, not far from the Great Wall, was celebrated for its professional gamblers. One day, the chief of a considerable family, who himself was in the habit of playing, made up his mind to inform the village. He therefore invited the principal inhabitants to a banquet, and, towards the end of the repast, he '•ose to address his guests, made some observations on _ the e\il , consequences of gambling, and proposed to them to ioin in associa- from hunger, and a compassionate damsel amicably tion for the extirpation of this vice from their village. The supplied him with cakes. He was delightfully en- I proposal was at first received with astonishment ; but finally, He was del: gaged in eating them, when his uncle summoned him to wheel a barrow, loaded with plums, 3 to the nearest 1 In China, when a lad commences his studies, an impressive ceremony takes place, or did formerly, for it seems to have fallen into desuetude. The father leads his son to the teacher, who kneels down before the name or title of some one or other of the ancient sages, and supplicates their blessing upon his pupil ; after which, seating himself, he receives the homage and petition of the lad to guide him in his lessons. A present is expected to accompany this introduction to literary pursuits. The furniture of the school merely consists of a desk and a stool for each pupil, and an elevated seat for the master. Upon each desk are imple- ments for writing, and a few books. In one corner is placed a tablet or an inscription on the wall, dedicated to Confucius and the God of Letters; the sage is called the Teacher and Pattern for All Ages, and incense is constantly burned in honour of thein both. 8 The Liai Chat, a Chinese story-book, in sixteen volumes, fur- nishes a story illustrative of the selling of plums at market, and will serve to give an idea of Chinese tales in general : — " A villager was once selling plums in the market, which were rather delicious and fragrant, and high in price; and there was a Tau. priest, clad in ragged garments of coarse cotton, begging before his wagon. The villager scolded him, but he would not go off; whereupon, becoming angry, he reviled and hooted at him. The priest said, 'The wagon contains many hundred plums, and 1 have only begged one of them, which, for you, respected sir, would certainly be no great loss; why then are you so angry?' The spectators advised to give him a poor plum and send him away, but the villager would not consent. The workmen in the market, disliking the noise and clamour, furnished a few coppers after a serious consultation, it was adopted. An act was dra\vn up and signed by all the associates, in which I hey bound them- selves, not only to abstain from playing, but to watch the other inhabitants, and seize upon all gamblers taken in the fact, who should be ifnmediately carried before the tribunal, to be punished according to the rigor of the laws. The existence of the society was made known in the village, with the warning that it was resolute and ready for action. Some days ofterwurds, three de- termined gamblers were arrested with the cards in their hands, taken before the tribunals, beaten, and fined. The measure was efficacious in putting down gambling. Not far from the place where the anti-gambling society had flourished, there arose a much more redoubtable association. This part of the country is inhabited by a population partially Chinese, partially Mongol, and is intersected by mountains, valleys and steppes. The villages scattered amongst them have not been considered of sufficient importance by the government to have mandarins placed in them. Deprived of this restraint of authority, this wild region had become the resort of many bands of robbers and miscreants, who exercised their trade with impunity throughout the neighbourhood both by day and night. They pillaged crops and flocks, laying wait for travellers in the defiles of the mountains, pitilessly stripping them of all their property, and afterwards put them to death ; some- times they went so far as to attack a village and lay it waste. The Mandarins, though asked for assistance, dared not attempt to engage in a conflict with an army of banditti. That which the Mandarins dared not attempt, a simple villager undertook and accomplished. " Since the Mandarins cither cannot or will not aid us, let us," said he, " protect ourselves, and form a Honi." The honis, a society of the Chinese (like our own), are always inaugurated with a feast. Regardless of expense, the villagers killed an old bullock, and sent letters of invitation to the villagers all round. The society was entitled " The Old Bull." The regu- lations were brief and simple. The members were to enrol in 112 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. TARTAR CAVALRY (CHINESE TARTAR ARMi). ing with a cumber of lusty fellows, who like himself had nothing to lo>-e, and all to gain, they united to take their chance of the latter together. From this moment dates the greatness of Hung-woo. Being obliged to enter into the house of one of the above idlers on account of the heavy rain, the clowns told him that the true Heaven's Son having been, by all accounts, born somewhere in the neighbourhood, they had gone out that morning in search of him, since a Taou priest had told them they would meet him on the road; but "we have waited," said they, " all the day, and have not met him." When Hung-woo had gone to bed, all these six boon companions said to each other, " This man really answers the description given to us." They many people as possible in their ranks. Many bound themselves to be always ready to assist in the capture of any robber, great or small, and cut oH his head at once, or arrest, without form of trial, or reference to the worth of the article 9tolen. If the tribunals interfered, the whole society was responsible for every member, and collectively for all heads they cut off. The energy and unity of purpose with which the society set to work soon told, and the heads of robbers fell with amazing and awful rapidity. One night they nil assembled and captured the Rob- bers' Nest, n notorious village at the bottom of a mountain gorge. The Society of the Old Bull surrounded it on all sides, set fire to the houses, and massacred the inhabitants, old and young. The effect of this summary proceeding was the extermi- nation of brigandage throughout the whole district, to such an extent that the people would pass any article lying in the road without venturing to touch it. The relatives of the victims com- plained to the tribunals, and the Society presented themselves, according to their custom, in a body, to meet the charge of assassination. The trial was carried to the court of Pekin, which rewarded and applauded the society, but directed that for the future they should be enrolled in the public service as "Tai-ping- che," or the "Agency for Public Peace." were about to acknowledge him their leader, when the villagers surrounded the house with cries of " Fire ! " All hastened to a back room, where the flames had broken out, — but how great was their astonishment to perceive that a streak of red light encircled the adven- turer ; who was, however, fast asleep, and unconscious of the distinction. Hung-woo, in the morning, having sold his plums at the market, pocketed the money, and went in search of new adventures. The first thing he fell in with was a gymnastic hall, where some athletic prize-fighters challenged him to show his strength. Some soldiers happening to pass, and observing that the company had come to blows, attempted to seize the offenders. These, however, took to flight, and ran to a temple, which Hung-woo burnt to the ground. This temple he rebuilt magnificently when emperor. On Hung-woo's return to his uncle's house, he met numbers of brave men on the road side, who, having heard of his feats, followed withont hesitation. At that period large bands of robbers traversed the land, and whenever there was a resolute man, it was in his power soon to become a powerful chief. Kwang Heang, his uncle, who had been denounced to government for the murder of a policeman, considered it impossible to elude justice, and therefore declared himself, on the strength of his nephew's cortege, king — a most wonderful eleva- tion. As a proof, moreover, of his gratitude, he ap- pointed Hung-woo his generalissimo, and married him to his foster daughter, the same who had previously supplied the young adventurer with cakes when he was starving at school. As these freebooters had nothing to depend upon but what they took by violence, they soon became formidable irrthe neighbourhood. Many industrious peasants naturally thought that it was in vain to plough the fields whilst others ate the fruits vol. r, CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. thereof, and therefore joined the robbers. As soon, however, as the forces amounted to several thousands, Hung-woo issued strict orders that no Chinese should be molested on any account, and that their war should be solely with the Mongols. This was, however, by no means a regulation similar to those which are put on record at the governor's office at Canton — no such thing, — whosoever offended against the law lost his head without mercy or reprieve. This order being rigorously executed, added respectability to Hung-woo's position. He appeared no longer as an adventurer, but under the honourable appellation of patriot. The men most famous for bravery flocked in crowds to his standard ; and showing themselves in battle array before a fortress, of which the Commander was a Chinese, they suggested to him that to serve a vicious foreign prince was not consistent with the duty of a friend to his country, and that he ought there- fore to come over to them. Persuasion availed in this instance more than arms ; and the same officer, who held a commission from the Mongols, became afterwards one of the most ardent champions of the liberties of the Chinese. The soldiers of his army are said to have been clad in a most brilliant armour, which enclosed their bodies like the scales of fishes ; their swords and spears glitter- ing in the sun, their bright helmets and coats of mail according with the strong bows that hung over their shoulders ; they also had a cartridge-box, with six or seven iioc bullets, which they hurled against the heads of their enemies. 1 The country was in such an unsettled state, and the finances so deranged,. that at first no notice was taken of these proceedings by the Government. When, how- ever, Hung-woo grew more and more bold, and defied whole battalions, the Mongol magistrates resolved upon crushing the rebel. For this purpose they collected all the troops of the neighbouring districts ; but whilst yet preparing for battle they were attacked on all sides. Amongst the banners that wero present,. Hung-woo's was conspicuous, — and the victory in the first engage- ment was owing to his breaking the enemy's centre. The enemy assembled a second army. But the Chinese had been beforehand, and planted (would the reader believe it) batteries in flank and rear of the Mongol army. Where they got the cannon we cannot tell ; but the Mongols were so much terrified at the tremen- dous noise, that they fled in consternation. Again the Mongol armies crowded on the Chinese army, but Hung-woo, having noticed their intended concentration, 1 It is singular that there are pictures extant representing the Chinese at this period as armed with tubes emitting fire and smoke with great noise. They got thus far towards the firelock ; but the bullets, as will be seen, they carried in their pockets, nnd threw them at their enemies' heads, with their hands. The gun- powder was used to frighten their enemies. Chinese artifices of war are always curious. When H.M.S. " Rattler," with part of the crew of the U.S. frignte " Pow- hattan," went to Kulan, to destroy the southern squadron of rebels whom they called pirates, and killed 600 of them, the chief portion of the junks were destroyed, and only six prisoners taken. The Chinese used a curious artifice for their defence; they threw overboard a lot of cocoa-nuts, and then jumped into the sea among them ; it was difficult to tell which were heads and which were nuts. Of the six prisoners, three proved themselves to be innocent men, held for ransom. What of the other 600 killed; how many of those were innocent ? At Canton a case was reported of a rebel despatch being found under a plaster on a pretended sore on a woman's leg. 115 Thus attacked them in detail, and defeated them ended the first campaign. Kang-Hweang, the greengrocer, who had raised him- self to a king, did not long enjoy his dignity, but died in the arms of his affectionate nephew. The officers wished to make Hung-woo king ; but too humble yet to assume the diadem, he willingly yielded the throne to his cousin, an inexperienced youth. For this gene- rosity, as is often the caseiu this world, he was ill rewarded ; some haughty general wished to take away his life, and during a splendid eutertainment, at which Hung-woo was present, had already drawn his sword to pierce the rising hero, when another officer stal bed the miscreant on the spot. The future emperor es- caped, but his mind was scared ; and for the first time in his life he felt that in the midst of success and worldly greatness a man may still be miserable. These events bring us down to the year 135G. We must now, for a short time, return to the palace, which was so unceremoniously left. It will be remem- bered that the emperor, while the country was in a state of insurrection, amused himself with dancing girls and Lama priests. But he had still a very faith- ful minister, who, notwithstanding the general corruption, directed the military operations of the Mongols, and, at any rate, kept the rebels at bay. Being, however, at variance with the emperor's minion, who was called Hama, the statesman was first exiled and then beheaded. The infamous Hama now played the tyrant over his sovereign, as prime minister, and even made him abdicate in favour of his son. But affairs prospered badly with the Mongols. The country was infested with robbers ; a scion of the former Sung dynasty, a royal Chinese, took the field as a highway- man on a large scale. The seas were infested with pirates, who had 3,000 vessels at their command ; and slaughter and carnage went on by sea, river, canal, and land. What shocked the nation, also, was a proposal to divert, or canalise the Hwang-ho, or Yellow Paver. It was alw iys overflowing its bed ; and because the Mongols had repeatedly lost the tiibufr by the impe- tuosity of the waters of the Grand Canal, they determined to cut new canals. To dig them, they drove the peasants together in crowds, and paid them only with blows and scanty fare. The peasantry revolted at this injustice, drove off their task- masters, and traversed the country in numerous troops, pillaging all in their way. From this centre all rebellions in China have radiated and received strength : and a similar case of a population driven to wander in beggary from their homes, materially aided the first organi- sation of the Insurgents in \85i, and their subsequent increase in power. These discontents furnished Hung- woo with new levies, and repaired his losses. His soldiers were in such high spirits, that on a certain occasion, when a dangerous enterprise was to be entered upon, two gener.ds wished to fight a duel, to decide who should lead the van ! Kuch incidents have not been frequent of late in the Chinese army. The grand principles on which Hung-woo waged war were exactly those of the present " Prince of Peace." He was welcomed everywhere by the people, even when he appeared as an enemy. His heart and his proclamations overflowed with benevolence towards the commonalty and the real Chinese people ; and the only cruelties he committed were against the Mongols. He, moreover, like Tae-ping uow-a-days, contrived to 116 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. have a military chest and magazines, a distinctive feature of the present contest : and, instead of allowing his soldiers to plunder, he paid them well, and thus kept the marauders in order. Conduct like this at- tracted notice; and a fierce pirate chief, who ravaged the coast (some one is always doing this in China), sent an envoy to Hung-woo, proposing an alliance. The case is exactly parallel with the tactics of the present insurrection. Hung-woo accepted the offer of the buccaneers, and having thus, by the assistance of the pirates' armament of 10,000 junks, the means of loco- motion so indispensable for Chinese travelling, which is all by canals, he directed his steps towards Che- keong, in order to keep up his communication with the sea. But he had to cross the Yang-tse-keang (or " Son of the Ocean") River (the scene of the present contest with the rebels), 1 and fought a bloody battle to accom- plish that object. The Mongols, as soon as they had refitted their army, appeared again in great force- in the field. This time the victory was not so easily bought by the Chinese; yet their irresistible valour stood proof against the despair of the enemy. The Mongol commander-in-chief fled with unmanly haste, and being hotly pursued, surrendered to Hung, woo. As soon as he appeared in the presence of the prince, his counsellors, seeing something sinister in the general's countenance, without consulting Lavater, advised him to execute the prisoner on the spot. Though the Chinese hero had made the same remark, he did not consider it consistent with justice to execute a man who had surrendered of his own accord ; and he entrusted, on trial, a small troop of horse to his command. Before accepting this command, the Mongol swore near a slaughtered horse (the object most sacred to a Tartar,) fidelity to his new master, and impre- cated upon himself the most dreadful curses if he should not prove faithful. A few days afterwards, Hung-woo had undergone many hardships, and it was expected he would soon retire to his tent ; the renegade had marked this propitious moment, and softly stole towards the entrance, hurriedly burying the dagger in the bedclothes. The alarm was immediately given by 1 "This great river," says Viscount Jocelyn, in Six Months in China, " may be called the main artery to the body of the Chinese empire, and the source of its interior wealth. In extent and navi- gable fucilities it is not surpassed by any in the world; whilst from its bosom, not only the central port of China draws its existence and riches, but the traffic of the northern provinces also. It is connected with the Peiho by means of a canal, called the Imperial (or Great Canal of China), which wonderful work thus leads the central trade, and even the southern commerce, to the very north of China, pouring it into the navigable waters of that river at a town called Tien-tsin, not more than 40 miles distant from Pekin, while its southern mouth meets the Yang-tse-kian<* 50 miles below Nankin." " Unless the Mississippi and Missouri," says another writer, " are to be considered as one river, then the Amazon being the first, the Yang-tse-kcang is the second river in the world. If you consider, however, the countless canals which it supplies with water — to keep under constant irrigation the surrounding country — the commerce which it carries on its breast, the fruitfulness displayed on its banks, where the richness of the foliage and the greenness of the herbage are quite astonishing ; if, lastly, you add the depth and volume of its waters, it has some claims, I conceive, to the very first place among the rivers of the globe. In going up the river, nautically speaking, the left, geo- graphically the right, bank of tho river is the most picturesque side. The ranges of hills were frequently quadruple, the neatest sweeping down gracefully and gradually towards the river. The other side for a long way is fiat. The neat little villages are fre- quently, if not generally, placed in an angle formed by a canal and the great river." the sentinel, but the assassin had time enough to save himself by flight, and he was not heard of for many months. In one of the engagements, however, a Chinese officer, on perceiving him, darted his javelin at him, which he most dexterously avoided. In the midst of the confusion he entangled his foot in the stirrup, lost his balance, and was dragged by a restive horse to a considerable distance. When nearly expiring from the bruises he had received, his antagonist rode up to him, and ran his sabre thi'ough his heart, in re- compense for his treachery. Whenever the combat in the south was hottest, Hung-woo kept his court at Kin-ling, directed from a distance the military operations, and endeavoured to extend his power towards the north. This is also the policy of Tae-ping, the emperor of the present insurrec- tion. City after city yielded to the army of Hung- woo : the soldiers called upon him to proclaim himself emperor ; but he refused, saying that he was, as yet, but a petty chief, holding only part of the empire. But while he himself so obstinately refused the title, dragons and serpents, that entwined themselves about him at a great military festival, proved to the Chinese, that having such imperial emblems, ho ought to assume the titles. The dragon is, to the Chinese, a most pro- pitious omen. They have not been seen lately. The Mongol emperor at last took alarm at the pro- gress of the rebels. In a council of state, at which all the ministers were present, the best measures proposed were rendered nugatory by indecision. Yet the army is said to have been 50,000 or 60,000 always in arms, and the rebels in less than a fortnight brought 200,000 into battle. The numbers said to have been killed on each side are prodigious, and the battles more numerous than those of Napoleon. Hitherto Hung-woo had been only a subject ; but one of the rebel chiefs having killed his master the king, and he having already received the title of duke, he now assumed the dignity of Prince of Woo, and adopted a systematic plan for conquering the whole ot China, which resulted in the emperor's retiring for safety outside the Wall of China into Ying-chang-fu. i 2 The Chinese have had their " Vespers," it appears, after the fashionof tlieSicilians. " Wearrived/'saysFatherHuc, "atChabote on the 15th day of the 8th moon, the anniversary of great re- joicings among the Chinese. This festival, known as the Yue-ping (Loaves of the Moon), dates from the remotest antiquity. Its original purpose was to honour the moon with superstitious rites. On this solemn day all labour is suspended; the workmen receive a present of money from their employers; every person puts on his best clothes; and there is merry-making in every family. Relations and friends interchange cakes of various sizen, on which is stamped the image of the moon ; that is to say, a hare crouch- ing amid a small group of trees. Since the fourteenth century this festival has borne a political character little understood apparently by the Mongols, but the tradition of which is carefully preserved by the Chinese. About the year 1368, the Chinese were desirous of shaking off the yoke of the Tartar dynasty, founded by Genghis Khan, and which had then ruled the empire for nearly a hundred years. A vast conspiracy was formed throughout all the provinces, which was simultaneously to developeitself on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, by the massacre of the Mongol soldiers, who were billeted upon each Chinese family for the double purpose of maintaining themselves and the conquest. The signal was given by a letter conceded in the cakes, which, as we have stated, are on that day mutually interchanged throughout the country. The massacre was effected, and the Tartar army, dispersed in thi houses of the Chinese, utterly annihilated. This catastrophe put an end to the Mongol domination ; and ever since, the Chinese, in celebrating the festival of Yeu-ping, have been less intent on the superstitious worship of the moon than on the tragic event to which they owed the recovery of their national independence." CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. In this Hung-woo was favoured by the intrigues of the emperor's court. One of the nobles, who had received orders to collect a very numerous army in Mongolia, and to overwhelm China with these hordes, had led them against the emperor himself. Had he persevered in his march, he might have taken the whole court and all the appurtenances prisoners ; but enter- ing upon a negotiation, and nattering himself with the highest dignities falling to his share, he was wheedled into an interview, and delivered himself to justice. The minister who brought this about was au enemy to the heir of the crown. The latter, had been sent to the army in order to fight his father's battles, and was highly indignant at his enemy's success, and his winning the affections of his parent, llecalled finally to his palace, and seeming the murder of the minister, this youth went on embroiling himself with all the great men of the state. When the din of war grew nearer to the capital, the weak and debauched prince lost all courage, and stole away in the night to his native deserts; and thus ended the Mongol dynasty, a.d. 13G8. The Mongols themselves retired not with the em- peror, butfell back, slowly and sternly, contending their way, and holding on fortress after fortress. Many kings and emperors, alias robber-chiefs, sprung up — with titles as good, they said, as that of Hung-woo. At last the Tartars confined themselves to a defensive war, and only occasionally rushed forth to rob on all sides. All they now hoped was to get back to Mongolia. But this was not easy. Like their predecessors, the Kin, they had lived with great profusion. They had pawned and sold their horses, and their arms and lands ; and when the sudden alarm was sounded that the Chinese were on their heels, they looked in vain into their stables for a swift charger to cany them oft'. Strange as it may seem, he who could inspect now-a- days the shopkeeper's books of Cant on would find a large catalogue of horses, barracks, houses, goods and chattels, all belonging to the "Eight Banners" 1 garri- soned in that city, in pawn to cunning Chinese shop- keepers. 1 The " Banners" of China are equivalent to our " brigades." When the Mongol emperors conquered the empire, they gave to their soldiers certain lands under tenure of military service when called upon. The "Banners" are again subdivided into camps and wings, — the right, left, and centre. They are commanded by officers who undergo examinations in the military art, such as archery, throwing a javelin, &c. Tho greater part of the officers are raised from the ranks, but have regularly to take their degrees. An account of the Eight Banners of Tartary is given by Father Hue: — " During our modest repast, we noticed that one of these Tartars was the object of especial attention on the part of his comrade. We asked him what military grade he occupied in the Blue Banner. ' When the banners of Tchakar marched two years ago against the Bebels of the South (the English, in 1842), I held the rank of Tchouanda.' 'What! were you in that famous war of the South ? But how is it that you, shepherds of the plains, have also the courage of soldiers? Accustomed to a life of peace, one would imagine that you would never be reconciled to the terrible trade of a soldier, which consists in killing others or being killed yourselves.' 'Yes, yes, we are shepherds, it is true ; but we never forget that we are soldiers also, and that the Eight Banners compose the army of reserve of the Grand Master (the Emperor). You know the rule of the Empire ; when the enemy appears, they send against them, first, the Kitat soldiers; next, the banners of the Solon country are set in motion. If the war is not finished then, all they have to do is to give the signal to the banners of Tchakar, the mere sound of whose march always suffices to reduce the rebels to subjection.' ' Were all the banners of Tchakar called 117 The most determined antagonist of Hung-woo was doubtless a chief styling himself Prince of Han. He not only had a large land force, but also commanded together for this southern war?' 'Yes, all; at first it was thought a small matter, and every one said it would never affect the Tchakar. The troops of Kittat went first, but they did nothing. The banners of Solon also marched ; but they could not bear the heat of the South : then the Emperor sent us his sacred order. Each man selected his best horse, removed the dust from his bow and quiver, and scraped the rust from his lance. In every tent a sheep was killed for the feast of departure. Women and children wept, but we addressed to them the words of reason. ' Here,' said we, ' for six generations have we received the benefits of the Sacred Master, -and he has asked from us nothing in return. Now that he has need of us, can we hold back ? He has given to us the fine region ot Tchakar to be a pasture-land for our cattle, and at the same time a barrier for him against the Khalkhas. But now, since it is from the South the rebels came, we must march to the South.' Was it not reason in our mouths, Sirs Lamas f Yes, we resolved to march. The sacred Ordinance reached us at sunrise, and already by noon the Bochehous,-at the head of their men, stood by the Tchouanda ; next to these were the Nourou- Tchayn, and the Ougouraa. The same day we marched to lVkin ; from l'ekin they led us to Tieu-Tsin-Vei, where we remained for three months.' ' Did you fight,' asked Saindad- chieniba ; ' did you see the enemy ?' ' No, they did not dare to appear. The Kitat told us everywhere that we were marching upon certain and unavailing death. 'What can you do,' asked they, 'against sea-monstirs ? They live in the water like fish. When you least expect them, they appear on the surface, and hurl their fire-bombs at jou; while, the instant your bow is bent to shoot them, down they dive like frogs. Thus they e6savcd to frighten us; but we soldiers of the Eight Banners know not fear. Before our departure the great Lamas hod opened the Book ot Celestial Secrets, and had thence learned that the matter would end well for us. The Emperor had attached to each Tchouanda a Lama, learned in medicine and skilled in all the sacred auguries, who was to cure all the soldiers under him of the diseases of the climate, and to protect us from the magic of the sea-monsters. What then had we to fear? The rebels, hearing that the invincible troops of 'lebukar were approaching, were seized with fear, and sought peace. The Satrcd Master, of his immense mercy granted it, and we returned to the care ot our flocks." Tchakar signifies, in the Mongol tongue, Border Land. This country is limited, on the east, by the kingdom of Gechekten, on the west by Western Toumet, on the north by the Souniot, on the south by the Great Wall. Its extent is 150 leagues long, by 100 broad. The inhabitants of Tchakar are all paid soldiers of the Emperor. The foot soldiers receive twelve ounces of silver per annum, and the cavalry twenty-four. The Tchakar is divided into eight banners— in Chinese Pa-Ki — distinguished by the names of eight colours : white, blue, red, yellow, French white, light blue, pink, and light yellow. Each banner has its separate territory, and a tribunal, named Nourou- Tchayn, having jurisdiction over all the matters that may occur in the Banner. Besides this tribunal, there is, in each of the Eight Banners, a chief called Ou-Gourdha. Of the eight Ou- Gourdhas one is selected to fill at the same time the post of governor.general of the Eight Banners. All these dignitaries are nominated and paid by the Emperor of China. In fact, the Tchaka is nothing more nor less than a vast camp, occupied by an army of reserve. In order, no doubt, that this army may be at all times ready to march at the first signal, the Tartars are severely prohibited to cultivate the land. They must live upon their pay, and upon the produce of their flocks and herds. The entire soil of the Eight Banners is inalienable. It sometimes happens that an individual sells his portion to some Chinese; but the sale is always declared null and void if it comes in any shape before the tribunals. By means of usury and cunning, and persevering machinations, the Chinese have since rendered themselves masters of all the lands of their conquerors, leaving to them merely their empty titles, their onerous statutory labour, and the payment of oppressive rents. The quality of Mantchu has thus by degrees become a very costly affair, and many of consequence seek altogether to abnegate it. According to 'the law, there is every third year a census made of the population of each banner, and all persons who do not cause their names to be inscribed on the roll are deemed no longer to belong to the Mantchu nation ; those, therefore, of 113 ALL EOUND THE WORLD. the water communications by a very large river navy. Hung-woo at first sought to satisfy his ambition by splendid promises, and to detach hiui from the alliance of some of the other leaders; but the Prince of Han so greatly succeeded that he could not hear or profess friendly intentions with the one who wished to share with him the throne. Hence arose a fierce struggle, which kept our hero for several years employed, and left the Mongols time to take breath. "Whosoever had the command of the great rivers, was naturally in com- mand of the most flourishing part of China, and by being enabled to obtain supplies whenever wanted, and attack his enemy upon every weak point, must have the fate of war in his hands. The subject of our history was too good a general not to see these advantages at once, and his whole strength was therefore concentrated to secure the navigation. Determined to fight to the last, the Prince of Han had his war-boats chained together, and did not retreat until he saw them all on fire; a second navy was created as by magic, and the resistance was equally strong. But Hung-woo had more poweiful arms; persuasion and kindness won over many an influential officer; so that in the heart of a navai battle one squadron after another struck to their humane prince. Hung-woo now regarded himself as the minister of heaven ; so did Attila, so did Alaric, so did Napoleon, and so did the emperor Nicholas. On invading Keang- soo, Hung-woo issued a proclamation, in which he declared all who did not submit to his arms to be " traitors and rebels against the azure heavens." Kind treatment, and a general amnesty secured to him the attachment of the inhabitants ; the submission of the roving bands he secured by bribes. Some of them, who thought it clever to take the money and sell themselves again to a better bidder, he chastised inexorably. But he did not confine his attention to mere exploits ; whenever a district yielded to his victorious arms, he assumed the power of a judge. An open hall was instantly prepared, when all those who had any complaint to make obtained free access. Even old garrulous women were not excluded, and the tlie Mantchus whose indigence induces them to desire exemption from statute labour and military service do not present themselves to the census enumerators, and by that omission enter the ranks of the Chinese people Thus, while on the one hnd constant migration has carried beyond the Great Wall a gre.it number of Chinese, on the other, a great number of Mantchus have Voluntarily abdicated their nationality. The decline, or rather the extinction of the Mantchu nation is now progressing more rapidly than ever. Up to the reign of the late emperor, Tuou-Twan, the regions watered by the Songari were exclusively inhabited by Mantchus : entrance into those vast districts was prohibited to the Chinese, and no man was per- mitted to cultivate the soil within their range. At the com- mencement of the last reign, these districts were put up for public f r ,*"'. orde ' to su PPly the deficiency in the Imperial treasury. J lie Chinese rnshed upon them like birds of prev, and a few years sufficed to remove everything that could in an v way ret-all the memory of their ancient possessors. It would be vain for an- one now to seek m Mantchmia a single town, or a single village that is not composed entirely of Chinese. Yet, amid the generi-1 transformation, there are still a few nbes suchas the H-Po and the Solon, which faithfully retain ine Mantchu tyjic. Up to the present day their territories have Men invaded neither by the Chinese nor by cultivation; they con- tinue to dwell in tents, and to furnish soldiers to the Imperial armies. It has been remarked, however, that their frequent appearance at Pckin, and their long periods of service in the provincial garrisons, are beginning to make terrible inroads upon their habits and tastes. patience with which the victim bore their invectives procured him the highest popularity. The rebels of the south being now chastised, it was high time to visit the territories to the west of the Hoang-ho, where one of the Mongol chiefs was still in possession of many fortresses. The army was approach- ing to cross the river, when one of the descendants of Confucius 1 presented himself to the conqueror. It was always Hung-woo's principle to gain popularity, and he therefore rejoiged to pay homage to this sage, upon whom the whole nation looked with veneration, llaving given the descendant of the great sage valuable presents, with assurances of protection, he charmed the ' assembled multitude by the deference he thus paid to departed merit. In only a few minute instances the Mongols resisted the invading forces, and Sheni-se, as well as Shan-si. received Chinese garrisons. After numerous triumphs, and when Hting-woo had shown that he despised pride, by visiting in state the burying-place of his poor father, the fisherman, and built a large city over his remains, the conqueror con- sented, at the clamorous urgency of his army and people, to be named Emperor, expressed a desire to be appointed " pastor to continue the succession of Yaou and Shun," and raised his faithful Ma-she, his inse- parable companion in joy and woe, to the dignity of Empress. Hung-woo's generals followed the Mongols beyond the Great Wall, surprised their emperors camp, and took the whole of the Imperial family prisoners. Ngai- yew-chilipata, the son of the deceased emperor (who died in 1370, two years after leaving China), contrived to escape ; but his grandson Moitilipala was brought before Hung-woo. The victor's humanity was shocked by the proposal of his officers to murder the youngprince in the hall of his ancestors. He severely repioachcd the cruel advisers, and was moved to tears at the fall of the Mongol dynasty, while he held it out as a warning to future sovereigns against degrading their station by vice. The exertions of Hung-woo to conso- lidate his empire and to secure peace have been seldom equalled. He continually declared his intention to imitate the happy days and innocent lives of Yaou and Shun (the golden age of Chinese history), reminded the people, who imputed his own origin as a fault, that Lew-pang, the glorious founder of the Han dynasty, the great emperor Kaoutsoo, had been, like himself, originally but a robber-chief. The Mongols fought on ; until at last he directed his army against their stronghold in the province of Leaou-tung, and subdued them with much carnage. The Chinese generals showed no mercy to the Mongol chiefs and captains, whom they now regarded in the light of rebels, and resisting the decrees of Heaven. Many Mongols destroyed themselves by 1 Confucius, according to Father Martin, admits three prime principles,— Heaven, man, and earth; three sorts of knowledge, Divine, human, and earthlv ; five degrees of relationship in society, — 1 st, < 'f father and son ; 2nd, Of man and woman ; 3rd. 01 prince and subjects ; 4th, Of friends; 5th, and lost, Of nations. Then these Chinese literati go on to treat of lesser orders, — belonging to guests, visits, and entertainments, and likewise for the accom- modation of visitors, and of the deportment of the body, with many others, to the amount of 3.000, as Father Martin tells in his " History of China." The family of Confucius are the only hereditary nobility in China, most of the emperors excepted, the members of which have pensions grantnl to them in proportion to the propinquity or distance of their relationship. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. suicide, — others were beheaded by the Chinese, — and " this once brave race, who conquered the greater part of the old world, were crouching before the effeminate Chinese, earnestly suing for life." The hand of God was on them ; and the tierce race, elevated for His good purposes, to a mighty conqueror and a desolating scourge, were now humiliated. Much of the success of Hung- woo was owing to the wise counsels of his wife Ma-she, who influenced all his actions, and controlled his steps. Access to power was embittered by her loss and tout of his eldest son. Feeling his end approaching, he sent all the princes of his blood to the domains he had assigned them, each a separate kingdom, keeping his heir (a lad of eleven) alone near him. He died, at seventy-one years of age, in 1398. The parallel in the conduct of Hung-woo's insur- rection, and that going on at the present period in China, is so close, that it can only be accounted for by the latter being an express imitation of the former. His appearance was as remarkable as his valour, and his statesmanship more than equal to his military skill. He was most anxious, in all cases, to avert the effusion of blood ; and the instances of cruelty which occurred at the surrender of certain cities, and the punishment of rebels, must, as in the present instance, not be im- puted to the orders of Hung-woo, but rather to the indiscreet revenge of his generals : — even the young Mongolian prince, grandson of the emperor, was main- tained by him at court with princely splendour, and preferred, when full liberty was offered to him, rather to remain with his generous enemy than run the risk of returning to his native tents. 119 VI.— "THE LAST OF THE MINGS." On the death of Hung-woo his sons at once beset his grandson, whom he had raised up to the empire, with a formidable coalition. He degraded some ; but one of them, the Prince of Yen, defeated him, drove him into exile, and ascended the throne. "What follows of the story is but a recapitulation of boy-emperors and eunuch ministers, with Tartar irruptions, until we arrive at Shin-tsung or Wan-li ; in whose reign the celebrated Jesuit father Ricci first appears in China. Wan-li sentofticers, who destroyed all thehouses of the Niuclii merchants nearthe border,and drove theNiuchis — now called the Mantchus — to despair. Hitherto they had been a scattered nation, but they now united under Tien-uing, their first chief, who, in 161 8, assumed the style and title of Emperor, having but a few naked savages under his banner. His father had been mur- dered by Wan-li's officers, and he swore that he would sacrifice 200,000 Chinese to his manes. He kept his fearful oath. The Emperor Shiu-tsung, in order to weaken the power of his dangerous rival, Han-wung, the Mantchu chief, besought him to send to him the flower of his warriors, under pretext of wishing to march them against the Mongols, who were threatening his states ; but as soon as he saw them in his power, he caused them all to be put to death (another slaughter of the Mamelukes) with the exception of one only, whose good looks interested a mandarin in his favour, who took him into the number of his domestics, and he so gained his confidence that he became steward of his household. In some time afterwards another Chinese officer, having cause to visit the mandarin, saw tho young Tartar, and told his colleague that ho ran the risk of drawing down on himself the indignation of the Emperor. The other answered that he would get rid of him, but that in the meantime they should give themselves up to the delights of a banquet. In the interim the young man, who had overheard this discourse, fearing for his life, ordered a groom to saddle the swiftest of his masters horses, saying that he h:id a commission of importance to execute. He mounted, and rode off at full speed to the White Mountain, where he announced to Han-wung the Emperor's trea- chery, and the fate of his unfortunate companions in arras. Han-wung sent his eldest son to capture Alouk- den, in the province of Leaou-tang ; but on his retreat- ing, from alarm at the force opposed to him, he slew him with his own hands, and himself captured the city by storm. His warriors seemed to be so resistless, that the Chinese generals despaired of opposing themselves, and called in the aid of their loyal vassals, the Portuguese. At that time Gonsalvez Teixera was ambassador, or rather tribute bearer, 1 at Pekin ; and as the Emperor liberally furnished the means, a body of 200 Portu- guese aud 200 Western Asiatics were equipped, and sent to the capital. Each of them had a servant and plenty of money ; so that the whole cavalcade appeared more like a gay equipage than a real army. When they reached Pekin, the officers of Canton, doubting the policy of permitting such access to the court, bribed those who had suggested this measure to dissuade the Emperor from employing the barbarians ; and thus was this little bind, under the valiant captains Cordier and Del Capo, led back to Macao. Tien-wung, tired of war, proposed a peace ; but the Imperial court answered by a rescript, ordering the extermination of all barbarians. Nothing was heard of but extermination— the fashionable word of the Chinese authorities in war. The Mantchus gave up all hope of negotiating with such a people, and took possession of Leao-tung, from which they made inroads to the gates of Pekin. The terrified generals, sent out to annihilate them, disappeared like gigantic shadows at the approach of night, and notwithstanding all edicts to the contrary, the barbarians grew more powerful every day, and would no longer hear of any treaty. The old emperor, Wan-li, took these reverses so much to heart, that he fell sick and died. Kwang- tsung, the next emperor, died also, from taking " the liquor of immortality "—a trick, it is supposed, of the Taou priests, to rid themselves of a monarch who applies too carefully to business. His successor, He tsang, reigned but seven years. The story of the next emperor, the last of the Mings, is well told by Adam Schall and Father Martini, missionaries who witnessed it 1 All ambassadors are styled "tribute-bearers" by tbe Chinese historians, and the presents usually brought by then are consi- dered tribute. Their letters are in the form of petitions, or ptn, -hence the refusal to accept C.ptain Elliot's credent mis as suner- intendent at Canton, which led to a war. If you beg... cereuio- nies with thn Chinese you must keep on with them and bo perfect, as it is a matter of pride in them to get the better ot one another, in ceremonies and politeness. But if yon nse no cere- mony whatsoever with them, they let you have your own way, and as it were, "stand aside to let the rude, rough tellow go his road." 120 Two great robber chiefs, 1 Le and Shang, infested the country, and drove to despair the Emperor Tsung- ching, who had more to do than he could manage in coping with the Tartars, and began to be quite out of ALL ROUND THE WORLD. heart. "Till this time" (as Adam Schall avers) ; the courtiers had kept the insurrection from the emperor's knowledge, partly by telling him they were only for- geries, though they were indeed certainly true, and CHINESE SOLDIERS— WAR TIGERS. partly by extenuating the business, which was the ruin of the empire." The emperor, now roused by the noise of arms, which daily increased in his ears, bestirring himself, 1 The general commission of robbery, and the prevalence of bands of thieves, proves the weakness of the government in China, — not the insurrectionary disposition of the people. In one dis- trict of Hu-peh, the governor reported, in 1828, " that very few of the inhabitants have any regular occupation, and their dispositions are exceedingly ferocious ; they fight and kill each other on every provocation. In their villages they harbour thieves, who flee from other districts, and sally forth again to plunder." In the northern parts of Kwang-tung, the people have erected high and strongly built houses, to which they flee for safety from the attacks of robbers. These bands sometimes fall upon each other, and the feudal animosities of clanship adding fuel and rage to the rivalry of partisan warfare, the destruction of life and property is great. Occasionally the people zealously assist their rulers to apprehend them, though their exertions depend altogether upon the energy of the incumbent ; an officer in Fuh-kicn was recommended (or promotion because he had apprehended 173 persons, part of a band of robbers which bad infested the department for years, and though too late, to quench the flame, and raising several armies, consulted to fortify Fekin. But the eunuchs, who all this while had deluded the emperor with feigned stories, now also regarded not the danger tried and convicted 1,160 criminals, most or all of whom were pro- babably executed. In 1821 there were four hundred robbers taken on the borders of Fuh-kien ; in 1827, two hundred were seized in the south of the province, and forty-one more brought to Canton from the eastward. The governor offered 1,000 dollars reward, in 1828, for the capture of ono leader, and 3,000 dollars for another. The judge of the province put forth a proclamation upon the subject in the same year, in which he says there were four hundred and thirty undecided cases of robbery by brigands then on the calendar ; and in 1846 there were upwards of two thousand waiting his decision, for each of which there were per- haps five or six persons waiting in prison, or under constraint, until the case was settled. These bands prowl in the large cities, and commit great cruelties. In 1830, n party of five hundred openly plundered a rich man's house in the western suburbs of Canton ; and in Shun-teh, south of the city, £1 50 was paid for the ransom of two persons carried off by them. The Governor of Canton, in 1831, was attacked by them near the Meiling (or CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 121 he was in, but contrived to save themselves iu his ruin, by confederating with the enemy. During this time Licungz (Le-tzo-shung, the robber-chief) sent several soldiers in disguise to the court, and furnished them with money to drive a trade, the better to cloak their designs, till he should come with his army to the city walls, and then break forth in mutinies. To this plot, designed at court, Licungz added another, viz., private correspondence with the prime councillor of state ; who, it was said, observing the emperor's business to be ruined, had agreed with the rebel to deliver the city ; but whether it was so or not, he marched with all speed to Pekin, within whose walls were seventy thousand soldiers under three thousand commanders, and the store-houses provided with all manner of ammunition, and the walls round about planted with great guns, of which the rebels (as they afterwards confessed) were exceedingly afraid. But that fear soon vanished, for their associates within advised them to storm the city, promising to shoot only powder without bullets against them, by which means Licungz marched with all his men (anno 1614), in April, into the city, the gates being opened for him. 1 Neither did the emperor's party make any long resist- ance, for Licungz' soldiers, who till this time had kept themselves private, according to their agreement, made Plum Ridge Mountains) Pass, on his departure from Canton, and plundered of about 10,000 dollars. The magistrates of Kiang-shan district, south of Canton, were ordered by their superiors, the same year, to apprehend five hundred of the robbers. The lazy priests of Buddha and the Taon monks sometimes harbour gangs in their temples, and divide the spoiis with them, occasionally even going out themselves on predatory excursions. No mercy is shown these miscreants, when taken; but the multiplication of executions has no effect in deterring them from crime. 1 This is the way the Peace party are acting in China at present. It is a wonderful country of shams and shows. Witness the following occurrence at the Pehtang Forts, on the Peiho river, commanding the approach to Pekin, in the recent expedition : — A troop of Mongolian cavalry appeared drawn up on the bridge and causeway to the left of the town, who watched our proceed- ings for somo time, and then rode off in the direction of the Taku forts, doubtless to report our arrival to Sangkolinsin. Flags also were flying from the forts, and numbers of men could be seen peeping out from behind the mantlets of the embrasures, so that we anticipated some resistance, and as it took all the evening to land the force which had been told off for the operations — viz., second brigade of the First Division, commanded by Brigadier Sutton, and 2,500 Frenchmen, it was determined, I believe, that a joint attack should be made next morning by the gunboats in front and the allied regiments in the rear. By sunset the troops had passed through the mud and seized the causeway, without any opposition j a halt was then made, and we bivouacked for the night. Meanwhile, shortly after sunset, Sir Hope Grant had pushed on with a few men, and entered on the outskirts of the town, where a Chinaman was seized, who said that the forts were empty and undefended, whereupon Messrs. Parkes and Gibson of the consular service, and Captain Williams of the Royals with a couple of men, made him lead them through the town, and, kicking open a gate at the rear of the south fort, they found that Ins statement was correct, that there were only a few old wooden guns in some of tho embrasures, and that the flags and mantlets were all a sham. A number of infernal machines, however, had been very cunningly placed underground just inside the gate, and at the bottom of the ascents to each cavalier, and had any one of them exploded, it might have done considerable damage. The man who was reconnoitring found the bridge across the dry ditch winch surrounds it trembling with his weight, and, upon a care- lul examination being made, it was shown to be so constructed with levers, &c., as to form a large hammer, which, in the rush of any body of men, would have exploded some detonating powder in communioation with a large quantity of gunpowder, effectually destroying fort and all within it. Of the guns found an uproar in the city, which caused so great a confusion, that none knew with whom to side, and every place was filled with slaughter. Hereupon Licungz, as con- queror, marched through the city directly towards the emperor's palace, which he soon took. The enemy had got the first wall before the emperor knew of any danger, for the rebels' confederates (the eunuchs, whe had all the command in their own power,) continually persuaded the emperor not to fly ; but when they per- ceived no possibility of his escape, they acquainted him with the loss of the city and palace. The emperor, upon this notice being given, asked first, if any proba- bility was left to escape; but being answered that all ways were beset, they say he. wrote a letter with his own blood, in which he accused his eunuchs of treachery, and desired Licungz, since he had, by the help of heaven, gotten the empire, that he would revenge his fall. This done, he took his sword and killed his daughter, that she might not fall into the enemy's hands, and afterwards went into his garden, and there (as the most unfortunate emperor, and last of the Taimingian race), hanged himself with his girdle on a plum tree ; and thus ended the house Taiming by a robber, which was first raised by the like. After the emperor's example, the koloa, or prime councillor, and likewise his queens, besides some of his loyalest eunuchs, hanged themselves, with several others iu the city, thereby seeming, that after their country's manner, to die with the emperor, which is amongst the Chinese accounted a great honour, and sign of fidelity." Adam Schall tells us, that "The emperor (betrayed twice in one moment, — once by his eunuchs, and then by therebcls'confederates,)uiounted on horseback, followed with six hundred horse, and fell into that part of the city through which the enemy came marching ; but there the unhappy prince found himself necessitated (the great guns which were planted to defend the gates, firing against him, and wanting more aid,) to return again to his palace, where being arrived, and driven into utter despair, he desired the empress his consort to hang herself, and advised his three sons to save them- selves by flight. He then took up his sword, with in- tention to kill his own daughter, fit for marriage, that she might not live to be defiled ; but she escaped the blow by flight, yet received it on her right hand, which she lost ; which done, he went (bereaved of all hope) out of the palace again on foot, and ran directly to a mountain behind the palace, where, standing still, he wrote with a pencil, on the hem of his imperial coat, with his own blood (as it was said), drawn from his left hand, to this effect: 'Much joy to the succeeding em- peror, Li ! I entreat earnestly, hurt not my people, nor employ my councillors.' Which having written, he pulled off his boots, 8 and throwing away his hat, hanged himself with his girdle, on a piece of timber, in a gallery." some were only wooden dummies, but a large supply of Chinese rockets was there, and the soldiers amused themselves by expend- ing these harmlessly in the air. 2 Boots are an important consideration in China. With u«, among the vulgar, there is an old superstition of throwing an old shoe after a departing friend for luck. In China, reversing our custom, as they do almost invariably, they present new boots, and keep the old ones. Thus, we have it told that "The Fuyucn of Kwang-tung in 1833, Chu, was a very popular officer, and when he obtained leave to resign his station on account of age, the people vied with each other in showing their hearty regret at 122 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. "Thus" (says Father Martini) "ended a prince, per- haps the greatest in the world, one who had no superior in wisdom, understanding, and good-nature ; who, without company, forsaken by all at the age of thirty-six years, through neglect and carelessness of his people, came to so miserable an end Together with him, the name of the empire, viz., Tai-Ming, that is, "of great bright- ness," after it had continued two hundred and sixty years, and the whole Imperial Family, reckoned to the number of 80,000, were utterly extinguished. The following day, being the third after the enemy's comiug, Licungz marched with an army of 300.000 men into the city, and so directly to the palace, where he took possession of the throne, and settled himself in the same. When the emperor did not appear, Licungz pro- clamed 100,000 ducats as a reward for whoever brought him, or could give information of him ; but at last the body having beenfuundhanging.asbe'orementioned, the rebels, without reverence or compassion (says Martini), by command of Licungz, hewed it in pieces. Yet Schall tells us that, after the expiration of a mouth, the Tartars having driven out the rebels, the emperor was honourably buried, and though not laid among the emperors, yet amongst the princes their sons, and that all the magistrates, willing or not willing, were forced to come and mourn over his grave. The remaining party of the robbers plundered the Chinese houses ; and whoever walked the streets in handsome apparel they immediately earned to prison, and there, by cruel torments, procured the money which they suspected they had by their clothes ; insomuch that none appeared in the streets but the conquering rebels. Thirty days this rage continued, while the robbers possessed the palace, and pillaged that and the city. The Chinese already desired, upon an appointed d.iy. to elect Licungz emperor, but he commanded them to desist, because, as some say, he feared it would be his ruin, for as often as he sat upon the throne, he was taken with a shivering cold and pain in his head, and thereby compelled to rise from it (unlawfully taken by him), and sit on the ground, as if he had deserved no better. _ Sitting on the earth, they report, that he seemed, in the eyes of the spectators, to be a despicable and ridiculous countenance, and rather showed like an ape than a man. It is believed that, before he would receive the imperial dignity, he intended first to settle and quiet the empire, and, by force of arms, subdue the neighbouring princes, allies of the deceased emperor, which else might afterwards disquiet him. The same sad misfortune that befel the emperor Tsung-chin, happened also to the Imperial family and children. The queen, or lawful empress, obeved the emperor's command at his departure, and hanged her- ,-elf. His women fled wherever they thought to be safe from the rebels, and went to their parents' houses; though alterwards by force ami policy fetched from thence by the Tartars. One of the queens being taken prisoner m disguise, having altered her majestic apparel, was made a slave to a Tartar ; but not being able to losing him. The old custom was observed of retaining his boots, and presenting him with a new pair nt every city he passed through, andmany other testiinonialsof their regard were adopted." The Kuyuen is the lieutenant-governor of a province. The term means "soother," as having to please both parties,— the one that taxes, and the other that lias to pay. undergo such a yoke long, discovered herself, and was thereupon sent and kept among the other women of the former king, and eunuchs allowed to wait upon her. The emperor's eldest son, in his eighteenth year, had thrown off his royal habits, that he might not be known, and hired himself as servant to a Tartar ; but impa- tient of his master's cruel nature, he went, after some few months, privately from thence to a certain eunuch whom he supposed to be his trusty friend. T his friend durst not long conceal him, but advised him to go to his sister, who had fled to his grandfather's house. The unfortunate prince was then obliged, for the sake of mere existence, to discover himself ; and, although the Tartars spared his life, they condemned him to im- prisonment. Some promised to let him have a prince's revenue, and honour him with the title of king; but he who was fallen from the highest pinnacle, and had a noble heart, would not stoop to mean things ; nay, he despised all that was proffered him less than the empire, and delighted his fancy with music and singing, fur the better dispersing of his sorrows. Many had already discovered who he was, from his being formerly marked on his body, and declared him the emperor's son. Certain passages of the court were discovered by him likewise and described, which were unknown to all persons. His father's soldiers and officers pointing after their prince with their fingers, showed that he began to be publicly known. There being some apprehension that he would form a combi- nation, from the hatred which lie bore to the Tartars, the possessors of the realm, it was judged convenient to dispatch him ; and forty magistrates and martial offi- cers were also executed, that he might not din without company, or want attendance in the other world ac- cording to his birth aud quality. The eldest brother, who had got to Nankin, came almost to the same end, being killed by one of his near relations, who had there raised himself to be emperor. But if we credit Father Martini (the writer of "The History of the War3 of the Tartars"), the eldest of the emperor Tsun-chin's three sons was never heard of, though the robber Licungz made long and strict seai eh after him. Whether he got away by flight, or, as some say, drowned himself, is unknown. Martini also taya that the two youngest sous fell alive into the rebels' hands, who on the third day caused them to be dragged out of the city walls, and their heads to be severed from their bodies. Wu Sankwei, a relative of the Imperial family, happened, at the time of the storming of Pekin, to be stationed on the frontiers to defend them against the Mantchus or Tartars. When he heard that a robber had seized the throne, his indignation exceeded all bounds, and taking 7,000 Tartars into his pay, he marched to meet the enemy. In a hard-fought battle, victory declared in his favour, and getting another reinforcement of 60,000 Mantchus and Mongols, he pressed on to exterminate the monster Li. In this he succeeded ; but when he wished to send home his Tartar auxiliaries they refused to leave, and in strong force marched on the capital. " So great was the abundance of choice and precious goods" (says a Jesuit writer, present at this period), " that the whole country, to the borders of the province of Pekin, a way of ten days' journey, lay covered with satins, and all manner of embroidered clothes — a thing incredible unless one had been an eye-witness." After the ai-my had lain CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 123 four days before the city, the Tartars were, by all the inhabitants and grandees that went into the army, received with much joy and fetched in ; whereupon Amawang, the uncle to the Tartar emperor, who com- manded the army in behalf of his nephew, asked if they would really entertain and let them in as guests ; and if they would, from that time forward, be governed by the Tartars ; at which they all cried with a loud voice, " Thousand and a thousand times, — a thousand and a thousand years, live the emperor ; " a wish used at this day to the Chinese emperor ; this ended, upon the Chinese request the young Tartar emperor followed them into the city and palace — burnt down to a heap of rubbish. The next day, the Tartars not having houses enough, turned the Chinese out of their dwellings. The Chinese, as a nation, made a better fight than is generally supposed against their invaders, — indeed, a longer and a stronger one than that of the Saxons against the Normans. They stood by one emperor after another with the energy of despair ; and when the Tartars insisted that all " loyal Chinese," that is, all obedient to themselves, should shave their heads, weara pigtail, 1 and adopt the ch iru), or Mantchu coat, the nation indignantly flewto arms,and drove an army of the Tartars into the river Yang-tze-kiang. All would now have gone well, had a patriotic tailor of Canton, one Ching che-lung, the father of the renowned Cox- inga, at that time in command of 4,000 vessels, re- mained true to his countrymen, whose cause he had up to this time assisted. But Cuing-che lung was an am- bitious tailor, with a " soul above buttons ;" he desired to be made emperor himself; which, when the Chinese, who have a great aversioa to parvenus, refused, he went over, in the critical moment, to the Tartars, who had offered him the rank of generalissimo. Landing after this to visit the Tartar general Pei-le, he was re- ceived with all the honours due to his rank. But when he again desired to return to his fleet, the Tartar cour- teously requested that he would accompany him to court. On his arrival at Pekin, he was strictly guarded at first, and shortly afterwards put to death ; but when the pirates saw these treacherous dealings, they rallied their forces under Ching-chang-kung, and ravaged the coast. The last pretender to the Ming throne, descended from the royal blood, was Yung-leih, a Christian prince, who assumed the name of Constantino. His court was 1 " Mnny," snys Sir Jo'n Davi«, "are the changes which may bo made in despotic countries, without the notice or even the knowledge of the larger portion of the community; hut nn entire alteration in the national costume affects every individual equally, from the highest to the lowest, and is perhaps of all others the most open an. I degrading mark of conquest." This order was re- sisted by many, who c use to lose tluir heads rather than part with their baiif; but the n a idnte was gradually enforced, and lias now for abi>ut two centuries been one oft e disthiffuishing marks of a Chinese, though to this day the natives of Fuhkien wear a handkerchief around their head to conceal it. It should not escape notice that a similar change accompanied the conquest ot England by the Normans. The smooth chins, short hair, and shaven lip of our own people were adopted to distinguish those obedient to the Norman rule, in contradistinction to those Saxons who manifested— by preserving the use of the long hair and beard of their ancestors, their aversion to the conquerors, and determin- ation to free themselves whenever possible. The distinction in the timic of the Sax«H, and the Norman coat, the kirtle and the cloak, w «re of the same nature. Sir Walter t'cott, in the opening Sfene if Ivanhoe. makes a special note on this point, in describing the dresa ot Cedlic tha Saxon. filled with converts, all his generals were Christians, and his wife and mother (in 1649), wrote a letter to the Pope announcing their conversion ; a patriot hero, Keaug-tsae, also appeared, and routed the Mantchu army in a pitched battle on two occasions. In a third ho fell, pierced by an arrow in the heart, — and with him died, for two centuries, the hopes of China. The Emperor Coustantine was driven from city to city, and finally found refuge in Pegu, — returning only to be treacherously strangled by Wu-san-kwei, the general who had received, as a reward for first admitting the Tartars, the principality of Yunnan and Kweichow. Coxinga alone remained to annoy the Tartar emperor. It is told of him, that when he received the news of Yung-leih's death, he was so incensed that he " attacked a Tartar fleet, sunk several of the vessels, and cut off the ears and noses of 4,000 Mantchus." These men he sent on shore ; but the Tartars put them to death, so that the shame put upon them might not spread. The brave Coxinga held out until 1GG2, having lauded upon the island of Formosa and driven out the Dutch, — who, in spite of their presumed naval superiority, could never get it back, but suffered a defeat with their whole fleet, in an engagement in which, however, Coxinga fell.' The Chinese pirate admiral, who suc- ceeded, was his son Ching-ke-san, who, at last, when tired of a roving life, and satiated with plunder, deter- mined " to die decent," and accepted from the Tartar dynasty the office of high admiral of China. With him was extinguished the last spark of open rebellion against the Tartar usurpers, — and with him perished, as was then thought, the last hope of the Ming family, whose greatness at sea was equal at one time to their splendour on the Chinese throne. We read in the "History of the Ming Dynasty," published, as we have said, in more than a hundred volumes by a Tartar emperor in 1792, that in the reign of Yung-lo, that great prince had, during twelve years, a fleet manned t>y 30,000 sailors, — which, at divers times, went to Manilla, the Molucca", Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Tonkin, Cochin China Camboya, Siam, Malacca, Bengal, and Ceylon. They speak of the Peak of Adam, and the impression of his foot (using their own term l'han-ktt, the first demon god, whom they picture with a hammer and chisel, actually hewing out the heavens !) of Calicut, Surat, Ormus, Aden, and of the sea near Medina and Mecca. They brought back to China enormous riches, and all the princes of those countries sent embassies to Yung-lo. The Empire of China has comprised one sole and undivided monarchy ever since the year of Christ 1279, but instead of being regarded from that, as a pri- vileged country, governed from time immemorial by the 8 The Tartars gave an example, on this occasion, of what can be done by a great empire to delend its interioi from the ravages of a piratical enemy. They destroyed all the tosvns, villages, and houses for a depth of two leagues alon.; the whole extent of tho coast, thus leaving a desert between the devastators and the interior of the Celestial Empire. "This memorable example," says M. Hue, "may enable us to judge what the Chinese are capable of, should they any day have to oppose themselves to the invasion of a powerful enemy. So long as they possess the conscience of the invincible force that lies in the immense extent of their territory and their vast population, they have nothing to fear from the assault of strangers. When a nation has on its side numbers and space, and it is resolved to take lull advantage of these two resources, there are always means to paralyse the learned strategy and the fulminating machines of an unjust aggressor." 124 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. A CHINESE WOMAN. same constitution, exempt from foreign conquest and intestine commotions, the only peculiarity which it possesses, in comparison with other empires which have disappeared from the earth, is, that — owing perhaps to its peninsular situation, at the extremity of the habit- able world, and its consequent exemption from the sweep of those conquering nations who changed the people whom they overthrew, — it has preserved its manners and usages, in a great measure un- altered, amidst the various revolutions and sub- j ugations which it has experienced. x There has resul ted 1 China, it ought to bo more generally known, was, in the 11th century, the victim of a "Social" Experiment. The famous Wang-ngan-che, a great philosophical politician (they have plenty ol them in Franco), got into power, when the Emperor Chen- tsoung desired to surround himself with enlightened men, and in spite of the opposition of u conservative leader, Tse-makouang (pronounced Zeinawhang), lie conducted the government on the following principles :—" The State should take the entire manage- ment of commerce, industry, and agriculture into its own hands, with the view of succouring the working-classes and preventing their being ground to the dust by the rich. Tribunals were esta- blished throughout the empire, which fixed the price of provisions and merchandise. For a certain number of years, taxes were from this state of things, alike prejudicial to the progress of a nation, and to the welfare of humanity at large, a spirit of exclusiveness which imposed, to be paid by the rich, and from which the poor were exempt. The tribunals were to decide who was rich and who was poor. The sum thus collected was to be reserved in the coders of the State, to be distributed to aged paupers, to workmen out of employ, and to whoever should be judged to be in need ot it. The btate was to have the only protection of the soil; in each district the tribunals were to assign the land annually to the farmers, and distribute amongst them the seed necessary to sow it, on condition that the loan was repaid either in grain or other possessions after the harvest was gathered, and (hear it, ye Regis- trars-General!) the officers of the tribunals should fix what kind of crop was to be grown and supply the seed for it ! Abundance and happiness were thus to be assured to the land, and the necessaries of life sold at a moderate price." The contrary took place. Everything was overturned — nothing built up— everyone ruined, every one lazy, as there was no reward for industry. At last the great philosopher statesman, finding that everyone was speaking against him, stopped all literature, and ordered that none but his own books should be read, as the people were blinded to their own good by the literary men on the other side. This was too much ; the wiso and the learned combined, and with one united clamour of the suffering people CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 125 has engendered an overweening self-conceit, and con- tempt of everything that is not Chinese, — feelings most prejudicial to intercommunication and commerce. The maxim of this government is to rule strangers or barbarians like beasts, and not like native subjects ; and hence it is not surprising that local authorities, and the people themselves, should behave towards strangers as if they were a degraded order of beings. They do not even consider treaties or agreements with barbarians binding ; insincerity and falsehood, which only lead to distrust and jealousy among themselves, become virtues when practised towards strangers ; and hence it is, that however much a number of thoughtful and earnest persons may regret that the civilization of outer races should be intruded upon an exclusive people by force of arms, still, if they will look more deeply into the matter, they will find that such action must be ultimately for the benefit of the Chinese themselves. They are trampled upon by a foreign dynasty — the country is rent by insurrection — there is little or no opening to commerce, to civilization, or to the propagation of the Gospel ; the people labour under a thousand inconveniences and absurdities hand- ed down from generation to generation, which inter- communication with other nations would soften down, if not utterly efface. They have no confidence in one another, and it is essential to their welfare and progress, that such a state of things should be remedied, and that they should, as far as possible, be impressed with a sense of truth, justice and sincerity. The ways of Providence are often obscure to the limited scope of our mental conceptions ; and the Chinese, whom some look to, as, with the Japanese, as the future dominant powers of the Far- East, will probably only be roused to a sense of their own capabilities and resources by collision with other people. VII— THE REBELS OF CHINA. The story of the " First and Last of the Mings" is the story of all China: That of Hung- Woo is being acted over again in the present rebellion under Tien- teh (pronounced Tien-tay). Shortly after the events in 1841, which led to the cession of Hong-Kong and the opening of the five ports, the Chinese Emperor Tao-kwang, who, by his haughty disdain of the barba- rous nations from without, had hurried into a war with Great Britain, and by so doing had laid the basis of civil war, and unsapped the foundations of the Mantchu dynasty, died, and was succeeded by his son, who assumed the title of Hian-fung — " Complete Abun- dance." The new emperor shut himself up in the so- called Paradise 1 — a city within a city — as large as a the Socialists were driven out of China. They passed the Great Wall in large troops, and wandered into the desert of Tartary. Here they communicated their unquiet spirit to the Mongol tribes, and the whole of Tartary was in a ferment with the refuse of Chinese civilization. Nothing was wanted but a man to organize and command, and Genghis Khan appeared. He gathered together the wild and terrible hordes of these regions, and led them in immense battalions even into Europe, crushing and over- whelming all that came in his way. 1 Ihe emperor lives by rule : but, according to the usual fashion of this people, that rule must necessarily be quite at variance with our notions. About three o'clock in the afternoon, or four at the latest, the day closes, and all retire to bed in the palace, both in winter and summer. The hour for rising is one o'clock in the morning. After he gets up, the emperor goes to wait on his mother, who, ia order to better maintain her dignity, sometimes fortified town, surrounded by flatterers, eunuchs, and concubines. A new order of things was inaugurated. Mu-chang-ha and Ki-ti were dismissed, and their suc- cessors were selected for their inveterate hostility to Europeans. It is not surprising that under these circumstances a rumour became prevalent, and was universally re- ceived, that the end of the Tsing or Mantchu dynasty was at hand. The period of the downfall was even fixed by prophecy for the forty-eighth year of the existing cycle, which corresponded to a.d. 1851. It was proclaimed that the chief who first unfurled the standard of the ancient native Chinese dynasty of the Mings would ascend the throne. Such an individual was not long wanting. He was found in the person of a youth, apparently without intellect, enterprise, or even physical courage to recommend him, but who' was declared to be a lineal descendant of the Mings, and who assumed the name of Tien-teh — "Celestial Virtue," but is also variously designated as Tye-ping, Tai-ping-wang, &c. Barely twenty-three years of age at the outbreak of the insurrection, this tool of the more secret and ambitious designs of others was always attended by an aged and mysterious counsellor, whose connection with him has never been perfectly ex- plained. The province of Kuong-si, where the insurrection first showed its- hydra-head, is a mountainous region, as vast as the estate of many a sovereign in Central Europe, in the south-western portion of the empire. The less accessible portion of this district is tenanted by the Miao-tze — a warlike, freebooting, independent race. Backed by such hardy and intrepid mountaineers, Tien-teh, or rather his generals, for he never exposed himself to the rebuke of rashness by participating in active hostilities, had little difficulty in subjecting the city of Ho, and crossing the frontiers of Kuang-si to enter into the province of Kuan-tong (Canton). The em- peror, faithful to his policy of retrogression, despatched that unscrupulous barbarian, Lin, to oppose the insur- gents. But Lin died on the way, and was succeeded by Li-sing-wen. The new imperial commissioner declines to receive him. He prostrates himself outside the door and returns. From thence he goes to light some scented sticks before an idol. Somewhat before three o'clock, the grandees of the empire, who seek audience, arrive. Business is t'-ansacted, and before sunrise all is already fiuished. In Europe, when a king shows himself in public he delights in seeing himself surroundi-d with his people, and receives with pleasure the tribute of their acclamations and homage. In Pekin, and wherever the emperor resides, whenever he goes abroad, every one closes his door, window, and shop ; however, it is notorious that the Chinese never fail to peep at him through the chinks. Not a soul dare be found upon his passage; nil have taken flight beforehand, and woe to who- ever is not fleet enough. Notwithstanding these honours, the emperor of China is a recluse in his palace of Lay-Tien, where he chiefly resides, and he knows but very little of what is going on in his state. The absurd ceremony which surrounds hiin renders him inaccessible to truth. Every communication made to him reaches him manufactured by his tat-chang, or isay-siang, the mandarins of his palace; and, besides, he is so infatuated with his pretended grandeur, so unpliable in the midst of human vicissi- tudes, so unmanageable in reverses, so terrible, so ridiculous, so implacable in his vengeance, that the great art of the court is to deceive him, and persuade him ho has been always successful. The inspectors sent into the provinces are infallibly corrupted, and the report which they give will be moulded according to custom. Thus his armies, which he supposes to be innumerable and invin- cible, have little existence except on paper, and the mandarins, who understand their trade, keep for themselves, as an addition to their salaries, the enormous sums destined for the pay of these muster rolls of soldiers. 126 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. instead of conveying Tien-teh, chained, to the foot of the throne, as he had been ordered to do, contented himself with attributing all the evils to want of energy on the p*rt of Sin, viceroy of Kuang-si. The insurrection in the meantime kept making head. All who joined in the movement cut off their pigtails, allowed their hair to grow long, and replaced the Tart ir cloak by the old garment opening in front, which was worn in the time of the Mings. The imperial com- missLmer Lin establishe 1 hishead-quarte.-s at Kuay-liu, and lie appointed as his lieutenant the ferocious Chaw- tian-tsin, governor of Ku-nan. This was the savage who cut off the lower lips of the opium smokers of Hunan. These chieftains began their crusade against the insurrectionists by putting the suspected and the compromised to death, instead of boldly attacking the insurgents. Such a mode of proceeding was naturally followed by no satisfactory results Tien-teh, although kept in the background, was invested with the canary-coloured imperial robes, and his portrait was disseminated throughout the provinces, no doubt with a view of preparing the minds of the people to the revived costume of the ancestral kings. The- emperor became exceedingly exasperated at the dimensions which the insurrection was assuming, and he despatched his prime minuter, Sai-chang-ha, accompanied by two other Miutchu Tartars, Ta-hing and Ta-sung-ha — the latter stained with the slaughter of the shipwrecked of the Nerbn Idka — to Kuay-Liu. It was at this time that the report became current that not only was Tien-teh a descendant of the kings, but that he was also a Christian, and that he overthrew idols and destroyed pagodas wherever he met them on his passage. Opinions are divided as to who eontrib ited most toward* disseminating this rumour — the insurgents, who wished to conciliate the Euro- peans, or the imperialists, who were desirous of injuring the insurgents in the opinions of the people. The progress of the insurrection, desultory as it was, was at the same time not without its fatal effects on the countries in which war was waged. The Tartar general, Hu-lan-tai, despatched from Canton to confront the rebels, was sorely worsted near Lo-w-i. Sin himself then entered upon a campaign, aided and abetted by Sam-kwa, the prefect of Shanghai, but could effect nothing either with gold or with arms, so he contented himself with sending bulletins of apochry- phal victories to the Son of Heaven. In July, 1851, an attempt was made upon the life of the emperor, and, in consequence, eighteen grand nund irius and every member of their families were put to de.ith. On the 29th of September in the same ye ir, the rebels obtained a great victory at Yung-gau, and many important cities fell in consequence into their hands. By the end of 1851, their triumphs were so numerous, that the Gazette of Pekin ceased to register the victories obtained by the Tartars, in order to record the advantages obtained by the Chinese. All the fortified towns throughout the empiro were put in a state of defence, and topographic plans were published of the progress of the insurrection, and of towns and districts that had been successively occu- pied. It is stated, that the Chinese, at the onset, spared the inhabitants, and allowed those who chose to depart with their goods, when they took possession of any new city, but that, when the peaceful merchants and tradespeople took advantage of this clemency, the Tartar troops uniformly despoliated them, and, if they attempted to defend themselves, slew them without mercy. " You are," exclaimed the indignant citizens to the Imperialists, "as mice before the rebels, and tigers to us." In the meantime Sin had offered eighty thousand taels for the head of Tien-teh, and that of his coun- cillor, that is to say, individually, twenty thousand taels less than the rebels had offered for his own cranium. But, no heads coming, he invented, in order to get back to Cauton, the abominable falseheod, and which was published in the Pekin Gazette, that the Portuguese of Macao were about to invade the Celestial Empire ! The rebels — and it is an important point to notice as a lesson for the guidance of civili:-ed nations— did not care to preserve the places which they captured. It appears that they disregarded the Foos, or first class cities, and Nans and Choos, or cities of the second and third class, with some few exceptions, alike; their object was to possess themselves of Nankin, the ancient capital of the Ming dynasty, and after levying the means necessary for paying their troops, they evacuated each town in its turn. But in a country so peculiarly centralised as everything is in China, so long as Pekin remains in the hands of the Mantclms, they will pre- serve the empire of the Central Land. So also is it there, and there only, that nations, baffled, traitorously assaulted, and subjected to all kinds and descriptions of debasing indignities at the hands of a set of miserable mandarins, must seek fur satisfaction. This victory was followed by the subjection of Hu-chu-fu, in the province of Canton. Europeans had thus a better opportunity of becoming acquainted with the tactics of the Chinese, and they ascertained that they advanced to the assault in different bodies led on by independent chiefs, but all acting in one cause — that of the overthrow of the Tartar dynasty. A new manifesto was also published by the Chinese at this epoch, which spoke, like all former ones, of a dis- memberment of the empire. W hen once they got to Fekin, it was said, the land would be divided amongst the different chieftains. This may or may not be a deception on the part of one or more leaders to procure adherents, but it is interesting to know that any de- basement of the imjieriul power by civilised nations may possibly lead to the dismemberment of this vast agglomeration of people with different habits, manners, and feelings. At the least, a confederation of feudal sovereigns would result from the inauguration of a new state of things. The different societies, so power- ful in China, already understand this perfectly, and are prepared to act in such a sense when the time pro- pitious for such a change shall ariive. In the same manifesto the decrees of Heaven are spoken of. "They have prostrated themselves," they announce, " before the Supreme Being, after having learned to worship God."l The Tartar general, Hu-lan-tai, determined upon avenging the disasters of which the province of Piug- lo had been the theatre, marched against the rebels at 1 Subsequent proclamations, more especially one issued by Yang, Zing of the East, and Sian, or Si-uang, King of the West, have not only alluded to the Supreme Lord, our Heavenly Father, who created the heaven and earth, and all that therein is in six days, and to the Old Testament, but also to the Lord Jesus, the Saviour of the world, who was incorporated in the country of Judea, and suffered for the redemptiou of mankind. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 121 the head of an army of thirteen thousand men. The forces met on the banks of the Kway-kiang, and, as usual, the Imperialists were defeated, with the loss of half their number by desertion and wounds. There- upon Sin pulled his grey moustaches with vexation, and hit upon a notable plan to repair the damage done. He sent off four thousand buffaloes with resin- ous torches attached to their horns, accompanied by four thousand soldiers, who were to turn them adrift, the torches having been previously lighted, into the insurgent camp. The rebels, warned of this clever stratagem, let the buffaloes go quietly by, and fell upon their guard, destroying one half of their number. The insurrection had spread by thi3 time to Hai-nau, that great mountainous and yet fertile island, whose aborigines have never been subjected by the Chinese, and the possession of which by Great Britain would, to a certain extent, counterbalance the power lately ob- tained by France in Cambodia and Cochin China. It appears that, as in the province of Kwang-si, the native mountaineers abetted the insurgent Chinese in their rebellion, and they soon possessed themselves of Kiungchu-fu, the capital, and of other chief towns. To the north, the insurrection had also spread into the provinces of Hn-nan and Hu-pay, •which, for brevity's sake, may be spoken under their older common name of Hu-kwang. They were hilly or rather mountainous districts, with a comparatively cold climate, and the inhabitants subsist mainly on corn and vegetables. The progress of the insurrection was not less rapid in these provinces than in the two Kwangs. Almost all the chief cities, as well as the second-class towns, fell into their hands without scarcely striking a blow. The people and their leaders alike went over to the national cause. True to their original system, the insurgents appropriated to them- selves the public treasures and Imperial tribute, but they always respected private property. As to the unlucky mandarins, they had no other alternative but to hang themselves in despair. Tien-teh remained all this time in a strong position in the mountains of Tse- king, not far from Kway-lin. That wonderfully intel- ligent viceroy, Sin, thought that he would now furthei illustrate his career by entering into negotiations with this mysterious personage. Tien-teh contented himself upon this occasion with asserting his claim to the throne as a descendant of the Mings, and declared that the time had come when the usurping Tartar dynasty of the Tsings should withdraw to their own country. A further attempt was made shortly after this to carry Kway-lin by assault, but the insurgents recoiled before so strong a place well defended with cannon. The Tartar general, Hu-lan-tai, however, received a wound on the knee upon this occasion, which was rendered fatal by national prejudices. The assistance of a surgeon was sought for from Canton ; but as no stranger was allowed to penetrate into the interior, Hu-lan-tai had to go to him, and he perished on the way ! A strange rumour also became current in this country of lies at this time. It was neither more nor less than that Tien-teh had been made a prisoner, and conveyed to Pekin in chains. The Gazette of Pekin even announced the condemnation of the pretender to death. His last dying speech and confession were also published at leugth in the same official sheet. The chief object of this notable publication was to implicate the Chang-ti, or Protestants, and more especially the secret society founded by Gutzlaff, and known as the " Chinese Union." This comedy was another offspring of the fertile and ingenious brain of Sin, the viceroy of the two Kwangs. He had got hold of a minor rebel chief, and had sent him to Pekin, ticketed as the veritable Tien-teh. In the meantime the insurgents experienced the first reverses in the north. Attacked at Chao-chu-fu, they were defeated with the loss of some four hundred men, killed, wounded, and prisoners. A few days after they experienced another defeat at Yang-chu-fu, and this was accompanied by a sad disaster to their fleet of junks, which was partly consumed in an attempt made to fire the Imperial fleet. They took their re- venge at Kway-yang, which was carried by assault, and the war, like all civil wars, having become envenomed by prolonged struggling, assumed now a more grievous aspect — the public buildings were destroyed and burnt, the mandarins were put to death, and the inhabitants who had sided with the Imperialists had to purchase their lives and property by heavy pecuniary sacrifices. The family of the Sins, the most wealthy in the pro- vince, was mulcted in the sum of 200,000 taels. Wealthy patriarchal families of this description exist in each of the eighteen provinces of the Celestial Em- pire. Three or lour generations live together, on the same property, under one ancestor ; but all have some pursuit, for in China, the opposite to us, the man who gains his bread by industry is more esteemed than he who lives upon his revenues. In the month of September, 1852, Tien-teh esta- blished his head quarters at Hing-gan, a walled city, admirably situated, and not far from Kway-lin, the head-quarters of the ingenious Sin. In the mean- time, in consonance with the political theory advo- cated by the embodiment of " celestial virtue" of a federal empire, the rebels of Hu-nan proclaimed a new sovereign, without in any way infringing the rights of the descendant of the Mings. The whole disposable force of the insurgents, estimated at eighty thousand men, next concentrated itself at Khu-chu-fu, led on by chiefs equal in their rights, preparatory to the descent of the Yang-tse-kiang, the most disastrous of all the campaigns during the insurrection. Several more towns had fallen into the hands of the Chinese. At one, Taochu, the Tartars hit upon the haopy expe- dient of turning che river upon the enemy, but it only destroyed the rats — the first time probably that the race had been exterminated by Tartars. The Emperor, humiliated by so many disasters, re- called his old and faithful councillors, Kichan and Ki-iu, to the ministry; Hing-gan, another liberal, was named prime minister, in the place of Sai-chang-ha ; our old friend Sin was appointetl to the government of the two Hus, and Y replaced him at Canton and in the two Kwangs. But with these changes of coun- cillors Hian-fung did not change his policy. The Son of Heaven never deviated in his hostility to European barbarians; not even the services which they proffered at the most trying moraencs were capable of softening down that intensity of hatred which he has sucked with his Tartar mother's milk. The rebels failed in an attack upon Chang-cha, the capital of Hu-nan, a beautiful city situated on the borders of the Siang, which flows out of a great Like into the Yang-tse-kiang, aud backed by wooded moun- tains. This city is celebrated for an annual regatta, in 128 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. CHINESE OPIUM SMOKERS. which boats, representing all the fantastic animals created by the imagination of the children of the Celestial Empire, contest for prizes. They were more successful, led on by one of their most distinguished chiefs, Tai-peug-wang, at Yt-chu, where they obtained great booty, and two hundred junks, with which they were enabled to navigate the river as far as Yang-chu- fu. Tt is to be observed here that the viceroy of the westerly and mountainous province of Kway-chu had always excused himself from sending aid to the Im- perial cause on the plea that the province was ravaged by rebels. The fact appears to be that these moun- taineers, always vassals more than subjects, have rarely, if ever, been well affected towards the Mantchu dynasty. The hilly region of Chang-tong, inhabited by a peaceable, industrious, and well-affected class of people — the birthplace of Confucius — also declared in favour of the insurrection, and slew their governor. The descendants of the philosopher dwell in this dis- trict, and number more than a thousand. They have lived there respected and honoured by all parties for now twenty centuries. Where are the descendants of the great philosophers, moralists, and of the benefactors of humanity in Europe 1 All these increasing evils were augmented by a deficiency in the funds, which began to assume an aspect as alarming as that of the insurrection. The governors of provinces could give no account of the monies entrusted to them. All they kept asking for was more money in order to be able to carry on the war. When they were moderate in their demands, they contented themselves with declaring that they had forty thousand men on foot; when they were extravagant they boasted of one hundred thousand followers. The Son of Heaven is the most impudently robbed man in his empire. His ministers rob him, the governors rob the ministers, the prefects rob the governors, and so on down to the scullion. It is one universal, organised system of plunder. Under such a pressure, the Emperor issued an edict calculated to debase a nation more than any that, perhaps, was ever before issued by terrestrial monarch. It is impossible to give it at length, albeit of rare interest ; suffice it, that it openly permits the sale of all places and dignities, even of judges, and authorises rebellion, vice, and even crime to be indemnified by money. The rebels continued, in the meantime, the descent of the Yang-tse-kiang, and obtained possession of Hu-chang-fu, the capital of the province of Hupay, and containing at that time some four hundred thou- sand inhabitants. They also succeeded in obtaining possession of one of the most remarkable districts in China, the oft described three cities, Hu-chang, Han- yang, and Han-chu, situated at the junction of the river Han with the Yang-tse-kiang ; the first on the right bank of the Han ; the second on the left, and the third on the opposite bank of the Yang-tse-kiang, and not less celebrated for their population, wealth, in- dustrial movement, and myriads of junks, than for picturesque detail of the parts and the general CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 181 magnificence of the whole. Since the period now in question, our enterprising war steamers have made their way up to this great commercial centre of China, and, alas ! found it sadly fallen off in every respect from what had been depicted by different travellers previous to the ravages of this most frightful civil war. The fact of the fall of the Three Cities of Hu-peh, certified by imperial proclamation, carried with it alarm throughout the whole empire. Not a town but made its levies, and prepared for war. The paucity of mili- tary resources possessed by China may be judged of, when it is known that Shanghai, with a large floating population (floating in the real, and not the received sense of the word), and a resident population of one hundred thousand inhabitants, could only furnish a contingent of a hundred regulars, and the same number of volunteers. The populace, especially the maritime portion, as experience has since shown, reserved them- selves for action when there were greater chances of plunder. When the Chinese party had thus obtained posses- sion of the richest province of the empire, Kiang-nan and Kiang-si, their leaders, assumed a real importance, and more correct information was obtained as to their individuality. Tai-ping-wan, we use only his assumed name, " the great pacificator," was the commander-in- chief, and he had with him four kings, his colleagues : Tung-wang, king of the east, a little spare man, about thirty-five years of age, and pitted with small-pox ; Il-wang, king of the west, young, active, and brave, the Achilles of this pleiad of kings, but since dead ; Nan-wang, king of the south, a man of letters ; and Pay-wang, king of the north, young, and of great strength and intrepidity — the hero of the insurrec- tion. Such were the five chiefs whose army now acted in concert, and they were aided and abetted by a great number of inferior officers. Two ministers are also deserving of mention, as they may play an important part should the Chinese party be successful, and carry the day against the Mantchu Tartars. One is a little, sharp, clever personage, Fung-y-chang, by name ; the other is a thin, ugly, and bony, but a highly educated man, and the author, it is supposed, of most of the proclamations issued by the insurgents ; this is the person who is believed to be a Chang-si, or Protestant, and a member of the " Chinese Union," if not an actual disciple of Gutzlaffs. His name is Chi-ta-kai. After they obtained possession of the triple city of Hu-peh, the rebels continued the descent of the Yang- tse-kiang,and occupied successively Kin-kiang, Gan-kin, and Hu-hu. Obtaining possession, at the same time, of all the junks and merchants vessels that were on the river, the five kings made their appearance before Nankin, with a formidable fleet and an army of fifty thousand men. Nankin, with its five hundred thou- sand inhabitants, had been the capital of the empire under the Ming or Chinese dynasty. What remains in the present day of this once great city, occupies, like the existing fragments of Bagdad — the city of Khalifs — only a small extent of the circuit of the walls, which embraced an area three times the extent of Paris. The land is now cultivated where there were formerly streets, and the grass grows on the quays where the junks used to lie in a triple row. Yet nothing can exceed the fertility of the province of Kiang-nan. It surpasses alike Flanders, Belgium, and Lombardy. The fertile alluvium of the Yaug-tse- kiang is furrowed by a thousand canals full of fish, and lined with bamboos and willows. The plains between are covered with yellow cotton, rice, fruit, and vegetables that yield two crops in the year. Scarlet and mother-of-pearl pheasants enliven the scene. This province alone supports thirty-eight millions of in- habitants, ten times as many as Belgium, and more than all France put together. Whilst the army of the five kings was gathered around the old monument of the Chings — the axis, as it were, of an extinct dynasty — the well-known nine- storied pagoda — the Emperor was raising his wife by proclamation in the Kin-sin-pao — the official gazette of Pekin, and the Monileur of the eighteen provinces, and of three hundred and sixty millions of people — to the rank of Empress associate. Sin was deposed, and the aid of ships purchased from the Anglo- Americans, and of rusty guns bought from the Portuguese of Macao, was sought for, but all in vain : the people of the old capital of the Chings naturally sided with those who proclaimed the revival of the dynasty, and the re-establishment of their city as the capital of the empire. Hankin soon capitulated to the insurgents, who have held it and the mouths of the Yang-tse-kiang ever since. The Chinese party may be barbarians : in that they only imitate their rivals, the Mantclms. They may have destroyed cities and massacred the inhabitants, where they met with prolonged opposition ; they may have since been beaten by the Mantchu Tartars, when they crossed the Hoang- ho, or Yellow River, on their way to Pekin; they may have manifested a hostile bearing to Europeans, owing partly to the misrepresentation of their countrymen, and partly to the attitude assumed by the Europeans themselves ; they may have treated Sir George Bonham's mission scurvily, and their chief may, in Oriental extravagance, have gone so far as to designate himself "Brother of Our Saviour." It is an Eastern expression, as they say Son of God. But they have some redeeming points about them; they have over- thrown idolatry, they receive the Word of God with the greatest deference and eagerness ; they call us brothers, and they are engaged in printing the Bible to a very large extent. There cannot be a question, then, but that, with all their faults, they present the best material with which to work out the regeneration of China. If, after the lapse of so many years, they have been unable to expel the reigning dynasty, still they hold possession of the richest and most wealthy and central provinces of the Flowery Land. Of the four most important and central marts of China, Chu-sin, on the Yellow Biver, Fu-shan, Han- chu, and King-tse-chin, three are on the vast and populous plain of the Yang-tse-kiang, and in the hands of the Chinese party. In those of the broken-down Mantchus, there only remain a few strongholds, the ports maintained by European forces, and the northerly provinces of Pe-cheli, or Pay-chi-li, Chan-si, and Chen-si. VIII.— THE GREAT RIVERS OF CHINA. The vast empire of China is divided into three valleys, by three great rivers : the Pearl River, at the sea board of which lies Canton and Hong ; the Yang- tze-kiang, or " Son of the Ocean," at the mouth of which lie Chusan and Shanghai; and the Yellow River, on the other side of which lies Pekin. It is 132 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. geographically bounded on the south and east by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by the Yn chain of moun- tains, and the Great Desert of Gobi, or the "Sea of Sand ;" to the west by the mountains of Thibet ; and to the south-west by the less elevated ranges that extend along the limits of the Burmese empire and Tonquin. The position of the Chinese empire at the present moment is truly deplorable. It is pressed upon, on the coast line, by France and England ; on the side of its northern frontier, by the Russians : and, upon the south and in the centre, by its own people, who seem resolved to extirpate the Tartar government. It will be seen that for the purposes of European trade, the river communication of China is one of the utmost importance, and to this point we must draw our readers' attention. Of the three great rivers — Canton has already made us acquainted with the Pearl — the Yellow River, from the shifting of its waters (which, of late, have destroyed the Grand Canal), is of minor importance as a means of communication from the sea board, but the Yang-tse-kiang stands unrivalled by any other river in the world, as regards its population, its wealth, and the enormous traffic that takes place on its waters. There is a greater trade carried on between the eighteen provinces of China than between all Europe and the rest of the world. If we wish to have a share in that trade, we must go up to Han-chu, 1 where we shall find a new market for our manu- factures, and means of distributing them in the interior among millions who have never heard of them. No real progress will be made till we have gained these two points — free access to the tea and silk districts and the central marts there, and the right to navigate the Ying-tse-kiang, and to enter the great cities on its banks and those of its tributaries. The population of the great plain to the Yang-tse- kiang is somewhere about one hundred millions, or about three and a-half times the population of the United Kingdom, and the navigation of the Yang-tse- kiang will afford us the means of controlling the Chinese, and dictating to them terms of fairness and justness in our intercourse. It is of the first importance that access to this district should be secured to us : it appears to be the most important mart in Asia; half the Manchester and Leeds goods that are sent to China have already found their way there. If a line of Euro- pean commerce were opened, sea-going ships would leave their cargoes at Shanghai, and steamers would be employed on the river. Compare the Yang-tse-kiang with the Mississippi, there are no two rivers so nearly alike. ' But there is this difference, that while one has a population of one hundred millions on its banks, the other has not more than ten or twelve millions. Now when we come to consider the immense number of steamers running on the Mississippi to supply the wants of those ten millions', we can form some idea of the enormous number of vessels there must be on the Yang-tse-kiang to supply the wants of that vast population of one hundred millions, or more. The Mississippi and its tributaries have in constant em- ployment more than a thousand steamboats, and many of these of very large size ; and were the same class of steamers introduced on the Yang-tse-kiang that 1 Fu signifies, in Chinese, the first order of towns ; chu, of the second; tsin, of the third; all these ore towns having walls around them. run on the American rivers — vessels drawing from thirteen inches to three feet of water — it would inevi- tably give an enormous impetus to the traffic of that great river. As we ascend the Yang-tse-kiang, the cities are found to be sadly desolated' by prolonged civil war. Han-kow, or Han-chu, is the most central spot in the empire, from whence foreign trade might radiate. The Furious, Captain Sherard Osborn, drawing sixteen feet of water, reached this great and important central mart. The river is navigable much further up, and beyond are caravan routes to Nepal and India — the ancient com- mercial line between the extreme east and the central east — before ships went to India by the Cape of Good Hope. If the Yang-tse-kiang is not the longest river in the world, being three thousand miles, if it does not drain so large an area even as the Amur — 136,800 to 145,000 square miles — it is universally admitted to be one of the most important, having so many populous cities containing one hundred millions of people on its banks, and traversing as it does the centre of one of the richest and most productive countries in the world. The trade of Shanghai in exports alone is now about £12,000,000 sterling per annum, paid for by Manchester and Leeds goods, bar silver,and opium. To what extent this trade might be extended in the valley of the Yang-tse-kiang it would be futile to speculate upon, but it opens prospects even far beyond that, and which extend to the very heart of Thibet. As you proceed up the river, it will be found that the population is not so much collected into large villages as in the south, but scattered over the country in farms and hamlets, imparting to the other- wise uninteresting scenery that air of domestic comfort and civilization which is more particularly the charac- teristic of Belgium and the low countries. Every- where the population are industriously engaged in agricultural pursuits ; not an incli of ground seems uncultivated ; not a resource neglected for increasing the fertility of the soil. The whole country is in- tersected with water communication, most of the channels being a combination of the natural and arti- ficial, and the sails of junks are visible above the level of the country, through which they seem im- pelled by some mysterious and hidden influence. In spring (about February), a thick hoar frost covered the fields in early morning, and a good coal fire is enjoyed at night. Half way up the Yang-tse-kiang, also known by the name of the Blue River, it enters the province of Seatchewean at a distance of about 900 miles to Thibet. Here,at the distance of nearly500 milesfrom thesea,isa coal district, and here also are the famous Salt Wells of Onchar, where the Chinese are in the daily habit of boring artesian wells, which not rarely pass through coal. The gas from some of these wells is used to evaporate the water and make salt, which it contains in the proportion of one-fifth. On up the river you will see officers who collect the salt duties. It is the income-tax of China — every one eats salt, and when you tax salt you tax everybody. The Yang-tse-kiang is regarded as the largest, the deepest, and the most abundant river in the world. . It passes first, as we ascend from the sea, through the province of Kiangsen and runs past Chekiang and Nankin, the capital of Southern China, now in possession of the rebels. It then passes upwards CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 133 through the province of Anhui for two hundred miles, through large towns and first-class cities, until the provinces of Hu-peh and Ha-nan are reached, the one on the north and the other on its south bank. Here grow the finest teas, which have hitherto been carried to Canton on men's backs over the mountains, instead of being placed on board our sliips, which can sail up here, if permitted. Here are lakes, narrow rivers, and canals intersecting the country on all sides ; and just here the Yang-tse-kiang unites with the river Han, at a spot about which are concentrated the three great trading cities of China, Wu-chung, Han-nan, and Han- kow, or " the Mouth of Commerce," which three cities are said to contain eight millions of population. Through the great province of Hu-peh the river flows, passing the great cities of King-chan and Tchang, with water deep enough for 300 tons burthen ; indeed, there are no rapids, though the bottom is rocky, until we reach up to Kwei, which is 900 miles from the sea. When the snow melts upon the Thibetian mountains, the river is full, and the falls can be floated over ; but these portions may be canalised. Here begin the coal fields of the Yang-tse-kiang ; but above Kwei the river is deep and broad as the Canton river, and joins the Kialing river, which runs through the province of Yunnan, and on to Thibet and Burmah, where already English enterprise has pushed a trade over the Burmese territory from our own possessions on the Irrawaddi, so that English enterprise is prepared to compete with the Chinese trade on both of her frontiers. Take the description of travelling on the Yang-tse-kiang on two points, we find it as follows : For two hours we followed narrow tortuous paths, now winding among hills of red earth, where cotton and indigo grow in abundance, now returning through valleys between verdant plant- ations of rice. Soon we caught sight of the lake of Ping-hoe, whose blue surface, slightly ruffled by a slight breeze, glittered in the sun as if covered with innumerable diamonds. Three boats lay ready for us at the bank, our party were soon embarked ; long sails, made of bamboo, and folded like fans, were quickly hoisted, and we pushed off. The wind being insuffi- cient, its place was supplied by numbers of rowers ; towards noon, however, the wind strengthened, and carried us rapidly over a magnificent lake. We encountered boats, of every size . and shape, carrying passengers and merchandise, as well as numerous fishing smacks, distinguished by the black nets hung on the mast. The various vessels passing and re- passing, with their yellow sails and striped flags, the vague indefinite murmur floating around, the aquatic birds hovering over the lake and diving suddenly after their prey, all this presented a most charming and animated picture to the eye. We passed several floating islands, those curious productions of Chinese industry, which no other people seem to have thought of. These floating islands are enormous rafts, generally constructed of bamboos, which resist the decomposing influence of the water for a long time. Upon the raft is laid a tolerable thick bed of vegetable soil, and thanks to the patient labour of a few families of aquatic agriculturists, the astonished traveller beholds a whole colony living on the surface of the water, in pretty houses, with their gardens, as well as fields and plantations of every sort. The inhabitants of these farms seem to enjoy peace and abundance. During the leisure time that is not occupied by the culture of their rice fields, they employ themselves in fishing, which is at the same time a pastime and a source of profit ; often after gathering a crop of grain from the lake, they cast their nets and bring up a harvest of fish from its depths, for these waters teem with creatures fit for the use of man. Many birds, particularly swallows and pigeons, build their nests in these floating isles, and enliven the peaceful and poetic solitudes. Towards the middle of the lake, we encountered one of these islands, on its way to take up a fresh position. It moved very slowly, although there was a good deal of wind, and large sails were attached to the houses, as well as to the corners of the island ; the inhabitants, men, women and children, lent their strength to aid its progress by working at large oars, but their efforts did not seem to materially increase the speed at which they moved. However, these peculiar mariners do not probably trouble themselves much about delays, as they are sure of sleeping on land, at whatever place they may go. Their migrations are often without any ap- parent motive. Like the Mongols in their vast prairies, they wander at will; but more fortunate than these latter, they have constructed for themselves a little solitude in the midst of civilization, and united the charms of a nomadic life to the advantage of a sedentary abode. These floating islands are to be found on all the great lakes of China, and at first sight present an enchanting picture of happiness and gaiety, whilst it is impos- sible not to admire the ingenious industry of these Chinese, so singular in all their proceedings. But when you consider the cause of their construction, the labour and patience necessary for their creation, by people unable to find a corner on the solid earth on which to establish themselves, the smiling picture assumes a darker tint, and the mind endeavours vainly to pene- trate the future of a race so numerous that the land will no longer hold it, and which has sought a resting- place on the surface of the waters. 1 1 The traveller in the Celestial Empire, reflecting on the count- less myriads of inhabitants whose numbers increase year by year with frightful rapidity, is almost tempted to wonder that China should not experience one of those exterminating scourges by which providence arrests from time to time the rapid increase of too fertile races. The population of China has been the subject of much debate among European authors, who had no means of coining to exact conclusions. The Chinese statistics are, nevertheless, kept with care, and in each province the heads of families are required to inscribe their number in registers kept for the purpose, and the total number are collecteJ and published. The method of regis- tration has varied much even in modern times ; numerous classes of non-ratepaying individuals have been omitted from the census, and hence results the difference in the calculations of the Chinese population presented to us at different times. The fol- lowing account appears to be equally authentic, though the largest number surpasses the smallest by 183,000,000: In 1743, according to Father Arniot, 150,265,475; in 1761, according to Father Halleratein, 198,214,552; in 1794, according to Lord Macartney, 333,000,000. The most recent census, taken under the Mantchu dynasty, raises the total number up to 361,000,000. We have not the information necessary to examine this calculation and decide with certainty; but we do not doubt the correctness of the estimate, in spite of the enormous number registered. It is easy to form perfect opposite ideas of the population of China, according to the route by which you traverse it. If, for example, in the centre provinces, you travel along the roads, you would be led to believe the country much less populous than it really is. The villages are lew and far between, the waste lands so considerable that you might at times fancy yourself in the plains of Tartary. But traverse the same province by the canal or rivers, and the aspect of the country is entirely changed. Often you pass high cities containing not less than two or three millions of inhabitants ; whilst smaller towns and great villages follow each other in almost uninterrupted succession. It is difficult to conceive where these numberless multitudes, whose mere habitation seems to 134 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. Speaking of Wuchang, the same one of our emissaries informed us that " the river at this place resembles a great arm of the sea. Multitudes of enormous junks were moving rapidly down or slowly up this ' River Child of the Sea,' as the Chinese call it. The wind was blowing from the south, which was favourably enough for us, as we only wanted a side wind, but it was extremely violent, and as the passage boats we found stationed at the shore appeared much too slight for stormy weather in these impetuous waters, we hesitated a little before embarking in them. Tho example, however, of many other travellers who made no difficulty having re- assured us, we entered a boat which soon carried us away with almost terrific rapidity. When we were near the middle of the river, we met with a squall that sent our boat so much on her side that her sails for a moment touched the water. At length, after a passage of three-quarters of an hour, we arrived, without acci- dent, in the port of Wuchang, where we were detained more than two hours opening a passage for ourselves through the prodigious mass of junks in the anchorage." Of the country on the river banks, he says — " Along the road we met groups of little Chinese children, with large straw hats, leading goats, asses, or enormous buffaloes, to feed on the grass that grows in the ditches by the road Bide. You can hear the prattling of the little creatures quite far off, and see them capering and jumping. Large trees are on the road side, and not seldom, it must be said, swarms of mosquitoes, whose stings render an evening, already too hot, by no means more supportable." IX.— THE MARITIME CITIES OF CHINA. Having now accomplished our object, in giving the reader some insight into the inside life of China — that is, the portion of the country not immediately on the sea-board — we will proceed on our voyage. The six main busy provinces — which are almost nations — known out of the eighteen vast divisions of which China is constituted, are Kwan-twang, or " The East Plain," with 20,000,000 of population ; Fuh-kien, " The Consummation of Happiness," with 15,000,000 ; Cheh-kiang, "The Country of the Winding River" (Yang-tse-kiang), with 20,000,000; Kiang-fu, "The Country of the Happy River " (the Yellow River), with 38,000,000; Shang-tang, "East of the Mountains," with29,000,000; and Pecheli, "The Supreme Province," with 29,000,000. It is to open up a special trade with these provinces that we demand a right of trading with the ports of Canton. Amoy, Ningpo, Shanghai, and Chusan were opened by the treaty of Nankin, and those of New-chang, Tang-chou, Tai-wan (the island of Formosa), Chau-chou (Swatow), and Kiang-chou (or the isle of Hainan, at the extreme point of China), by the treaty of Tien-tsin. To inspect some of these ports, and to get an insight into Chinese life aud habits is the object of our present run along the shore upwards fromHong-kong to the Gulf of Po-che-li. Chinese nature, as you pass along the coast, presents a cheerless and in- hospitable aspect ; occasionally you see a fishing village j ust rise above the sterility and barrenness of the huge moun- tain of yellow sand and surf-beaten rocks ; then a battery very like a sand-heap, then a pagoda, then a convoy of cover the whole surface of the land, can find means of subsistence; and the estimate of 361,000,000 would seem rather under thau over the troth. trading junks at anchor in a rock-bound bay, hidden by three pyramidal hills ; that is Swatow, where there is a great trade in sugar, brought over from Formosa to be refined, and afterwards exported to various ports of China. As the frequent piracy perilled these valuable cargoes, it became customary for the Chinese merchants to hire foreign vessels, and hence, in spite of the Chinese authorities, a very extensive trade has sprung up. Swatow is also the centre of a Coolie emigration or exportation to Havanna and Callao, and there are tales told here that would make a slave captain shudder. The men of Swatow are fine sturdy fellows, most of them in turbans of dark blue nankeen, and the women wear picturesque dresses, all of the gayest colours. The head dresses of the young girls are very pretty — their hair plaited in a long tail, which is wound round and round the head, terminating in a tassel behind. A round black silk or velvet band encircles the upper part of the forehead, and has generally a gaudy jewel in front; a fine flower jauntily ■ placed on one side of the head completes her head- dress. Others have the hair curiously worked up into shape. Handsome gold ornaments and flowers taste- fully placed give the head of a pretty girl a fine appearance. We went to see a play here, and arrived just as the drums banged and the cymbals clashed for a fighting scene, as they always do, to give effect to the blows. The dresses were capital, and the wardrobe extensive. The heroines were played by men ; one in particular acted remarkably well, and the studied attitudes, even to the position of the fingers, were admirable. In one furious scene, where the heroine had been going through a terrific piece of fierce decla- mation, in a high falsetto, she threw herself (or rather himself), in the height of injured innocence, into a chair, and hiding her face from the spectators, as in the deepest grief, quietly expelled her quid, invisibly to them, but bringing the sublime much too near tho ridiculous for us who were at the side scenes. There is no use attempting to describe a Chinese play. Grand dresses, marches, processions, kowtowing, fighting and quarrelling, are jumbled in inexpressible confusion. The actors, in the absence of play-bills, coolly walk forward and proclaim who they are, sometimes even hold up a placard with the title on it ; make no diffi- culty about distance, pretend to get on a horse, no horse being on the stage, and then say : " I have now arrived at such a place." Most of their plays relate to old Chinese times, their costumes being almostinvariably such as were used previous to the Tartar invasion. Their travelling apparatus is well arranged, being packed in gaudily painted boxes, which form seats behind the stage, and are, we believe, also fitted up for cooking, another as a dressing stand, for washing and painting their faces ; some of their faces are most curiously painted to represent demons, or more often terrible creatures. From here to Namoa, a literary island and a collegiate city; which is famous for litle else than its den of opium smokers and opium dealers, who, at the base of the barren hills on the sea shore, have established a trading station. The island bay, near the city, swarms with small craft, whose industrious owners, a hardy class, working naked, make us wonder why China wants a navy, and by no means feel astonished "that with such a government she has sucha pirate-population on her shores. From here to Amoy barren rocks and sharp blowing sand and nothing worth looking at, but the Chapel Island, which the sea CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 135 has tunnelled through. The first thing that strikes you as you land at Amoy, passing up what looks like a deep bay, but is only made by another island, Kolungsu, is the spot where the English fleet "blew out of the water" — the only Chinese fleet that ever dared to face them. The town itself looks like a wooden Wapping, and has two long streets of open shops, — cranky concerns, full of ugly-looking meat (you think of cannibals and dog-eaters when you see such joints), and bread that looks like honey-soap. The streets are narrow, and the perpetual " Ah- ho" of the palankeen bearers causes fresh confusion every instant. Of course, the English live in good houses. The trade is mostly in teas and silks, but Amoy is not so well situated as its rival, Shanghai. Every one we met was smoking a pipe, not of opium, but of good honest tobacco. 1 We were not sorry to leave Amoy and forge along to the rocky mouth of the Min river on our way to Foo-chow, the sea-port of Fuh-kien, which sells us fifty millions of pounds weight of tea, and takes only 100,000£. of our goods, besides some million and a half of bullion away from us ; for, as for coin, the Chinese have nothing of it, so far as silver and gold are concerned. 3 They say that Foo-chow or Fu-chu, is not a good place for teas, which are there, as 26 to 18 in price, compared with Fun-chun, a place at some short distance above ; but it has always been the greatest trading- place of the two, and the Chinese must know best. We were compelled to get into a boat at the mouth of the river, for we had still 25 miles to go up to the city. This Chinese boating is very pleasant ; imagine a gondola style of craft, thirty feet long by six broad, with the sails, if the wind blows fair, and ten oarsmen, if that fails ; carrying out the contrary as usual, they push, instead of pull, the oar, to the accompaniment of that singularly inharmonious chant. It was a long and tedious pull, for the tide was against us, and the night had fallen, and we could only see the dark tops of the mountains, and an occasional village light, and hear the hoarse gurgling of the murky waters, as the tide rushed by our frail, gimcracky habitation. At 1 The use of tobacco has become universal throughout the empire ; men, women, children, everybody smokes almost without ceasing. They go about their daily busiuess, cultivate the fields, ride on horseback, and write, constantly with the pipe in their mouths. During their meals, if they stop for a moment, it is to smoke a pipe ; and if they wake in the night, they are sure to amuse themselves in the same way. It may be easily supposed, therefore, that in a country containing three hundred millions of smokers, without counting the tribes of Tartary and Thibet, who lay in their stocks in the Chinese markets, the culture of tobacco has become very important. Any one may grow it. There is no tax. The favourite tobacco is that of Leao-tong, in Mantchuria, and in the province of Tse-chouen. The leaves are variously pre- pared, according to the locality ; in the south they cut them extremely fine; in the north they rub them up coarsely, and put them in their pipes. Snuff-takers are less numerous than smokers. Tho Mantchu Tartars are, however, great in using this "smoke for the nose," as the Chinese call it. The Chinese carry snuff, not in boxes, but in phials. 2 Tho Chinese have no silver or gold coin of their own. Silver in "shoes" of various sizes, generally about fifty taels (16/. worth), and golden bars or leaf are used where foreign money is not current. The banker puts his stamp upon it, and the "touch" is thereby guaranteed. Any tampering with the quality is rare. In Canton foreign dollars are so marked by the guaranteeing stamps, that the original character of the coin is often obliterated ; and in the north, where Carolus dollars, unstamped, are pre- ferred, it used to be the custom to mark them with the banker's seal in ink. last we reach the Pagoda anchorage, where the opium ships are lying, and row past the low- land paddy plantations, near the wheat-field shore, through the floating city of junks, under the beautiful bridge of 200 arches, until we reach our landing-place, near tho Viceroy's palace, where reigns a sepulchral stillness. 3 Up through lanes dismal in. the lantern's shade — up dirty, ragged, stone-fenced streets — down in deeper arches than before, only to go up stone steps, one above the other, an immense height, and then into a house where English faces welcome us. Foo-chow is a won- derful place, and has a balance of trade to the extent of a million and a half in gold and silver against us. We ordered chairs next morning, and set out to see the city. The streets are narrow, and you go in Indian file, yotir bearers shouting all the while to make way. Over the bridge we went, which is twelve feet wide and about twelve thousand feet in length. The bridge path is narrowed by stalls to eight feet, and this is crowded. Twice we were lifted and 'held up outside the bridge, over the parapet, while a Mandarin, with a grand cortege, passed by. The bridge is old, but strong as petrified rock,' and made of immense stones. Here were the people, everywhere as usual, as busy as bees in a hive.' 4 „^ 3 When they see Europeans spend hours in walking for the mere sake of the exercise, the Chinese ask if it is not more conformable to civilised ideas to sit down quietly, to smoke, and drink tea, when you have nothing else to do, or, still better, to go to bed at once. The idea of meeting to spend the greater part of the night in amusements and gaiety has not yet presented itself to them. They are like our worthy ancestors before they hit upon a way of prolonging the day till midnight, and the night till noon. All the Chinese, even of the higher class, go to bed in time to get up at sunrise — New Year's Day, and certain family festivals excepted. On these days they do not allow themselves a moment's repose. In general, they follow the course of the heavenly bodies in their arrangements of day and night. At these hours, which in the great cities of Europe are the most noisy and tumultuous, the cities of China enjoy the most profound tranquillity. Every one has returned unto his family ; all the shops are closed ; the boat- men, the mountebank, the public reader, have finished their sittings, and nothing like business is to be seen, except, perhaps, in a few theatres, which depend mostly on the working classes, who have only the night at their disposal, in which they enjoy the favourite amusement of seeing a play. 4 Nothing strikes the stranger's mind more forcibly than the energetic, never-tiring industry of the Chinese. All seem to be hard at work — even the beggars perspire with their continual calls for cash. Each profession by itself, and every man in his place, are busy at work ; many of the operatives do not raise their heads to see the chair of the " Western Devil." Go through a thickly-settled street, among the mechanics at Paris, London, or New York, and everything you see done there you will find being executed in China, only with simpler utensils, and in a slower manner, but with greater perfection. Tho Chinese have little to learn from us; we cannot point to a practical discovery that experience has not already taught them. Their dress is the most comfortable and cheapest; their boats suit all their wants, and each is best adapted for its own waters; they have had water-tight partitions for ages ; they make most beau- tiful silks with the simplest possible loom; their tools are less costly and more handy than ours; their, saw requires far less iron than ours, their bellows gives a constant draft of air, and is merely an oblong or cylindrical box with a piston worked in it. In their water-mills for grinding flour, there is no trouble or expense in keeping the machinery in order while at work ; to each pivot or axle a small bamboo pipe constantly supplies a dropping of water, which prevents all heating from friction. In propelling their boats the powerful scull admits of a child doing as much work as a man with us. If the Tyne keel3 or tho Thames barges were fitted with a long, bent, well balanced Chinese scull, hung only on a small iron pivot, and with a rope on board to give extra pressure, one man would do the work of at least two with half the exertion. The Chinese system of agriculture combines all that we have only just reached by a long course cf 136 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. The pawnbrokers are most systematic in their deal- ings, and squeeze their customers with the avaricious perseverance of Jews, while the private banking esta- blishments are conducted on the European principle. Although coolies are passing to and from the banks with cash, the currency most in use for small amounts is paper, signed and countersigned with remarkable perfection and ingenuity. 1 The women of Foo-chow are by no means ashamed of being seen. They have fine sturdy figures, dress their hair prettily, and have a fine healthy bloom on their cheeks. They do most of the carrying work, and are remarkably neat and clean. They wear little white aprons, the folds of which are carefully puckered and plaited. They do not follow the small-foot fashion and the little toddling step of the Canton belles, but step out firm and free. A peasant woman of Foo-chow will carry two chests of tea, each weighing one hundred pounds, from the city to the river, and make light of it. The Tartar women (there is a Tartar quarter here) wear their hair all drawn back from the forehead, and fastened in a knot behind with a sort of skewer stuck through it, at the end of which is a flower ; they wear unmentionables, appear to be stuck into wide loose stockings, generally very dirty, and shoes with amazingly thick felt soles often down at the heels. You see about as much out of the city as in — the same shops, tradesmen, and active stir of everyday life. 3 The walls of the city are some thirty feet in height, and expensively ornamented over the several gateways, all of which are composed of granite foundations, finished off with bricks. These walls are some eight miles in circumference, and there are seven gates for entrance. The most prominent public buildings are the Treasury Department, and the houses, (or yamuns) of the various officials; the Confucian Temple, des- troyed some time since by fire ; the Temples of the " God of War," the " Goddess of Mercy," the residence of the Viceroy, and the college, jail, L. 1. TOILET OF A JAPANESE LADY N CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN tainments given, by kings anil nobles to the emperor were often ruinous to them. The women of Japan, according to the same old traveller, were rigidly secluded, even more so than among the Muhammadaus ; but they had many plea- sures — gardens, fishponds, arbours, summer-houses, half a-shore and half over the water, and all sorts of landbirds and waterfowl, musical instruments, and such like. Plays were represented, and feasts and banquets constantly occur. Their dress was of different coloured silk ; each, according to the rank they hold, or the post assigned them, wearing an appointed colour. The revenues of the nobles arise out of the various products which their territories afford. Some lands yield corn; some, gold and silver; others, copper, iron, tin, or lead; others again, timber, hemp, cotton, or silk. The emperor disposes of the fisheries, more particularly of the whale fisheries, once a source of large revenue, but now almost in the hands of Ameri- cans and others. The Japanese are neither very superstitious, nor are they over-religious; they do not pray either in the morning or the evening, and the most religious scarcely go to the pagoda more than once a month. At the same time the number of pagodas in Japan is incredibly large. The priests reside in them, from two to twenty in a community, according to the size of the buildings. The priests naturally side with the nobles in keeping the people and the middle classes in ignorance and slavery ; the military and the priests are more or less despotic; and in tliis system, all the evils of feudalism being superadded to a pure and irresponsible despotism, are to be traced the long seclusion of the nation. Only let the merchants and the industrious classes once feel their importance in the social state, and such a seclusion would soon become impossible. All the necessaries and luxuries of life are produced in the empire. It yields gold, silver, copper, and lead in abundance, and furnishes also cotton cloth, goat- skins, an annual quantity of one hundred thousand peculs of silk, and between three and four hundred thousand peculs of silk-cotton (the produce of the Bambax jieniandruni), a great many deerskins, timber, and all kinds of provisions in much greater abundance than is requisite for the subsistence of the inhabitants. Japanese ware and Japan work has been celebrated from a remote antiquity. It is alluded to in the " Arabian Nights' Entertainments." The climate of Japan is said to be happy and health- ful, but subject to extremes of cold in winter and of heat in summer ; this, however, must vary much in different islands. It rains frequently, with much thunder and lightning. The sea, which encompasses the islands, is very rough and stormy, which, with many rocks, cliffs, and shoals, above and under water, makes its navigation very dangerous. There are also two remarkable and dangerous whirlpools. Water- spouts are also frequently observed to rise in the Japanese seas. The natives fancy that they are a kind of water-dragon. Earthquakes are so common that the natives think no more of them than we do of an ordinary storm. Yet, sometimes, whole cities are destroyed, and thousands of inhabitants buried under the ruins. Such a dreadful accident happened, as Father Lewis de Froes relates (" De Rebus Japonicis collecto a Joh. Havo"), in the year 158G. Koempfer relates that, in 1703, by an earthquake, and fire that followed thereon, almost the whole city of Yeddo, and 179 the imperial palace itself, were destroyed and laid in ashes, and upwards of 200,000 inhabitants buried under the ruins. 1 There are burning mountains in several of the islands, some of which seem to be of volcanic origin, but others to be chemical phenomena. Coal is also said to abound. In some parts the natives use naptha instead of oil. Amber is abundant, and the pearl fishery is prosecuted with success. Amongst the chief trees are the mulberry, varnish- tree, various laurels and bays, camphor-laurel, the tea- shrub, sansio (used instead of pepper or ginger), nV- trees, chesnuts, walnuts, oranges, lemons, grapes, &c., cfcc. The superiority of the Japan varnish is owing to the virtues of the neusi, or varnish- tree, described by Koempfer in his " Amaenitates Exoticae." Such is about the state of information which we possessed of this remarkable country, previous to the late expeditions of the Anglo-Americans and of the English, and the researches of the naturalist Siebold. 1 The islands of Japan are essentially mountainous and rocky, being chiefly of volcanic origin. Nip-pon is traversed throughout its whole length by a chain of mountains, some of whose peaks are clad with perpetual snow. The waters flow on the one side to the Sea of Japan, on the other to the Pacific. According to the Japanese annals, Mount Fusi or Fusiyama, the loftiest mountain of all Japan (3793 metres), rose out of the earth 285 yeprs B.C., and an enormous depression gave rise, at the same time, to the great lake Mitzen, or Oits (Biwake, in Siebold's map). Fusi was for a long time an active volcano : some of its eruptions have been frightful and were accompanied by the most terriblo devastation from lava and earthquakes. It has, however, been now quiescent for upwards of a century. So late, however, as the 23rd of December, 3854, an earthquake nearly destroyed the port and town of Simoda, and with them the Russian frigate Diana, which, having been hunted over the Pacific Ocean by the English fleet, had finally taken relugc in the Japanese waters. The story is told as follows in Commodore Perry's " Voyage :" — "On the arrival of Commander Adams at Simodi, ho found a great and sad change in the physical aspects of the place. In the interval of his absence from Japan (on the 23rd of December, 1S54) an earthquake had occurred, which was felt on the whole coast of Japan, doing some injury to the capital, Yeddo, completely destroying the fine city of Ossia, on the south- eastern side of Nipon, and leaving abundant evidences of its ruinous effects at Simoda. Every house and public building on the low grounds has been destroyed; a few temples and private edifices, that stood on elevated spots, were all that escaped ; and sixteen structures were all that was left of what was once Simoda. The inhabitants told Commander Adams, that the destruction was not caused by the immediate agitation of the earth, but by the sea which it occasioned, and which regularly followed the shocks. According to the statements of the Japanese, the waters in tho bay and near the shore were first observed to be violently agitated; they soon began rapidly to retreat, leaving the bottom of the harbour, where usually there were nine feet of water, neatly bare. The water then rushed in upon the land, in a wave five fathoms above its usual height, and, overflowing the town up to the tops of the houses, swept everything away. The frightened inhabitants fled to the hills for safety ; but, before they could reach their summits, they were overtaken by the climbing waters, and hun-' dreds w.ere drowned. Tho waters retreated and returned in this manner five several times, tearing down everything, and strewing the adjacent shores with the wrecks, and ruins of houses prostrated, and vessels torn from their anchorage. Tho Russian frigate Diana, bearing tho flag cf Admiral Pontiatine, was lying in tho harbour at the time. Tho Russian officers told Commander Adams, that, when tho waters retreated, the mud b riled up from the bottom in a thousand springs. When they came in, they boiled like a maelstrom, and such was their velocity and force, that the frigate actually made forty-three complete revolutions in the space of thirty minutes. Their anchor had been let go in six fathoms ; when the waters retreated, they could sec it, and had but four feet of water alongside. Her rudder, f tern part, and a great part of her keel wero knocked off and lost, and her bottom much injured. In the endeavour to carry her across tho bay for repair, she sank. The Japaneso speedily set to work to rebuild and refit the town, which is now again a flourishing one. 180 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. The progress made by the Anglo-Americans, in breaking down the exclusive barriers of this old country, is sufficiently attested by the fact that they have induced this secluded nation, which neither tra- velled nor permitted travel, to send a mission to the United States. The Americans have, indeed, a just right to impel a stubborn nation to acts of common humanity. Japan had not only refused to hold commercial intercourse with the rest of the world — a very questionable right — but she went further; and occupying, as she does, an enormous extent of seacoast, she not only refused to open her ports to foreign vessels iu distress, but actually opened her batteries (such as they are) upon them when they approached within gun-shot of her shores, and when driven upon them by stress of weather, she seized upon, imprisoned, exhibited in cages, and actually murdered the crews of such ill- fated vessels. " This," argued the Americans, " has been submitted to too long already ; and the constant increase of our ■whale fleet, and the consequent increase of disasters in this barbarous and inhospitable region, have com- pelled our government, unjjrompted except by wise foresight, to insist upon a reform in the policy and bearing of the Japanese towards the rest of the world. The single fact, that at one time within the last year there were 121 American whalers lying in the harbour of the Sandwich Islands, far away from their cruising grounds, because they could not enter any harbour on the coast of Japan for repairs, shows not only the extent of our commerce in that region, but the claims of humanity itself for protection against the barbarians who thus cut off, as it were, the commerce of the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Ochotsk." (The Sea of Japan might have been added.) To carry out this notion, Commodore Perry, of the U.S. Navy, cast anchor in the Bay of Yeddo, the com- mercial capital of Japan, on the 8th of July, 1853, and speedily, on the 23rd of August, to his great surprise, found his party strengthened by the appear- ance of a Russian fleet; 1 the frigate Pallas, and the steamer Vostock, the Aurora, 48, and the corvette, Navarino, 22, being sent up to Kamschatka, to be close in readiness, if required, and a powerful squadron having been told off to cruise in the Pacific. Commodore Perry succeeded in carrying a treaty by which three ports, Nagasaki, Hakodaki, and Simoda were thrown open to trade, and every port on the Japanese coast was opened to vessels in distress. The results of this treaty, and a similar one effected by Admiral Stirling, on the part of England, not beim* entirely satisfactory, Lord Elgin proceeded from China 1 " There is no power in tlic other hemisphere," says the nar- rator of Commodore Perry's voyage, " to which the possession of Japan, or the conduct of its affairs, is so important as it is to Russia. She is on one side of the islands (by the Amoor), the United States on the other. The Pacific Ocean is destined to be the theatre of immense commercial undertakings. Russia is, in a great degree, shut out from easy access to the Atlantic by her local position ; but with such harbours as the Pacific or Japan would give her, she might hope to beeome the controlling mari- time power of the world." Wo are in possession of very recent information from Japan, tending to show that the Japanese government distrust the purposes of Russia. The movements of that nation on the Ainoor River have been viewed with much apprehension. The Japanese, on the report of a special agent sent for the purpose, have resolved to raise an efficient army and equip a navy of vessels on the European model, and to open Japan to the trade of the world. in 1858, and going right up to Yeddo itself, in a manner at once original and unexpected, concluded a treaty which granted all the European powers the right of free trade, under very slight limitations, with Japan. Of what happened in his voyage, and what was seen in Japan, we intend to give a vivid outline as likely to convey to our readers the best idea of Japan as it is. IT.— BAY AND HARBOUR OF NAGASAKI. "Hard a-starboard, sir !" exclaimed the gallant Sherard Osborn's Palinurus, and as the Bpokes of the wheel flew round, the ship turned sharply into the fine channel of water, leading up to Nagasaki. That city faced us, says the captain, spread round the base of a hill at the farther end of the harbour, and having immediately in front of it a rude collection of hybrid European houses, with a flag-stafl' on the artificial island of Decima, where the Japanese had held the Dutchmen voluntary prisonersever since the expulsion of the Portu- guese in 1G13. The poor Dutchmen endured insults, restraints and contumely, rather than forego certain ad- vantages in carrying out Japanese copper and retailing it to Europeans at an enormous profit. Long suffering and enduring vendors of strong Dutch cheese, Zealand butter and pleasant schnapps, relief came at last ! The Japanese Emperor was astonished to find the belligerent powers of Russia and England, playing a game of hide- and-seek, in his many bays and harbours, and wisely concluded that the orthodox old Lady of Moscow, whose dominions approached suspiciously close to Japan, might one day think it as Christian-like to rob a Buddhist as a Muhanirnadan neighbour. He has very wisely departed from the ancient laws of his realm, and has sought for aid and protection where, strangely enough, he can find them, in the friendship of four or five nations who cordially dislike and are jealous of each other. A long ford of blue water stretches two miles inland between sloping hills, which spring from the sea with a bold, rocky escarpment, and then roll gently back, rising to an altitude of a thousand feet or so; and these are overlooked by still more lofty giants — every mountain-side covered with all that can gladden a landscape, and down every ravine gladsome streams rushing on to the sea. Here a village, there a quaint bark anchored in a sandy cove ; now an official abode, with a square-cut terrace and upright fence, so properly stiff-starched and queer, you felt sure you had only to' knock, and that one of the Barnacles of society would appear; then, resting in the midst of green trees and flowery gardens, were the prettiest chalets seen out of Switzerland: children, with no clothes at all, rolling on the grass, or tumbling in and out of the water, whilst their respected parents, with but few habiliments to incommode them, gravely moved their fans, or sat gazing upon the newly arrived vessels. Oh ! it was a goodly sight; but they were all in the mood to be pleased : and had the sky been less clear, the air less bracing and the climate as bad as that of China, they would assuredly still have admired it. In former days, a chain of guard-boats used to extend across the gate of this Japanese paradise. One of our men-of-war, during the Russian war, nearly paddled over them; and we too, it had been determined, were not to be stopped by them. The Japanese officers of the present day are far wiser in their generation than those who, when the frigate of Sir Israel Pellew forced CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, her way into the harbour during the French war, dis- embowelled themselves rather than survive the disgrace. They found all the boats removed and made fast in by the shore. One officer, more anxious than the rest to do his duty, or, Asiatic-like, desirous of ascertaining to what lengths he might go, stood up in his boat as we came abreast of him and mildly gesticulated with his fan (the everlasting emblem of office in Japan) for them to go back again ! They would fain not have seen it, but of course the officious signalman im- mediately reported that there was a Japanese officer waving. A spy-glass was brought steadily to bear on him; the wretch was about fifty yards off; the action of the fan became at once less violent, then irregular, as if the waver of the fan was in a decline, then a spasmodic jerk: the glass was kept steadily on the wretch (we feared lest the Ambassador should see him and then cry halt !) — there was a pause, another flutter — hurrah ! He put up his fan, and retired under his awning, beaten. He had only to perform hari- kari or disembowelment, and they might proceed, giving the officious signalman orders not to make non- sensical reports of every Japanese who chose to fan himself ! As the silver dawn spreads over the land and water, that lovely mountain, Fusi-yama, the type of the beau- tiful to the whole Japanese nation, is seen stepping like a coy maiden from her veil and her robes of cloud to gaze upon all the loveliness spread at her feet. The scene lasts but a few minutes, — would it could have been for ever ; but the bold sun leaps upon the crests of the eastern hills, and Fusi-yama retires blushing from his fierce gaze. The bay and beach are quickly alive with moving beings, hundreds of fishing-boats skim the water, pressing in with the last of the night- breeze to secure an early market. The number of full-grown men in each boat attests the redundancy of the population. Stout athletic fellows they are, smooth-skinned, bronze-coloured, and beardless ; but their large muscles and deep chests attest the perfection of their physique . They look at the English without fear or distrust, and as they bend on their oars shout out some joke or salutation. The morning breeze is cold and damp, the sun has not dispelled the low thin mist creeping along the surface of the bay from the lowlands to the north, and they are wearing blue clothing with comfort, yet all the boatmen are naked, with the exception of a small blue waist-cloth, and another strip of material tied tight over their nose ! Why do the Japanese, asks Captain Sherard Osborn, tie up their noses? We have often asked, for one cannot but believe that there is sDme good reason why a naked man should voluntarily lash up his nose. Can a Japanese nose be a fractious feature 1 or is it that noses require to be much taken care of in Japan 1 or may it not be that there is some security in this pre- caution against inhaling malaria? We leave the question to be decided by future, visitors, and content ourselves with the entry in our journal : Mem,. — In Ycddo, it is the custom afloat to tie up the nose, and wear but few garments. They having breakfasted, AND JAPAN. 181 proceeded to the landing-placed It is low water, — shoals of boats and great numbers of men are at work in the shallows. Many are lading their boats with cockle-shells, scraped up from the land, to burn into excellent lime; others are dredging for shell-fish. Some are hauling the seine. Here their observations are interrupted by a spy-boat pulling alongside, and the officer coolly requesting, by signs, a seat in our boat. They are frank with him, and recommend him to go to the . He smiles, shoves off, and makes a note of the brief interchange of civility. Parties of respectable citizens, oily sleek men, of a well-to-do appearance, are embarked for a day's pleasure on the water ; their children are with them, and every urchin has a fishing-line overboard. They thought of Mr. Briggs, — Punch's Mr. Briggs,— at Bamsgate. In another boat, a lady is seated with her children ; her dress betokens that she is of better order, her family are laughing and trying to cook at a brazier which stands in the centre of the boat, while she sits abaft, in the most matronly manner, and points out to one of her daughters what she deems most worthy of notice in the English, their boat, and boat's crew. The young lady, they were glad to observe, without being unlady- like, showed none of that suspicious fear of the genus man so general in the excessively modest East, and which betokened even a better state of social civili- sation than they had been led to expect by what they witnessed at Nagasaki ; so they let the boat drift to enjoy all this, and, as a natural consequence, drift on shore close to the town. The police or spy-boat imme- diately works itself into a fever, and the officer is most anxious they should know where the deep water leading to their landing-place could be found. To add to the fun, all the little boys and girls of the adjoining houses turn out and come scampering down. The police-officer is in an awful state ; he urges them back, waves his fan, expostulates with them ; but it is all equally useless. So long as our boat remains on the sand, so long does young Japan remain staring into her. The crowd did not, as an English mob of boys would have done, pelt and chaff the officer, and they therefore had reason to praise their civility. After a while, they float the boat and proceed. The entrances to several canals are passed, — they serve, at high tide, to facilitate the communication between remote parts of the city and the sea. Now they are nothing but huge sewers. The landing-place reached, they see the officer who is charged with their convoy to the embassy ; he looks like a man who has much responsibility, and gives a great number of orders of barges, so that they may land with facility. The horses are wonderfully gotup creatures ; there is something truly mediaeval in their trappings, barring the straw-shoes wrapped round the hoofs, which spoiled the poetry of their steeds ; other- wise the head-stalls, bits, saddle-cloths, martingales, cruppers, and stirrups might have been used by the Disinherited Knight in the tilt-yard of Front-de-Boeufs castle. For the horses, they cannot say as much ; but they are good-tempered, steady little steeds. And so — to horse ! The street leading from the landing-place is as wide as Begent-street, and terminates about three- quarters of a mile off, at the entrance of a handsome temple, whose green terraces, dotted with seats and coo) alcoves, look most refreshing. They turn, however, abruptly up a street parallel to the water. It is broad and clean ; on either hand are continuous rows of shops, and at short intervals of three hundred yards a wotfden barrier runs athwart the street, apparently constructed for purposes of police. Shops of a trade seem to run together ; here we have eatables m any quantity, then basket and wicker-work of all Japan, now, earthenware, — then, ironware. And then, what a crowd ! They have only run together as they pass, 182 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. yet you might walk on their heads. They used to think the Chinese stowed closely in their houses, hut these Japanese assuredly beat them in that, and, what is far better, they do it with cleanliness, which the former certainly do not. Everybody looks well- washed, contented, and merry ; you do not meet a single cross sullen look. In the doorways of the houses women abound. They have succeeded, God forgive them ! in making themselves as ugly as sin ; yet they have good eyes, glossy hair, and a merry look. Generous creatures ; we rind they are mostly married women, who have sacrificed their teeth and eyebrows to insure their poor husbands against the pangs of jealousy. The women have evidently abundant liberty here, and it is strange how indelicate the mass of people are. The police-officer is looking out most keenly for any pictures that might be exposed in the shops offensive to their visitor's sense of propriety, and they disappear like magic at his approach ; still lie sees not all, and they are startled by figures and models of the vilest description, swinging about unnoticed amongst men, women, and children, who seemed un- conscious of, or indifferent to, the shameless exhibition. They do not see a beggar, and the street is admi- rably clean. Some respectably- dressed Buddhist priests are chanting a hymn, in not unmusical cadence, at the closed door of a house, — they still continue to do so until the heart of the proprietor is softened, or his patience gone, then the door will open, and he will fee them civilly. Their conductor now turns sharp down a street, at the end of which is a sturdy -looking gate ; they are at the portal of the enclosure within which the British Embassy dwells. It opens, and, as they proceed, a grand procession is approaching them from the temple at the end of the road, and they find his Excellency and suite are just starting for their first visit to the Prince, who is said to direct the foreign affairs of Japan. His lordship having brought with him a very gorgeous chair, which those learned in Chinese etiquette had declared to be of the proper dimensions and colour for a statesman of his rank, was able to go and visit the Prince in comparative comfort ; but all the rest of the party, naval and diplomatic, were packed in small wicker-work palanquins used in the country. To people accustomed to sit on their hams, instead of chairs, travelling in such conveyances might be simple enough ; but with our big-boned, big-jointed countrymen, done up in cocked-hats, gilded coats, ami long swords, the feat was a wonderful one, and a sight not easily to be forgotten. Mr. Oliphant thus depicts his impressions on first visiting the Japanese town of Nagasaki or Nangasaki : A flight of steps ascends the embankment, at the top of which is in fact a sort of raised parterre, is of considerable width, and a broad street runs along its whole length. Crossing this, is reached the head of the flight of steps that descend into the town. The view is peculiarly striking, especially to the stranger who has just arrived from China. Instead of an inde- finite congeries of houses built apparently on no settled plan, and so close together that the streets which divide them are completely concealed, they saw before them a wide spacious street, about a mile in length, flanked by neat houses, generally of two stories, with tiled or wooden roofs, and broad eaves projecting over the lower story. A pavi ran down the centre of the street, on each side of which it was carefully gravelled to the gutters. No wheeled vehicle or beast of burden was, however, visible ; but in default, a plentiful sprinkling of foot passengers gave it an air of life and animation. It terminated in the distance in a flight of steps, which soon disappeared amid the foliage of the hill-side, crowned with a temple or tea-house, or gleaming with the white-washed walls of some fire- proof store-house. As they traversed its entire length, no fold odours assailed their nostrils, or hideous cutaneous objects offended their eyesight, as at Tien-tsin ; nor did incon- venient walls or envious shutters debar them from inspecting, as they passed along, the internal economy of the shops and dwellings on each side. Light wooden screens, neatly papered, and running on slides, were, for the most part, pushed back in the daytime, and the passer looks through the house to where the waving shrubs of a cool-looking back -garden invite him to extend his investigations. Between the observer and this retreat there are probably one or two rooms, raised about two feet from the ground, and upon the scrupulously clean and well-wadded matting, which is stretched upon the wooden floor, semi-nude men and women roll and lounge, and their altogether nude progeny crawl and feast themselves luxrrriously at ever-present fountains. The women seldom wear any- thing above their waists, the men only a scanty loin- cloth. In the mid-day, during the summer, a general air of languor pervades the community ; about sunset, the world begins to wash, and the Japanese youth, like copper-coloured Cupids, riot simultaneously. The shops do not generally contain those articles in lacker and china-ware for which Japan is so justly celebrated. To obtain them a visit must be made to the Dutch or Russian bazaars ; but interest is kept alive by the varied productions of native manufacture exhibited in the shops, which are as open to the street as stalls at a fancy fair, and which contain all those articles which are in common request among the people. Umbrella, fan, and shoe-shops abounded ; bazaars for toys and glass ornaments arrested them for a moment ; but time was precious, and they could not do more than glance cursorily at the novelties displayed, and vainly endeavour to comprehend the object of various processes and manufactures which were being indus- triously carried on, but the result of which, in default of an interpreter, remained a mystery. Indeed, except from the Dutch gentlemen at Decima, they found it difficult, during their short stay at Nagasaki, to obtain any information, as only one Japanes-e had picked up a very few words of English. A 11 the interpreter's spoke Dutch, — a language of which their knowledge was extremely limited, nor was it spokerr by any of their party. Their rambles through Nagasaki, therefore, though in the highest degree amusing and attractive, possessed the one drawback of leaving the curiosity and interest they had excited at every turn unsatisfied. Nor could they gratify themselves by making purchases of curiosities. As yet they had not been introduced to the government money-changers, who sat in solemn conclave at the Russian bazaar, and no consideration could induce the shopkeeper to accept the smallest or even the largest foreign coiir. Well did he know that the eye of his neighbour was upon him, and that an official visit the next morning would remind him of his oblivion of that great national institution of universal espionage, which would with us be considered an intole- rable tyranny, but which the Japanese regard as a neces- sary ingredient to the welfare and protection of society. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 183 They panned tlicir peregrinations through the streets of Nagasaki unmolested and almost unnoticed by the people, who did not crowd the thoroughfares with busy, moving clamour, as in China, but strolled carelessly along, apparently little troubled with occu- pation, with an air of amiable contentment on their features, and an expression of kindly good nature towards the curious wondering strangers. Although Krcmpfer speaks of numerous beggars, Mr. Oliphaat says he did not observe any, with the exception of one or two religious mendicants. A stream about the size of an ordinary canal intersects the town in a lateral direction, and is spanned by thirty or forty bridges, of which about fifteen are solidly constructed of stone, with handsome balustrades. Balconies, filled with women engaged in domestic avocations, overhang the water ; small boats ply upon its surface, and here and there the quaint old buttresses of the bridges arc partly concealed with creeping plants, and across them nume- rous passengei-s pass and repass. It is interesting to stand on one of these and watch the humours of the place, while we enjoy the picturesque view which it affords. Nagasaki contains upwards of eighty streets crossing each other at right angles, and from three-quarters of a mile to a mile in length. Its population is estimated at about 00,000 ; but it presents a far more imposing appearance, and covers a much greater area of ground than a Chinese city of the same dimensions. Its out- skirts run up into the secluded valleys formed by the surrounding hills, the spurs of which descend into the town, so that almost every street terminates in a flight of stone steps, and, indeed, some of them which they visited afterwards, climb the hill-sides, the houses being built one above the other, as at Malta. A Japanese house consists of a ground-floor and top story. The front and back of the basement can be removed at pleasure, leaving it quite open, through the premises, for air and light, except where the posts supporting the first floor intervene. Usually the front panels only are removed during the daytime, and the back panels, formed of a light, graceful, wood frame- work, covered with translucent paper, are left to screen the cooking departments and back premises. The floor of the basement is raised about three feet above the level of the ground, and is neatly boarded, and then laid over with a series of stuffed grass mats, on which the inmates walk, sit, feed, and sleep. If it is a shop, the arrangements are still the same, except that the boxes or drawers containing the goods are arranged on shelves on cither sides, and the merchant and purchasers in their socks — for all shoes and boots are carefully put off" on these mats — sit on the floor to discuss prices and qualities. The story overhead serves as a place of abode for their wives and families, and those we visited are in height, and ventilation, and cleanliness, vastly superior to the majority of up-stairs rooms in the East. There was hardly a house in Nagasaki that had not some sort of garden attached to it, and all were well and tastefully kept ; but the most striking thing in this city (and it was generally observed by all of us in Japan) was that every man, woman, and child looked happy and contented ! Thero was an exception to the rule — a number of unfortunate solemnities who were in charge of the gateway leading from Decima to Nagasaki; and they were evidently bored to death. Poor scribes ! they had to keep notes of everything, animate and inanimate, that went in or out of that solitary outlet to Japan ! Every one else met us with a friendly smile, or a good-natured look of amazement, at either our brilliant buttons, our shining boots, or some other phenomenon exhibited in the gorgeous attire of a British naval officer. The labouring por- tion of the male population decidedly took little anxious care of their raiment— a piece of cotton cloth, a yard long and six inches wide, constituted their general attire ; and many of the children might have just escaped from Eden, so innocent were they of any clothing. Laughing and coaxing, they came unhesi- tatingly up to us, begging, in their naturally pretty way, for buttons, " Cassi button 1" " Cassi button ?" It was irresistible, and we gave all we could spare ; but what those little urchins were going to do with buttons, seeing they had neither rag nor ornament upon them, was a puzzle to us. The grown-up women were modestly attired in dark-coloured garments, their beautiful hair neatly dressed, and, but that their nails were dyed, there was a general appearance of beauty about them, combined with much grace in the figures- of the younger ones. The Japauese officials and gentry are very well dressed, and in their attire displayed considerable dandyism, according to their own fashion. But in their dress, as well as in their houses, in Japan, we noticed the prevalence of sombre colours, and the absence of that vulgar colouring and tinsel- work so common in China. Here the out-door dress of the ladies, and that of the poor girls at the tea gardens, and the wives of the tradespeople, are quiet in colour, however fine the texture might be ; and amongst the official dresses of the officers, black, dark blue, and black and white patterns, were most general. Their houses and temples are likewise painted less gaudily than elsewhere in the East, and there is far less gilding about them. This peculiarity in Japanese taste was one of the .first impressions received on our visiting Japan, and, like many first impressions, proved to be correct. "Woman holds in Japan a high social position. She is not cooped up in pestiferous apartments to delight- some fattened-up Chinese mandarin, or greasy Brah- min, but contributes not a little to the charms of man's life ; she has succeeded in asserting her right to be treated like a rational being, quite as well able to take care of herself as the sterner sex. Their freedom granted, it is true, the fair damsels — nay, and the matrons — have in some respects "jumped over the traces." Then, with a highly commendable liking to scrupulous cleanliness, they somewhat depart from Western notions of propriety as to the time and place for their ablutions. Yet, after all, that is a mere matter of taste. A tub of water in the open air, in a balmy climate, is, all will allow, very delicious, and the ladies of Nagasaki saw no good reason to forego their pleasurable bath because there happened to be an unsolicited influx of hairy-faced strangers, at a season of the year when bathing was more than ever necessary. Their own countrymen did not stop and stare, but went and did likewise. Let future European residents resist the temptation to adopt the al fresco habits of the people; meantime let us bear in mind our good old motto, " Honi soit qui mal y pense." The arrangement and width of its streets is similar to those of Simoda and Hakodadi, the architecture on the whole superior : verandahs invariably sheltered 1 184 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. the houses, and each stood in its own garden, which was, without exception, laid out with artistic judgment and tasteful neatness. They were all arranged and cultivated on the landscape principle; rocks and rivers, hills and valleys, miniature meadows and dwarfed forest-trees everywhere characterised their aspect. The Japanese are great adepts at both the dwarfing and forcing of vegetable products of all kinds. Here and there appeared at the doors of the houses a gaily dressed lady, with a dragon, or a peacock, or a phoenix wove into or embroidered on her dress of beautiful silk or exquisite crape, her hair set off with pins of gold or polished tortoise-shell, and her small feet resting on light high sandals, just revealed beneath her flowing robe, and her lips rosy, but often rouged, her placid countenance pale enough to show an enchanting shadow of pink, her eyes black and winning, her form graceful and well shaped, and her whole look so kind, so gentle, so passive, and so amiable, that fascination was irre- sistible. The Japanese women paint their lips with a cosmetic prepared from the carthamus linctorms in cups of porcelain. When a slight coat is applied it imparts a bright-red colour, but when it is put on thickly a deep violet hue is obtained, which latter is much prized. At one corner of the street alluded to our traveller was attracted by a Buddhist temple, which was ap- proached by a short avenue of cypress trees ; so, leaving his companions, he sauntered up the shady walk, and ascended the steps and entered the sacred edifice alone and unmolested. Strange to say, this was during the time of public worship, and when nearly a hundred kneeling devotees were present. A large shrine, with a gilt image in its recess ; two large globular lamps, and two burning candles, immensely long and thick, as also numerous gold and porcelain vases, holding lighted tapers, and surrounded by a forest of artificial flowers, were the objects that most riveted his at- tention. On both sides of this magnificent and richly-gilded shrine were two smaller ones, each illuminated with lighted candles and perfumed tapers burning with coloured flame, the effect of which was very beautiful. In front of the principal altar, within an enclosure, knelt six shaven-headed priests, — the latter and phy- sicians shave the whole of the hair of their heads, — robed in crimson silk and white crape, the centre and chief of whom engaged himself in striking a small saucer-shaped bell, while four more of the number per- formed a similar duty with padded drum-sticks on hollow vessels of lacquered wood, which awoke a dull, monotonous sound. They kept good time, playing in unison, and toning their prayers to their music in chanting. At the conclusion of this singing and drumming they bent their foreheads to the floor, after which they rose, and repaired to the smaller shrines, where a ceremony made up of gesticulation and a solemn reading of prayers took place. In the mean- time the audience knelt with their eyes directed to the ground, and repeating the prayers in silence. A quarter of an hour or more had elapsed from the moment of the intruder's entrance before his right of presence was in any way questioned. Then, however, one of the acolytes approached him from a side-door, and with a most imploring look desired his departure. They terminated their first day's exploration of Nagasaki, by a second visit to Decima, for the purpose of seeing the Dutch bazaar. Crossing the moat which separates the factory from the town and makes an island of it, they passed through the gateway, under which, in a sanctum of their own, sat three or four officials, called by the Dutch " Banjos," whose business it is to inspect narrowly every person seeking ingress and egress, and every article or package which is carried in or out. In former times, these janitors were in a most responsible position, and their functions were regarded by the Japanese government as of the utmost impor- tance ; now, however, the recent relaxations with reference to foreigners have diminished the cares of office, and these dreaded custodii, so long the bugbears of the Dutch employes at Decima, will soon cease to exist, or dwindle into respectable sinecurists. III.— ENVIRONS OF NAGASAKI. The environs of Nagasaki are beautiful. The city . itself nestles at the base of wooded hills of exquisite form, as though it did not venture to profane with its coarse touch those lovely slopes which are dedicated to the worship of Buddh and the Cytherian Goddess, for the hill-sides are dotted with the most enchanting sites, and every one of them is occupied with a temple or a tea-house. Tn Japan, religion is not used as in some countries to conceal immorality, but rather to give it coun- tenance and support, so that practically there is very little difference here between a temple and a tea-house. Both are situated in grounds beautifully laid out. In landscape-gardening the Japanese excel every other nation in the world. Both are resorted to as agreeable retreats from the turmoil and bustle of the city. The most delightful arbours, the choicest dishes, and the softest music, are provided equally at one and the other. It is estimated that there are sixty-two temples (large and small) and seven hundred and fifty tea- houses on the hills round Nagasaki, all offering to the Japanese in search of repose delicious tea and extensive panoramic views. It is worth while climbing up to some of them, if only to enjoy the latter. Old moss- grown steps ascend the dee2i hill-side, and you pass through venerable gateways and up more massive flights to a fairy-like wooden structure perched on a projecting point, and backed by terraced gardens and cool shady groves that lead to grottoes, where sparkling water gushes from the hill-side. The building seems con- structed with a view to the prospect it commands. The bare, lofty, matted rooms are surrounded with deep verandahs, and from every angle a fresh scene of beauty meets the eye. Behind are wooded dells, and more temples and tea-houses. A t the foot of the hills the city is mapped out, and the back premises of the houses can be inspected, the families engaged in domes- tic ablutions. It is delightful to see papa, mamma, and all the children splashing so harmoniously in the back garden. Beyond the town are more terraced hills, and the beautiful winding harbour losing itself in deep creeks and bays, to all appearance a placid lake ; for the ocean is nowhere visible. Meantime the dinner, which lias been ordered, has arrived, spread out upon the floor in lacquered bowls ; it occupies the greater portion of the room. It has been quickly and diligently arranged by a train of neatly dressed maidens, who now seat themselves round it and invite us to partake. The party had long since CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. taken off their shoes, and now squatted in a circle on the floor and gazed with curiosity, not unmixed with alarm, at the display before them. There was raw fish thinly sliced, and salted ginger; there were prawns piled up with a substance, which in taste and appear- ance very much resembled toffy; there were pickled eggs and rock leeches, and pieces of gristle belonging to animals unknown, to be eaten with soy; and yams and pears, and various sorts of fruits and vegetables prepared, some of them, palatable enough; but still the experiment was hazardous, and they were relieved at the sight of a bowl of rice as a safe piece de re- sistance. The ministering spirits seemed to delight in pressing upon them the nastiest things, apparently for the amusement which their very faces afforded them. Presently another troop of damsels with lutes and tom-toms came tripping in ; but they elicited from their musical instruments the most discordant sounds to their non-Japanese ears, so they were glad to take refuge in the balcony ; and having once more feasted their eyes upon the fading prospect, they descended from their airy position to the streets, now rapidly subsiding into that early evening stillness which gives evidence that the good folks of Nagasaki don't a'low either business or pleasure to steal from them the best hours of the night. Contrary to that which obtains throughout the East, women enjoy in Japan a real social importance. This is sufficiently attested by their hereditary succesion to the throne of the Mikados. The Japanese have only one legitimate wife, and they do not keep her shut up as the Chinese and most orientals do. Nay, she is even, strange to say, responsible for her husband's debts. Nowhere are women treated with greater respect, or are more attentions lavished upon the sex. The marriages of the great are attended with a profuse outlay, and their ladies have their own household. The butterfly — emblem of inconstancy in Europe — plays an important part in the marriage ceremony in Japan. They are apparently closer entomological observers than Europeans generally, and they have consecrated the butterfly because it terminates its existence "dans unc union amoureuse." Two girls enact the part, the one of the male butterfly, the other of the female butterfly, at all marriage cere- monies, the most important part of which consists in the bride and bridegroom drinking to one another and changing cups. This establishes a permanent engage- ment in Japan, and our merchants and skippers must beware of exchanging glasses with the pretty maids who flutter in the tea-gardens. Their education is carefully attended to, their manners are at once en- gaging and noble. Married ladies visit their relatives once a year with extraordinary pomp and solemnity. They are accompanied by numerous maids of honour, who wear red dresses with green ribands, or green dresses with red ribands, according to their rank. Japanese ladies read a great deal. They have many story-books and romances. Among the latter — of a somewhat historical character — the Misfortunes of Nisiono Kisaki, the wife of a Mikado in the olden times, occupy a prominent place. They also dress well and expensively, with indeed a truly oriental luxury. If the men clothe themselves, as in China, India, and Persia, in stuffs of silk and gold, the ladies are not behind them in the costliness of their crapes, their muslins, their silks and satin, and the richness of 185 their embroidery. Taste and wealth are alike marked by the number, variety, and costliness of a lady's dresses. No tissues wove in Europe approach in delicacy of material the light gossamer materials worn by Japanese ladies in summer. Their dresses are supported by a simple waistband, which is tied behind by the unmarried, and before by the wedded ladies. The sleeves are of great dimensions, and, in some instances, fall to the ground. They also wear many dresses at the same time, but the toilette is not, on that account, a tedious affair, as with us. They can get into them, however numerous, all at once. They dress and undress with equal ease and rapidity. The waistband is loosened, their sleeves are allowed to fall, the dress or dresses follow, and all is done. These waistbands are richly worked with gold and silver, or decorated with precious stones. The length of the robe behind determines the rank of the wearer. Rich or poor, every woman had her fan, and all classes go with their head uncovered except in winter, when they wear a kind of white lined silk bonnet. Wen and women alike use parasols, generally borne by pages. IV.— JAPANESE DOMESTIC LIFE. The following purely domestic scene, detailing frag- ments of daily intercourse between an English traveller and a respectable Japanese family, will do more to convey an idea of their manners and customs than whole pages of descriptive generalities. Our traveller, it is to be observed, picked up the ac- quaintance of a Japanese gentleman in the streets of Nagasaki. They had not proceeded more than a hun- dred yards from their halting place, when his scarlet friend, as he then called him, stopped in front of a small archway leading through a small avenue of orange-trees, flanked by gardens, and thence up half-a-dozen marble steps to the hall-door of a well verandahed comfortable- looking habitation, with a conical rcof, which, by sundry words and signs which would lose their effect if it were attempted to reduce them to pen on paper, he was led to understand was his house. Would he walk in and take tea 1 Of course he would, and so he did; and to the evident delight of his new host, whose bowing politeness was so intense, that he says he had never met with its like before, and never expected to meet with again out of Japan. Crossing the neat but ela- borately constructed porch, they entered by the open doorway a spacious hall, matted according to tho government regulations, which prescribes that every mat manufactured throughout the empire must be of the one uniform size. Similar regulations are in force with respect to the building of houses and all sailing craft, which must in no case be diverged from without special authority. At the opposite end of I he hall, which consisted of a wall painted very much after the style of a drop at a theatre : a passage crossed it, so that the house could be entered either to the right or the left. A man-servant, clad in yellow gossamer, was sitting, H la Turque, in the one to the right by which they entered; he bowed his forehead toward the ground as his master approached, and passed him, immediately after which he followed them into the saloon, or com- mon sitting-room of the house, where a beautiful sight at once presented itself to the visitor. He should rather have said a beautiful woman, for it was no other than his host the scarlet gentleman's wife. ENTRANCE TO THE BAY OF YEDDO. The hair of this lady was dressed in a manner which was new to his experience, being worn at full length down her back, and tied at equal distances with velvet crape. It was suggestive of a bell-rope ; but what of that '! it was a surpassing ornament. Her lips were of a de- licate purple tint, the effect of cosmetic, which as she slightly moved them with an expression of timid wonder at the moment of his entrance, disclosed a set of well-formed but blackened teeth, the invariable sign of marriage. Her complexion was pale, inclining to tawny, and a delicate hue of russet pink adorned her cheeks. Her brows were black, alike with her hair, and arched. Her head was rather large, and displayed a high well-formed forehead; her eyes were narrow and somewhat sunk in the head, the eyelids forming in the great angle of the eye a deep furrow, but the expression was one of extreme quickness and amiability. So soft, so confiding was her manner, that our traveller says she inspired him with the virtuous passion of admira- tion. Her hands and feet, the latter resting on a feathery mat, were small and exquisitely formed, and ]ier whole figure, attitude, and movements were full of grace. She was arrayed in a dress of beautiful silk, into the skirt of which behind was wove a representa- tion of the peacock. The colours were as bright as those worn by her sire, but then they harmonised well, as is invariably the case with the Japanese, so that the most brilliant collection of tints never weirs an aspect otherwise than pleasing. His host introduced him as America; he bowed low to the lady, who had risen from a small ottoman-like stool on which she was seated, book and fan in hand, at the moment of his entrance, and who bowed like- wise, closing her hands and raising them to her bosom as she did so. After this, she resumed her seat, and without uttering a word. A metallic brazier stood in the centre of the room, and round it were arranged three velvet-topped cushions or stools, intended to be used as seats. On one of these he was invited to be seated ; so he made the descent with an elegance for which he says he was indebted to his "shiny leather" boots, and congratulated himself very much on reaching the cushion without a "Hop." His host having handed his sword to the attendant, followed him to the floor, where ho arrived as safely and as naturally as our traveller had done himself; immediately after which the yellow gossamer-clad at- tendant laid a tray containing the usual pipe and tobacco-pouch before each of them. As he had no fan, one was handed to him. It was unnecessary to order tea; it was brought in on a tray by another male domestic, arrayed in white cambric, a minute or so afterwards. The windows of the room were open, and disclosed, across the verandah, which surrounded the house, a well-cultivated garden of diversified aspect. The walls of the room itself were entirely covered with beautiful Japanese drawings of large size on paper, 1 and very 1 It was wonderful to eec the thousand useful as well as orna- mental purposes to which paper was applicable in the hands of these industrious and tasteful people; our papier-mache manufac- turers, as well as the continental ones, should go to Yeddo to learn what can be done with paper. We saw it made into mate- rial so closely resembling Kussian and morocco leather, that it was very difficult to detect the difference. With the aid of lacquer, varnish, and skilful painting, paper made excellent trunks, tobacco bags, cigar cases, saddles, telescope-cases, the frames of microscopes; and we even saw and used excellent waterproof coats made of simple paper, which did keep out the rain, and w^erc as supphs as the best mackintosh. The Japanese use neither silk nor cotton handkerchiefs, towels, or dusters; paper, in their hands, serves as an excellent substitute. It is soft, thin, tough, of a palo yellow colour, and very plentiful and cheap. The inner wa.ls of many a Japanese apartment are formed of paper, being nothing more than painted screens; their windows are covered with it fine translucent description of the same material. It enters largely into the manufacture of nearly everything in n Japanese house- hold, and we saw what seemed balls of twine, which wore nothing but long shreds of tough paper rolled up. If a shopkeeper had a parcel to tie up, he would take a strip of paper, roll it quickly between his hands, and use it for the puqx>se, and it was quite as strong as the ordinary string used at home. In short, without paper, all Japan would come to a dead lock, and, indeed, lest W CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 187 much resembling stage scenery. The floor was of course covered with the finest of matting; the ceiling was richly gilded, and bedizened with many exquisite colours, while the entire aspect of the place was one of seductive repose. His host now became voluble on the subject of himself and the meeting to his wife, who made her comments and inquiries in a soft subdued voice. " Picture, Monsieur," said lie, bowing, and extending his hand, first towards his visitor and then towards the lady. The said visitor saw that he wanted him to produce a sketch he had made of a funeral procession; so he readily complied, giving them to understand, however, that it was by no means in a finished state. They appeared to be much pleased with it, his host handing it back to him with the inquiry, whether he would sketch him 1 " Oui — yes — ya — zoo — ramavoo — tsegum — tilaboo." He would do so with pleasure ; and as man and wife were biblically asserted to be one flesh, he presumed that he wished him to include the lady. He did; he should be glad to see her as a poppy in the field. So drawing forth his pencil and paper-case, which he always carried about him when on shore, he began to eye the features of his entertainers, and, much to their amusement, to depict the same upou the white surface before him. When he had finished the pencilling, he showed it to them with the remark, that he would colour and complete the drawing when he went on board the ship, and bring it to them on the morrow. But no — they did not like that. They did not want to be seen on board the ship. However, on his assuring them that it should not be shown, his host consented to the arrangement. "You would like to see my children V said he. "Their presence will delight me exceedingly," was the reply; upon which he tapped the metal brazier standing before him with his fan, which produced a mellow bell-like tingling sound, which was answered by the lobby servant in yellow gossamer, who entered and knelt before us. A few words of instruction were softly, scarce audibly, uttered by the lady; the man bowed his head low, rose, and left the room, moving backwards, with his hands resting upon his thighs till he passed the doorway. Having now drank each a cup of tea, and smoked a pipe, during which tim3 the lady had been engaged in fanning herself and holding occasional conversation with her husband, the latter suggested their rising and taking seats under the verandah, or out in the garden, where they could see and admire the fruits and flowers of the earth. So, accordingly, they rose, and passing through the open windows, and level with the floor, the garden in all its loveliness was spread out before them. Our traveller admits that he is rather a lover of Dutch and Chinese taste and detail in the arrangement of gardens, although an admirer of the grand, the rough- hewn, the wild, and the massive in nature. He was, therefore, pleased and refreshed by the sight of the miniature landscape before him, with its arched bridges spanning a river or a waterfall, its terrace hills, and its the arbitrary exercise of authority a tyrannical husband should stop his wife's paper, the sage mother-in-law invaiiably stipulates in the marriage settlement that the bride is to have allowed to her a certain quantity of paper. fertile plains, its jungle, and its groves of laurel, citron, and peach, and although here it all was artificial, it was highly picturesque and suggestive of the more im- posingly real. Here, in imagination, he was taking a bird's eye view of an extensive sweep of country instead of an acre or so of cultivated ground. They had not been more than five minutes under the verandah, when two nurses noiselessly presented themselves before them, the one leading a fine little boy about three years of age, who, with the front hair shaven off his head, looked as wildly intelligent as did the urchins he had seen at Simoda on the first day of his landing in the empire. The feet and legs of this young gentleman were bare, and his sole clothing was a sleeved frock of straw-coloured crape, drawn in at the waist by a red silk sash. The second nurse bore her charge on her back, with her hands behind holding on, after the manner adopted by the lubras of Australia, and occa- sionally by the women of most other countries. It was entirely covered, the head and face excepted, by a thin loose-fitting robe of similar colour and material to' that worn by the elder boy ; for this aho was of the gender masculine, as was readily perceived by tho shaven head, a ceremony begun very early in life, for the infant in question he ascertained to be under twelve months old. The nurses were both pretty girls, with bosoms con- siderably exposed, displaying a skin even paler than their faces. Their hair was tastefully drawn from off the forehead and sides, and fastened in the usual way with gold pins in a graceful knot on the crown. Their ears were small and delicately formed ; their hands and feet, both of which were uncovered, answered the same description. Their gauzy dresses of light blue cotton extended from the shoulders to the ancles, but left the outline of their form and limbs distinctly traceable. A yellow crape sash circled the waist, and tightened their dresses round them — which garments wore any- thing but an inflated aspect — so much so that now, if he says he had to name the antipodes of the hooped and crinolined dress of his sister (he speaks in the Quaker sense of the term), Lady Florence Eotunda, of Grosvenor-square, he should select that of one of the nurses of his Nagasaki friend. He very much admired, and expretsed his admi- ration of the little things, upon which (like other mothers in other lands) his hostess seemed quite as much pleased with him as he was with the children. She smiled, and petted them with caresses — pater- familias smiled, and tickled one of them under the chin — the nurses smiled, and he smiled himself, mean- while lavishing his eulogistic remarks and gestures, and shaking them by the hand — a mode of handling to which they appeared to be quite accustomed — so that, on the whole, judging by appearances, they were a happy family, the yellow gossamer-clad individual, who knelt at some distance with a pleasant grin play- ing across his features, included. As it was now sunset lie took his leave— the lady bowing low, the nurses and children still being by her side, and his host accompanying him to the porch, and insisting upou his accepting as a gift the fan which had been handed to him at the time of his entrance, and expressing a renewed hope that he would allow him the felicitv of entertaining him on the day following. The next day our traveller took his way with th-i coloured portrait in his pocket, " the observed of all 188 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. observers," over the well-swept, well-paved ground, to the house of Noskotoska, his host of the previous day. While making mention of his name, it may be observed that the Japanese usage with respect to such, differs from that of all other nations. The family name of the individual is never made use of by him, except in the signing of solemn contracts; and the particular names by which men are designated in ordi- nary life and conversation, varies according to age and position. Thus, in official ranks, it U a common thing for the one man to have been known and addressed by half- a dozen different names. Our traveller passed under the same elegantly carved archway, along the same avenue of orange and citron trees, under the same porch, and over the soft matting to the lobby, where was squatted the herald in yellow gossamer. He inclined his forehead to the ground as he approached him, then rose, and receded before him backwards, with his hands resting on his thighs, to the door of the saloon in which he had sat on the previous day. It was unoccupied ; but the windows were open, as before, revealing to the eye the pleasant garden prospect without. The attendant placed one of the velvet stool-cushions for him, if he choose, to be seated upon, and with hands to thighs, he again moved back- wards out of the room. In a few moments — during which he had amused himself by examining a gaily painted fan, which had Fusiyama on one side, and a wrestling match on the other — his host made his appearance; but this time clad in robes of different and more magnificent colours to those worn on the occasion of his first seeing him, He bowed low, clasped his hands, elevated them to his forehead, and again to his breast, and bade him wel- come. He presented the picture to him; he again bowed and thanked him, in the name of Nipon and his wife, for the honour that he had done them. Our traveller bowed his acknowledgments, and responded with many assurances of the pride and pleasure he felt in the honour of his acquaintance in particular, and of Japan in general. He again bowed low, and said that Nipon was exalted, and Noskotoska was flattered. He would take a cup of the delicious and life-restoring tea grown on the terrace hills of the island, and he would burn a pipe of the fragrant leaf of the tobxeco plant, which flourished in the valleys; and very soon the partner of his career on the un- steady earth — he must have been disturbed by earth- quakes — would be down to reward him with her love and smiles. He bowed again. His host drew forth the tobacco pouch from his sash, while simultaneously the tenant of the yellow gossamer entered with a tray containing another for his visitor. He followed the example of his friend, and sat down before the metal brasier, in which a small fire of prepared charcoal was burning at the time of his entrance. He hoped the children were well ; yes, they were in the happy enjoyment of tho most perfect health. He was glad to hear it. Presently the lady of the house made her appear- ance. The salutation was as on the previous day, but free from all embarrassment. She greeted the visitor in a few words of her native language, which ho did not distinctly hear nor understand, but which, no doubt, were words of compliment or welcome. She saw the coloured portrait on one of the cushions, and anticipating the act of her sire, leant down and picked it up, expressing her satisfaction with it at the first moment of its examination. Her dress and appear- ance, including the mode of wearing the hair, was nearly the same as on the previous day, and her manner was just as winning, amiable, and full of gentleness. V.— A JAPANESE LADY. A STILL more curious and characteristic scene pre- sented itself on another occasion, and after intercourse between the two parties had ripened to intimacy. The visitor and his host had been conversing about half an hour when the beautiful Sondoree, in other words, Mrs. Noskotoska, made her appearance. She had just entered the house in company with a lady friend, who was then in another apartment. In- voluntarily the visitor rose, bowed, and extended his hand, the latter so suggestively that Mrs. Noskotoska actually took hold of it, or rather, in the uncertain endeavour to do so, approached it so closely that he tenderly took hold of hers. He was delighted to see her. He hoped, with all the fervour of his nature, that the noble boys, her children, were doing well, and she herself was doing likewise. He wished her the highest felicity ever awarded to mortals on earth, a highly orthodox Japanese compliment, and begged her acceptance of the few trinkets which he had provided himself with before leaving the ship, and which he then handed to her, encased in a small box which had been bought at Tunbridge Wells for sixpence. They consisted of a ring, a pencil case, and a few charms, which he had bought from an Englishman at Hong- Kong for the purpose of giving away to the Japanese ladies. She was much pleased with them, and thanked him warmly, but with respect to the ring she thought it emblematic of bondage, fetters, and that like. He placed it upon her second finger, and assured her that the ladies of England and America had no such scruple against wearing them, and that such was a sign of rank and wealth rather than otherwise ; although, when the display of those or any other kind of jewellery was large and conspicuous, the taste was justly esteemed vulgar. Her hair to day was no longer of such a length as to remind him of a bell-rope ; it was wound into a compact coil at the back of the head near the crown, after the common style of wearing it ; there it was fastened by two pins chastely carved, the one of tortoise-shell, the other of gold. Her appearance was so fair and becoming, that she would have awoke the admiration of many an unsmitten exquisite satiated with gazing on the beauty of a London season. Ladies, she was " a dear sweet creatine," as guileless, as inno- cent, and as virtuous as she was lovely. She witli- drc w. The host expressed his inclination for a bath. Would he like to enjoy a similar luxury ] if so, his company in the water would afford him pleasure. Tapping the brazier before him with his fan, he summoned tho attendant from the passage, to whom he communicated his desire. The yellow gossamer retired, bending a:i usual. The host followed immediately afterwards, and he with him, across the apartment, through the open window and garden to the bath-house, at one side ol the entrance to which knelt the gentleman of tho bath, a third male servant. He inclined his forehead to tho ground as they passed him, and then still kneeiiusr, awaited the commands of his master. There were two tanks or baths in the chamber, made CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. of white marble, and both supplied with warm water. In a recess the buckets for holding cold water were suspended from a copper rail running across it. His host was quickly divested of his garments, he followed his example, and very soon they were dashing and plunging about in five feet of water. He was in the act of emerging again from the bath when the fair Sondorec — yes reader, Mrs. Noskotoska — made her appearance ! and, oh, clouds and sunshine, with her lady friend by her side ! There was no mistake about it, they had seen them go into the bath-house. They did not blush or turn back — no, that was not to be expected from Japanese ladies. What was the best thing to be done 1 The lovely creatures were asking him how he liked the bath. He was almost disposed to be vulgar and say, " None the better for seeing you," but its rudeness shocked his delicacy, as much as did the presence of his host's wife and her virgin friend, for the teeth of the latter were white as polished ivory. So much the worse for him, he thought. Nevertheless, he mustered that quiet courage so necessary in posi- tions of the kind and composed himself. Why should he trouble himself about it, thought he, if they did not 1 They were the intruders, not him. What delightful consolation ! Just then Noskotoska stepped out of his bath, and standing on a grating in the middle of the floor, ordered a couple of buckets of cold water to be thrown over him by the attendant. The watei", through which a constant current had been maintained, was now allowed to run off, it was but the work of a moment. Just then the thought struck him that the ladies, who were conversing together in one corner of the room, had come to immerse themselves, and that the longer he remained where he was the longer one of them would have to wait. They would rather see him out of the bath than in it, he began to think, so out ho stepped, in a manner as sprightly as ever that of Noskotoska. He narrowly escaped having two buckets of cold water dashed over him as he passed the attend- ant and proceeded to the drying ground, a small but open division at the upper extremity of the room. By this time the water from both tanks had been emptied, and they were being filled again with a fresh supply from the pipes leading into them, and, to his additional dismay, the ladies commenced undressing. They were divested of their apparel almost as quickly as was Noskotoska, their entire habliments descending at a drop, on the sash, etcetera, being unbound. After that they tripped lightly into the respective baths. He was dressed nearly as soon as his host, and they both left the apartment together, the ladies chatting to him as he went, and appearing to be in the enjoymeut of the most perfect happiness. But this was not all. After the bath was over and they were standing together, one of the male attend- ants presented himself at the open doorway, and kneel- ing, uttered a few words in a low tone, and then retired. It was an intimation that the mid-day repast was prepared and in readiness. Noskotoska led the way, the ladies followed him, and our traveller followed the ladies. Such was the order of procession. They ascended a flight of steps, beautifully lacquered, into a third room richly gilded and bedizened with orna- ments, overlooking the avenue leading to the porch, and affording a glimpse of the street, and of the moun- tains beyond. There were four small lacquered tables, on each of which lay the accustomed ivory chopsticks, the small porcelain cup for tea, and the larger one of 189 lacquer-work for saki, the small glass cruet of soy, the porcelain spoon, and the silver fork. Tables were arranged round the room, and two servants in gossamer showed the virgin lady and the Englishman, as guests, to their appointed seats and tables. The former were without backs, but provided with three legs of ebony wood, and topped with figured velvet. Both tables and stools were lower than he says he could have desired, and they had the effect of inducing him to extend his legs a more than usual distance across the room, nature having elevated him, he estimates, "pretty considerable " in the world, that is to say, some six feet or more above the standing level. The first course was a cup of saki ; the second a small saucer- like plate of soup, and, of course, fish and rice soup ; the third was the same, but made from a different variety of fish, and thicker than the first ; the fourth was a fragment of lobster each ; the fifth, a well- flavoured potage of fine herbs and rice ; the sixth, a second supply of saki and pieces of wheaten cake ; the seventh, one small mucilaginous shell-lish each, wliich was as suggestive of a snail as Mrs. Noskotoska's original mode of dressing her hair had been suggestive of a bell-rope, but which proved itself very delicious ; the eighth, and final course, consisted of tea and con- fectionary, the last mentioned being the choicest he had ever eaten in any part of the world. The meal, on the whole, light, as the reader may easily suppose. However, there was one cause for satisfaction ; it was remarkably easy of digestion, so much so, that he felt disposed for a biscuit an hour after the last course was served ; and he declares that he i3 by no means a cor- morant. After the collation was over they descended into the saloon of audience, and soon to the verandah upon which its windows opened, and where they took their seats on the flimsiest looking of lacquered benches, and surveyed the beauties of the garden prospect before them. They had not been there ten minutes, when ho saw the two nurses, before spoken of, bearing the two children of Noskotoska, threading their way down a side- walk from the house towards the bathing saloon. The movement was similarly observed by the others. In about ten minutes more, during which time they had been served with tea and pipes, and the ladies with tea only, the host arose, Faying, " Come and look at nr.y wife's offspring, the sons upon whom I rely for the perpetuation of my memory and the fame of my good deeds." He politely assented, but had some fears that they should find them, as well as their nurses, in a condition not the most presentable, according to European ideas. " In puris naluralibus," said he with an air and look rather jocular than anything else. Noskotoska's response was that such was no obstacle, of no consequence whatever ; they were all virtuous in Nipon. So they set off, men and women, in the same order of procession as that adopted in moving from the library to the drawing-room, wendingtheir way through groves and flowers, and across hills and valleys, till they reached the bathing saloon. It was built with a conical roof, and spreading leaves of figured lilies covering a compact matting of bamboo. On the conical summit of the roof the figure of a crane, cast in silver, was gracefully perched. They entered, as he had anticipated, just in time to find the women and children occupying the honourable receptacles before mentioned. 190 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. Each had one of the hoys in her arms, whose head only was kept above water ; however, they all appeared to be enjoying the immersion very much, judging by the giggling of the children and the smiling laughter of their life preservers, for such they might reasonably be called, when the depth of the water is taken into consideration. The Japanese stood watching and admiring the pranks of the children, the ladies not omitting to talk to them. The nurses, he found, were no more bashful than their mistress, or were tho rest of the ladies of the empire. But no harm was thought of it, no harm ever came of it ; and he thought with Noskotoska that in Japan it was a matter of no con- sequence, perfectly orthodox, roper cases for 196 ALL ROUND THE "WORLD. its use. Their drugs are mostly animal aud vegetable; they are too little acquainted with chemistry to venture upon mineral remedies. They study medical botany, however, with great attention, and their remedies are said to be generally efficacious. Some of their medi- cinal preparations are very remarkable, producing most singular eifects. Of these, there is one spoken by Titsingh, who saw its application and its consequences; and from some of the officers of our own expedition we have heard of this preparation, of which, we believe, they have brought home specimens. Titsingh thus writes : — " Instead of inclosing the bodies of the dead in coffins of a length and breadth proportionate to the stature and bulk of the deceased, they place the body in a tube three feet high, two feet and a-half in dia- meter at the top, and two feet at the bottom. Tt is difficult to conceive how the body of a grown person can be compressed into so small a space, when the limbs, rendered rigid by death, cannot be bent in any way. The Japanese to whom I made this obser- vation, told me that they produced the result by means cf a particular powder, called dosia, which they introduce into the ears, nostrils, and mouth of the deceased, after which the limbs all at once acquired astonishing flexibility. As they promised to perform the experiment in my presence, I would not do otherwise than suspend my judgment, lest I should condemn as an absurd fiction a fact which, indeed, surpasses our conception, but may yet be susceptible of a plausible explanation, especially by galvanism, the recently discovered effects of which also appeared to exceed the bounds of credulity. The ex- periment acordingly took place in the month of October, 1783, when the cold was pretty severe. A young Dutchman having died in our factory, at Decima, I directed the physician to cause the body to be washed and left all night exposed to the air, on a table near the open window, in order that it might become com- pletely stiff. Next morning several Japanese, some of the officers of our factory and myself, went to examine the corpse, which was as hard as a piece of wood. One of the interpreters, named Zenhy, drew from his bosom a santock or pocket-book, and took out of it an oblong paper, filled with a coarse powder, resembling sand. This was the famous dosia powder. He put a pinch into the ears, another into the nostrils and a third into the mouth ; and presently, whether from the effects of this drug, or some trick which I could not detect, the arms which had before been crossed over the breast, dropped of themselves, and in less thau twenty minutes by the watch, the body recovered all its flexibility. " I attributed this phenomenon to the action of some subtle poison, but was assured that the dosia powder, so far from being poisonous, was a most excellent medicine in child-bearing, for diseases of the eyes, and for other maladies. An infusion of this powder, taken even in perfect health, is said to have virtues which cause it to be in great request among the Japanese of all classes ; it cheers the spirits aud refreshes the body. It is carefully tied up in a white cloth, and dried after being used, as it will serve a great number of times without losing its virtues. The same infusion is given to people of quality when at the point of death ; if it does not prolong life it prevents rigidity of the limbs, and the body is not exposed to the rude handling of professional persons, a circumstance of some consequence in a country where respect for the dead is carried even to excess. I had the curiosity to procure some of this powder, for which I was obliged to send to Bidgo, or the Nine Provinces, to the temples of the Simtoos, which enjoy the exclusive sale of it, because they practise the doctrine of Kshow Dagsi, its inventor. The quantity obtained, in consequence of my first application, was very small, and even this was a special favour of tho priests, who, otherwise, never part with more than a single pinch at a time." Titsingh, however, obtained a considerable quantity afterwards, which he carried home with him in 1 784. It has the appearance of sand, and when it is perfected for use is as white as snow. It is obtained on the mountain of Konsogen or Kin- hensen, in the province of Yamotto, where there are many mines of gold and silver. The process by which it is prepared is the secret of these priests. Their knowledge is doubtless the result of accidental ex- perience, for their acquaintance with chemistry is so slight that we may safely conclude they do not under- stand the rationale of its preparation. Astronomy. — In this science they have made very considerable proficiency. They understand the use of European instruments, and have caused many of them to be very successfully imitated by native workmen. Meylan says he saw good telescopes, chronometers, thermometers, and barometers, made by Japanese mechanics. They calculate eclipses accurately, and yearly almanacs are prepared in the Yeddo and Daure colleges. Lalande's treatises and other astronomical works have been translated from Dutch into Japanese, and are studied with great ardour. They have, in their division of time, a cycle of sixty years, calculated out of their zodiac, which, like ours, has twelve signs, differing from ours by their names only. But this is not the place to consider minutely their astronomical system. "We cannot leave it, however, without the remark that on a comparison of it with that of the Mursias, an ancient, semi-civilised, and now extinct race that once inhabited the plains of Bogota, in New Granada, the resemblances were so striking, that they produced on our mind a conviction thet the astrono- mical systems of the two people were substantially the VIII.— JAPANESE LITERATURE AND ART. The character of art exhibited in the Japanese illus- trated books and their pictures, reminds us of tho designs (in one colour) upon the Etruscan vases. The same simplicity of expression aud soberness of colouring, the same unextravagant expression of nature. One of these specimens is a work in two volumes, written by the Prince Hayashi, a negotiator of the American Treaty. The subject treated of is "The Points of a Horse," and the work is illustrated by a large number of pictures. These illustrations are from woodcuts of bold outline, and apparently printed with a tint to distinguish each in the various groups of the animals by sober grays, reds, and blacks. The style might be classed as that of the mediaeval, and the horses might pass for those sketched in the time of Albert Durer, though with a more rigid adherence to nature. They exhibit, what may be noticed in the Elgin marbles, a breed of small stature and finely-formed limbs, such as are found in southern countries. The animals are represented in various attitudes, curvetting, gambolling, and rolling upon the ground, positions requiring aud exhibiting an ability in foreshortening, which is found, with no small surprise, in Asiatic art. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 197 A Japanese artist, employed to draw a set of screens, will make no sketch, but draw at once the various por- tions of the landscape, putting in houses, ships, horses, trees, birds, and at times painting in foliage with two brushes in one hand. The result will be, not a produc- tion of high art, but a much better specimen of orna- mental screen than the most pretentious of our manu- facturing establishments turn out. In linear drawing the Japanese excel. The engines of the steam-boats, American and English, were reproduced at once, by drawings in true proportion, of the whole engine, with its several parts properly placed. A humble little illustrated primer, purchased at a broker's stall for a few Chinese copper "cash," suggests many points of interest. Its illustrations show a know- ledge of perspective. There is a Balcony presented in angular perspective, with its rafters placed in strict accordance with the principle of terminating the per- spective lines in a vanishing point abruptly in the horizon. In another page is a humorous Tartar Her- cules, a Japanese St. Patrick, valiantly brandishing his sword, and clearing the land of snakes and reptiles. Again, here is a quaint old shopman, peering through a pair of spectacles stuck upon his nose, and made exactly like the double eye-glasses now so fashionable, without any side-wires to keep them on the head, a glass-globe of fish watched by a cat, a couple of chair- men smoking their pipes, a professor of phrenology measuring the bumps on bald-headed disciples with a pair of compasses, and other pictures, exhibiting both taste and humour, abound in this child's book. We have none such at home, at such a price. Books are to be seen in all the shops — cheap ele- mentary" works, and popular story-books or novels.- The people are universally taught to read and are eager for information. Education is diffused through- out the empire, and the women share in the intel- lectual advancement of the men. The higher classes of the Japanese are not ignorant of the geography and contemporary history of the rest of the world, and could speak with knowledge of railroads, tele- graphs, photographs, Paixhan guns, and steam-ships. 1 1 On the departure of the Embassy from the Bay of Yeddo, a steam-yacht, brought over as a present for the Emperor from the Queen of England, was handed over to the Japanese, and "got slowly under weigh, commanded by a Japanese captain," manned by Japanese sailors, and her machinery worked by Japanese engineers. Notwithstanding the horizontal cylinders, and other latest improvements with which her engines were fitted, the men had learnt their lesson well, and were confident in their powers. We steamed gallantly through the fleets, the admiration of all beholders, whether British or Japanese. " Not the least remark- able part of this day's doings," says Captain Sherard Osborn , "was the moving and working of the Emperor, directly she became Japanese, under the management of a native captain, engineer, and crew. Her machinery was of the most recent con- struction—horizontal cylinders, trunk engines, and other pecu- liarities. Yet they mastered all these, under the English officers, after a week's instruction, having, of course, previously under- stood an ordinary old-fashioned engine. After passing round the squadron, she disembarked all her English visitors, and we had the pleasure of seeing the yacht proceed towards the city to land the imperial commissioners. At first the Japanese suggested that they should call the yacht the London, out of compliment to our capital, which alone, they believed, could compare with their own ; but for some reason or other, they eventually named her the Dragon; and as such, H.I.M.Y. Dragon will, doubtless, be of great use as a pleasure-boat to all but the imprisoned monarch for whom it was intended. A few weeks after our visit, when the ambassador of France, Baron Gros, made his appearance in the Bay of Yeddo, he found the Dragon steaming about, and we heard that his Excellency made more than one trip in her, under the safe charge of a Japanese captain and engineer." IX.— SIMODA. A dangerous navigation along an iron-bound coast, and across a sea where sulphurous emissions, and occa- sionally a spurt of smoke and a rising of the waters, to say nothing of the beacon of the smoking crater of the " Vries Volcano," warn the sailor of novel dangers, leads us at last from the delightful bay, sheltered and safe, of Nagasaki, 8 to the dangerous though beautifully situated anchorage of Simoda, — a harbour so dangerous, that it has already been changed for the nearer and safer port of Kanagawa. Bold green headlands and abrupt rocky islets conceal the entrance, and increase the danger and difficulty to sailing vessels in approach- ing it. The town of Simoda is on the island of Nipon, near the mouth of the lower bay or gulf of Yeddo, latitude 34° 39' 49" north longitude, 138° 57' 50" east. * Captain Sherard Osborn tells a story which shows that Nagasaki Bay has other traditions than those of mere beauty or commercial utility. " The bay by day is beautiful, but give me Nagasaki by moonlight, when the heat is passing away, and the cool breezes of night invigorate the frame and ripple the polished surface of the water, which reflects the starry beauty of the blue vault over head, except where the dark shadows of native and foreign craft are thrown athwart it. The delicate play of. the moonlight upon town, village and upland; the phosphorescent marks of the numerous boats passing and repassing, the twinkling lights and the drowsy hum of a large city during the early hours of night — all formed a picture which might tempt the mind to stop here content. We hear of a goodly Spanish ship that sailed in long ago, through that seaward portal, now shrouded by the dark gloom of the overhang- ing cliff. She is a tall ship of three decks, a yearly trader, from the Philippines — a royal vessel, combining the war ship and merchantman. Her swelling canvass furled, she swings to her anchors, and flaunts from many a mast quaint colours and pennons. Culverins and brass pieces peer out of her ports, and the golden ensign, with its broad bloody stripes, waves proudly over her stern. On shore there is much excitement. Twelve months previously the Japanese had learnt that a vessel of their country had been basely set upon off tho Philippines, by Spaniards, and the vessel and crew sunk in the depths of the sea, and the imperial government had forbidden Spaniards under pain of death to visit Japan. This galleon had come in contempt of the mandate, and, though warned of the horrors that would ensue, the Spaniards would not or could not sail. The court issues a mandate, and the Spaniard must sufferat any cost thepenalty of his insolence. Wemay fancy the muster of row-boats, tho Prince of Arima arranging his devoted relatives, promising high reward to the valiant, short shrift to the craven. We can fancy the scornful feeling of the high-couraged Don in his lofty bark for the yelling wolves around him — naked, half-armed infidels, who come against tho steel-clad frame of the conquerors of half the world ! Then the shout of defiance, and the wild music of the war-shell as each rushed on. Wolves never went better at a sure quarry than the Japanese at the huge ship. In spite of resistance they cling to her tall sides — scale them — reach the upper deck, and throw themselves, regardless of life, upon the astonished Spaniards. When too late, the Don sees he has underrated his foe. He determines to resort to a desperate expedient of those times (in olden times, blowing up the deck with small quantities of powder was resorted to in cases of a desperate resistance to a boarding party). The retreat sounds— ill the Spaniards rush below to the lower deck, and the upper deck is blown up— and, with a yell of victory, the Japanese are hurled into the water, scorched and burned. Alas for the Spaniard ! the wind is right adverse to his escape, and every minuto adds hundreds to tho host pouring down to the attack. There is nothing for it but a death worthy of his race. Again the assault ; again numbers carry the day, and the resolute Spaniards retire to tho third deck, and again blow up the victors above them. Thrice, says tho Japanese chronicle, quoted by the worthy master, Kcempfer, was this desperate mode of resistance resorted to, until defenders, assailants, and galleon sunk in the bloody waters. Although the unfortunate infringers of tho imperial edict had perished to a man, the native historian acknow- ledges the triumph of Japanese justice had been won only by the sacrifice of three thousand of her sons ! Such was one episode in the history of Nagasaki." 198 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. It is within the prefecture of Kamo, one of the eight into which Idzu is divided, and occupies the southern termination of that principality. The town lies at the western end of the harbour, on a plain at the opening of a fertile valley. Its name is probably derived from this— Simoda meaning low field. Through the valley runs a small river, which is navigable for barges trans- porting straw, timber, grain, and other produce. The country surrounding the town is extremely picturesque and varied. Undulating hills, covered with trees, rise from the water's edge, and extend back into the lofty mountainous rocks, ribbed and bare. Valleys divide the mountainous ranges, with their richly cultivated fields and gardens, stretching up to the very summit of the hill-sides, streams of water shaded with groves wind through the level bottoms, and beautify and enrich the land. The snow-capped Fusi is visible at the distance, pointing, cone-like, high into the clouds, and far above the elevation of the blue mountains that surround it. Entering the harbour, the town with its groups of low bouses does not present a very imposing appearance ; but, with its background of hills wooded with spreading pines and yew trees, and the verdant valley that opens between them, it has an air of sheltered repose and an appearance of secluded rusticity which is quite attractive, Simoda is said to be the largest town in the princi- pality of Idzu, and was at one time a mart of consider- able importance. It was founded centuries ago, and some two hundred years since was the port of entry for vessels bound for the capital; but Uraga, further up the bay, having succeeded to the important function, Simoda hasdeclined,andbecome comparatively a poverty-stricken place. There is not much appearance of activity in the port, but there still is some incon- siderable business carried on through it, between the interior of the country and various places on the Japan- ese coast. In front of the town there is a depot for small junks and boats, artificially constructed by means of dykes and a breakwater. This is connected with the river, which flows through the valley that extends into the interior; and the boats are thus enabled, when the tide, which rises about five feet, is at its height, to float in and sail tip the stream. Rude docks exist for building and launching vessels, and these show some evidence of activity in the number of junks, about which there are always numerous labourers, more or less busy at work, constructing or repairing. Near the docks, picturesquely bordered by a row of pine- trees, in the shade of which stands a small shrine, there is a landing-place, which, however, is not easily reached by ships' boats, when the tide is low. The town of Simoda is compactly built, and regularly laid out, the streets intersect at right angles, and most of them are guarded by light modern gates, with the names of the street marked upon their hollow posts, within which are the stations of the watchmen. Through the town a small street passes, the sides of which are walled with stone, and across it are thrown four small modern bridges, which connect the opposite banks. The streets are about twenty feet in width, and are partly macadamised and partly paved. Simoda shows an advanced state of civilisation much beyond our own boasted progress, in the attention of its constructors to the cleanness and healthfulness of the place. There are not only gutters but sewers, which draw the refuse matter and filth directly into the sea or the small stream that divides the town. The shops and dwelling-houses are but slightly built, many of them being merely thatched huts. A few of the houses of the better class are of stone, but most are constructed of a framework of bamboo or laths, and then covered with a tenacious mud, this latter, when dry, is again covered with a coat of plaster, which is either painted or becomes black by exposure. Mould- ings are afterwards arranged in diagonal lines over the surface of the building, and these being painted white, contrasting with the dark ground behind, gives the house a curious pie-bald appearance. The roofs are often of tiles, coloured alternately black and white, and their eaves extend low down in front of the walls, and protect the inmates from the sun, and the oil-papered windows from the effects of the rain. On the tops of some of the houses, wires are stretched in various direc- tions to keep off the crows, it is said; but whether on account of their being birds of ill-omen, or only in consequence of their bad habits, was not very apparent. These houses have no chimneys, and there being occa- sional fires for cooking and other purposes, the smoke is left to force its way through the various crannies and cracks which may chance to exist, unless, as is some- times the case, there are certain holes in the upper part of the walls prudently left for the purpose. The buildings are generally but a single story in height, though many of the houses and shops have attics for the storage of goods and refuse articles. Some of the residences stand back from the front of the streets, with yards before them, although generally the latter are in the rear, and are variously appro- priated, some for kitchen -gardens and others for pleasure-grounds, with flowering shrubs, ponds of gold fish, and other ornamental appliances. There are a few buildings fronted with stone, whilst the main structure is of mud or adobe, which are used for the storage of valuable goods, as they are supposed to be better protected from fire. The fronts of the shops and houses have moveable shutters, which at night are fastened to the posts which support the projecting roof. Behind these are sliding panels of oiled paper, which are closed when privacy is sought, and opened for the purpose of seeing in the houses what may be passing, or displaying the goods in the inside of the shops. In lieu of the paper windows there are occasionally lat- tices of bamboo. The title of the shop is displayed over the door or windows, generally in some fanciful device, significant of the kind of business carried on. There are but few signs distinctly recording the trade or occupation, although there was one shop which bore on its front, in the Dutch language, the name in full of a Dutch nostrum, which seemed to be a popular remedy in Japan, for the same was observed in Kana- gawa. The finer goods are generally kept secluded from view in boxes and drawers, and seem to be of a kind that indicates no great affluence on the part of the community. The internal arrangements of the houses and shop3 at Simoda are simple and uniform, though somewhat modified according to the position and business of the inmates. The door is on the right or left side, and protected by the overhanging roof, under which the coarser goods are sheltered, and the customer, when driving a bargain. From the front door a pathway leads directly to the rear, where there are various dwellings and out houses, among which is frequently the shrine for private worship. In the shops this passage-way is crowded with baskets, stands, and trays CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. laden with various merchandise, and the walls on either side are provided with shelves, upon which goods arc also heaped. In the best establishments, articles for sale are seldom displayed beyond turning the open ends of the boxes which contain them towards the street. In the interior of the house there is a largo frame- work raised two feet above the ground. It is spread with stuffed mats, and is divided into several com- partments by means of sliding panels. This house within a house may be applied to the various purposes of trading, eating, sleeping and receiving company, ac- cording to the pleasure or necessity of the proprietor. This stage or platform is used as the workshop by the various handicraftsmen, as, for example, the carpenters and lacquer- varnishers ; the blacksmith and stonecutter, however, perform their heavier work upon the ground. The houses intended for lodgers are generally clean, and neatly spread with the usual soft and thick mats, which serve the double purpose of seats by day and beds by night. The names of the guests are recorded as with u3, but somewhat more publicly, as they are affixed on the doorway on the street. The aristocratic gentry have their coats of arms emblazoned in full and dis- played in wide banners stretched in front of their sloping palaces. The interior of these hotels are by no means very magnificent in appearance, or complete in appointment. The entire absence of tables, chairs, sofas, lamps, and other essentials to comfort, interfere t ery seriously with a guest taking his ease at a Japanese inn. Moreover, the want of looking-glasses, pictures, and other pleasing appeals to the eye, give to the esta- blishment a very naked, cold look to the traveller who has a vivid recollection of the warm snugness of an English inn or the luxurious completeness of an Ameri- can hotel. The whole number of houses at Simoda is estimated at about a thousand, and the inhabitants are supposed to amount to neai-ly seven thousand, one fifth of whom are shopkeepers and artisans. There are in the town, as elsewhere in Japan, a disproportionate amount of officials, soldiers, and retainers of the various princes and dignitaries, who add nothing to the productive resources of the country, but are great consumers of the results of the labours of the lower classes, who are forced to do much work, and are allowed to enjoy but little of the profit. The people have, notwithstanding, a tolerably thriving appearance, and it is seldom that a beggar is seen. The streets, with the exception of a few shops which do but little business, show no signs of trading activity. There is no public market-place, and all the daily transactions of buying and selling are conducted so privately and quietly that, to a passing stranger, Simoda would appear as a place singularly devoid of any regard to the concerns of this world. The people have all the characteristic courtesy and reserved but pleasant manners of the Japanese. A scene at one of the public baths where the sexes mingled indiscriminately, unconscious of their nudity, was not calculated to impress us with a very favour- able opinion of the morals of the inhabitants. This may not be a universal practice throughout Japan, and indeed, is said by the Japanese near us, not to be ; but the Japanese people of the lower ranks are, undoubtedly, notwithstanding their moral superiority to most oriental nations, a lewd people. Apart from the bathing scene, there was enough in the popular literature, with its obscene pictorial 199 illustrations, to form a licentiousness of taste and practico among a certain class of inhabitants, that was not only disgustingly obtrusive, but disgrace- fully indicative of foul corruption. The chief diet of the inhabitants of Simoda consists of fish and vegetablo food. There are poultry — chickens, geese, and ducks — and some few cattle ; but the latter are used only for beasts of burden, and their flesh is never eaten. Rice, wheat, barley, and sweet potatoes are the chief articles raised in and about Simoda, although Irish potatoes, buckwheat, Indian corn, tares, beans, cabbages, cresses, and egg-plants are produced to some extent. The wheat and barley are reaped in May, and the rice, which is first sown and then transplanted, as in Loo- choo, is ready for the latter operation in the middle of June, and these crops succeed each other year after year. During the winter, part of the rice fields, that which lies low, is left fallow, while the terraces are turned into wheat fields. In preparing the fields for the reception of the young shoots of rice, they arc over- flowed with water, and then reduced, by ploughing and ban-owing, into a soft well-mixed mud. Subsequently a substratum of grass and small bushes is trodden down below the surface by the feet. The labourer putting on a couple of broad pieces of wood, like a pair of snow- shoes, goes tramping over the grass and bushes, labour- ing until they disappear below the surface of the mud. This operation over, the small plants are transferred from the plot where they have been sown, to the fields, where they are allowed to remain until maturity. The rice crop is ready for harvesting in the latter part of September or early in the ensuing month. Oxen and horses are occasionally used in agricultural operations, but the labour is mostly performed by hand. There are nine Buddhist and one great Sin too temple in Simoda, to say nothing of the smaller shrines and tho portable wooden chapels that may be seen by the road- side. Each Buddhist temple has twenty-five priests ; the buildings are of wood, and unpainted, with tiled, projecting, peaked roofs; the floors are matted, and the pillars of lacquered work. Behind the door and tho shrine are several reading desks, in each of which is a small wooden fish, which is used to mark time in pray- ing. Boxes placed about, remind the pious, not of charity, but of "feeding hungry demons." These monasteries are surrounded by graveyards, where slabs, raised tombs, obelisks, and all the other vanities of death are abundant, intermixed with uncouth visages of Buddha, issuing from an opening shell, or holding a lotus-flower, or a fly-trap, or some other symbol. Flowers in profusion light up and render gay the other- wise gloomy precincts. "How many religions have we in Japan?" inquired a Tycoon, when the Jesuit-Portuguese remonstrated againstDutch Protestantism. "Thirty-four, your high- ness," was the reply. " Then we can easily bear with another," answered the imperial philosopher. Of the thirty-five remaining, Christianity being now considered extinct, 1 that of the Sintoos is the most important, 1 Simbarra was the last stronghold of native Christianity in Japan, and which saw, as Roman Catholic writers assert, the de- struction of thirty thousand converts to their faith. It was at Simbarra, too, over the common grave of its inhabitants, that the famous inscription was erected, warning the natives, that to pre- fer to their native faith that of the Christians would be to draw down upon themselves the punishment due to traitors, to their emperor, and their country. One sentence ran thus : "So long 200 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. next to or concurrent with Buddhism, and the princi- pal feature of the town of Simoda, terminating its widest street with an imposing edifice at the end of a long avenue of stately cedar and larch trees, is the great Sintoo Temple. 1 As the visitor approaches this temple, he comes to a bridge which is thrown over a fish-pond, which breaks the continuity of the street, and entering the shaded avenue, he passes over another miniature bridge, beau- tifully constructed of finely carved greenstone. Two grim stone statues of armed men, overrun with moss and lichen, guard the entrance. Along the avenue within are high stone candelabras, to the right of which rises an open belfry of square form, resting on a foun- dation of masonry. From the roof swings a beam used to strike the bell, which forms a portion of the furniture of all the temples. To the left is a low tiled shed covering some small native statues, also of stone, and in a pavilion built over the gateway are pictures and models of junks and boats — for this is a marine temple, highly esteemed amongst sailors and fishermen. The temple itself is constructed of wood, covered with thatch, and supported by posts grotesquely ornamented. Hu-chai-on, the deified hero, or kami, to whom this as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian ha so bold as to come to Japan ; and let all know, the King of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, if he violate this command, shall pay for it with his head." 1 The national religion of Japan, which dates from the earliest period, is the religion of Sinsyon, or " Faith of the Gods." The votaries are called Sintoos, and the Mikado, or spiritual emperor, is its temporal head. The divinity is the goddess Ten-sio-dai-rin. She was the daughter of the first god who ever married, and who created the world, which then consisted of Japan : to her suc- ceeded four gods, the last of whom married a mortal wife, and left a mortal son, the immediate predecessor of the original Mikado. This Mikado, in functions resembles a pope, and has the power of canonisation, an honour much coveted by the Kamis or great men of the empire. When thus canonised, they retain their ranks of Kami in the next world, and become the future saints of their families. Thus, there is a saint in every house. The Kamis are divided into superior and inferior, 492 being born gods, and 2,460 being deified or canonised men. The Sintoos believe in "in happy fiolds and villages," as the abode of disem- bodied spirits, but some say they have no idea of a devil or hell, purgatory, or future punishment. This, however, is a disputed point. The Sintoo notion of creation is given in the following text: "In the beginning of the opening of all things, a chaos floated, as fishes swim in the water for pleasure ; out of this chaos arose a thing like a prickle, moveable and transferable. This thing became a soul or spirit, and this spirit is called Kunitoko Dateno Mikotto." This is just about as far as the scientific materialists of the present day have brought their disciples. The reader will observe how inferior in grandeur, sim- plicity, and sublime distinctness it is to the words of Genesis : "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Purity of heart and life is the great feature of Sintooisra, which also enforces purity of body by ceremonial ordinances almost Iievitical. Marriage is permitted to Sintoo priests; unlike those of Buddha, the "Mikado" leading a jolly life (poor fellow!) with seven wives, he being the only man in Japan to whom such ques- tionable enjoyment is permitted. The Sintoos allow their hair to grow, and wear a remarkable head-dress, resembling an inverted boat, lacquered, and often of a most brilliant colour. There is another religious belief, or rather unbelief, prevalent in Japan, called "Sutoo," which is open to all superstitions, but in itself recognises no gods, temples, or places of worship ; acknowledges a universal pervading spirit ; denies any future state of rewards and punishments, and declares that happiness consists in a righteous life, and the perfection of man in the practice of five cardinal virtues — to live virtuously, to do right, to be courteous, to govern wisely, and to obey the conscience. The result of this highly moral state is a legalised prostitution, supported at the expense of the state, a whole quarter of the city devoted to courtesans, and the regular sale and training up of children for such filthy purposes. temple is dedicated, stands in the shrine, having on each side a figure dressed in the ancient Japanese official costume. From the wall hangs a subscription- list (as visual in our parish churches, but this is thirty feet long) of those who provide the expenses of the service in honour of the naval hero. In addition to the one great Sintoo Temple, there are various smaller shrines of the same faith, the sites of which have been picturesquely selected, on the acclivities and on the sum- mits of the wooded hills which bound the town of Simoda landwards. X.— AN EXCURSION ROUND SIMODA. The country about Simoda is beautifully varied with hill and dale. There are the usual signs of elaborate Japanese culture, although from the more sparse population of the neighbourhood, there is more land left in comparatively barren condition than further up the bay towards the capital. The bottom and sides of the valley are covered with gardens and fields, which are well watered by the streamlets which flow through every valley, and which, by artificial arrangements, are diverted from their course, and pour their fertilising waters over the land from terrace to terrace. There are four principal villages, near Simoda. Baki, Gaki, or Persimman point, lies at the end of the harbour, and contains barely two hundred houses. One of its monasteries, known by the name of Goku-zhen-zhi, was set apart like the Khia-zhen-zhi, in Simoda, as a place of resort of the foreigners ; and within the ground attached is the burial place appropriated to the Americans. There is a good anchorage at Kaki-zahi, for junks, and many of them take in their cargoes rather than at Simoda. Passing over the hills in a south-easterly direction, we come to the village of Lusaki, which, with its two hundred houses or so, hangs upon the declivity of a wooded hill-side, with its front extending down to the beach, and facing the waters of the inlet. Its inhabitants are generally fishermen, and their boats, and even larger vessels, approach the shore at any state of the tide. From Lusaki, a good road leads in a northerly direction, to the village of Sotowra, a small hamlet also situated at the sea-side, but with a pleasing landscape inward, varied by culti- vated fields and an undergrowth of dwarf oaks. A larger place, the town of Shira hama, or White-beach, extends its houses along a sandy beach, some three miles distant from Sotowra, and is comparatively a flourishing settlement. Several quarries of trachyte, or greenstone, are marked in the neighbourhood, and large quantities of charcoal are prepared on the forest- crowned hills in the rear. Turning westwardly, and ascending the hills towards Shira-hama, the highest summit within five miles of Simoda is reached, from which the whole southern area and breadth of the peninsula of Idzu can be seen at one glance. Barren peaks rise to the view, of thickly wooded hills, whose sides open into valleys, down which the wild vege- tation throng3 until checked by the culture of the fields that surround the busy hamlets at the bottom. Where the beholder stands, on the summit of the hill, there is a small wooden shrine, almost hidden in a grove of pines. The numerous pictures, flowers, copper cash, rags, and decapitated queues, found within, attest the popularity of the Zhi-zo-hosats, the deity of the place. Descending the hill by its north-western slope, the largest valley of the country round is entered. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 201 A POLICEMAN OF YEODO. The river Inadzei-gama, 'which flows into the har- bour of Simoda, passes through this, irrigating the cultivated banks, and sustaining the commerce of the various villages and towns in the interior. The hamlet of Hongo, containing about one hundred and fifty houses, is situated on the river, which has been dammed at that spot, and turns five under- shot mills for cleaning rice. This operation is performed by a very simple machine, which con- sists of a projecting piece of wood or stone, attached at right angles to the end of a long lever, which plays upon a horizontal axis, and is moved up and down, like a pestle working in a mortar. This rude machinery is occasionally worked by water, as at Hongo, but more frequently by a man, who steps alternately off and on the long end of the beam. The river at Hongo is navigable for flat-bottomed boats, which frequent the place for charcoal, grain, stone, and other products. The country about is beautifully diversified, and the culture of the land is carried on to an extent that would hardly be believed by one who was not familiar with the populous countries of the East. Every hill is but a succession of terraces, rising one above the other, from the base to the summit, and green with the growth of rice, barley, wheat, and other grain. At the opening of a smaller valley, which branches off from the main one near Hongo, is a small one called Kendai-zhe, from the lotus terrace monastery near by. From Hongo the valley widens more and more until it reaches Simoda, where it forms an open ex- panse, like an alluvial plain. Along the base of the range of hills, and up their slopes in the direction of the harbour, the numerous farm-houses and abounding granaries, many of them of stone and with substantial walls of the same material, exhibit a cheerful prospect of thrift and comfort. Nor are there wanting evi- dence of luxuriant enjoyment in the handsome struc- ture of the dwelling-houses, with their pleasure grounds adorned with pastures of variegated flowers, artificial ponds of gold fish, and fancy dwarf shade and fruit 202 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. trees. "West of Simoda, the villages are smaller, and the hills which flank them of less height. In that direction there are no villages of a shorter distance than five miles from the town of Simoda. Near this sea-side settlement toward the south-west, the inhabi- tants have excavated large chambers in the cliffs some hundred feet from the shore, in which they store the sea- weed, which is a favourite article for chewing, as •tobacco is used with us, and whither the fishermen occasionally resort for shelter. The lower hills in every direction are covered with wood, from which large supplies of charcoal are made, which is extensively used for domestic and manufacturing purposes. XL— APPROACH TO YEDDO. Some account of the peculiar and decisive step taken by the British Embassy under Lord Elgin to obtain a personal interview with the governing powers of Japan at Yeddo or Yedo — the chief port, if not the real capital of the empire — will furnish at the same time the best description of the bay or gulf by which Yeddo is approached, and which constitutes the subject of our illustration. (See p. 186.) The English ships got under weigh from Simoda at daylight on the morning of the 12th of August, and, with a fair wind, proceeded rapidly up the bay, passing, on their left, a mountain range about 6,000 feet in height. The shores now began to close in, and, at the Straits of Uraga, which they reached in about five hours from Simoda, they are not above ten miles apart. At this point the scenery was pretty; wooded hills rose from the water's edge, sloping gently back, here and there deeply furrowed with a charming glen, in which cottages with steep thatched roofs and overhanging eaves were snugly ensconced. The western shore resembled some parts of the coast of the Isle of Wight. The town of Uraga itself is the most im- portant looking place on the coast. It is considered a sort of barrier to Yeddo, and even country craft must stop here to give an account of themselves. Two boat- loads of two-sworded officials pushed off in haste as they steamed up, and by gesticulations and gestures of entreaty, invited them to stop ; but they passed on utterly indifferent to their signals ; and as they left them far behind they could still discern them tugging hopelessly after them in the vain attempt to overtake a steamer of 400 horse-power going at full speed. They could scarcely believe their eyes, when at anchor, the same night, they observed these identical boats pull alongside, they having never relinquished the pursuit. Meanwhile they steamed steadily on through the waters traversed for the first time by Commodore Perry's squadron a few years ago, and consequently but little surveyed. Passing the Perry and Webster islands, prettily wooded and of a picturesque form, they came within sight of the Russian squadron an- chored at Kanagawa, at about mid-day. This place is situated at a distance of eighteen miles from Yeddo. It affords good anchorage about half-a-mile from the shore ; it is a town of considerable imjiortance, and has been selected as one of the new ports. Count Pontiatine, who had proceeded to Japan direct from the Gulf of Pe-che-li, had ai-rived here about a fortnight previously, and been engaged during that period in making ar- rangements for his proper reception at the capital. Lord Elgin, however, instead of stopping at Kanagawa, determined to adopt the unprecedented course of sailing straight up to the capital, believing that, if the achieve- ment were feasible, it would not only save valuable time, but that the presence of our ships there would produce a most salutary effect upon the Government, and in all probability tend to facilitate negotiations. It was eminently fortunate that, on occasions of this sort, he had, in Captain Sherard Osborn, a commander upon whose zeal and professional skill he could always place the most perfect reliance. The unexpected appearance of the English Embassy must have somewhat astonished their Muscovite friends, more especially as they passed on at full speed up the bay, where no western ship had ever before ventured. Up to this point the western shore, under which they had been coasting, was uniformly high and broken, with projecting promontories ; now, however, it sank to a level with the waters of the bay. The soundings in Perry's chart cease just before reaching Kanasaki Point, a very long sandy spit which runs far out into the bay, and off which the Japanese have placed a beacon. The water now became shallow and the channel somewhat intricate. They were just doubting whether the undertaking was practicable, when they saw in the distance some large square-rigged ships of a tonnage which satisfied them that their anchorage would do for them ; but for a moment they felt bitterly disappointed at the discovery of Eurojjean-built ships, betokening, as they supposed, the presence of some foreign flag more enterprising than their own. It was only when they approached nearer that they perceived that these western-looking craft were in reality Japanese, and observed the white flag with the red ball floating from the peak of a dapper little steamer, and marking it " Imperial." Gradually, behind these vessels, the island forts, and then the houses of the city of Yeddo, rose into view. Gently, with two leads going, they crept up to the long-desired haven, closely followed by the Retribution and yacht ; and, by two o'clock the same afternoon, after a most prosperous passage from Simoda, they anchored not far from the Japanese fleet, at a distanco of about three miles from the shore and five from tho capital of the empire. Captain Sherard Osborn, the naval hero of this exploit, gives a short graphic description of the pro- ceeding, as well as of the Gulf of Yeddo itself. The Japanese authorities, we are told, were evidently determined, if official obstructiveness could stop the embassy, to leave no efforts untried to do so. Even in the open sea, between Vries Yolcano and the entrance of Yeddo Gulf, two guard-boats succeeded in throwing themselves in their track. At first the officer of the watch innocently believed them to be fishermen, and, dreaming of turbot and mackerel, edged towards tho boats, favouring the Japanese manoeuvre. When al- most upon the ship's bows, up went the little square flags, and out popped upon the deck of each boat a two-sworded official, who, steadying himself against the excessive motion by placing his legs wide apart, waved frantically for the Furious to stop. The officer of tho watch had directions to be perfectly deaf and blind for tho next five minutes. The ship gave a sheer, and went clear off the boats by a few yards ; they might as well have requested the volcano behind them to cease smoking as to yell for them to stop. Stop, indeed ! Why, the old ship knew as well as they did CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 203 that the wind was fair and Yeddo right a-head, and this accounts for her incivility to Japanese guard boats, and her playful kick-up of the heels as she went through the water at a nine-knot speed. The last they saw of the two officers was that one poor man performed a somersault, as his boat dived into a sea ; and a somer- sault with two swords by his side, a queer-cut hat tied on literally to his nose, a shirt as stiff as if cut out of paper, and very bagging trousers, must bo a feat not voluntarily gone through ; while the other officer, who wisely had himself supported by two boatmen, con- tinued to wave his arms like an insane semaphore so long as they looked at him. Poor fellows ! they too knew what it was to suffer in performance of orders, and giving them their hearty sympathy, the English ships left the worthies to find their way back to their shores. By nine o'clock they were fairly entering the limits of the Gulf of Yeddo, Mid the refreshing gale rendered their speed little short of ten miles an hour. It was a glorious panorama past which they were rapidly sailing, and the exhilarating effects of its influence upon all, combined with a delicious climate and invigorating breeze, was visible in the glistening eyes and cheerful looks of the officers and men, who crowded to gaze upon the picture that unrolled itself before them. The scenery was neither Indian nor Chinese, and presented more of the features of a land within the temperate than of one touching the ton-id zone. The lower and nearer portions of the shores of the Gulf resembled strongly some of the most picturesque spots in our own dear islands, yet we have no gulf in Britain upon such a scale as that of Yeddo. Take the fairest portions of the coast of Devon- shire, and all the shores of the Isle of Wight, form with their combined beauty a gulf of forty-five miles long, and varying in width from ten to thirty. In every nook and valley, as well as along every sandy way, place pretty towns and villages, cut out, all brick and plaster, villas with Corinthian porticoes, and intro- duce the neatest chalets Switzerland ever produced — strew the bright sea with quaint vessels and picturesque boats, and you will have the foreground of the picture. For background scatter to the eastward the finest scenery our Highlands of Scotland can afford — leave the blue and purple tints untouched, as well as the pine- tree and mountain ash. Far back, fifty miles off, on the western side of the Gulf, amidst masses of snowy clouds and streams of golden mist, let a lofty mountain range be seen, and at its centre rear a magnificent cone, the beautiful Fusi-yama, the " Matchless Moun- tain" of Japan, and then, perhaps, the reader can in some way picture to his mind's eye the beauties of the Gulf of Yeddo, in the loveliness of that bright day when it first gladdened the sight of the members of the British Embassy. The refreshing gales drove the ships, like sea-gulls, past the noble bluffs between Capes Sagami and Ka- misaki. The shore, to which they approached within a thousand yards, was bristling with batteries and swarming with guard-boats, of which several, with officers and linguists on board, pushed off, and tried their best, by signals, to induce them to stop. They only gave themselves time to note that the promising little port of Iragua was full of native vessels, and that there shelter might be' very likely found, if the anchor- age in the Gulf proved insecure. Guided by .the excellent map and chart of Commodore Perry, they hauled in for the western shores to avoid a dangerous shoal, called by the Americans Saratoga Spit, and then bore away north. They sighted rapidly, one after the other, the various points and headlands mentioned by Perry, and recognised Treaty Point, near which the American treaty of March 31, 1854, was negotiated. In the bay of Kanagawa, an extremely pretty inden- tation upon the west coast, just beyond Treaty Bluff, they saw at anchor the Russian frigate Esvold and a despatch gunboat. The former they knew had on board his Excellency Count Pontiatine, the Russian Plenipotentiary, and he was doubtless busily labouring on behalf of his imperial master, amongst the treaty- bewildered Japanese. The Furious was in ten fathoms of water, and it seemed quite unreasonable to haul out of the high road to the capital and anchor, because other people had done so, at Kanagawa. With the sanction of Lord Elgin, the Furious and Retribution bore away for Yeddo. Mr. Hewskin, the interpreter, had, whilst accompanying Mr. Harris in his last visit to Yeddo, been carried on one occasion in a small Japanese steamer from Kanagawa to the capital ; bus from his observations upon that occasion, he was led to believe that extensive mud-banks barred the approach to the city. Yet lie suggested, what they found to have been the case, that the Japanese officers had taken the vessels by a very shallow routs expressly to mislead the new-comers. Rattling along amongst fleets of native boats of all sizes round the shallows of Beacon Point, they went off the American chart on to really unknown ground, beyond the maps of Siebold and Koempfer, which gave them the coast-line and guided them to the north-west corner of the gulf, as the site of Yeddo. On a very clear day, from Beacon Point, the southern suburb of Yeddo, named Sinagawa, may doubtless be visible, as well as the hills situated within the limits of the city itself, but the strong gale before which they wero blown had caused a haze that hid all from them, except the outline of some low hills to the north- west. Directly they were clear of the shoals, and that the land appeared to recede from them, they hauled in for it, and presently they saw four square-rigged vessels riding at anchor under the land. When they bore N.W. by compass, they steered for them. The sound- ings commenced to diminish steadily, but it mattered not, for were there water for those vessels thero must be nearly enough for us ; and, at any rate, the bottom was a nice soft unctuous mud, if they did happen to stick their keel in it. Their hopes wero not destined to be disappointed, for up out of the sea, and out of the mist, rose one startling novelty after another. Huge batteries, big enough to delight tho Czar Nicholas — temples — the imperial palace — Yeddo itself coming round the bay, all for the first time looked upon from the decks of a foreign man-of-war. The four square-rigged vessels proved to be Japanese men-of-war ; and when we had brought them, as well as the batteries, well under command of our guns, the Furious and the Retribution anchored in twenty-four feet water, as well as the little yacht Emperor, that, under a press of sail and steam had been fruitlessly trying to overtake the larger vessels since they entered the gulf. " Shade of Will Adams ! " exclaimed Captain Sherard Osborn. At last the prayer of the earnest old sailor, that his countrymen might reap wealth and advantage from commercial relations with Japan, was 204 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. about to be fulfilled. Two hundred and fifty-eight years had elapsed since he and his half-wrecked ship had been nigh the very spot in which they were, and now his countrymen had come in earnest. They held the empire of the East, and had won the wealth of all the Indies ; and the arms of England, and the skill of the ambassadors, had thrown down all the barriers set up by China against foreign trade or intercourse. Great Britain, in those two hundred and twenty-five years which had intervened since the cessation of com- merce with Japan, had carefully paved the way to the point at which it was no longer possible to tolerate the exclusiveness of an important and wealthy empire ; and an English squadron and an English Ambassador were now off the capital of Japan, the bearers, it is true, of a message of good-will, but yet to show, in a way not to be mistaken, that the hour had arrived for Japan to yield to reason, or to be prepared to suffer, as the Court of Pekin had done, for its obstinacy. XII.— LANDING AT YEDDO. Tuesday, the 17 th of August, came in a glorious clay to pay honour to the entry of the first British Ambassador to Japan since the year 1613, when the envoy of James I. was favourably received by the then reigning emperor. Captain Barker had arranged that without letting the Japanese into the secret of their proceedings, the landing should be effected in the most solemn and imposing manner, befitting the representatives of our beloved sovereign, and so thoroughly to foil the plan, accidentally discovered on the previous day, of making Lord Elgin's entry into Yeddo a hole-and-corner affair, unaccompanied by pomp and ceremony. The boats of the squadron were prepared, manned, and armed ; the Retribution contri- buted her band, the ships were dressed with flags, and when all was ready, the Ambassador on board the Lee, accompanied by a perfect flotilla of boats, proceeded towards the batteries. The Japanese officer and Yeuoske, who had been sent off to escort his Ex- cellency to the shore, were much struck by all these preparations : they even ceased to take notes, which was a serious sign. The Lee threaded her way care- fully towards an anchorage used by the native craft. Yeuoske pointed out to Commander Graham a different route, between two of the outer batteries, where the Lee would certainly have run aground, but his friendly suggestion was not adopted. Within the line of batteries the Lee was obliged to anchor ; the procession of boats now formed, the galleys of the squadron with their cutters, with the officers of their respective ships dressed in full uniform. Astern of these, followed one of the launches carrying the band ; then came the barge in which was embarked the Ambassador. Another large launch followed in the rear of the barge, and the launches of the Furious kept at a convenient distance, upon either side, to prevent his Excellency being crowded upon by native boats. There was real " Queen's weather " to set off to the best advantage the show where the ships dressed with bright coloured flags, the boats with their gay pendants and ensigns, and laden with men and guns, had attracted a vast throng of human beings, who clustered in every open space whence a view of the procession was to be obtained. The boats crossed the shallow bank, and approached the official lauding place, where the Earl of Elgin disembarked, while the band played "God save the Queen." As for the Japanese officials, they looked as if lost in wonder and astonish- ment that such things should be in the capital of Tai- Nipon. The officers of the squadron remained on shore to escort the Ambassador to his palanquin, and that done, all returned to the ships. A procession was formed, and was by no means unpicturesque. In front marched a pompous official, accompanied by a man carrying a spear, the badge of authority ; he was closely followed by a knot of officials in a neat costume of a coarse looking black gauze, like thick mosquito curtains. On their backs or shoulders was stamped the imperial trefoil, or the private arms of the owner. Some were dressed exactly alike, others wore blue and white dresses ; but every individual was evidently in a uniform befitting his rank and position. All these men, however, were probably servants, or quite sub- ordinate officials ; some carried aloft umbrellas covered with large waterproof bags, and others lacquered portmanteaus on poles over their shoulders. This was supposititious baggage. On each side of the procession walked policemen in a sort of harlequin costume, composed of as many colours as if their dress was made from a patchwork counterpane : each of these men carried iron rods six or seven feet long, from the top of which depended a quantity of iron rings. (See illustration, p. 201 .) Every time that this rod was brought to the ground with the jerk of authority, it emitted a loud jingle, which was heard far and wide through the crowd, and was respected by them accordingly. Behind this vanguard came the members of the Embassy, some on horseback and some in norimons ; and more men in black gauze, and umbrella carriers, and variegated policemen, brought up the rear. Upon the subject of the harlequin police at Yeddo, it is necessaiy to remark that the whole system of municipal government in the cities in Japan seems very perfect. There is a mayor or governor, some of whom are emissaries, and there area certain number of deputies to assist him, and a class of officials who seem to be the intermediates between the people and those in authority, and whose business it is to receive and present petitions and to forward complaints to the governors, and plead the cause of the aggrieved memo- rialists. Then eveiy street has its magistrate, who is expected to settle all disputes, to know the most minute details of the private and public affairs of every creature within his jurisdiction, as reported to him by spies; and to keep an accurate record of births, deaths and marriages. Then he is responsible for all broils and disturbances, and for the good conduct of the street generally. This functionary is also provided with deputies, and is elected by the popular voice of the inhabitants of the street. To render the task easier, the male householders are divided into small companies of four or five each, the head of which is responsible to the magistrate for all the proceedings of the members. This complete organisation is furnished with a secretary, a treasurer, a certain number of messengers, etc. Besides the regular constables, it is patrolled at night by the inhabitants themselves in parties of two or three. From all which it will show that "our street," in a Japanese city, must be a source of considerable interest and occupation to its inhabitants. As for the crowd, it was wild with excitement, the inhabitants of every cross street and lane poured out to see them pass. The excitement of maidservants CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN, in our own country, when the strains of martial music fall upon their ears, was nothing to it. There were mothers with small habies hanging on their shoulders, reckless of their progeny, hastening to swell the crowd ; children dodging under old people's legs, and old people tottering after children, and bathers of both sexes, regardless of the fact that they had nothing on but soap, or the Japanese substitute for it, crowding the doorways. The clatter of pattens was quite re- markable, as all the women wear high wooden pattens, which are very inconvenient to run in, and as women in Japan, as in England, formed the largest proportion of the mob, the scuffling they made added to the tumult. Not that the people were the least disorderly, they laughed and stared, and ran parallel with them, till stopped by a barrier, for the Japanese are perfect in the managemenent of crowds. In the principal street there are wooden gates about every six hundred yards, with a gatekeeper seated in a little house like a turnpike. The moment the Embassy passed, this gate was shut, and the old crowd was left behind to crawl through the bars, and watch with curious eyes the new crowd forming. All the cross streets enter- ing the main street were shut off from it by ropes stretched across them, under or over them the people never attempted to pass. The crowd was, to all appearance, entirely composed of the shopkeepers and lower classes. The men were decently clothed, and the women wore a sort of jacket above their skirt, which was, however, constructed upon a rather neglige principle. The first impression of the fair sex which the traveller receives in a Japanese crowd, is in the highest degree unfavourable : the ghastly appearance of the faces and bosoms, thickly coated with powder, the absence of eyebrows, and the blackened teeth, produce a most painful and dis- agreeable effect. Were it not for this abominable custom, Japanese women would probably rank high among Eastern beauties, certainly far before Chinese. The city of Yeddo, and its two southern suburbs, Singawa and Omagawa, curve round the bay for nearly ten miles ; and subsequent comparison of the remarks made upon its extent landward, confirmed the belief that the area of Yeddo might be considered a3 a square, every side of which was seven miles long. Of course, the whole of this area is not closely built over j indeed, in no capital has such care been taken to preserve fine open spaces, especially round the palaces of their emperor and princes, and the neighbourhood of their temples and tea-houses, both of which are the constant resorts of all classes in Yeddo. Within the limits of the city arc several hills of moderate elevation, as well as gentle slopes ; in all cases they were but thinly built upon, and extensive gardens, with many magnificent trees, principally adorned their sides. On a hill which rises from the heart of the city, and from a mass of densely-crowded buildings, the imperial palace is built with a crenelated wall, half hidden by green banks and shady trees, within whose limits the ruler of this kingdom is immersed for life as the sad penalty of his high position. The houses look very neat and com- fortable, and are principally of wood, stone and brick being avoided as much as possible, in consequence of the frequency of earthquakes. No walls inclose the city, whose site is admirably adapted to admit of almost unlimited increase in extent, without interfering with drainage, supplies, intercommunication, or ready access to the waters of tlie bay, which insures to those living 205 upon its shores, cleanliness, sea air, and an easy high- way. A river in the Toda-gawa flows through the heart of Yeddo ; they could see one fine bridge spanning it near its mouth, and there are two others farther up. Be- sides the Toda-gawa, some smaller streams intersect the town and suburbs. The absence of all imposing edifices, and the general want of elevation in the ground upon which the city stands, render the view from the sea by no means im- posing; but its extensive sea-front, the throb of life evident in the fleets of boats and vessels passing and re- passing the batteries and guns which frowned upon them, the hum as of a multitude at hand that was borne to their ears when the breeze came off the land, all im- pressed them with the fact that they were at anchor off one of the largest capitals in the world. XIII.— INTERIOR OF YEDDO. The residence assigned to Lord Elgin, in the town of Yeddo, was a portion of a temple situated upon the outskirts of the Imperial residence, or the " Princes" Quarter." In front of it was a street which, according to Mr. Oliphant, continued for ten miles (!) as closely packed with houses, and as densely crowded with people, as it is from Hyde Park corner to Mile-end. At the back of it stretched a wide and somewhat dreary aristocratic quarter, which contained the residences of three hundred and sixty hereditary princes, each a petty sovereign in his own right, many of them with half-a-dozen town houses, and some of them able to accommodate in these ten thousand retainers. A mag- nificent moat, seventy to eighty yards broad, faced with a smooth green escarpment as many feet in height, above which ran a massive wall, comprised of stones Cyclopean in their dimensions, the whole crowned by a lofty palisade, surrounded the Imperial residence, which is again buried amidst groves of giant cedars. From the highest point of the fortifications in rear of the castle, a panoramic view was obtained of the vast city, with its two millions and a half of inhabitants, and an area equal to, if not greater than, that of London. The castle alone was computed to be capable of containing forty thousand inhabitants. Yeddo, says the same writer, is, without exception, one of the finest cities of the world. 1 1 The name Yeddo, or Jeddo, signifies "The mouth or entrance of the river." It is called Td-to, " the Eastern Capital," to distin- guish it from Miako, i e. " the Capital." The legitimate title of the chief is said to be Konbo (Kung Pang) i.e. the Duke, or Dai Singun, the great General or Commander-in-chief. The word Tyeuu, by which he has been introduced to us lately, signifies simply the " great officer." It is, after all, a question of names, for by whatever name the chief of Yeddo is distinguished, he is at the head of the feudal nobility, in command of the military, and secular ruler, or autocrat of the empire. The Mikado or Tew-zi, i.e., "the Son of Heaven," who resides at Miako, retains at present little except the name of Emperor. Ho arrogates descent from Tew Zio Dai Zin, " the Sun God," tho founder of the empire, and, as such, claims the reverence of tho people. He traces his descent in an unbroken line from Ziu Moso, the Divine Mirror, who established his authority 667 B.C. He is supposed to be the fountain of all honour, and from him all the great officers of state, including the Singun, nominally receive their investiture. The relationship of the Mikado and the Singun in present times may be compared to that of the old Merovingian Kynings, who, as descendants of the Scandinavian divinities, were regarded as sacred persons, while their power was wrested from them and exercised by the mayors of the palace. 206 ALL ROUND THE WOULD. It must be borne in mind, however, in connection with the vast space covered by the town, that, owing to the frequency of earthquakes, the houses are only of one story, and hence a smaller amount of population covers a greater extent of space than in Europe. But the party on shore did not confine itself to ex- ploring the city alone ; excursions of ten miles into the country were made in two different directions, and but one opinion prevailed with respect to the extra- ordinary evidences of civilisation which met the eye in every direction. Every cottage, temple, or tea- house was surrounded by gardens laid out with ex- quisite taste, and the most elaborate neatness was skilfully blended with grandeur of design. The natural features of the country were admirably taken advan- tage of, and a long ride was certain to be rewarded by a romantic scene, where a tea-house was picturesquely perched over a waterfall, or a temple reared its carved gables amid groves of ancient cedars. The tea-house is described as a national characteristic of Japan. The traveller, wearied with the noon-day heat, need never be at a loss to find rest and refreshment ; stretched upon the softest and cleanest of matting, imbibing the most delicately flavoured tea, inhaling through a short pipe the fragrant tobacco of Japan, he resigns himself to the ministrations of a bevy of fair damsels, who glide rapidly and noiselessly about, the most zealous and skilful of attendants. The modesty of our party, however, was somewhat taken aback by seeing no small portion of the popula- tion washing themselves in tubs at the corners of streets towards evening. In Yeddo they frequent large bathing establishments, the door of which is open to the passer-by, and presents a curious spectacle, more especially as the inmates, of both sexes, ingenu- ously rush out to gaze at the European as he rides blushingly past. We often saw two or three ladies quietly sitting in tubs in front of their doors at Yeddo itself, washing themselves with the utmost unconcern, traffic and business through the street going on past them as usual. This was a general custom, and no one thought of or would imagine any harm in it. 1 XIV.— TEA GARDENS. A pakty of eight or ten made a trip from Yeddo to -a summer resort called Hojee, where are botanical gardens and well-appointed tea-houses amid pretty scenery. For the first four or five miles their way led them through the town along the castle moat, past the point at which they again obtained a panoramic view of the city, and on through more winding streets, which they had not before explored, and which seemed interminable. At last they got clear of the more crowded thoroughfares and found themselves tra- 1 Such an apparent want of modesty is difficult to comprehend, arA it is not reconcileahle with the advanced state of civilisation of tlie Japanese, that is to bo deduced from other facts. Modesty cannot he ranked among mere conventional things j its absence is not the extinction of a prejudice: its presence is one of the distinctive characters between the human race and that of brutes. It is not on this point alone, however, that the Japanese differ from Europeans. In many of their habits and manners they present a striking antagonism to that which is accepted in Europe. To show respect, for example, wo take off our hats ; the Japanese remove their shoes. We get up, they sit down; for with them it is the height of impoliteness to receive a visitor standing. When going out we put on a great coat, the Japanese put on capacious trousers, as a symbol of dignity and state. versing pleasant suburban lanes, passing the spacious palace of the most powerful prince in the empire — . Kagano-kami. The outer walls of this establishment enclose an immense area of ground, and contain build- ings which are said to afford accommodation to ten thousand men. The groves of lofty trees which towered above the walls gave token of the beauty of the gardens within them. Many of the streets and roads which they traversed were lined with peach and plum trees : at the period of the year when these are in full bloom, they must form a most charming and fragrant avenue. They were filled with astonishment and delight at the exquisite taste displayed in the gardens and cottages upon the road-side. No model estate in England can produce " cottages ornees" comparable to those which adorn the suburbs of Yeddo. There is a want of that minuteness which the Chinaman glories in until he becomes grotesque. The Japanese have hit the happy medium. With an elaborate delicacy of detail, they combine the art of generalisation in design, so that the relation of the parts with the whole is maintained throughout, and the general effect is not sacrificed to minor beauties. These charming little cottages, raising their thatched roofs amid the fruit trees and creepers which threatened to smother them in their embraces, were surrounded by flower-beds tastefully laid out, resplendent with brilliant hues, and approached by walks between carefully clipped hedges. Yew-trees, cut into fantastic shapes, and dwarfed trees, extending their deformed arms as if for assistance and support, are favourite garden ornaments. Here and there, at the end of a long avemie, they could discern a temple embowered .amid trees ; and ancient priests, in gauzy and transparent costume, with broad em- broidered belts and sashes, and enormous lacquered hats, would hurry to the entrance to watch the stranger pass. The beauty of the cemeteries was in keeping with the taste displayed in everything else ; here walks wound amid flowering shrubs and drooping cypresses. The respectability of the quarter through which they were passing could always be judged by the size and character of the crowd which accompanied them. In some parts of the suburbs they were followed by a noisy mob, who pressed upon them, cheering and laughing — not, however, showing any signs of ill-will. Some of the party on the previous day, not attended by a sufficiently large body of policemen to inspire awe, passing through some of the less reputable parts of the town, had been hooted, and even pelted, the crowd calling out, "Chinamen, Chinamen, have you anything to sell f — a circumstance for which the Commissioners never ceased apologising ; while they took occasion to impress upon them the necessity, which they were always anxious to forget, of never moving about unless accompanied by a proper staff of police. Upon this occasion they were attended by twenty officials, in a black gauze uniform, who marched in front of them. As they were desirous not to lose time and the steeds were willing, some of the elder members of this party were knocked up before they got to the half-way tea-house, where they changed our escort. As they got farther from town the cottages became more scattered, but the country did not lose its air of civilisation. Groves of tall trees overshadowed the road, apparently bordering some ornamental grounds, CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. 207 for they -were enclosed by palings exactly resembling those of our own parks. The tea-house at which they stopped to rest was situated in a garden, where sparkling water gushed out of mossy grottoes and quilted mats invited to repose. Here pipes and tea were served by fair damsels, who also pressed upon their acceptance unripe pears. Beyond this tea-house they found themselves fairly in the country: they had exchanged the suburbs of London for the lanes of Devonshire. Although the country was undulating, the road was neither two steep nor too narrow for wheeled vehicles. Sometimes it passed between- high banks crowned with hedge-rows and shrubs, among which were observed the holly. With the exception of groves of trees, left doubtless for a special purpose, and which served to diversify the prospect, every acre of ground seemed cultivated. This is probably partly in consequence of a law compelling every man to cultivate his land within the year upon pain of forfeiting it. Fields of yams and egg-plant, or brinjall, of beans and Indian corn, millet and onions, alternated with each other in rapid succession. At every clump of trees through which the road passed were resting-places for all classes of travellers ; simple benches under the gnarled branches of some venerable oak or plane tree for humble wayfarers, and little tables with fruit and tea set out in the cool shade ; or summer-houses, composed of a single hut, with the same invariable beverage, hot and ready to refresh the thirst of the weary pedestrian ; or an establishment of greater pretensions, where men of rank might stay and rest. At last they suddenly descended into a dell, where a charming village lay embosomed in a wood. It con- sisted of a few cottages, and a tea-house on a grand scale. At the entrance to this establishment they dismounted, much to the edification of the whole population of the village, who assembled to stare and wonder at them. They found the tea-house situated on the edge of a brawling stream, the balconies of the upper rooms overhanging the water. Hanging woods and gardens, tastefully laid out with rock-work, and yew-trees cut into quaint shapes, fringed the bank of the river to the point at which it entered the grounds in a picturesque cascade. Taking possession of a summer-house perched on a projecting point, and which commanded a charming view of the surround- ing objects, they signified to a group of young ladies — who came to look at them under the pretext of wait- ing for orders — their desire to be furnished with some luncheon. They were not kept long in waiting for their meal, which consisted of some excellent vegetable soup, and some rice and fish. By way of dessert they had marsh- melons, apricots, and pears ; so that they had no difficulty in satisfying the cravings of hunger. They found that these gardens were a favourite resort of pleasure-parties from Yeddo of the highest rank. When any grandee wishes to enjoy a domestic treat of this sort, accompanied by his wife and family, he gives a previous notice of his intention to the keeper of the tea-house, so that a dignified privacy may be secured to him. There, screened from the vulgar gaze, he and his companions give themselves up to the enjoyment which this species of recreation affords. Their wives play, dance, or sing for their benefit ; in fact, so far as could be gathered, they behave very much as we do when we are working off the fag-end of the season in pic-nics to the Star and Garter, or Hampton Court. If any aristocratic pic-nic was going on during their visit to Hojee, they were not fortunate enough to get a glimpse of it. They did, nevertheless, explore the internal economy of the establishment. Unfortunately, it not being the custom for the guests to go into the kitchen, one of the visitors was ignominiously expelled from that department, just as he was commencing his investigations by which so large a number of guests were kept constantly supplied with every description of Japanese delicacy, and tea in rivers. He had only time to find himself encompassed by a bevy of active, bustling waitresses, and to catch sight of huge steaming cauldrons, when a strong-minded woman showed him the door with a soup-ladle. The com- plexions of many of these girls were quite as fair as those of our countrywomen. In waiting their manners are graceful and respectful. Almost everything is served in lacquer, and is presented in a reverential attitude. The guests sit dotted about on the mat till they have done dinner, when they lie down to smoke, sip tea, and digest. The tea-gardens here described are among the most curious characteristics of Japan. The proprietors of these establishments bring up young girls to dance, dress, converse, and in fact, like the Hetaira of Greece, to unite all the charms of mind and graces of person to beauty of form and elegance of manners. We have seen that the Japanese do not hesitate to invite then- wives to accompany them to these places consecrated to pleasure, in order to enjoy the dancing, music, and con- versation of these women, degraded by their profession, but distinguished by the superiority of their education. This state of things is the more to be wondered at, as the Japanese are reputed to be as jealous as any nation on the earth's surface of the honour and reputation of their women. It is, indeed, the only country in the East where women occupy the position due to them in the social scale; and what is more, many of these courtesans marry well, others return to their families, and others again go to swell the ranks of an order which has been designated as that of the begging nuns. Such women are in after-life judged solely by their acts; no- body permits himself to remind them of their past life. These Japanese Aspasias also figure, according to Koempfer, in the great annual religious processions and ceremonies called Matsuri, in which portable chapels, dedicated to local deities, splendidly gilt and varnished, and carried in processions, in which are the authorities, courtesans and ladies in palanquins, amidst a host of banners. The courtesans represent in these processions the historical expeditions of their mikados, or national heroes and demi-gods. The richness and fidelity of their costumes is said to be admirable. These processions are numerous ; they have all to go to the chief square to appear before the authorities, and they extemporise little theatrical entertainments, which do not last more than a-quarter of an hour. It is the same in regard to the other public rejoicings in Japan, in which the courtesans all take their part, and these are exceedingly numerous; for the Japanese hold that one of the best means to propitiate the divinities, is not to annoy them with incessant prayers, supplications, or useless lamentations, but to divert themselves in their presence, confiding themselves to their infinite good- ness, and persuaded that they take pleasure in seeing people give themselves up to innocent recreations. Some 208 ALL BOUND THE WORLD. deem all prayers useless, as God knows the bottom of their hearts. Others even deem it indecent to present themselves before their deities when afflicted. The Japanese have also burlesque processions in honour of Satan. A quarrel having once arisen whe- ther the Archangel was black, white, red or green, the Mikado decided that there were evil spirits of all four colours; and ever since, once a year, a troop of persons marked with horns, and painted black, white, red, and green, dance through the towns to the sound of drums and other musical instruments. Among other peculiar festivals is one dedicated to the souls of the deceased, on which occasion an infinite number of little boats are delivered up to the winds and waves, bearing lambs and lanterns emblematic of the souls of the deceased, as in the Chinese Feast of Lanterns. At another festival, the high authorities and gravest persons of the empire may be seen flying kites ! The meaning of this has not been clearly established. On another day, again, the whole population is to be seen busy driving the evil spirits from their habitations and those of their neighbours with parched peas and even pebbles. The Japanese have also the most magnificent commemorative hunting feasts on record. Fisscher witnessed one at Nagasaki in which seven hundred per- formers took part. On these occasions the streets are carefully swept, and the houses are lined with flags, tapestry, or clothes. The heroic hunting processions have a very solemn character, and no noise or acclama- tions of any kind are permitted. From the description given by Fisscher, they must be of extraordinary mag- nificence. Kcempfer relates, in connection with the same traditions of heroic hunting times, that a horn of extraordinary dimensions was kept at the Temple of Janus. It had served in the ancient hunts round the Mountain of Fusi-yama, but some robbers having stolen it, they let it fall into a river, and it was con- verted into a guardian spirit of the waters. XV.— EOUND KANAGAWA. This snug little bay, now exchanged for the unsafe harbour of Simoda, affords a depth of thirteen fathoms of water, a mile and a half from the shore. Within the bay are two beautiful islands, covered with a green growth of herbage and scattered groves. The coast is composed of a succession of steep cliffs of white rock, covered with a fertile soil, which produces a rich vege- tation that hangs over from above, in heavy festoons of green shrubbery and trailing vines and plants, while the sea has washed the base of the cliffs here and there into caverns, where the water flows in and out. The surrounding country is beautifully watered, and on the banks of a gentle stream cluster picturesque villages, beyond which stretch out fertile fields and highly cul- tivated gardens ; nothing can be more picturesque than the landscape upon the surrounding shores ; the deep rich green of the vegetation, the innumerable thriving villages embosomed in groves of trees, at the heads of the inlets which break the uniformity of the bay, and the rivulets flowing down the green slopes of the hills and winding calmly through the meadows, combine to form a scene of beauty, abundance, and happiness, that everyone rejoices to contemplate. A circuit embracing some five miles was the extent of the field of observation, but this gave an oppor- tunity of seeing a good deal of the country, several of the villages, and large numbers of the people. The early spring in that temperate latitude was now much advanced, and was warm and genial. The fields and terraced gardens were now carpeted with a fresh and tender verdure, and the trees with the full growth of renewed vegetation spread their shades of abounding foliage in the valleys, and on the hill-sides of the sur- rounding country. The camellias, with the immense growth of forty feet in height, which abound every- where on the shores of the bay of Yeddo, were in full bloom, with their magnificent red-and-white blossoms, which displayed a richness and purity of colour, and a perfection of development unrivalled elsewhere. With a party of officers we were conducted to the home of the mayor, or chief magistrate of the town. This dignitary, with great cordiality, met and wel- comed us to the hospitalities of his establishment. The interior was quite unpretending, consisting of a large room, spread with soft mats, lighted with oiled paper windows, hung with rudely-executed cartoons, and furnished with the usual red-coloured benches. The wife and sister of the town-official soon entered with refreshments, and smiled a timid welcome to the guests. These women were barefooted and bare legged, and were dressed very nearly alike, in dark-coloured robes, with much of the undress look of night-gowns, secured by a broad band passing round the waist. Their figures were fat and dumpy, or at any rate appeared so, in their ungraceful drapery ; but their faces were not wanting in expression, for which they were very much indebted to their glistening eyes, which were black as well as their hair. This latter was dressed at the top of the head, like that of the men, though not shaved in front. As their " ruby" lips parted in smiling graciously, they displayed a row of black teeth, set in horribly corroded gums. The worthy mayor had some refreshments prepared for Lis guests, consisting of tea, cakes, confectionary, and the never absent saki. With the latter was served a kind of hot waffle, made apparently of rice-flour. The civic dignitary himself was very active in dispensing those offerings, and was ably seconded by his wife and sister, who always remained, on their knees in presence of the strangers. This awkward position of the ladies did not seem to interfere with their activity, for they kept running about veiy briskly with the silver saki kettle, the services of which, in consequence of the smallness of the cups, were in constant requisition. The two ladies were unceasingly courteous, and kept bowing their heads like a bobbing toy mandarin. The smiles with which they perseveringly greeted the guests, might have been better dispensed with, as every move- ment of their lips exposed the horrid black teeth. The mayoress was uncommonly polite, and was good- natured enough to bring in her baby, which her guests felt bound to make the most of, though its dirty face and general untidy appearance made it quite a painful effort to bestow the necessary caresses. A bit of con- fectionary was presented to the infant, when it was directed to bow its shaven head, which it did, with a degree of precocious politeness that called forth the greatest apparent pride and admiration on the part of its mother and all the ladies present. On preparing to depart, the chief of our party proposed the health, in a cup of saki, of the whole household, which brought into the room, from a neighbouring apartment, the mayor's mother. She was an ancient dame, and as soon as she came in, she squatted herself in one corner, and bowed her thanks for the compliments paid to the CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. family, of which sho was the oldest member. As the Japanese officials no longer interfered with the curio- sity of the people, there was a good opportunity of observing them, though hurriedly, as our party were obliged to return early to the ships. The people, in the small towns appeared to be divided into three principal classes — tho officials, the traders, and labourers. The inferior people, almost without exception, seemed thriving and contented, and not overworked. There were signs of poverty, but no evidence of public beggary. The women, in common with many in various parts of over-populated Europe, were frequently seen engaged in the field labours, showing the general industry, and the necessity of keeping every hand busy in the populous empire. The lowest classes even were comfortably clad, being dressed in coarse cotton garments, of the same form, though shorter, than those of their superiors, being a loose robe just covering the hips. They were, fin - the most part, bare-headed, and bare-footed. The women were dressed very much like the men, although their heads were not shaved like those of the males, and their long hair was drawn up and fastened upon the top in a knot or under a pad. The costume of the upper classes and the dignitaries has been already described. In rainy weather, tho Japanese wear a covering made of straw, which, being fastened together at the top, is suspended from the neck, and falls over the shoulders and person like a thatched roof. Some of the higher classes cover their robes with an oiled paper cloak, which is impermeable to the wet. The umbrella, like that of the Chinese, is almost a constant companion, and serves both to shade from the rays of the sun, and to keep off the effects of a shower. The men of all classes were exceedingly courteous, and, although inquisitive about tho strangers, never became offensively intrusive. The lower people were evidently in great dread of their superiors, and were more reserved in their presence than if they had been left to their natural instincts. The rigid exclu- siveness in regard to foreigners is a law merely enacted by the government from motives of policy, and not a sentiment of the Japanese people. Their habits are social among themselves, and they frequently inter- mingle in friendly intercourse. There is one feature in the society of Japau by which tho superiority of the people to all other oriental nations is clearly manifest. Woman is recognised as a companion, and not merely treated as a slave. Her position is cer- tainly not as elevated as in thoso countries under the influence of the Christian dispensation ; but the mother, wife, and daughter of Japan are neither the chattels and household drudges of China, nor the purchased objects of the capricious lust of the harems of Turkey. The fact of the non-existence of polygamy is a dis- tinctive feature, which pre-eminently characterises the Japanese as the moral and refined of all eastern nations. The absence of this degrading practice bIiows itself, not only in the superior character of the women, but in the natural consequence of the greater preva- lence of the domestic virtues. The Japanese women, always excepting the disgust- ing black teeth of those who are married, are not ill- looking. The young girls are well formed and rather pretty, and have much of that vivacity and self-reliance in manners, which come from a consciousness of dignity derived from the comparatively high regard in which they are held. In the ordinary mutual inter- 209 course of friends and families, the women have their share, and rounds of visiting and tea parties are kept up as briskly in Japan as in the United States. The attitude assumed by tho women, who prostrated them- selves in the presence of our party, must be considered rather as a mark of their reverence for the strangers, than as an evidence of their subordination. That in the large towns and cities of Japan there is great licentiousness, it is reasonable to suppose,- for such seems, unhappily, a universal law in all great commu- nities ; but it must be said to the credit of the Japanese women, that during all the time of the presence of the squadron in the Bay of Yeddo, they saw none of the usual indications of wantonness and license on the part of the female sex, in the occasional relations with the miscellaneous ships' people. While staying at Kanagawa, the Japanese officials gave the officers an opportunity of witnessing one of the celebrities of Japan, a wrestling match. 1 1 While contemplating tho substantial evidences of Japanese generosity, the attention of all was suddenly riveted upon a body of monstrous fellows who tramped down the beach like so many huge elephants. They were professional wrestlers, and formed part of tho retinue of tho princes, who kept them for their private amusement and for public entertainment. They were some twenty-five in number, and were men enormously tall in stature, and immense in weight of flesh. Their scant costume, whieh was merely a coloured cloth about the loins, adorned with ftinges, and emblazoned with the armorial bearing of the prince to whom each belonged, revealed their gigantic proportions in all the bloated fulness of fat and breadth of muscle. Their proprietors, the princes, seemed proud of them, and were careful to show their points to the greatest advantage before our astonished countrymen. Some two or three of these monsters were the most famous wrestlers in Japan, and ranted as tho champion Sayers and Heeuans of the land. Kojagiuii, tho reputed bully of the capital, was one of them, and paraded himself with the conscious pride of superior immensity and strength. He was especially brought to the commodore, that he might examine his massive form. The commissioner insisted that tho monstrous fellow should be minutely inspected, that tho hardness of his well-rounded muscles should lie felt, and that the fatness of his cushioned frame should be tested by the touch. The commodore accordingly attempted to grasp his immense arm, whieh he found as solid as it was huge, and then passed his hand over the monstrous neck, whieh fell in folds of massive flesh, like the dewlap of a prize ox. As some surprise was naturally expressed at this wonderful exhibition of animal development, the monster himself gave a grunt expressive of his flattered vanity. They were also so immense in flesh that they appeared to have lost distinctive features, and seemed to be only twenty-five masses of fat; their eyes were barely visible through a long perspective of socket, tho prominence of their noses was lost in the putfincss of their bloated cheeks, and their heads were set almost directly on their bodies, with folds of flesh where the neck and chin are usually found. Their great size, however, was more owing to the development of muscle than to the deposition of fat, for although they were evidently well-fed, they were not less well-exercised, and capable of great feats of strength. As a preliminary exhibition of tho powers of these men, the princes set them to removing the sacks of rice to a convenient placo on the shore for shipping. Each of these sacks weighed not less than one hundred and twenty-five pounds each, and there were only a couple of tho wrestlers who did not carry each two sacks at a time. They hero the sacks on the right shoulder, lifting the first from the ground and adjusting it without help, but obtaining aid for tho raising of the second. One man carried a sack suspended by his teeth, and another, taking one in his arms, turned repeated summersaults as he held it, and apparently with as much case as if his tons of flesh had been only so much gossamer, and his load a feather. After this preliminary display, the commissioner proposed that the commodore and his party should retire to the treaty-house, where thev would have an opportunity of seeing the wrestlers exhibit their professional feats. The wrestlers themselves are most care- fully provided for, having constantly about them a number of attendants, who were always at hand to supply them with fans, which they often required, and to assist them in dressing aid 210 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. XVI.— HARIKARI— THE HAPPY DESPATCH. "When a Japanese of distinction has incurred sen- tence of death, for example, his sovereign or prince sends him a little sword, or, according to others, a missive on a fan. On the reception of this unwelcome present, the Japanese assumes a peculiar dress, whicli it is said every one has in readiness for such an event ; and he then goes through the ceremony of the Hari- kari, or disembowelling himself, in the presence of the envoy. At the same moment a soldier, or a servant, or a friend, cuts off his head with a sword. These terrible scenes are sometimes enacted with greater ceremony in the temples. A Japanese gentleman has never been known to hesitate, whether he was guilty or not. If, after cutting himself in the lower part of the body, he has still strength sufficient to give an additional cut at his throat, he obtains thereby great celebrity. The punishment of death is inflicted for the slightest crimes, particularly for theft. Whoever has stolen for the value of one penny has no pardon to expect. Whosoever hazards any money in gambling loses his life. Cowardice, extortion, and even sometimes the utterance of a falsehood, especially if with a view to pervert the course of justice, is punished with death. Living under such a system of legislation, it is no wonder that the women, as well as the men, accustom themselves to contemplate death with less feeling of dread than is customary in Europe. They are said even to suffer the cruelest tortures with great coolness. It is, however, only the nobles and the military who enjoy this peculiarly Japanese privilege of ripping open their bellies. Merchants, citizens, and persons of in- undressing. While at rest, they are ordinarily clothed in richly adorned clothes of the u-sual Japanese fashion; but when exer- cising, they wero stripped naked, with the exception of the cloth about the loins. After their performance with the sacks of rice, their servitors spread upon the huge frames of the wrestlers their rich garments, and led them up to the treaty-house. A circular space of some twelve feet in diameter, had been inclosed within a ring, and the ground carefully broken up and smoothed in front of the building, while in the portico, divans covered with red cloth were arranged for the Japanese commissioners, the com- modore,- his officers, and his various attendants. The bands from the ships were also in attendance, and enlivened the intervals during the performances with occasional lively strains. As soon as the spectators had taken their seats, the naked wrestlers were brought out into the ring, and the whole number being divided into two parties, tramped heavily backward and forward, looking defiance at one another, but not engaging in any contest, as their object was merely to parade their points, to give the be- holders, as it were, an opportunity to form an estimate of their comparative powers, and to make up their betting books. They soon retired behind some screens placed for the purpose, where all, with the exception of two, were again clothed in full dress, and look their position on seats in front of the spectators, the .two who had been reserved out of the band, now, on the signal being given by the heralds who wero seated on opposite sides presented themselves. They came in, one after the other, with slow and deliberate steps, as became such huge animals, into the centre of the ring, then they ranged themselves one against the other, at the distance of a few yards. They crouched for awhile, eyeing each other with a wary look, as if each were watching for a chance to catch his antagonist off his guard. Aa the spectators looked on these overfed monsters, whose animal nature had been so carefully and successfully developed, and as he watched them glaring with brutal ferocity at each other, ready to exhibit the cruel instincts of a brutal nature, it was easy for him to lose all sense of their being human beings, and to persuade himself that he was beholding a couple of brute beasts thirsting for one another's blood. They were, in fact, like a couple of fierce bulls, whose nature they had not only acquired, but even their looks and movements. As they continued to eye each other, they stamped the ground heavily, pawing, ferior rank, receive their punishment from the hands of an executioner. There are no fewer than fifty diffei en t modes of per- forming this most horrible practice of Harikari, which are customary among these oriental stoics. Can it, in the face of such facts as these, be said that it is not desirable to make known to them by all possible means a more benign and a more humane system of religion and morality? Oliphant describes the horrible practice of the Hari- kari as becoming gradually extinct ; but Mr. Kinahan Cornwallis relates an incident which occurred in his presence, which shows how strong a hold a custom, however abhorrent and unnatural, which has been long in force, may have over people otherwise so intelligent. He was walking on shore at Simoda, in company with the sailing-master of an American ship, when, he says, the first object of note that they came to, was a spy- house of bamboo, which had been erected since their arrival, for the purpose of enabling the Japanese offi- cials who occupied it to note everyone that left the ship, and cause him to be followed or watched by one or more of their number. They had not passed this place of espionage more than a hundred yards, when a couple of two-sworded officials emerged from its precincts and followed them, very soon coming within speaking distance. They stopped to allow of them to come up, but they also halted. These fellows were very unpopular with the sailing-master, who had an insuperable objection to being watched; the consequence was, that they turned back, and closely confronted the two, to whom they made unmistakeable signs that they were not wanted, and that they would oblige by going home again, in as it were, with impatience, and then stooping their lingo bodies, they grasped handfuls of dirt, and tcsscd it with angry jerk over their backs, or rubbed it impatiently be- tween their giant palms, or under their stout shoulders. They now crouched low, still keeping their eyes fixed upon each other, and watching every movement, until in an instant they both simultaneously heaved their massive forms in opposing force, body to body, with a force that might have stunned an ox ; the equilibrium of their monstrous frames was hardly disturbed by the concussion, the effects of which were but barely visible in the quiver of the hanging flesh of their bodies. As they came together they had thrown their brawny arms around each other, and wire now entwined in a desperate struggle, each striving with all his enormous strength to throw his adversary. Their great muscles rose with the distinct outline of the sculptured form of a colossal Hercules, their bloated countenances swelled up with gushes of blood which seemed ready to burst through the skin of their reddened faces, and their huge bodies palpitated with emotion as the struggle continued. At last one of the antagonists fell, with his immense weight, heavily upon the ground, and being declared vanquished, was assisted to his feet, and conducted from the ring. The scene was now somewhat varied b.v a change in the kind of conquest between two succeeding wrestlers. The heralds, as before, summoned the antagonists, and one, having taken his place in the ring, assumed an attitude of defence with one leg in advance, as if to steady himself, and his bent body, with his head lowered, placed in position as if ready to receive an attack. Immediately after, in rushed the other, bellowing loudly like a bull, and making at once for the man in the ring, dashed, with his head lowered, and thrust forward, against the head of his opponent, who bore the shock with the steadiness of a rock, although the blood streamed down his face from his bruised fore- head, which had been struck in tho encounter. This manoeuvre was repeated again and again, tho same one acting always as the opposing and the other as the resisting force; and they kept up their brutal contest until their foreheads were besmeared with blood, and the flesh on their chests roso in great tumours from the repeated blows. This disgusting spectacle did not tcrminato until the whole twenty-five had, successively, in pairs, display ed their immense powers and savage qualities. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN token of which the sailing-master took hold of one of them by the shoulders, turned his face towards the bamboo edifice, and gave him a slight push in that direction. This mode of proceeding was not, however, relished by the heroes of the two swords, who refused to return ; upon which the Yankee — an outrageous brute it must be admitted— retook his man by the shoulders, gave him another turn in the direction of the bamboo, and jierformed with his heavy expedition boot a violent ceremony, which is usually considered anything but flattering or agreeable throughout the rest of the world, but in Japan was an insult that might safely be averred had never been committed before, and which could alone be avenged by death. Without, therefore, making the slightest attempt at retaliation on the body of his adversary, he unsheathed his chief sword, which, beau- tifully burnished, flashed for an instant in the sun- light; the Yankee meanwhile extricated his revolver from its hiding-place ; it was needless, for at two easy strokes — two gentle slashes of that keen-edged weapon, performed in an instant, one across the other, the letter X — he had disembowelled himself, and fell, a swiftly dying man. As he reached the ground, he cast up his eyes at his adversary, and seeing him standing near, apparently with no intention of following his example, he expressed the most fearful agony, Mr. Kinahan says, he had ever beheld. All were filled with dismay at this strange event, while the brother official surveyed them threateningly with looks of the most intense horror. " He expects you to kill yourself in like manner, and with the same sword," said the Sandwich islander. The Yankee muttered out something to the effect that he teas no such fool. Meanwhile the distortions of the dying man were painful to look upon ; the other officer motioned them away, and went down on his knees beside the wounded body, and before he rose, a few seconds afterwards, the man was dead. They were much alarmed at this tra- gical episode in their morning's proceedings, and visions of something worse than being indicted for manslaughter were conjured up by them with great rapidity. These Yankees appear to have been very uncere- monious with the Japanese — the most ceremonious people in the world ; and an amusing instance is related by the same traveller of the tables cleverly turned upon one of these presuming gentlemen. They were, as usual, taking a stroll in Simoda, when they arrived in front of one of those comfortable- looking two-storied establishments towards the end of their ramble, from which there came sounds of pleasant music. "Hillo!" exclaimed his companion, as if in astonish- ment, "music! eh? — listen! Do you hear?" And then, as if suddenly seized with an uncontroll- able attack of Yankee curiosity and inquisitiveness, and without pausing to consider of the politeness and propriety of the procedure, he at once commenced climbing up to the roof of the porch, to see, as he said, what was going on. For a moment he appeared to be looking with eager satisfaction upon the sight before him, but as quickly a cloud seemed to cross his face, and he came down with a sober, non-plussed smile, and an aspect considerably chapfallen. " Serves me right !" said he. " I was looking in at the second floor window. Three musicians were seated on the inner side of the matted floor, in the centre of which was a large lacquer tray full of viands, of which 211 a middle aged Japanese and a young, highly dressed, and very pretty girl were partaking with unmistake- able relish, when" — He paused. " Yes," said the Englishman, " go on." " The man got up with a quiet dignity which put me to the blush, and" — " Yes," said he again, " go on. '' Shut the window in my face." Mr. Oliphant says, the Harikari method of suicide, the only Japanese custom with which the western world has long been familiar, has of late years as- sumed a somewhat modified form, and no longer con- sists in that unpleasant process of abdomen ripping, which must have been almost as disagreeable an opera- tion to witness as to perform. His friend, Higo-ho- kami, presented him with a knife proper to be used under the old system— an exceedingly business-like weapon about ten inches long, sharp as a razor, and made of steel of the highest temper. Now, this knife is only used to make a slight incision, significant of the intention of the victim to put an end to himself. He has collected his wife and family to see how a hero can die ; his dearest friend — he who, in our country, would have been the best man at his wedding — stands over him with a drawn sword, and, when he commences to make the aforesaid incision, the sword descends, and the head rolls at the feet of his disconsolate family. Whether this mode of suicide is really common at the present day he could not ascertain ; no instance of it came to their knowledge during their stay, and it is too serious a step to be taken, except on very weighty grounds. These may arise either from failure or neglect in a public trust, or in consequence of the commission of some private injury. In some instances it seemed to answer the purposes of a duel — it is the reduction of that practice to a logical conclusion, and terminates in the death of both parties by the hands of their friends. But more commonly it is resorted to as a means of preserving from disgrace a whole family, one member of which has in some way dishonoured his name ; it is a certificate which whitewashes all the survivors. A man who fears to face his destiny in this form, when the claims of honour demand it, places his entire family without the social pale. Mr. Oli- phant says, he is not aware wherein the Japanese points of honour consist, but we may assume that, where the preservation of it in the individual requires so great a sacrifice, the standard is proportionably high — far more so, probably, than would suit our views in England, where it would be an exceedingly unpopular way of solving a constitutional difficulty. A ministry would always prefer a dissolution of parliament to a • dissolution of this nature. It is pleasanter to go to the country, than out of it. A mere change of govern- ment, even in Japan, however, does not involve these consequences, unless the Tycoon is implicated ; witness the still living Bitsu-no-kami. Perhaps it is because the " happy despatch " is found to be an inconvenient way of settling personal or political difficulties, that another mode exists of removing a dangerous person, much more refined in its character. When a man becomes an object of distrust or suspicion to the government, either from his great influence or wealth, he is promoted to some office, generally at Miako, which he is compelled to accept, and which entails such a vast expenditure that he is inevitably ruined. Even if his means stand the first shock, one visit from the Tycoon, when he goes 212 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. to pay his respects to the Mikado, completes the ■work. The slave of ceremony and traditional etiquette during life, a Japanese is not even allowed to die in peace. When death appears inevitable, the patient's clothes are removed, and their place supplied by others. These are put on topsy-turvy, the sleeves at the feet, and the lower part upwards. When dead, the body is laid out with the head to the north and the face to the west. The water with which the body is washed is warmed on a fireplace kept for that especial purpose. Another grand toilet of the dead is then gone through ; the body is laid out with its head to the south, and food is proffered. A very brief time, however, is allowed to elajise before the funeral takes place, which is attended by all the relatives, male and female, in white garments. 1 XVII.— HAKODAKI. The spacious and beautiful Bay of Hakodaki, the safest and most accessible in the world, now an im- portant harbour for the trade of Japan, with Europe and America, lies on the northern side of the Strait of Sangan, which separates Nipon from Jepo, and the town lies on the western bank of a small peninsula which forms one side of the harbour. The town stretches picturesquely for three miles along the base of a lofty promontory, with three peaks rising from 600 to 1,000 feet. These are bare at the summit, and often covered with snow ; their upper slopes are scarcely clothed with underwood ; but below, where the moun- tains begin to rise from the low land, there are groves of wide-spreading cypresses, tall forest maples, and fruit-bearing trees, the plum and the peach. A low sandy isthmus connects the peninsula with the main land. The town contains over a thousand houses, mostly on one main thoroughfare near the sea-side, open 1 According to some, till the year A.D. 63, but according to others, a.tj. 285, the Japanese knew no other than their Kamis, or Pantheon of Sintoos —ancestral heroes deified by tradition. According to Siebold, the doctrine of Confucius, as well as that of Buddha, was introduced about a.tj. 285 from the Corea ; but according to others, the introduction of the doctrine of Buddha preceded that of Confucius by more than a century. The word "Kami," like our English word "lord," may be used In a human sense or in a religious one. The Japanese also apply the term to a Supreme God as well as to their deified heroes. The priests of the Sintoos may marry; those of Buddha may not do so, and are, in consequence, if we may believe Caron, addicted to many mal- practices. Siebold lias treated at length upon the intricate sub- ject of Japanese worship, under the head of " Nip-pon Pantheon." That portion of his work contains figures and short descriptions of the principal deities, deified governors, &c., temples, priests, ranks and names of different sects, sacred monuments, implements, and dresses belonging to the Sintoos and Buddhist religion in Japan. "Diavolo ecclesiam Christi imitante?" exclaimed the courageous missionary Francois Xavier, on seeing how the practices of the Japanese resembled those of the Romanists in Europe; and as Hue and other missionaries have remarked of Buddhism in China and Thibet, the celibacy of the priests, the use of sacraments and confession, fasting, pilgrimages, vows, the worship of relics and saints, purgatory, the worship of images, indeed all the practices of Buddhism, are so tinged with the colour of Romanism, that if the Asiatic religion did not date GOO years B.C., one would take it as a mere oriental rendering of the western form of superstition. The daughters, real and adopted, of the priests of the moun- tains, a peculiar sect swelled by the ranks of the Japanese Hetaira, compose an order of begging nuns, who appear to be alike a dis- grace to the country and to any form of religion. Recent writers do not say so much upon these subjects; but old writers, like Caron and Kcempfer, who were not so particular, describe the temples of some sects as the source of many abominations. in parallel streets, hanging on the mountain-side, and greatly reminds the spectator of Gibraltar. Hakodaki belongs to the imperial fief of Matsmai, and is tho largest town in Yesso, with the exception of Maitsmai, from which it is thirty miles distant. An excellent road not far from the sea-coast connects the two places, and a large trade is carried on with the towns and villages on either side of the Strait. The town of Hakodaki is regularly built, with streets running at right angles, thirty or forty feet wide, care- fully macadamised, with open gutters on each side to receive the drippings of the houses and the washings of the streets. The side-walks are paved and curbed, but as no wheeled carriages are found, the middle of the street is used indiscriminately in dry weather. The streets are crossed by wooden gates ; and at one side there is a sentry-box for a watchman. The streets are remarkably quiet, save when droves of laden pack- horses slowly pace through the streets. The buildings are merely of one story, with attics of varying heights. The roofs are seldom more than twenty-five feet from the ground, and slope down from the top, projecting with their eaves beyond the wall. They are supported by joists and tie-beams, and mostly covered with wooden shingles, the size of the hand. These are fastened by bamboo-pegs, or kept in their places by long slips of board, on which stones are laid, as in Switzerland. The gable-ends face towards the street, as in Holland, and the roof, projecting over, shelters and shades the door. The curious structure like a steam chimney, that you see on the top, is a bucket'of water surrounded with straw, ready to be sprinkled on the roof in case of fire, against which numerous care- ful jirecautions may be observed — wooden cisterns arranged along the streets, and engines exactly like our own, except in the want of an air-chamber, so that the water is thrown out in jets, instead of in a stream. Some of the houses are roofed with brown earthern tiles laid gutterwise; the poorer houses are thatched; the walls of the houses are of pine boards, laid on a framework admirably jointed ; the workmanship of the Japanese carpenters being remarkable for its neat- ness and completeness. The boards in front and rear slide horizontally in grooves ; the woodwork is never painted, but occasionally oiled, so that the buildings bear a mean, shed-like look, and as the weather is severe in Hakodaki, the boards mould, rot, and crack in a deplorable fashion. The floor, which is always covered with soft mats, is raised two feet above the ground, which is beaten smooth. A space is always left clear in front, and on the side. A charm of some kind, the picture of a god, a printed prayer or a paper with an important sentence, is invariably placed over the lintel. The mats are all neatly woven, and bound with cloth and stuffed with straw, to make them soft and thick. They are all of one size, three feet by six, and look as if one piece. They servo as seats and beds, with the addition of a quilt and a hard box. There is no other furniture, so that the in- side of tho houses, when the sun is not shining upon the gaily painted screens, has a very bai - e and forlorn appearance. The stork or crane is a favourite design in all decorations, as well as the winged tortoise and the dolphin. There are chairs occasionally, but they are very gimcracky, and like camp-stools. Tables are rare, lacquered stands, of about a foot in height, serving the purpose. Some lacquered cups, bowls, and porce- lain-vessels, the invariable chopsticks, and an occasional — ' CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. earthenware spoon, comprise the ordinary utensils used in eating. They drink their soups directly out of the bowl, as a hungry child might, after seizing with their chopsticks the pieces of fish which are generally floating on the liquid. A square hole iu the centre of the room is the fire-place, and over this is constantly sim- mering a metal tea-kettle, over a fire of charcoal bedded iu sand. Tea is handed to every visitor, in a porcelain cup with a wooden cover. It is made as with us, and in Hakodaki they add occasionally sugar. The people here suffer much from winter cold: meagre charcoal files, and gloomy light through oiled paper, are cold and gloomy. The houses of the rich are larger, but in the same style ; but the superior wealth and taste of their proprietors is shown iu the handsome gardens and pleasure-grounds by which they are environed. These are tastefully planted with fruit and shade trees, with flower-beds and lawns, and flowering shrubs interspersed. There are large public fire- proof warehouses, built with great care, having walls of dried mud and cobbles, and windows sheathed with iron. The shops of Hakodaki contain a miscel- laneous assortment of goods, generally such as are suited to the restricted wants of a poor population, — coarse, thick cottons, inferior silks, earthen and China ware, lacquered bowls, cups, stands and chop- sticks, cheap cutlery, and ready-made clothing. Furs, leather, felted cloths, glass-ware, or copper articles are rarely seen ; nor are books and stationery common. The provision shops contain rice, wheat, barley, pulse, dried fish, sea-weed, salt, sugar, saki, soy, charcoal, sweet potatoes, flour, and other less necessary articles. There is no public market in the town, as neither beef, pork, nor mutton are eaten, and very little poultry. Vegetables and a preparation of beans and lice-flour, of the consistency of cheese, are hawked about the streets. Temples abound and burial-places, in one of which we saw a tall square post, with a wheel inserted at a convenient height to be reached by the hand. On each side of the post prayers were written, addressed to Buddha, and the twisting this wheel was equivalent to saying a prayer ! The people of Hakodaki carry on a large trade with Matsmai and with the interior of Yesso. The junks engaged in its shipping trade take cargoes of dried and salted fish, prepared sea-weed (which is stored in large caves in the neighbourhood of the port), charcoal, deers'-hom, timber, and other produce of Yesso ; and bring back rice, sugar, tea, various grains, sweet potatoes, tobacco, cloths, silks, porcelain, lacquered ware, cutlery, and other goods. These junks are of about a hundred tons measurement, and more than a thousand of them may bo seen at a time lying in the harbour of Hakodaki. The fish obtained here consists of salmon, salmon- trout, groupers, white-fish, porgies, perch, flounders, herrings, whitings, mullets. The salmon are small but of fine flavour, crabs (capital eating), clams of the genus Venus, with beautifully marked shells, and the large blue mussel, are found in great abundance. Wild geese, ducks, and other game are plentiful in their season, but the pheasant is rarely seen ; the curlew, plover, and snipe are met with. The fox (regarded as an evil spirit by the Japanese), wild boar, deer, and bear are commonly hunted. Cattle are only used for the plough and as beasts of burden. Horses are used for carrying and riding ; they are of excellent breed, and, though small, clear-winded, spirited, and of good 213 bottom. The roads are wide and paved occasionally, but generally mere bridle-paths, kept in good order for horsemen, pack-animals, and sedans, which are small wooden boxes carried on men's shoulders. There are still some of the indigenous race of Airos existing upon the island of Yesso, but they are rarely seen in the neighbourhood of Hakodaki ; they are of diminutive stature, a little over five feet in height, but well proportioned and with intelligent features. Their colour is quite dark, and their hair black and coarse ; it is clipped behind, but allowed to straggle in thick matted locks down in front, in a confused cluster with their long beards, which are never cut or shaven. Their legs are bare of artificial covering, but are grown over with a plentiful crop of coarse hair, which, together with the abundant growth on their heads and faces, has given them the name by which they are better known of " Hairy Kuriles." Their dress is a coarse and ragged under-garment reaching below the knees, over which is thrown, carelessly, a brown sack with wide sleeves, made of grass or skins. They have a wild look, and dirty, poverty-stricken aspect, and are chiefly occupied in fishing for their Japanese taskmasters. We saw and admired the coopers at work in Hakodaki, making barrels, of firkin shape, for packing the dried and salted fish. These they rapidly and skilfully hoop with plaited bamboo. Their cutlery here is not good, though their blacksmiths and metal-workers are numerous and busy throughout the town. Their bellows are peculiar, being a wooden box, with air chambers, containing valves and a piston, which is worked horizontally at one end, like a hand-pump ; while the compressed air issues from the pipes at the sides. Speaking of the Japanese ladies of the more northerly island of Yesso, Captain Whittingham says, that, just arrived from the tropics, their ruddy cheeks, red lips, and eyes bright with health, struck him most; the face and features were rather too Mongolian, their forms were full and tall, the skin fair, while small uncompressed stockingless feet, and luxuriant hair, and white and even teeth, completed the number of the charms of the unmarried. Tho married, as is well known, blacken their teeth, and destroy other charms most ruthlessly, which the gallant Captain imagined at first, like everybody else, proceeded fioni the jealousy of their lords; but subse- quently hearing that a man's momentary dislike permits him to send away his wife, and that Japanese dames may vie in renown with the buried matrons of re- publican Rome, he was at a loss to guess a cause, until he incidentally heard that any official seeing a pretty women married to an inferior, and wishing it, may take her to his home as an additional wife. Tho Captain naturally expresses his hope that neither of these cases of divorce are common, and indeed his walks in the country led him eventually to think that they are not usual, as he saw rosy blooming children rushing out of almost every cottage door. The too ruddy cheeks of the unmarried ladies, are, it is said, generally the result of an excessive use of colouring matter, and considering the known jealousy of Japanese husbands, to whom the Draconian laws of the country gives riower of life for any action which is calculated to compromise a woman's reputation, such as even holding converse with a gentleman in private, or with closed doors ; it is not likely that the cause ol blackening the teeth is as Captain Whittingham VILLAGE IN JAVA. imagines it, but it more likely had its origin in a provision against temptation by disfiguring the person, just as the small feet of the Chinese were, no doubt, originally intended as a provision against incon- stancy by impeding locomotion. Such practices become, with the progress of time, so deeply confirmed by custom that the people themselves uphold them, with- out even thinking, or sometimes being aware of their original meaning. The people in the summer season live more in the open air than at the chillier period of spring, and some religious fetes were coming to a conclusion at the time of Captain Whittingham's visit to Hakodaki, so that both causes may have combined to render them more gay, and he expresses himself sorry to add, more addicted to intoxication, which was not confined to the male sex : the tea gardens being, he suspected, the resort of the young and gay of both sexes, and, from .all he heard, are quite as important a feature in the domestic manners of the Japanese as the Dutch writers represent them to be. Captain Whittingham says he never saw a black- toothed woman returning from them, which may be an accidental circumstance, although he thinks that well-known and difficultly hidden emblem of matronhood sufficient to deter the most eager votary of pleasure ; this disfigurement is a sad thing for the wives and widows of Japan, perhaps worse than the black and matrimonial visages of Lhassa, which the enterprising Pere Hue describes, for the latter could be made fair occasionally, and widowhood would naturally resume its maiden com- plexion. Another extraordinary summer amusement at Hako- daki was the promiscuous public bathing, of all sexes of all ages. They enter a small room, barely fifteen feet square, and only partially screened from the remainder of the rooms, with uncurtained windows opening on the streets, and close to the other inmates of the house pursuing their mechanical avocations, and in perfect nudeness, perform all the operations of the bath — wrinkled age and btidding girlhood alike unabashed, surrounded and pressed on by senility, early manhood, and frolicsome childhood. Self-possession, quietness, and order reigned as para- mount as in the salons of the most civilised people ; curiosity fled quickly before the sensations such a scene naturally creates, though it led hiin to stand outside and watch the persons issuing and entering the small bathing house ; and, without being able to pique himself on one and the least of the fortes of the Great Conde, that of detecting the condition of each passer-by, Captain Whittingham says he saw enough to convince him that the bathers were not confined to the lowest or dissolute classes. Upon an excursion made into the interior of tho island of Yesso from Hakodaki, Captain Whittingham described the farms as looking as if originally they had been of large extent, and had been divided as sons grew up and married, so that the houses, though each in its little property, are contiguous. CHINA, COCHIN CHINA, AND JAPAN. The women were seen working in the fields, which, coupled with the everywhere swarming children, may account for the sex seeming to be of two ages alone ; — young, rosy, straight, and agile, with brilliant white teeth ; or old, wrinkled, bent, and with teeth so blackened as to appear toothless. A very few young married women, emerging from the one class, and with blackened teeth, pausing in the quickly passed middle state, looked strangely, — more so than "cheeks all bloom " surmounted by grey locks in Europe. Occasionally a house of more pretensions, with better papered windows, with a garden, rich in curiously dwarfed trees and shrubs, with larger stocks of firewood, and more tailless cats playing about it, denoted the residence of some inferior official ; and less frequently, a small Buddhist temple, embosomed in trees* would appear at a short distance from the main road. Their first notions of the content, comparative ease, and comfort of the peasantry, were confirmed by the experience gained in several walks into the country round the bay. The round, rosy, laughing faces of the white-teethed girls, were never withdrawn from the windows as they passed, nor would they move their buxom persons far aside as they pas-ed them in the narrow paths or wide roads ; and the mothers, often of a Sarah-like age, would not refrain from the performance of their maternal duties on seeing them approach, but, followed by their young brood, would smile in ghastly guise, showing their teeth and gums, so blackened as to have the appearance of toothless- ness. Boys in a state of nudity, and men robed only in long dressing-gowns, thronged the doors of the villages, saluting them with jokes, which, from the expression of their honest and merry faces, could not be uncivil. XVIIL— GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS. Japan has two emperors, the one ecclesiastical, the other secular. The first is the Mikado, the second, the Tycoon, who used to be the Mikado's deputy, until one of them, Tako-sama, like Hugh Capet, from mayor of the palace became lieutenant-general of the armies ; and the monarch de jure gave way to the emperor de facto. The Mikado resides at Miako, perpetually in- closed in his palace ; the Tycoon, as he is called, at Yeddo, where he nominally commands, but virtually is controlled by a powerful body of princes. There are eight classes in Japan, four of which are privileged to wear two swords, and wear loose petticoat trowsers ; the other classes are medical men and government clerks, merchants and shopkeepers, retail-dealers, and artisans, sailors, fishers, peasants, and day-labourers. A grand council of state, thirteen in number, govern in the emperor's name. They have the power of de- throning the emperor, and any resolutions of import- ance are submitted to his approval, which is usually granted at once. Should he disapprove, however, the matter is referred to three princes of the blord, nearest in relationship to the Tycoon, whose decision is final. It they do not agree with the monarch, he must imme- diately resign in favour of his son, or some other heir. If, however, the three princes agree with the Tycoon, then the member of the council who proposed the obnoxious measure must die, and thoso who voted with 215 him are sometimes requested to die also. Sometimes the whole thirteen, with their president, make use of the " Happy Despatch " to settle a political crisis. The proposal of a reform or innovation under such circum- stances is very rare. A general system of espionage 1 pervades the nation; every general officer of every degree has a spy, appointed to watch him, in the shape of a partner in his office; and every nobleman is compelled to reside one year in seven at the capital, his wife and children remaining there in the interval as a security for his good be- haviour. To remedy the probable danger of these visits, every prince or nobleman holding a large fief, when he comes to court, takes care to come accompanied with "a following" of some two or three thousand at- tendants. In the social life of the Japanese we see the per- fection of an antique civilisation, polished by the experience of ages ; as in matters of private cleanliness, so in general sanitary arrangements, the Japanese are reputed in advance of us, and as if to add the acme of perfection of town life, no wheeled carriages are tole- rated, only foot-passengers, porters, sedan-chairs, and at the most an occasional horse. The beauty and delights of the house of a Japanese noble are equally vaunted — nothing that pleases the eye or can gratify the senses is neglected ; the gardens abound in flowers, the orchards are thick with fruit, the 1 Captain Sherard Osborn 1ms nn amusing observation on tins system, which he humorously compares to our own. "AtSimoiln, ns at Naugasaki, every one seemed eternally to be taking notes of what everybody else was doing. Each Japanese had his breast- pockets full of note-paper, and n convenient writing apparatus stuck in his belt, and everything that was said, done, and even thought, was no doubt faithfully recorded. In Japan, men do not seem to converse with one another except in formal speeches ; there is no interchange of thought by means of the tongue, but the pen is ever at work noting down their observations of one another. Sometimes we see men comparing their notes, and granting assent or dissent from opinions or (acts recorded. At first we rather felt this as a system of espionage, but we soon became accustomed to it ; and provided every man wrote down what he really saw and heard, it may be more satisfactory in the long run to have to do with a nation of Captain Cuttles, who have 1 made a note' of everything, and so have more than their memories to trust to. The Japanese plan of putting one man in a post of trust, and placing another ns a check on, is, after nil, only our red-tape system in a less disguised form. The governor of Simoda has a duplicate in Yeddo, who has to take turn-about with him in office, so that the nets of each, whilst in authority, seem as a check on the other. Then he is accompanied, wherever he goes, by one private and two public repoiters, and the latter forward direct to Yeddo particulars of all his acts. Their reports aic in their turn cheeked by the counter-statements of the governor and his pri- vate secretary. Now, compare this with the case of the cap- tain of H.M.S., who requires a ton of coal or a coil of rope, of the value of perhaps twenty shillings. The captain gives a written order for the purchase to be made, and two merchants must certify that the price naked is a just one, and wlint is tho rnte of exchange— to this the governor or consul must benr witness. The captain next attests that the goods have been re- ceived and carried to public account, and this is countersigned by a lieutenant, the master, and another officer, who declare their, to be fit for her Majesty's service. The vendor appends his signature as a receipt, nnd this has to be witnessed. Then a stntement of what quantity of the same remained in the ship when the purchase was made, and why more was required, has to he signed by the captain and officer in charge of them. Lastly, these documents are forwarded to the Commander-in-chief, who signs and forwards them to the Accountant-general of the Navy. So, to guarantee the honest expenditure on bchnlf of the public of twenty shillings, the names of twelve witnesses are requisite, and tho papers being in triplicate, six-and-thirty signatures require to be attached and lodged in office !' 216 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. ponds swarm with fish, and avaries with bright plu- inaged birds. A theatre is attached to every palace. 1 The Japanese are very unlike the Chinese in one respect : they are essentially warlike and brave. 2 They are accustomed to the use of arms from twelve years of age. Their chief pride consists in the excellence of their arms, which are, however, about a century in arrear of those of Europe, except the temper of their swords, and the dexterity with which they can use them. Courage and justice are the two great virtues which education in Japan seeks to develope in chil- dren. They are never either threatened or struck. Hence also, naturally of a kind disposition, they are inveterate when their sense of right is injured. Sobriety is another of the chief characteristics of the Japanese. They neither eat nor drink much. Their strongest drink is said, or beer made of rice and honey. Soy, or Soya, which is imported to this country, is made of barley, the seed of the dolichos, and salt fermented. They do not drink either coffee or milk. Tobacco was first introduced by the Portuguese. Sin-seng, which is the chief luxury sought for, and for which fabulous prices are said to be given, as ensuring immortality, is the root of the wild sugar-cane of Corea. All employments, as indeed all other matters in Japan, are hereditary. Forms of government, religious institutions, manners, customs, costume, architecture, all the habits of life, are traditional, and have been the sime for now nigh thirty centuries. The intro- duction of Buddhism, the institution of Singuns as emperors in the thirteenth century, and their subsequent usurpation of power, are but super- positions on an older form of society. Every city has its national guard, to which each strest contributes a certain number of men. In a country where almost every crime is visited by capital punishment, it is death to insult a national guard. They have, however, not only their ordinary police, but also their mitsuke, or spies. The princes of Salsuma, who preserve a kind 1 The homes of the nobles are built in regular order, forming wide streets, some fifty yards broad. An extensive court-yard, with trees and gardens, forms the centre of each inclosure, while around the inclosure is the house of the chief, as also those of his followers, retainers, domestic servants, and slaves. 8 The military disposition of the Japanese has recently received n fresh awakening like our own. The latest improvement adopted was to teach the young men to ride in European fashion for mili- tary purposes, and whilst we were in Nagasaki, a Dutch non- commissioned officer was busy teaching a number of Japanese gentlemen to ride in a riding-school constructed for the purpose. When they were perfect, they would be sent into provinces to instruct their countrymen ; for although there are abundance of horses in Japan, and rather good ones too, still, what with straw- shoes for their hoofs, and stirrups weighing fifty pounds a-picce, and lackered saddles, it must be acknowledged that their cavalry is as yet far from formidable. In infantry movements, I was told that they had for some time received instructions, and that, as a militia, their force was very respectable ; indeed, a Russian officer who was staying at Nagasaki, and who had seen much of Japan, spoke of the perfect military organisation of the empire in warm terms. From his description, the entire population formed one complete army, of which every town, village, and hamlet might be said to be companies or sections. The power, however, of directing these forces upon any point either for offence or defence, is vastly curbed by the independent tenuie of the three hundred and sixty princes. Each of these is the chief authority in his own state, and, like the barons of old, claims a power of life and death over his subjects, though, at the same time, acknowledging as their sovereign and chief the Tai-koon, and the council resident in Yeddo. of independence owing to their reputed descent from Jycyas, are said to kill every spy that is found on their territory. So perfect, however, is the police system in Japan, that it is said no criminal escapes ; indeed, it would appear that they do not attempt to escape. That the Japanese are the most intelligent and cul- tivated of all the Asiatic nations is generally admitted. Many of the officials and merchants can speak English and Dutch. They read European papers and periodicals. One of the nobles questioned Commodore Perry, to his great surprise, about Ericscn's caloric ship. They have their own system of astronomy and chronology, 3 as also their almanacks. They appear indeed to have asto- nished some of the members of Lord Elgin's mission not a little. "It is curious," writes one of these gentlemen, " that while some of their customs arc what we would deem rather barbarous, and while they are ignorant of many commou things — while they still rip themselves up, and shoe their horses with straw because ignorant of any other method — they have jumped to a knowledge of certain branches of science which it has taken nations in Europe hundreds of years to attain. At Nagasaki they can turn out of their yard an engine for a railway or .steamer. Japanese captains and engineers command their men-of-war, of which three arc steamers; they understand the electric telegraph; they make thermometers and barometers, theodolites, and, I believe, aneroids. Their spy-glasses and microscopes are good and very cheap. They have a large glass manufactory, which turns out glass little inferior to our own. They have a short line of railway somewhere in the interior, given by the Americans." So it will be in respect to defensive and offensive means. Hitherto, in pursuance of the system of se- clusion, it has been forbidden to construct large ships, so that the natives should not leave their coasts ; but under a new system, a new order of thing3 will un- doubtedly arise. So with their hundreds of thousands of armed men : as yet only in the military perfection of the sixteenth century, they could not stand before an adequate European force; but if once their country, or their laws, or religion, 'were attacked, they would soon learn to place their military system upon a par with that of those who would venture to outrage their nationality. The moral superiority would be on their side. They arc brave even to contempt of life, most sensitive on the point of honour, and cruel and vin- dictive in their enmity. It would be a grievous error, then, in a political point of view — not to mention the immorality of such a course — for any nation, be they Russian, English, French, or American (and the latter have entertained the notion of a forcible occupation of one of the Japanese islands) to attempt to coerce so brave, so intelligent, and so patriotic a people. 3 The names of the months have, like those of the French revo- lutionary calendar, a particular and interesting local significance. Thus, the first month is (.ailed the friendly month, being that if the new year. The second is the month of change, winter clothing being then exchanged for summer garments. The third is the budding month ; the fourth, the flowering month ; the fifth the transplanting month (in allusion to rice); the sixth is the dig month ; the seventh the month of letters ; the eighth is the month of falling leaves ; the ninth is the long month, or the month of long night; the tenth is the godless month; the eleventh the month of frosts; and the twelfth, the final or terminal month. The tenth month is so called because, according to some, tho gods wait upon the Mikado that month; according to others, all the divinities leave their respective temples on a pilgrimage to Idzumo, in the north of Japan. THE AUSTRIAN FRIGATE, "NOVARA." OFF THE ISLAND OF ST. PAUL. THE ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 219 The treaty signed at Yeddo on the 2Gth of August, 1858, stipulated, among other things, the reciprocal right of appointing diplomatic agents at Yeddo and London ; that the ports of Hakodaki (previously with Sirnoda opened hy Commodore Perry to the Americans), K magawa, and Nagasaki, be opened to British sub- jects from July 1st, 1859; Nee-e-gaha, or if that is unsuitable U a harbour, some other port on the west coast of Nip-pon, as also Kiogo, on January 1st, 18G0. In all these places British subjects may reside, may lease ground, and purchase and erect buildings, and are not to be confined within walls and gates, but are to be allowed free ingress and egress. Their ex- cursions are to be limited within ten ri, or some twenty-five miles English. After January 1st, 1862, British subjects m-vy reside at Yeddo ; and from January 1st, 1863, at Okasaka (Osaca), for purposes of trade only. THE ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. I.— AN AUSTRIAN VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. The voyage of the Austrian frigate, the Novara, .the last ship that has made a scientific voyage of cir- cumnavigation, affords us the means of conveying our readers to the more important of those numerous islands which skirt the great peninsula of Asia, from Japan on the one side to the Bay of Bengal on the other. It was a relief, amid the sad scenes enacted during the late war, to hear that its task of civilisation exempted it from the ordeal of international hostilities. Starting from Trieste on the 30th of April, 1857, it returned to the same port in the month of August, 1859. Con- structed in the docks of Venice about ten years ago, the Novara is one of the finest of the ten ships of the same class that Austria possesses. She is rated for forty-four guns, but only carried thirty-two during her journey round the world ; thus leaving a greater space for the necessaries of a long voyage, and for the collec- tions that might be made. The expedition, however, organized by Archduke Maximilian, Grand Admiral of the Austrian navy, had mainly in view the object of familiarising young naval officers with the navigation of different seas, of making the Austrian flag known in countries hitherto unacquainted with it, and of giving to the professors of science and natural history the means of acquiring more extended and varied knowledge. The conduct of the expedition was entrusted to Captain Wallerstorf Urtair, who has the reputation of being a learned and skilful seaman. He presided over the researches of the scientific commission, and the astronomical, meteorological, magnetic and geodesic labours of the naval officers. The frigate itself was under the command of Captain Baron de Pock, who had under his orders a staff of thirty officers, including three surgeons and a chaplain ; the crew numbered 310 men. Among the members of the scientific commission were a geologist, two zoologists, a botaiiist, a preparer, an ethnologist, an economist, and a draughtsman. The whole time the expedition was out was two years three months and twenty-eight days. Of this time, 298 days were employed in land explorations, and 051 days were passed under sail. The frigate came to anchor in twenty-five different harbours, and tra- versed in its whole journey 51,686 geographic miles of sixty to a degree. The first visits made were to Rio Janeiro and to the Cape of Good Hope, and on the 19 th of November, 1857, they arrived at the volcanic Island of St. Paul, which, with its neighbour, Amsterdam, stand out almost isolated, midway between the Indian and Southern Oceans, and the exploration of both of which had been strongly recommended by the veteran De Humboldt. (See page 217.) " We had scarcely anchored," M. Scherzer relates, in his report made to the Geographical Society of Paris, " at about a mile and a half from the shore, than the whole population of the island, composed of two negroes and an old Frenchman with a long beard, came out to welcome us. The Frenchman, M.Viot, made an offer of his services with exquisite politeness, and placed the whole of the island at our disposal. He related to us how, in virtue of the rights of a primary occupation, the island had been in the first place the property of a French merchant, from the Island of Bourbon, or de la Reunion, M. Canin, who had ceded it to a Pole, M. Adam, his partner or colleague. The latter had purchased some unfortunate negroes of the too infamous coast of Mozambique, had obliged them to construct habitations for them and for themselves, to blow up whole masses of rock, in order to give a greater security to the landing, and to cultivate a few roods of potatoes and cabbages. About ten years ago, the pos- session of the island was made over to one M. Otovan, employed in the Commissariat of the Isle de la Reunion. Twice a year this new sovereign of the island des- patches a sloop of about forty tons, to fish in the productive waters of St. Paul the cheilodactylus, erroneously designated as the sea-cod ; at fifty centimes (five pence) per fish, each of these expeditions gives him a return of 25,000 francs. The three inhabitants of the island watch over these fisheries, take care of the storehouse, and rear a few roods of potatoes, which they exchange with the whalers for rice, tobacco, biscuits, and salt meat." The Island of St. Paul is, in reality, the summit of a crater, which rises from the depths of the ocean to some 200 yards above the level of the waters. It is only approachable on the south-west side, where the walls of the crater being broken down, a magnificent oval-shaped opening presents itself, upwards of a hun- 220 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. dred yards in width, and on both sides of which arc ten long bars, that attach themselves to the flanks of the mountain. The internal sides of the crater are • clothed with verdure, and present a ravishing spectacle to the eye. The magnetic, astronomical, and meteorological ob- servations were installed at this interesting station, and those who were not addicted to the pursuit of mathematical sciences, occupied themselves with niine- ralogical, botanical, and zoological researches. Some zealous philanthropists sowed seeds brought from Europe, in the hopes of seeing them germinate during the stay of the expedition. But strong gales of wind and persistent rain came on, and cooled the ardour of all parties extremely. Luckily that they found in the hut of the only civilised resident in the island, a collection of books, made, we are told, with considerable taste. A number of penguins also came to pay them a visit. Stumbling along like invalids, with their legs of wood, they intruded into the huts, heavy, awkward, and stupid, they shook their small, undeveloped wings, and opened their eyes and bills as far as it was in their power, to express their surprise at meeting with strangers in such a place. Those poor palmipeds live by myriads upon the island of St. Paul. They have established for themselves there an immense city, to which in the evening, on returning from fishing, they ascend in long files by a zig-zag pathway. The noise they make in the depth of night is deafening. Two thermal springs were found issuing from the sides of the crater nearly at the level of the sea. Their temporature was 96 centrigrade. Some of the party amused themselves with boiling fish in these fountains, still attached to the hook by which they had been caught only a few yards off. St. Paul, the l-eporter says, might be made an excellent station for ships which, on their way to and from the Cape, China, India, or Australia, might be in want of repairs. It is now a dependence of the Isle of France. On the 6th of December, 1857, the Novara sailed from St. Paul, leaving a present of a box of tools to M. Viot. On the 7th it was with difficulty that the longboat effected a landing on the Island of Amster- dam. " We saw," says the reporter, with amusing simplicity, "some turf, some reeds, and some arbo- rescent plants, but the wind obliged us to quit the place by midnight, and to make the best of our way to Ceylon." II— CEYLON. The Austrian expeditionists described themselves as casting anchor at Point de Galle, to which so unen- viable a notoriety has lately attached itself from the loss of the Malabar ; and they speak of it as " a point of little importance, consisting of a pcttah or village of dark aborigines, a fort, and an European quarter, the white houses in which, the clean streets, and the shady avenues, present an agreeable aspect." Buddhism, which we are told seems to recoil beforo Muhammadanism in the far oast, is still in full pros- perity in Ceylon. This island is, so to say, the Rome of the worshippers of Sakya Muni. The temples and chapels devoted to that divinity are, as a natural con- sequence, to be counted by thousands. The Singha- lese priests enjoy considerable political and religious authority. They persist in ignoring every word of English origin : it is their method of protesting against the conquering heretics of the Holy Island. In other respects they are very polite to Europeans, and appear to be solely occupied with their religious duties. Scarcely had the learned travellei-s disembarked, than they directed their steps to the great temple of Dadella Panzela, where resides the Great Priest of Ceylon, surrounded by his hamadums, They had the honour of being presented to the Singhalese Pontiff. He is described as then an old man, some seventy years of age, and as rejoicing in the name of Nanalangara Sirisumana Mahadama Radgiurong Ganatchaii Nai- kunangi. He informed the Austrians that he had long resided in the country of Siam, and that the emperor of that country had only recently sent him a parasol of honour. Ho then condescended to inquire their names, their country, and the object of their journey ; the replies to which lie had duly reported by a secretary who wrote with a goose-quill on paper, probably re- served for profane jiurposes, for in another part of' tho temple they observed a student transcribing some of the sacred writings upon a leaf of taliput. The next excursion made was from Galle to Colombo. The expeditionists had no reason to complain of the first portion of their journey to Bentotte, the so-called caravanserai, and which place is described as resembling the stations on " our railways," and as having been constructed at the expense of government. Every accommodation, and excellent food, were to be obtained at prices marked on a tariff. But matters did not pro- ceed so cheerily afterwards. The driver got so drunk at Bentotte, as to be no longer capable of preserving his equilibrium. A policeman was accordingly applied to to supply a new one, but he cither could not or would not accede to their demands; they were obliged, therefore, to put up with their truly Anglican con- veyor, who soon fell under the wheels, but, luckity, without receiving any serious injuries. The horse took advantage of the mishap to refuse to go any further. It is the custom, we are told, in that spirit of generalisation which is too often affected by tra- vellers, when they have any one case upon which to ground their conclusions, to attach to the carnages of travellers, whatever may be their weight, a single, meagre, thin, piteous-looking horse ; further, they only change every ten or fifteen kilometres (seven to ten miles), so, to make the animal move, they are obliged to have recourse to an executioner's expedients. His ears are twisted with cords, and a stick is pushed under his tail, and as soon as the poor beast, exasperated, breaks into a trot, the drivers begin to swear, scream, and whip, to keep up the excitement. It really did not require to go to Ceylon to see this ; but, in a land so devotedly given up to the belief of transmigration, better things might have been expected. It was not without trouble that our travellers reached a Roman Catholic mission, where they obtained a new horse and a new coachman, who drove them to a second mission. Father Miliani insisted upon their acceptance of a cup of coffee, and promised them a breakfast on their return from Colombo. It was dark ere the journey was resumed, and happily the road was lit up here and there by tho natives who wended their way home with torches of palm wood, which threw out vivid sparks and spread a delightful fragrance around. It was midnight when they reached Colombo. Colombo, like all other Indian cities, is composed of two quarters. The white town, with its forts, whero the European population, which also has the THE ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 221 right to keep open shop therein, concentrates itself; and the black town, into which the English go very rarely, bnt which is incontestably the most active and the most industrious of the two. Colombo, a city of 36,000 inhabitants, capital of Ceylon, and seat of the political government, is charged with not having lefc agreeable reminiscences. The so- called white town is described as being very gray and very dirty, and as being in a manifest state of decline, which may be attributed to the fact that its harbour is only accessible during the northwest monsoon. Hence trade is leaving it, while it increases at Point de Galle, whose port, said to be accessible at all times, is already the rendezvous of several lines of steamers. But, upon this point, opinion differs widely. One agreeable surprise presented itself ; it was a board intimating that an "ice shop" existed in Colombo. The ice came from the United States. Blocks transmitted across the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean are much cheaper in Ceylon than such as are brought from the mountains of India. North America, aud especially Boston, supplies Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta abundantly with this delicious refreshment, by regular convoys arriving every fortnight. The trade, which is of recent origin, appears to return good profit:?. The inspector of the pearl fisheries informed the expeditionists, that the fourteen fisheries which for- merly brought in from 1,000,000 to 1,800,000 francs had been ruined by a greedy and ignorant system of working, and finally abandoned in 1838. This branch of industry was however, reopened in 1855, and it produces as much as 250,000 francs to th3 revenue in certain months of the year. 1 1 The more important Pearl Fishery is now carried on at Aripo, and is thus described by an eye-witness:— The plain was dotted with tents, curious in shape and colour, aud " cajau " huts of every possiblo size, for the accommodation of the temporary visitors. In the roadstead lay vessels of all kinds, from the Biuall schooner used by the superintendent as his flagship, to the various strangely- shaped native boats, with their clumsy outriggers and broad brown 6ails, fragile-looking little canoes and catamarans, making rapid voyages b-tween them and the shore. All the details of the fishery are carried on at Silawatorre, two miles down the coast, the seaboard for a considerable distance being raised several feet in height by the accumulations of oyster-shells for ages past. The boats used by the divers, 178 in number, were drawn up in two squadrons, opposite the Government buildings. One squadron is told off for each day's fishing, and gets under weigh at midnight, when a signal gun is fired, a breeze generally springing up at that time enabling them to reach the pe.irl banks, twelve miles from the shore, by daylight. The boats are all numbered, and anchor in a line, when diving commences immediately. Each boat has five " sinking stones," and two divers arc told off at each stone, which weighs about forty pounds. They do not dive altermttly, as too much time would be lost by changing, but when or.e man is tired the other takes bis place. They discard all accessories for closing the ears and nostrils, and the diver descends by placing his feet upon the " sinking stone," to which a ropo is attached. His movements are watched by his comrade, who draws up the stone tho moment the diver reaches tho bottom, with the net or basket in which the oysters are deposited, the diver himself facilitating his own ascent by the same means. After holding on to an oar, or floating for a minute or so, to recover his wind, he is ready for another plunge. Most of the divers are Tamils, and far from being of miserable appearance, are mostly stout, healthy men. Accidents from sharks are of very rare occurence, contrary to our preconceived notions on the subject, only one authenticated fatal case having occurred since Ceylon Mine into our possession. Ridiculous tales have been told and Relieved respecting the length of time divers remain under water, some giving tho average as two minutes, others asserting that as much as seven minutes' submersion has been achieved. The The Austrian consul, Mr. Wilson, conducted tho members of the expedition to what were justly desig- nated "magnificent plantations" of cinnamon laurels. Every year cargoes of this precious vegetable aro exported to tho value of twenty millions of francs ; it is a real monopoly, which nature has made a present utu.ost ever accomplished by the present less amphibious race is eighty-five seconds, fifty seconds being the ordinary duration of a dive. So largo a number of divers are at work at once, that they must trust to chance for filling their nets in the muddy water ; all kinds of curious marine animals — sea slugs, black, greasy, aud hideous, strange polypi, and beautiful shells— all coining up in company with the legiti- mate pearl oyster. is many as sixty-fivo of these have been brought up at one haul, but the average number seldom exceeds fifteen or twenty. Properly speaking it is not an oyster at all, but a member of tho mussel family, its correct designation being the Meleagrina margaritifera, Tho shells arc of a reddish brown colour, and have deeper and mora clearly defined hinges than the common oyster, which to unscientific eyes it greatly resembles. It possesses a curious kind of sucker, or leg, by means of which it can accomplish a slow progress over the bottom of tho sea, a blueish green tassel (byssus) enabling it to attach itself to any object that takes its fancy. The " byssus " is broken off and left behind when the oyster moves on, it having the power of reproducing it when ngiiin desirous of remaining stationary. They are, however, generally found loose by the divers, in which caso they are easily transferred to the nets. According' to tho natives, its most formidable enemy is a fish whom nature has provided with a scrt of gimlet on its nose, with which it bores through the shell, sucking out its juicy contents through tho hole. They aro also said to fall victims to a kind of roach, five or six inches in length, which devours the oyster, shell and all. They may do some damage among tho very young ones, but a full-grown, hard- shelled pearl oyster, probably proves as lasting' a meal to a roach, as a buck with fine antlers to a boa constrictor. The divers work steadily for about six hours, but at midnight they have nearly had enough of it. A gun is fired as a signal for the fishing to cease. A final and simultaneous plunge is made by the divers, and the little flotilla gets under weigh for the beach, each boat, as it arrives, delivering its precious freight at the government "Rottoo," or receiving yard, a large, open, palisaded inclosuro, with a sentry at each gate. A government official superintends tho division of the whole into four equal lots, one of which is tho remuneration to which the divers are entitled, and for this they provide boats and boatmen. This share is usually at once Eold by them at retail prices, outside the gates, higher prices being ob- tained for them than those fetched at the government sales, where only thousands are talked about. Uhese e ales take plaeo on the day following the fishery, in a large "wjjon" building, with open sides, round which crowd the speculators of all classes, castes, and hues. Singhalese but seldom venturo in these undertakings, preferring to invest such savings as they make in land. By tar the greatest proportion are natives of tho south continent of India, wheie the spirit of speculation seems equally well developed in the wealthy Chetty merchant, the pos. sessor of thousands, and in the common cooly, who will expend his hardly-earned hire in three or four of the much-coveted bivalves. It is difficult to distinguish rich from poor among theso swarthy gentry, the richest seldom wearing any. clothes beyond a linen cloth round the head and another round tho loins, though a large amount of wealth is ofcen concealed in the dirty folds of tho latter. A pair of wooden sandals, and a gingham umbrella com- plete the costume, which, if not elegant, is certainly not expensive. The eager, restless countenancees of all aro alike stamped with avarice, the auri sacra fames appearing to blunt all other feelings. The oysters are sold by auction, in lots of not less than one thou- sand, a purchaser to that extent having the option of taking as many as thirty thousand, if he likes the price. At the previous fisheries of 1857-58, tho prices were low, £1 14*. per thousand being the ave- rage ; but the profits then made were enormous, and the fact so well- known, that on this occasion £4 8s. per 1000 was the price freely offered at the first day's sale. The best criterion of the success of the speculators was the steady rise in prices; at one tune several hundred thousands were sold at £8 6*., and up to the end of tho fishery, £5 6*. and £7 were readily given. At a sale at which we were present, over 400,000 oysters were disposed of, and paid for in ready money. The oysters are immediately removed by their purchasers to their own privato yards, where, if time can be given, 222 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. of to the island of Ceylon. Thence they visited a manufactory of cocoa-nut oil. They also saw in the store-house '-'real hills" of cowries, shells collected at the Maldive Islands, and deposited at Ceylon on their way to London, whence they are transmitted into the interior of Africa as current ( coin in exchange for gold dust, palm oil, and, still more especially, alas! for negroes and negnsses. A ton of these shells is worth, at Ceylon, about 1,800 francs, and the living flesh of negroes is exchanged against an equal weight of shells ! Here our travellers werealso introduced to the luxury of the punka, which in the night-time they tell us refresh the slumbers of somnolent bankers, and even gild their golden dreams. On their way back from Colombo to Point de Galle, Father Miliaui, true to his promise, awaited the appear- ance of the expeditionists at Gallon, in an elegant carriage, to convey them to the presbtyery of St. Sebas- tian. On their way thither, the natives whom they met are described as throwing themselves down full length, and waiting, their faces veiled, for the blessing of their pastor. The reverend father, who witli one hand held the reins of his " break," distributed his benedictions half with his hand and the other half with his whip ! Just as they were reaching the church, two Singhalese obstructed their way, one of them begged the father to accompany him to his dying wife, the other already held the sacred vessels used in such sad circumstances, and which he had brought with him from the presbytery. M. Miliani surprised, handed over the reins to Commodore Wullerstorf, and excusing himself with the most perfect politeness, disappeared in the forest that bordered the road. He was not long, how- ever - , in coming back, when his smiling countenance showed that the case was not so bad as had been imagined. The fact is that, at the least indications of they are left till all the animal matter has decomposed and dis- appeared. Some considerable time must necessarily elapse before a!! this is accomplished, even in a tropical country ; and in most cases, therefore, tie pearls arc obtained from the oysters by wash- ing, a process which takes place when they are in an advanced stage of decomposition. It is conducted upon the same principle as that employed in gold found in the sand or alluvial de- posit*. They are removed into large tubs, or canoes hewn from n solid log, the shells are picked out, care bjing taken to prerervc those to which pearls arc found adhering. Water is then freely applied, the loathsome mass being well stirred up by h ind till the pearls are freed from all adhesive matter, and preci- pitated to the bottom, where, r.fter the liquid has been poured oft", thoy are disclosed to the excited, anxious gaze of their proprietor. A more disgusting spectacle can hardly be conceived, than that of a crowd of women and children employed upon this loathsome work j nor can human nature be viewed in a much more repulsive aspect than that of an old coloured woman, almost destitute of clothing, her hair iangled and dishevelled, her eyes gleaming with cupidity, and her skinny arras half buried in a hideous mass of corruption that would appal an analytical chemist. Peculation is rife among the people thus employed, swallowing the pearls being the most approved method of appropriating them, notwithstanding the horrible odour and appearance of the mass from which they aro extracted. Punishment, however, follows swiftly upon detection, the suspected party being at once dosed with a powerful emetic, no regard being paid to either sex, age, or constitution, a trust- worthy friend of the proprietor watching the result. The owners cf large stocks of oysters generally erect their temporary domi- ciles close by, or in the yards in which they are stored, apparently unconscious of the poisonous stench generated by the decaying heaps j sufficiently poisonous, one would imagine, to produce a plague every fishery. Trading in pearls seems to be a distinct business with these people, and is not combined with dealing in any other description of perns. The merchant usually carries most of his stock about with him, secreted in the folds of his garment, together with his "appanage," consisting of ft square sickness, the natives have the sacraments administered to them at once, from religious prudence and from too ready confidence in the virtues of the holy oil in cluing their physical ailments. A sharp canter, in which they were followed by a tall native, who kept up with them at full speed to obtain a " supplement of benediction," brought them to the village, when the whole congregation of the faithful were in attendance to conduct them across a grove of palms to the presbytery, the columns of which were decorated with garlands, with green boughs, tro- pical flowers, and admirable baskets of fruits, above which charmingly variegated birds, artistically cut by the Singhalese out of cocoa nut leaves, seemed to fly. .Over the doorway was an anchor emblem of faith, and words taken from the Epistle of St. Paul : " My hope has not deceived me," were to be read in green letters. This was a delicate allusion to the promise made by the commodore to accept the entertainment proffered by the reverend father on his return from Colombo. A long table had been laid in the interior, and it actually groaned beneath the weight of viands. Arm- chairs were disposed at distances, and the floor was covered with the bright yet delicate leaves of the ficus religicsa. As scon as M. Wullerstorf had taken his place, some hundred parishioners arranged them- selves in groups, and executed national dances to the sound cf drums and fifes. The repast wotdd have met with the approbation of guests most diflicult to pleaso even in Europe. The parish of Saint Sebastian boasts, we arc told, of about 9,000 convents ; it is one of the most important of the fifty stations of the diocese of Colombo, whoso bishop is Monseignenr Biava. The Commodore left a goodly present for the Church of Father Miliani, and dark blue cloth, marled out into divisions, a pair of scales and weights, and ft scries of small brass tuuecis, perforated witli holes of different sizes; number one being large enough to admit the passage of a pearl the size of a pea, while the smallest is only calculated to allow the dust to escape. Through these the pearls are sifted, those remaining in each saucer being placed upon its appropriate division on the cloth, a rough measurement being thus speedily arrived at. It is not easy to value them correctly, the distinctions made being so irony, and so nice. '1 here arc alto- gether twelve classes, in none of which is the actual weight taken into consideration. No. 1 is called Am, comprising those to which Pliny first applied the term "unio," in which all tho highest perfections of lustre and sphericity are centred ; No. 2, Anathari, are such as fail a little in one point, either in lustre or sphericity; No. 3, Sanadayam ; No. 4, Kaycral, such as fail in both j No. 5, llassagu, or confusion; No. G, Vfldivu, beauty; No. 7, Medangu, bent or "folded" pearls; No. 8, Kurwal, double pearls ; No. 9, Kalippu, signifying " abundance ; " No. 10, Pasal ; No. 11, ICuial, "mis-shapen;" these find a ready sale in India, all kinds and shapes being indiscriminately used to ndom the roughly-made breastplates cf gold worn by women of high caste; No. 12, Thool, literally "powder; " these are all easily disposed of in India, where they arc made into " Chunain," a refined kind of lime for great ladies to chew with their betel. Mysterious whispers of lucky ventures pervade the camp. You arc told of a cemmrn ccoly having mode his fortune for life by the fortunate expenditure of a rupee, and we were shown one fine pearl worth seven or eight pounds, the result of a sixpenny speculation by a small brown girl. The pearls are not often very large. In 1860 the oysters sold at the unprecedented price of £16 per 1,000, for an extraordinary reason — the mutinies in India. An enormous amount of jewellery was " looted " by the Uritish soldiery, nearly the whole of which fell into the hands of the well-affeeted nobility. Now that matters have settled down, the ladies of Oude, who were the principal losers, arc anxious for a fresh assortment, the demand greatly exceeds the supply, nnd the prices of pearls aro exactly double what they were last year. THE ISLANDS OP THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 223 for the servants, after -which they got into their car- riage, accompanied as far as the next station by their host, by a band of musicians, drumming, blowing, and whistling, as also by a band of parishioners, black and almost naked ligures, with long flat hair falling below the elbows, shouting, gesticulating, and dancing ; it was evidently an extraordinary festival with them. These poor Singhalese, astonished at so magnificent a reception, designated the Commodore as " King of the Sea." Ceylon has been celebrated throughout all ages for its pearls and its elephants. We have already given an account of the Pearl Fishery, and we will now proceed to the latter. The elephant, the lord paramount of the Ceylon forests, is to be met with in almost every district of that great island, in the confines of the woods, in whose depths he finds concealment and shade during the hours when the sun is high, and from which he emerges only at twilight to wend his way towards the rivers and tanks, where he luxuriates till dawn, when he again seeks the retirement of the deep forests. With the exception indeed of the narrow but densely inhabited belt of cultivated land, which extends along the sea-shore of the island from Chilaw on the western coast, to Tangalle on the east, there is no part of Ceylon in which elephants may not be said to abound ; even close to the environs of the most populous localities of the interior. They frequent both the open plains and the deep forests, and their footsteps are to be seen wherever food and shade, vegetation and water ail tire them, alike on the suinmits of the loftiest mountains and on the borders of the tanks and low- land streams. (See page 22o.) From time immemorial the natives have been taught to capture and tame them, and the export of elephants from Ceylon to India has been going on without interruption from the period of the first Punic war (^Elian, de Nat. Animal, lib. xvi. c. 18; Cosmos Indico, pi. p. 128). In later times all elephants were the property of the Kandyan Crown, and their capture or slaughter, without the royal permission, was classed amongst the gravest offences in the Kandyan code. In recent years there is reason to believe that their numbers have become considerably reduced. They have entirely disappeared from districts in which they were formerly numerous ; smaller herds have been taken in the periodical captures for the public service, and hunters returning from the chase report them to be more scarce. In consequence of this diminution the peasantry in some parts of the island have even sus- pended the ancient practice of keeping watchers and lires by night to drive away the elephants from their growing crops. The opening of roads and the clearing the mountain forests of Kandy for the cultivation of coffee have forced the animals to retire to the low country, where again they have been followed by large parties of European sportsmen ; and the Singhalese themselves, being more freely provided with arms than iu former times, have assisted in swelling the annual slaughter. Had the motive which incites to the destruction of the elephant in Africa and India prevailed in Ceylon, and had the elephants there been provided with tusks, they would long since have been annihilated for the sake of their ivory. But it is a curious fact that, whilst in Africa both sexes have tusks, with some slight disproportion in the size of those of the females, and whilst in India the females are provided with them, though of much less dimensions than the males, not one elephant in a hundred is found with tusks in Ceylon, and the few that possess them are exclusively males. Sir James Emerson Tennant had, during his stay at Kandy, twice the opportunity of witnessing the operation, on a grand scale, of capturing wild elephants, intended to be trained for the public service ; and the same able administrator and distinguished author succeeded in the course of his frequent journeys through the interior of the island, in collecting so many par- ticulai-s relative to the habits of these interesting animals in a state of nature, as has enabled him not only to add to the information previously possessed, but to correct many fallacies popularly received regarding their instincts and disposition. 1 The very etymology of the name elephant is un- known, and therefore, as may be imagined, the matter of much learned and ingenious disputation ; one party believing it derived from the Sanscrit Airavanta, Son of the Ocean, another from the Arabic Al fil Hindi, Bos Indicus ; and a third again from the Hebrew Eleph Hindi, also Indian Ox. A veiy erroneous fallacy handed by iElian, Pliny, Shaw, Sir W. Jardine, and other naturalists, is corrected at the outset by Sir J. E. Tennant. Elephants, he says, do not shed their tusks after losing their first pair, or, as they are called, the "milk tusks;" the second pair acquire their full size and become the " permanent tusks," which are never shed. Again, it is a mistake to suppose that the tusks are defensive organs. So harmless and peaceful is the life of the elephant, that nature appears to have left them unprovided with any weapon of offence ; their tusk being too delicate an organ to be rudely employed in a conflict with other animals. 2 Towards man elephants evince shyness, arising from their love of solitude and dislike of intrusion ; any alarm they exhibit at his appearance may be reason- ably traced to the slaughter which has reduced their numbers ; and as some evidence of this, it has always been observed that an elephant exhibits greater im- patience of a white man than of a native. Were his instincts to carry him further, or were he influenced by any feeling of animosity or hostility, it must be apparent that, as against the prodigious numbers that inhabit the forests of Ceylon, man would wage an unequal contest, and that of the two one or other must long since have been reduced to a helpless minority. The alleged antipathies of the elephant to all quad- rupeds, especially swine and dogs, and the absurd state- ment that he is alarmed if a hare start from its form, are in a great degree, if not entirely, imaginary. "The habits of the elephant," observes Sir James, "are essentially harmless ; his wants lead to no rivalry with other animals, and the food to which he is most attached is found in such abundance that he obtains it without 1 Ceylon: An Account of the Island, Physiod, Historical, and Topographical, with Notices of its Natural History, Antiquities, and Productions, by Sir James Emerson Tennant, K.G.S., LL.U., &c. 2 The annual importation of ivory into Great Britain alone for the last few years has been about one million pounds, which, taking the average weight of a tusk nt sixty pounds, would require the slaughter of 8,333 male elephants. Hut Mr. McLood tells us (in Travels in East Africa, vol. ii. p. 275) that almost tho whole of the ivory-trade of East Africa, the most productive of all, is now iu the hands of tho Americans. The number of elephants annually destroyed cannot, therefore, be under 20,000. 224 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. WORKING ELEPHANT IN CEVLON. an effort. In the quiet solitudes of Ceylon, elephants may constantly be seen browsing peacefully in the immediate vicinity of, and in close contact with, other animals. I have seen groups of deer and wild buffaloes reclining in the sandy bed of a river in the dry season, and elephants plucking the branches close beside them. They show no impatience in the company of the elk, the bear, and the wild hog ; and on the other hand I have never discovered an instance in which these animals have evinced any apprehension of them." The elephant's natural timidity, however, is such, that he becomes alarmed on the appearance in the jungle of any animal — such as a horse, and especially if mounted. When enraged an elephant will not hesitate to charge a rider on horseback ; but it is against the man, not against the horse, that his fury is directed ; and no instance has been ever known of his wantonly assailing a hoi - se. A horse which belonged to the celebrated elephant -slayer, Major Rogers, had run away from his groom, and was found some considerable time afterwards grazing quietly with a herd of elephants. On the whole, it may be said that the elephant lives on terms of amity with every quadruped in the forest, that he neither regards them as his foes nor provokes their hostility by his acts; and that, with the exception of man, his greatest enemy is a fly — the tremendous tzetse, or elephant fly. The elephant does not use his tusks in fighting — at least generally — but its foot is its chief weapon, the pressure of the foot being sufficient to crush any minor assailant, after being prostrated by means of his trunk. A peculiar formation in the knee-joint in the hind leg, enabling him to swing his hind feet close to the ground, also assists him in tossing the body alternately from foot to foot, till he deprives it of life. A sportsman who had undergone this operation, having been seized by a wounded elephant, but rescued from his fury, was thus flung back and forward between the hind and fore feet of the animal, which ineffectually attempted to trample him at each concussion, but abandoned him without inflicting serious injury. In captivity, however, after a due course of training, the elephant discovers a new use for his tusks, when employed in moving stones and piling timber — so much so that a powerful one will raise and carry on them a log of half a ton weight, or more. Sir J. E. Teunant relates the following anecdote, as at once illustrative of this faculty, as also of the sagacity of the animal : " One evening, whilst riding in the vicinity of Kandy, my horse evinced some excitement at a noise which approached us in the thick jungle, and which consisted of a repetition of the ejaculation 'Urmph! urmph!' in a hoarse and dissatisfied tone. A turn in the forest explained the mystery, by bringing me face to face with a tame elephant, unaccompanied by any attendant ; he was labouring painfully to carry a heavy beam of timber, which he balanced across his tusks, but the pathway being narrow he was forced to bend his head to one side to permit it to pass edgeways ; and the exertion vcr,. t. THE ISLANDS OP THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 227 and inconvenience combined led him to utter the dissatisfied sounds which disturbed the composure of my horse. On seeing us halt, the elephant raised his head, reconnoitred us for a moment, then flung down the timber and forced himself backwards among the brushwood, so a.s to leave a passage, of which he expected us to avail ourselves. My horse still hesitated ; the elephant observed it, and impatiently thrust himself still deeper into the jungle, repeating his cry of 'Urmph ;' but in a voice evidently meant to encourage us to come on. Still the horse trembled, and, anxious to observe the instinct of the two sagacious creatures, I forebore any interference : again the elephant wedged himself further in among the trees, and waited impatiently for us to pass him, and after the horse had done so, timidly and tremblingly, I saw the wise creature stoop and take up his heavy burthen, trim and balance it on his tusks, and resume his route, hoarsely snorting, as before, his discontented remonstrance." So conversant are the natives with the structure and "points" of the elephant, that they divide them readily into castes, and describe with particularity their distinctive excellencies and defects. Elephants in Ceylon are occasionally spotted, but rarely of that morbid flesh colour which has been honoured by the name of '• white." A white elephant is mentioned in the Mahaivanso as forming part of the retinue attached to the temple of the Tooth at Anarajapoora, in the fifth century before Christ ; but it commanded no religious veneration, and like those of the kings of Siam, it was tended merely as an emblem of royalty ; the sovereign of Ceylon being not inappropriately addressed as the " Lord of Elephants." The favourite resort of the Ceylon elephant is the mountain top, and not the sultry valleys. In Uvah, where the elevated plains are often crisp with the morning frost, and on Pedro-talla-galla, at the height of upwards of 8,000 feet, they are found in herds ; whilst the hunter may search for them without success in the jungles of the low country. Their sight is limited, but the sense of smell is acute. The sense of hearing is also very delicate, and they have a variety of noises or calls, by means of which they communicate with one another upon all emergencies. They do not, in Ceylon, attain a height of above nine feet, and the ordinary herds do not average more than eight. A herd is a family, not a group of elephants, whom acci- dent or attachment may have induced to associate together. The numbers of these herds fluctuate very slightly, and hunters in pursuit of them, who may chance to have shot one or more, always reckon with certainty the precise number of those l-emaining. One member of a herd, generally the largest and most powerful, is by common consent implicitly followed as a leader. As the shooting of an elephant, whatever endurance and adroitness the sport may display in other respects, requires the smallest possible skill as a marksman, the numbers which are annually slain in this way may be regarded as evidence of the multitudes abounding in those parts of Ceylon to which they resort. One officer, Major Rogers, who was himself ultimately killed by lightning, killed upwards of 1200, and he bought his successive steps in the army, from a subaltern to a major, with the value of the ivory obtained from these encounters ; another, Captain Gall way, has the credit of slaying more than half that number ; Major Skinner, now the commissioner of roads, almost as many, and less persevering aspirants follow at humbler dis- tances. But notwithstanding this prodigious destruction, a reward of a few shillings per head offered by the Government for taking elephants was claimed for 3,500 destroyed in part of the northern province alone, in less than three years prior to 1848 ; and between 1851 and 1856, a similar reward was paid for 2,000 in the southern province. Although there is little opportunity for the display of markmanship in an elephant battue, there is one feature in the sport, as conducted in Ceylon, which contrasts favourably with the slaughter-house details chronicled with almost too great minuteness in some recent accounts of elephant shooting in South Africa. The practice in Ceylon is to aim invariably at the head, and the sportsman finds his safety to consist in boldly facing the animal, advancing to within fifteen paces, and lodging a bullet either in the temple, or in the hollow over the eye, or in a well-known spot imme- diately above the trunk, where the weaker structure of the skull affords an easy access to the brain. The region of the ear is also a fatal spot, and often resorted to ; the places mentioned in the front of the head being only accessible when the animal is " charging." Generally speaking, a single ball, planted in the fore- head, ends the existence of the noble creature instanta- neously, and expert sportsmen have been known to kill, right and left, one with each barrel ; but occa- sionally an elephant will not fall before several shots have been lodged in his head. When free in his native woods, it is to be remarked the elephant evinces rather simplicity than sagacity, and its intelligence seldom exhibits itself in cunning. The rich profusion in which nature has supplied his food, and anticipated his every want, has made him independent of those devices by which carnivorous animals provide for their subsistence ; and, from the absence of all rivalry between himself and the other denizens of the plains, he is never required to resort to artifice for self-protection. For these reasons, in his tranquil harmless life, he may appear to casual observers to exhibit even less than ordinary ability ; but when danger and apprehension call for the exertion of his powers, those who have witnessed their display are seldom inclined to undervalue his sagacity. An instance is related in which a recently captured elephant was either rendered senseless from fear, or, as the native attendants asserted, feigned death, in order to regain his freedom. It was led from the corral, as usual, between two tame ones, and had already pro- ceeded far on its way towards its destination, when night closing in, and the torches being lighted, it hesi- tated to go on, and finally sunk to the ground ap- parently lifeless. The fastenings were ordered to be removed from the legs, and when all attempts to raise it had failed, so convinced were all that it was dead, that the ropes were collected and the carcase aban- doned. They had scarcely, however, taken their de- parture and proceeded a few yards, when, to their astonishment, the elephant rose with the utmost ala- crity and fled towards the jungle, screaming at the top of its voice, its cries being audibe long after it had disappeared in the the shades of the forest. Most sportsmen have, with the intent of exalting their own prowess, misrepresented this most harmless animal — except when a " rogue," or a female deprived 228 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. of her young, or terrified and irritated, and whicli Mr. Gordon dimming has described — as weeping large tears from the torture inflicted by showers of bullets, tearing up its flesh and penetrating to its vitals, as "savage, wary, and revengeful." Sir J. E. Tennant has elo- quently indicated the true character of these maligned quadrupeds. Their demeanour, he says, when undis- turbed, is indicative of gentleness and timidity. A few are generally browsing listlessly on the trees and plants in their reach, others fanning themselves with leafy branches, and a few are asleep ; whilst the young are playing among the herd, the emblems of innocence, as the older ones are of peacefulness and gravity. 1 The Working Elephant of Ceylon, which forms the sub- ject of our illustration at page 224 was sketched from the life in the mountain district of Nuerra-Elia, 0,000 feet above the level of the sea, by Count Emanuel Andiasy, a Hungarian nobleman, who saw it at work, ploughing, and thus describes it. " The sun was going down and we could perceive in the plains the natives urging on their oxen, fatigued with the labour of the day. I dismounted, the better to examine the scene, and sketched it off in my album. Clumps of earth, covered with grass, were turned over, and the animal went so fast that the woolly-headed Malabar who guided him could scarcely hold him in. Two men were holding the plough, and they had quite enough to do to keep it from leaping out of the furrow." The Count adds a remark worthy of more particular attention. " I am astonished," he says, " that emigrants from Germany and Ireland should go to America and the Cape of Good Mope, whilst Nuerra-Elia, with its pure atmo- sphere and its favoured soil, a country that would hold the half of Ireland, presents a place for colonisation, and so extremely fertile and so much more agreeable." The reader will now be better able to appreciate the following sparkling account of elephant shooting in Ceylon, which we borrow from a continental source. The narrator is a certain Count Horace, to whose birthplace and parentage we would as willingly bear testimony as to his veracity. " I had been three months in Ceylon," says the ' One of these elephant-shooting stories, told by a writer in " Fraser's Magazine," for December, 1860, is of a character to induce reflection in the humane. " After having tracked up the herd of elephants for some miles through the forest, we heard the welcome sound of a deep roar, apparently about a quarter of a mile distant, and hurrying up, we found a small herd of five, all standing close together. The largest speedily answered to an appeal from the big rifle by sinking on its knees in the placid sleep of death. A second was soon placed in a similar position after a sharp chase, but the remainder dashed into so imprac- ticable a clump of thick 'wait a bit' thorns, that it was im- possible to follow them further, and we therefore retraced out- steps to secure the tails of thoso we had killed. By the side of botli we found a very little elephant; one had only been born a few hours. Poor little beasts ! It was painful to listen to their prolonged roaring. They were hideous little creatures, with bloodshot eyes, and rather a malignant expression of countenance. Their trunks were quite out of proportion to their bodies, being not more than a foot and a half in length, and tapering almost to a point We tied them up with 'jungle grass' (Bankslnia scandens), a tough, strong creeper, and tried to bring them both into camp, but the youngest soon gave in, and, ns it would have died of starvation had we left it to itself, wo thought it more merciful to put an end to its existence. The other gave us no trouble at all, beyond occasionally charging the gun bearers. It trotted briskly along, and, provided the tip of its trunk was above water, did not mind crossing some rather deep streams which lay between us and camp, twelve miles distant. Its arrival there created considerable excitement among the servants and coolies, under whose care it soon became reconciled to its change of life." Count, " lodged in the Mansion House. I was reclining one morning in my bed, contemplating that splendid sea into which the Ganges pours its waters, when a friend of mine — a nephew or pupil, I am not quite sure which, of Sir Robert Peel — came into my room. "What good wind brings you here this morning, Sir William V I asked. "You are a sportsman! Will you join us to- morrow in an elephant hunt V "An elephant hunt ! How long would it last 1" •' Seven or eight days. Have you any arms 1" " Oh yes ; I have my rifle." "That won't do. You must have three doable- barrelled rifles, or I won't answer for your life." " But, my dear friend, what shall I do with such an arsenal !" " Oh, don't trouble yourself about that ; the atten- dants will see to your arms. I will provide what is necessary for you." The sun, I must tell you, is awfully punctual in Ceylon. It always gets up at six, and goes to bed at six the whole year round. It comes and goes out like a flash of lightning. I was ready and mounted whilst it was still dark. At Sir William's I found four or five of the party already assembled ; others were to join us on the way. Our route lay along the banks of a splendid river, wide as the Seine at Rouen. The road was shaded with the most varied and magnificent vegetation. Crossing a bridge, we were joined by four more sportsmen. We were thus eleven in all, and as each had three or four attendants, the ■whole party amounted to some fifty persons. One attendant walked at the head of each horse, another in the rear. The first was to hold the horse, the latter to keep off the flies. They did not use the fan for themselves— the natives are never hot. Our first station was a temple of Buddha — a very holy spot, as it contained one of the tusks of the sacred elephant. This relic is to much more precious, as the Ceylonese elephants have no tusks. The tooth of the same animal was buried ten leagues deep in the ground beneath a neighbouring cupola, which exactly resem- bled half an egg. The further off we left the town, the less populated was tho country ; at the same time, living things be- came more numerous. Every now and then gigantic lizards were seen by tho roadside, lifting up their flat heads or fore feet, and pushing forth a tongue six inches in length. Snakes were also seen gliding in the grass. On the same afternoon we arrived at Potsaye, where we dined and slept, starting early next morning on the road to Nuerra-Elio. 'J he road had now become so narrow through plantations, that only one horseman could proceed at a time, and beyond the plantations we came to jungle interspersed with rocks. There we first met with monkeys. I shot one, and never did I regret a thing more. I have killed two or three ad- versaries in duels, but I never felt what I did in con- templating the agony of that caricature of a man called a monkey. Shortly afterwards we arrived at a coffee plantation, in the centre of which was a habitation. Sir William clapped his hands, and an attendant made his appear- ance. "Whose house is this ?" inquired Sir William. " Sir Andrew's, " was the reply. "Is he at home i" THE ISLANDS OP THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 229 In answer to the announcement that the host was absent, Sir William contented himself with ordering a repast for fifty, and we took up our quarters there till the Wednesday. In this way hospitality is practised in Ceylon. The next day we breakfasted at Nuerra-Elia, and ascending amidst rock and jungle, reached Elephant's 1'lain the same evening. Unluckily a storm came on, and we had to take refuge in a wayside hut, with nothing but a few biscuits for supper. This time Count Horace regretted he had not kept the monkey. It was young, and might have been tender. Jupiter Tonans kept walking about all night at about twenty feet distance over their heads, and no one got even a wink of sleep. Next morning it was resolved to commence sport in earnest. It was no longer a matter of amusement : it was a question of absolute necessity. The dogs were let loose, the attendants dispersed over the jungle, and the gunners followed close upon their tracks. Scarcely five minutes had elapsed ere the dogs gave tongue, but without stirring from the spot. Whatever it was it did not leave its lair. I hastened to the spot where the dogs were con- gregated, making a fearful noise. " Take care," shouted Sir William, " It is a tiger !" I must acknowledge that the information nailed me to the spot. I had often heard tigers talked about, and always in the most unfavourable manner. But I heard at the same time my companions advancing on all sides, and cutting their way through the jungle with their hunting knives. I knew that I was nearest to the animal, and I did not like being superseded. A heavy perspiration bedewed my forehead, so I re- peated the words of Henry IV. " Ah, carcase, you tremble ! Well, I will give you something to tremble for." So saying, I rushed forward, and in a step or two stood face to face with the wild beast. The tiger made a movement, as if to receive me after his own fashion. Luckily two great dogs held it back, one by the throat, the other by the ear ; three or four more dogs had hold of it behind. Others kept barking at the distance of a few paces. The head of the animal, drawn on one side by the dogs, still sought to turn towards me, as if instinct told its owner that the greatest danger lay in that quarter. The tiger's yellow eyes shone with the lustre of carbuncles, and a furious foam bathed its open mouth, exposing in the rear two rows of formida- ble looking white and sharp teeth. I began by fixing the animal. I knew that so long as a man has the courage to meet the eyes, be it of a lion, tiger or panther, he influences it. But let the look waver, and he is lost. The voices of my companions were getting nearer and nearer. There was no time for hesitation, unless I chose to be lost. So taking my hunting-knife in hand, I went straight up to the tiger, without ever quitting its eye, and then with the tranquillity which characterises me when I have once made up my mind, I plunged my knife up to the hilt immediately behind the shoulder-blade. The animal made such a violent plunge that it drew the weapon out of my hand. I leaped aside. Once more the tiger made an effort to bound, but the dogs still held it fast. It then rolled over, and in a moment was covered with the dogs, who, at this signal of its agony simultaneously rushed in on all sides. At this crisis Sir William came up. Lashing away at what appeared to be a pyramid of dog's tails, he soon cleared a way to the tiger. " Whose is the knife 1 " he exclaimed, dragging it forth from the wound. " Mine," I answered. " Bravo, for a beginning." " Excuse the faults of the author," I ventured to remark, as I wiped my knife with my pocket-hand- kerchief and replaced it in its scabbard. All this was done with a simplicity which earned for me the unanimous praises of all present. Hungry as we were, we could not eat a tiger, so barely five minutes had elapsed after its death when we were once more in the jungle. Another five minutes and the dogs gave tongue again ; but this time the noise moved away rapidly. " A stag, gentlemen," exclaimed Sir William, " our dogs have found us a breakfast. Get ready the jacks and the gridirons ; there will be enough for every- body." Suddenly the noise ceased. " Good," continued Sir William ; " the animal is run down. Ah ! they are splendid dogs, my dear Horace ; I believe they would fetch up a hippopotamus from the bottom of the Ganges. Let us to the beast, gentlemen — to the game." This time Sir William arrived first, and when we got up he was wiping his hunting knife. A gigantic stag lay at his feet, breathing its last. Sportsmen and attendants alike shouted with joy. There was, truly, as he said, enough for everybody. The attend- ants set to work at once, digging holes, lighting fires, and extemporising spits of iron wood. These were placed on poles, stuck crosswise in the ground, and two attendants turned them round, one at each end. Notwithstanding their indifference to heat, they had to be changed every five minutes. As to the offal, it was put into another hole and covei - ed with live embers, and these again with dry wood. In less than an hour we were at work, and wine, rice, and biscuits, made the complement of one of the most delicious meals I ever partook of. Our repast finished, we mounted our horses and took the direction ofBinteund. It is between Binteund and Badula that most elephants are met with. At less than a mile distance from where we had lunched the road makes a bend. At this turning our horses began to exhibit symptoms of anxiety. As to the one I rode, it got obstinate, and neither spur nor whip could get it to take a step farther. " It scents an elephant," said my horsekeeper, taking it by the bridle, while I jumped down, and rifle in hand, turned the corner. My keeper was in the right, for not a hundred paces off I saw an elephant. It was attached to a great iron roller, which it was dragging after it in order to level the road. At a little distance there was another, with its keeper, employed in piling stones for a parapet. It is needless to say that although such mistakes have occurred, roadster elephants and mason elephants were not considered to be legitimate game, so we continued our way to Binteund. Arrived at Binteund we had to leave our horses and to cut our way through the jungle. This was in pursuit of elephants whose traces had been discovered 230 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. by the natives some days previously. Progress was very laborious ; there were nearly two leagues of jungle to cut one's way through At length we arrived, almost breathless, at a small, round space, about twice as large as the Cora Hall in Paris, which had only been recently left by the elephants. Everything was trodden down by the bulky weight of the animals, who had made litter of the trunks of trees. There "were two side -path ways in the jungle ; the herd, separated into two bands, had gone off in different directions. We stopped short ; we had arrived. Sir William, who was more familiar with elephant hunting than any of us, imparted his final instructions. These directions were more particularly addressed to some as novices in the art. I listened to him with a pulsation in my ears, which told me very plainly that my blood was not in its ordinary condition. I must acknowledge that I had been terrified on contemplating the evidences of destruction around me, and I could not help asking myself why a man — a mere pigmy, whose footsteps only bend the grass, which raises itself up again when he has passed — should come and attack monsters that crush forests under their feet and tread down trees never to rise again. Sir William had slain six or seven hundred elephants. He had kept a record up to five hundred ; beyond that he had given up enumerating his victims. He had never met with but one accident, when, having fired at a young one, the mother had rushed at him before he could get another rifle from a runaway attendant, and had taken him up in its trunk, only throwing him away to resist the accumulated aid that had come up. He had been a mouth laid up, and was upwards of two before lie could take a full breath. Well, Sir William's instructions were, that we were not to shoot at elephants with tusks, 1 they are kings ; not at white elephants — they are holy. Nor was it safe to shoot young elephants, as the mother would charge the party. As to shooting the remainder, there was only one vulnerable point, and that was in the centre of the forehead, where there is a depression in the skull about the diameter of a man's hat. If fairly hit, the animal would be killed at once ; if not, it would single out its assailant from a hundred, and charge him. The point was, then to await the animal till it was within a few paces, then step hastily on one side, and give it another ball in the ear. According to Sir William, this was the most commonplace proceeding imaginable. I inwardly resolved to surprise my com- panions by doing some feat that went beyond the instructions. It was time to make up my mind, for the attendants were shouting out that the elephants were coming back to us. Soon we heard what appeared to be the sound of a hurricane, and we felt the earth quake under our feet. About twenty elephants were coming along one of the tunnels; three, a male, a female, and a young one, separated a little from the rest. I shouted out to Sir William in English, " I leave the troop to you and your friends. All I ask is, that I shall have these three." 1 Sir James Emerson Tennant says, "Not one elephant in a hundred is found with tusks in Ceylon, and the few that possess them are exclusively males. Nearly all, however, have those stunted processes, which are culled itahe*, about ten or twelve inches in length, and one or two in diameter. Then calling to my attendants to come along with, the spare rifles, I rushed before the elephants : I could have sought shelter behind a tree, but I disdained to avail myself of such aid, and took up my place in the middle of the path. As to my attendants, they changed colour like cameleons. From black they gradually became gray; only one seemed resolute. " Let those who are frightened go away," I said ; and I told the more courageous one to take a rifle in each hand and to stand by me. The others disappeared in the jungle. I had my eye fixed upon the colossuses ; they appeared to me to be real mastodons. When they were not more than thirty paces from us, I took aim at the young one ; it was trotting along between its mammy and its dad. I pulled the trigger, and she just staggered as if drunk, and then fell like a heavy inert mass. The mother uttered a fearful cry — a parent's cry — at once grievous and threatening, and then stopped to lift up her offspring. The father rushed at me at once. When he was within six paces, I planted a ball in his forehead. Carried away by his impetuosity, he went on beyond me — I had stepped on one side, and while doing so had got another rifle. The colossus attempted to return upon his steps, but in doing so he stumbled. Soon his hiud legs followed the example of his fore-limbs ; then uttering a deep moan that faded off into a sigh, he fell dead ! At this cry of agony, the female, abandoning her young one, turned towards me. It occurred to me not to take advantage of her having her head in front, as she came down upon me. I waited till the animal was only two paces off, then jumping a little on one side, I placed my rifle close to her ear, and fired off both barrels at once. Half of the beast's head went in by the same hole as the discharge. Powder, balls, and paper showed the way. " Well !" I exclaimed, " let every one do as much : three elephants in four shots. C'estjoli I " And taking my seat on the young one, which was about the size of a horse, I took out my tinder box and lighted a cigar." III.— NIKOBAR ISLANDS. Leaving Ceylon for Madras, the exjiediiion stayed at the latter place from the 30th day of January, 1858, till the 10th of February, visiting among other things the seven monolith temples at Vallora; on the 10th the frigate sailed for the Nikobar islands. There are few islands less known than those which compose the so called Archipelago of Nikobar, or Nicobar, south of the Andaman islands, in the Bay of Bengal. Hamilton, in his account of the East Indies, described the north-most cluster called the Carnicobars (Kar Nikobar), as low, and by their vicinity to the Andamans, who are their great enemies, as but thinly inhabited. The middle cluster are fine champaign ground, and all but one well inhabited. They aie called, he says, the Somerera Islands, because on the south end of the largest island is a hill that resembles the top of an umbrella or somerera, (sombrero, a hat, or sombrerera, a hat-case.) About six leagues to the southward of Somerera Island lies Tallang- jang (Tillanj- hong), the uninhabited island, where one Captain Owen THE ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 231 lost his ship, in a.d. 1708, but the men were all saved, and finding no inhabitants, they made fires in the nio'ht, and the next day there came five or six canoes from Ning and Goury (Guri), two fine islands that lie about four leagues to the westward of the desert island, and very courteously carried the shipwrecked men to their islands, with what little things they had saved of their apparel and other necessaries. The captain had saved a broken knife about four inches long in the blade, and he having laid it care- lessly by, one of the natives made bold to take it, but ('id not offer to hide it. The captain, seeing his knife in the poor native's hand, took it from him, and be- stowed some kicks and blows on him for his ill manners, which was very ill taken, for all in general showed they were dissatisfied with this action ; and the ship- wrecked men could observe contentions arising between them who had befriended them in bringing them to their island, and others who were not concerned in it. However, next day, as the captain was sitting under a tree at dinner, there came about a dozen of natives to- wards him, and saluted him on every side with a shower of darts made of heavy hard wood, with their points hardened in the fire, and so he expired in a moment. How far they had a mind to pursue their resentment is not known, as their benefactors saved the rest, and kept guard over them till next day, when they presented them with two canoes, and putting in them some water in pots, cocoa-nuts, and dry fish, they intimated to them that they were to go, which order they were not loth in obeying. Being sixteen in company, they divided equally, and steered their course for Joncey- loan, (Sambilong), but on the way one of the boats swamped, and her crew were drowned, the other boat's crew ultimately reached Matchulipatam. Ning and Goury are described by the sameauthority as being two fine smooth islands, well inhabited, and plenti- fully furnished with several sorts of good fish, hogs, and poultry, but there are no horses, cows, sheep, or goats, nor wild beasts of any sort but monke3's. The natives have neither rice nor pulse, but the kernel of cocoa- nuts, yani3, and potatoes, constitute their chief food. The people of Somerera were described as being cour- teous and commercial, while those of the southern cluster, in which the country is more mountainous, were said to be more uncivil and surly, and less communicative than those to the northward. The Nikobar Islands have been described in geo- graphical works of much later date as consisting of about eleven islands of moderate size, amongst which the largest is Sambilong ; but the two most visited by Europeans are called Kar Nikobar and Nankauri, be- sides a multitude of very small ones as yet without any distinct appellation, that is to say, whose names were not known. The occupation of the men was said to consist chiefly in building and repairing their huts (probably because some had been seen so occupied), and fishing and trading to the neighbouring islands. The women were described as cooking and cultivating the ground. The same uncertainty existed with regard to the religion of the natives as with regard to their occupations, some asserting that the inhabitants do not loilow any of the systems of religion prevalent in the neighbouring continent ; others, that they are simply Malays, with a residue uf an aboriginal Austra- lasian popvtlation dwelling in the interior of Great Nikobar. Amidst all these conflicting statements, certain phy- sical facts had been proximatively eliminated, and among these were, that Nankauri and Kanorta are separated by a strut called St. George's, which forms one of the safest harbours in India, and in which ships of all sizes may ride with the greatest security, shel- tered from all winds. The islands were also known to be hilly, and some of the hills to attain a considerable elevation. The valleys and sides of the hills were also known to be covered with cocoa and areca palms, and that so densely, that it was said the sunbeams could not penetrate through their foliage; add to which, these are also in places so thickly interwoven with rattans and bush rope, that they appear spun together, and renderthese woodsdark, iraperviable,and unhealthy. The fruit and leaves, falling down, rot below, and con- tribute to render these woods absolutely pestilential to an European constitution. Only a few tracts along the coast are cultivated, yet the soil is said to be very fertile and capable of pro- ducing all the fruits and vegetables of intertropical countries. The islands already abound in papaya, bananas, limes, tamarinds, betel nuts, and the mellori, a species of bread-fruit. The mangosteen and pine- apple grow, like the cocoa, wild in the woods, and their fruits are described by Colebrooke as delicious. The woods are also said to contain much timber, ad- mirably suited for building and repairing ships. 1 1 M. De la Geromere thus describes one of these tropical forests : A virgin forest in the tropics, and especially in the Philippines, is very dilFerent from our European forests. The noise of a torrent roused me from my meditations, and I beheld before mc nature's most gigantic productions. There was the immense habele, an extraordinary rig-tree, found in the sombre and mysterious forest of the Philippines. I stood still to admire this enormous tree, which springs from a seed resembling that of the ordinary fig; its wood is white and spongy : in a few years it attains a proili- gious size. Nature, who has foreseen everything, who sutlers the young lamb to leave its wool upon its bushes Ly the wayside, that the timid bird may gather it and form its nest, has displayed her utmost genius in rearing the fig-tree of the Philippines. The branches of this tree generally spring out horizontally from its trunk, and then, forming a right angle, rise perpendicularly. But, as already mentioned, the tree is spongy and snaps easily, and when the branch is weak there, where it forms an angle, it would inevitably break if a fibre, which the Indians call drop of water, did not issue from the tree, take root in the earth, and increasing simultaneously with the branches, afford the hitter a living prop. Around the tree there also extend, at a great height from the ground, natural supports, which converge to the middle of the trunk. Everything has been foreseen by the Great Architect of the universe. The aspect of the habete is indescribably pic- turesque. Within the space, some bundled paces in diameter, which these gigantic fig-trees occupy, one finds grottoes, vestibules, apartments, often furnished with natural seats formed by the I roots. No species of vegetation is more varied and extraordinary. The tree frequently grows upon where there is not an inch of earth, its long roots straggle over the rock, wind round its angles, and plunge into the adjacent stream. This masterpiece of nature is very common in the Philippine forests. The bamboo, of the graminaceous f ribe, grows in thick tufts in the woods, on the banks of the river, and wherever it finds a damp soil. In the Philippines they reckon twenty-five or thirty kinds, very distinct in form and size. There are some of the diameter of a man's body ; the hollow of which is very large. This kind is used particularly for the construction of cabins, and for vesselswherein to fetch and keep water. The fibresaremade into baskets, hats, and all manner of things for which wicker-work is used in Europe ; from which are also made ropes and cables of great strength. Another bamboo, of smaller dimensions, also hollow, and covered with a natural varnish, almost as hard as steel, serves, like the larger one, for the building of huts ; cut to a point or an edge, it is used by the Indians for lnncc?, arrows, and Heamcs. A third kind, much more solid, and of the thickness of a man's arm, is mora particularly used for those parts of the cabins which require great solidity, such as the roof. The fourth suit, smaller, and 232 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. (See p. 240.) In such a country snakes aud alligators, as might naturally be expected, are numerous. The sea also abounds with exquisite fish, shell-fish, and turtle. The number and variety of shell-fish is said to be so great, that the most beautiful conchological collections might be made with very little trouble. Ambergris and the edible bird's-uest are common, and the Chinese and Malays visit the islands to procure them. The inhabitants are of a copper colour, with small eyes, flat noses, large mouths, thick lips, and teeth without any hollow, is used for railings and palisades round culti- vated lands. The other kinds are made less use of; hut, nevertheless, they are turned to account. To preserve the plant and render it annually productive, the shoots are cut off at a height of above ten feet from the ground. In that state, they look like a group of organ pipes, and are surrounded with branches and thorns. At the beginning of the rainy season, there rise out of each of these clusters, like gigantic asparagus, and as if by enchantment, a quantity of big bamboos. In a month they are from fifty to sixty feet high ; and in a certain time afterwards they have acquired sufficient solidity to he used for the various purposes for which they arc applicable. The cocoa- tree, of the palm family, grows for seven years before it yields fruit. Those seven years elapsed, it yields, for upwards of a century, the same unvarying crop — namely, a score of big nuts every month. Never does this crop fail ; and one constantly sees, upon the same tree, blossoms and fruit of every size. The cocoa- nut is, as well known, excellent nourishment : a great quantity of oil is also abstracted from it. The shell is made into cups ; the fibrous envelope into cords and cables for ships, and even into a coarse material for clothing. The leaves are used to thatch cabins, and for baskets and brooms. From the cocoa there is also extracted the drink called cocoa wine. It is a most intoxicating liquid, and is used by the Indians at their feasts. To obtain this wine whole forests of cocoa trees are doomed to yield sap instead of fruit. I5y means of long bamboos, a communication is esta- blished between the summits of the trees. These bamboos serve as paths to the Indian*, who every morning, bearing large jars, go to gather in the liquor. This is a difficult aud dangerous occupation — an aerial promenade at sixty or eighty feet from tho ground. The juice from which the spirit is manufactured is obtained from the bud, which, if left to itself, would become a blossom. As soon as one of these buds is about to burst, an Indian tics a string tightly round it at a short distance from its extremity ; then he cuts oil' all that part of the bud that projects from the ligature; from this cutting, or from the pores which it discloses, there continually Hows a sweet liquid, pleasant to the taste so long as it has not fermented. When it passe3 into a fermentation, it is taken to the distillery to be converted into a spirituous liquor, known in that country as cocoa wine. Finally, the shell of the nut, burnt, yields a fine black colouring matter, which the Indians use to die straw hats. The banana is a herba- ceous plant, without any ligneous quality. The stem ot each plant is formed of leaves placed one gver the other. This stem rises usually to a height of twelve or fifteen feet from the ground, and then spreads out into broad leaves, not less than five or six feet long. It is from the midst of these leaves that the flower springs, and is followed by what is called a regime, by which word is to be understood a hundred large bananas growing on one stalk, forming a long cluster, which bends towards the earth. Before the fruit has reached maturity the regime is cut, and the bananas are used for food accordingly as they ripen. The part of the plant which is in the ground is a sort of great stump, whence rise, in succession, about thirty shoots. Each shoot must furnish but one cluster; then it is cut near the grouud; and as the shoots which grow from the same root have different ages, they are found in all stages of fructification, so that every month or fortnight, and in all seasons, a cluster or two may be gathered from the same plant. It is also from a kind of banana, but whose fruit is not edible, that is obtained the vegetable silk, or alaca, used for the manufacture of clothing material, and cordage. This filament is found in the trunk of the plant, which, as I have already mentioned, is formed of leaves growing one over the other. These are divided into long stripes, and placed for a few hours in the sun, then they are pulled sharply over a dull iron blade; the parenchyma, or fleshy part of the leaf, is retained by the blade, and the fibre separates from it; then comes another brief exposure to the sun, and the goods are ready for the market. black from chewing betel. They are well-proportioned, rather short than tali, with large ears. They have strong black hair, the men have little or no beard, and shave their eyebrows, but never cut their nails. The hinder part of the head is com- pressed at birth. The men's clothing is a bit of string round their middle, and about a foot and a half of cloth six inches broad tucked before and behind within that girth. The women have a petticoat from the navel to the knee, and their hair close shaved, but the men have the hair left on the upper part of the head, aud below the crown, but cut so short that it hardly comes to the ears. They erect their houses along the shoro upon piles, to the height of six or eight feet above the ground, and sometimes so near to the margin of the water as to admit the tide to flow under them. The Danes twice founded establishments on these islands in 1G78 and in 1756, but were said to have abandoned them, owing to the unhealthiness of the climate. So also the Moravians, a body of Christians exemplary for zeal and perseverance, and the Lutherans, established missions there ; but according to some, as they did not succeed in the conversion of the natives, they returned to Tranquebar ; according to others, missionary after missionary falling a victim to the climate, they, after enduring many privations, relin- quished the undertaking. Tho Austrian expedition in the Ncvara made a careful exploration of these interesting islands, which lasted upwards of a month. The frigate anchored off the most northerly island of Kar-Nikobar on the 23rd of February, 1858. A party landed and advanced into the interior. They were soon hailed by a battalion, as they describe it, of about fifty natives, who came forth to meet them, armed with long cut- lasses without handles, javelins, and stout sticks. " Good friends 1 good friends 1 " they exclaimed, upon encountering their visitors. Being assured as to the pacific intentions of the latter, the chiefs, who called themselves captains, aud decorated themselves with European names, as Captain Nelson, Captain Byron, Captain Wellington, Doctor Crisp, and others, handed over their arras to their fol- lowers, and held forth their oily and dirty hands, the grasp of which it was not deemed politic to refuse. Each of them then produced a certificate delivered to him by different captains of merchant ships, testifying to his loyalty in the matter of dealing in cocoa-nuts. Several of these certificates contained also useful advice to new comers, such as " If you wish to remain friends with the savages, neither steal their pigs nor their wives." The generality of these certificates bore the price current of cocoa-nuts in European manufactures. Thus, one sword-blade obtained 300 nuts, as much as a sack of rice; a soup-spoon, 150, and a kerchief, 100. Every rag had its price. Bread, tools, pepper, and various drugs — among others, castor-oil, camphor and salts — are in great demand, but not so much so as clothes and felt hats. Not an old coat in rags that is not bought up with enthusiasm, and the most worn- out old wide-awake will obtain 2,500 nuts, as much as a double-barrelled gun, a barrel of rum, or a piece of calico twenty yards in, length, and which they use to bury their dead. Assuredly any speculator who would send a cargo of felt hats to Nikobar would realise large profits. It is supposed that, seeing most of tae captains of merchantmen provided with hats of this THE ISLANDS OP THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 1 ^ ** s'\ '& fimmm INTERIOR OF A HUT IN THE ISLAND OF KAR-N1K0BAR, description, the islanders imagined that such were the marks ot their rank, as a crown is that of royalty, and that the wide-awake made the captain. A certain Captain Dixon presented a certificate, of which he was not a little proud. It recorded that, notwithstanding his dirty appearance, Captain Dixon was a man to be trusted. He was, however, a very fine man, as naked as the hand ; his complexion bronzed, his hair shining, long, and floating, and held by a diadem of bark. Amongst his companions, one wore a simple shirt, the other a blouse, another a pair of well worn boots, and here and there a pair of trousers were to be seen. All put together, however, they could barely have supplied one complete dress. Many of these insulars only wore the narrow waist- band which fell down in a queue. Their general appearance would not have been displeasing, had it not been for their great open mouths, and their black and carious teeth. Sometimes teeth and gums had alike disappeared) to give place to a diseased shape- less mass between a pair of swollen and inflamed lips. They have, besides, the bad habit of lengthening their ears by boring holes in them, into which they insert their pipes, cigars, and other objects, or even bits of wood decorated with pieces of copper or silver ; one, ro whom a small bottle had been presented, at once affixed it to his ear as an ornament. Captain Dixon and his friends were invited on Iward the Novara, and assured that no harm would be done to them, and that they were good friends. " Not only friends," exclaimed the captain, " not only good friends, but good brothers — father, mother — all brethren !" an explosion of fraternity which the nar- rator says absolutely stunned him, coming from this poor oily and naked savage. It is true that the captain did not forget to inquire if, being on board, he should be treated to food, drink, and tobacco. Everything on board excited their admiration, but nothing more so than the big guns from Marienzell, "our holy place of grace and pilgrimage." When these simple savages were questioned as to what punishments they inflicted upon evil-doers, they at once answered, " We are not wicked, we are all good. But they are very wicked people in your country, or why should you want those great guns?" Admirable philosophy in a so-called savage. Apart from the ravages which the abuse of betel causes in their mouths, the inhabitants of Nikobar arc well-made and healthy. There were only two patho- logical cases met with among them ; one of a man with a paralysed arm, the other of a little man, fat and short, with imperfectly developed fingers, which had earned to him the nick-name Kinta-Kunti. When the natives were asked who took care of poor Kinta- Kunti, " I do ! we do ! all of us do !" exclaimed Cap- tain Charley, with an expression of surprise at such a question being asked. Captain Charley was a little thin man, whose whole dress consisted of a cap. 234 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. It appears an ill-feeling bad people !" that these Nikobarians have preserved towards the Danes. "The Danes are they exclaimed, their eyes lighting up, " They wished to take our island ! If we wished to take your island, we should be wicked people?" Another bit of philosophy unknown in the old world. The Austrians were invited by Captain John to visit his domicile, raised upon a dozen piles and covered with palm leaves. The ascent was by a ladder of bamboos. The hut was nearly empty ; two or three boxes were to be seen in a corner which contained all the captain's riches. There were also a few javelins hanging on the walls and ceiling, and a broken-down chair to offer to his visitors. As to the captain him- self, he took his seat on a plank attached by ropes to the roof, and whence he gravely swung himself to and fro, deeply imbued with a sense of his own political importance. A roast pig had been purchased for the sum of two florins from the fat Doctor Crisp, but none of the women or the children appeared to grace the repast. ' They are fled to the forest," they said, in reply to inquiries made as to their absence, " We do not know where, and as long a3 you remain they will continue hidden there, even if they have to die of hunger." These poor people, taught by sad experience, were using precautions against the expeditionists. " In the relations of Europeans with savages," says the narrator, "it is seldom that the latter are in the wrong." It may be affirmed that the Nikobarians have a natural sentiment of morality and justice, which is highly developed in their character ; they are hos- pitable, kind, and appear to be neither envious nor jealous. If their social ideal is less elevated than ours, it is still not without value. At all events, their prac- tice is not, as too frequently happens among ourselves, in an inverse ratio to their theory. Protestant and Catholic missionaries, the Austrians tell us, have not as yet met with the slightest success amoug these insulars, who have received them kindly, have looked upon them with curiosity, have listened to them with- out understanding them, and do not to the present day know what they came to do. But Captain John brought forth a little English bible, and said to them with a certain pride, " Here is Jesus Christ. When I am ill, I put it under my head, and I am healed !" Thirteen villages were described by name as existing in the island of Kar Nikobar, altogether comprising some hundred huts, with a population of from eight to nine hundred inhabitants. The cocoa-nut is the chief mercantile produce of the island, but sugar-cane, tobacco, cotton and rice could be successfully cultivated. The quantity of nuts exported annually, of which the greater portion go to Pulo Peuang, i3 estimated at four to five millions of francs. The cocoa-nut tree, which attains a height of from GO to 100 feet, and a diameter of two feet, is crowned by a roof of leaves always green and playing gracefully over the head. Who does not know the thousand useful purposes to which this precious tree is put to t its leaves, its roots, its trunk, its sap, its water, its oil, its wine, its milk, and its very fibres, all conduce to the comforts and happiness of millions of the human family. The greatest festival celebrated by the Nikobarians lasts fifteen days, and is held on the occasion of the opening of the rainy season, when the south-west monsoon begins to blow. They also celebrate another festival in the dry season, by a grotesque race. Wild boars are let loose in an enclosed space, the young men armed with sticks and javelins rush to the assault, with loud shouts and in the presence of their fair ones, their rivals, and the assembled people ; they pierce and hit the hogs, which defend themselves often very vigor- ously, inflicting more than one wound, but which, after an inevitable struggle, are killed, roasted, and eaten. Upon the occasion of the festival of the- dead, the Nikobarians exhume the bodies of their relatives and friends, which have been a year under ground, carry them into a hut, and gather round them groaning and weeping. A lighted cigar is placed in the mouth of each skeleton, picturing no doubt the human breath. The skulls are afterwards buried in the cemetery, or Kuiakerpa, but the bones are cast away in the forest, or into the sea. A few cocoa-nut trees are cut down at the same time, which are thrown away with the bodies, and cocoa-nuts are put in places where they are likely to give birth to new trees. The natives of Nikobar dance, but with little anima- tion, and their songs are so many lamentations. Their figures, the Austrian ethnologist said, are so elegiac, that the idea was involuntarily forced upon him that they were the remnants of a primitive autochtonic race, perhaps anterior to ours, which feels that it has no longer a place in the actual series of human beings, and that nothing remains for it but to die out! On the 28th of February the frigate left Kar Niko- bar, for Battelmave, an inhabited island twenty-one miles distant, where the geographers wished to make some observations. On the 6th of March it anchored in the commodious but unhealthy port of Mankauri, well known to the religious world for the number of Ger- man and Danish, Moravian and Lutheran missionaries who came there to perish. The village of Itoe was first visited. All the in- habitants bad fled away, and only left a few famished dogs behind them. Piles were seen raised above the water in front of the huts and to which branches were attached, to drive away evil spirits. In the village were also found a great number of small figures of wood, coarsely f.nd grotesquely carved and attached to the walls and roofs of the houses. These were intended to represent I wis, that is to say, bad spirits, tied up by the leg, just as in olden times scaffolds and gibbets were erected at gateways, to deter malefactors. Never- theless, as if to propitiate these Iwis at the same time, certain eatables, including tobacco, leaves and betel- nuts, were attached for their use to different parts of the hut, and especially to the bamboo ladder. The cemetery of Itoe, as well as that of Kamurta, is stuck all over with piles or poles, to which the hatchet, file, knife and other property of the defunct are attach- ed. Coarsely carved figures, daubed in red and black, with white, red, and blue ribbons, or simply long palm leaves floating in the breeze, are likewise attached to the top of these poles, to drive away the evil spirits. The hills of Mughata and the villages of Calaba, and Kuniat, where the missionaries founded establishments, were also visited. Scarcely a trace of the passage of the latter is now to be found. The valley in which eleven Hcrrnhuters perished one after another, is once more transformed into a gloomy and majestic forest. Notwithstanding the proximity of their islands, the inhabitants of Kar Nikobar, of Enuang, and of Malacca, do not speak the same language. They give Enuang, THE ISLANDS OP THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 235 oven to the most common objects different names. The imperfection of their language is a good deal to he attributed to the deformity of their mouths ; it is rather stuttered than spoken. The frigate set sail ou the 11th for Katchal, Nankauri, and Kaiuurta ; but having no steam-power the expeditionists were unable to effect a lauding. Ou the 17th they fetched the Meroe Islands, and then Treis and Track, and the long mountainous ehaiu of Little Nikobar and of Pulo Milu, which latter small island they were enabled to explore. They describe it as of exceeding beauty, and clothed with an admirable vegetation. The pandanus, which imparts to the forests of southern Asia so different an aspect to those of South America, is scan here in all its perfection. A Swedish naturalist, of the nunc of liink, had pre- ceded the Austrians here, and had employed forty Chinese workman to open pathways in various directions. The fuuereal poles, bearing the floating images to drive away the wicked Iwis, were also seen at this island. The persons who raise these trophies are called Maluenas, or devil extirpators. At the Same time that they thus abuse a superstitious dread of evil spirits, they completely subject the minds of the people, just as their colleagues, the achites of Guate- mala, the medicine men of the North American Indians, and the rain-makers of the Kaffirs do. The ethnologist of the expedition succeeded, after many presents of tobacco, glass-bsads, and admittedly- bad knives, in getting three natives to sell him a skeleton. Trembling all the way, they led him to a secluded part of the forest, where lay the body of a young man ; but the moment they saw the savant at work with a knife, they fled away as fast as their, legs could carry them. Possibly the ethnologist says that they thought the cranium would avenge itself for their treachery. The 1 Dth of March the frigate traversed the canal of Saint George's, coasted fcha island of Musial, and touched the next day at the charmiug little island of Kondua, where they admired the splendid vegetation and imposing forests. They met here with some natives, who were sufficiently affable to allow them- selves to be weighed and to have their hair clipped — an operation which, as it lasted not less than twenty minutes, was not a little fatiguing, both to the operator an. I to the patient. The ethnologist, in order to study the remedial means in use in the country, pretended that he had severe rheumatic pains in his left shoulder, and en- gaged a native doctor to undertake the cure. The Nikobarian Esculapius accordingly took hold of the afflicted arm, pinched it, pressed it, rubbed it up and down, blew upon it, ail the time dancing and shouting, to drive away the evil spirit that haunted the member ; and at last he arrived, with expressive gestures, at his grand climax, which was to make it exude from the extremity of the fingers. So little satisfied, however, was the doctor with his performance, that when he had received his five sous (2kd) a.s a gratuity, he took him- self off" as fast as his limbs would carry him. IV.— THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. Tun terror which struck the mutinous Sepoy regi- ments of our Indian army, when they learnt their sentence was one of transportation to the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, can only be understood by those who are aware that the natives of these islands are a totally distinct race from either the Hindhus of the continent, or the Malays of the coast ; in fact, that they are negroes of a type similar to those inhabiting the Feejee, or Fiji Islands, transported thither over the Indian Ocean by some accident of the sea, such, perhaps, as wafted civilisation to Mexico from Japan, and to Peru from Mexico ; that they live in forests, uncivilised, barbarous, vindictive, and as ignorant as wild beasts, and that for centuries, accord- ing to all reports of eastern and Muhammadau travellers, they have enjoyed the reputation — unfairly, as there is now reason to presume — of being anthropophagi, or eaters of human flesh. This singular race of people are almost analogous, in the scale of humanity, with the Bosjesinan, or Bushmen of South Africa — men, who in their habits of living, are but a few removes from the monkeys, or rather may be said, almost with- out exaggeration, to have rather the disadvantage of these animals in appearance, with a quality of intellect scarcely expanded above idiotcy and a language of gutturals scarcely exceeding in range the grunt of hogs, the harsh scream of the jackal, or the whistling of birds They are degenerated from the Papuan type, seldom exceed five feet in height, have heads of a large size, short necks and high shoulders, woolly- hair, protuberant stomachs, and weak, bandy legs. They go entirely naked, only rubbing their bodies with yellow clay, and reddening their heads and faces with red ochre. Their oidy weapons or implements are bows and arrows (of elegant shape), a kind of har- poon-headed rod of hard wood for spearing fish, an adze-head of sharp stone fastened to a handle by a cord made of strong vegetable fibre. They subsist on fish, which abound generally on the coast, but in time of scarcity they devour rats, lizards, and vermin of every description. Some writers would refer the well-known and too sadly authenticated ferocity and blood-thirstiness of the Andamans simply to a courageous love of independence. They do not in any case, says the traveller quoted, appreciate being appointed jailors to an invading people. But alas ! it is not only the English they slay. Not many years ago, a mild inoffensive Austrian naturalist (Dr. Heifer) fell a victim to their treachery while quietly botanising in these inhospitable islands. The largest of these Andaman Islands, known as the Grand Andaman, is somewhat incorrectly designated as a single island, 140 miles long by 20 broad : it is in reality divided by as many channels into three sepa- rate islands. A picturesque mountain, known to the English as Saddle-Peak, and which attains an elevation of 2,400 feet, is the main feature of this island, and is seen at a great distance. It seems to be of volcanic origin, and it is even said that there! arc volcanoes in activity in the islands. The southern island, which is known as Little An- daman, is only about 28 miles long by 17 in width. Having no ruuning streams of fresh water, it has never attracted so much attention as the northerly island. Like all other islands in the Indian Ocean, the An- daman Islands are clothed with a luxuriant vegetation. Among other kinds of vegetable wood are ebony, red saunders wood, or sanguis draeonis of druggists (Plero- carpus Dahlbergoides), bamboo, rattan canes, and other congeners, which impart a peculiarly graceful appear- ance to the forests that' line the coasts. These forests are tenanted by but few birds of bril 236 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. liant plumage. The native pigeon, is, however, re- markable for its exquisite beauty ; and with the excep- tion of the stag and the wild boar, there is, as in the Nikobar Islands, a complete absence of quadrupeds. That which renders the Andaman! precious in the eyes of the student of Cuvier, are the numbers of pretty Salan<*ane swallows (f/irunilo esculenta), ever flitting about the rocky coasts, and which construct in the caves the much-coveted nests so essential to Chinese epicureanism. A little more than two years ago, a half-military and half-scientific mission was despatched from Bengal to explore the Andaman Islands, with the view to forming a convict settlement there. The mission was presided over by Dr. Mouat, and was accompanied, among others by M. Mallitte, a French photographic artist, to whom we are indebted for the account of the proceedings of the expedition, as also for the bketches which illustrate it The mission embarked from Calcutta on the 23rd of November, 1857, in the stenmer, Pluto, a vessel of 400 tons, commanded by Captain Baker ; and, after some delay off the coast of Burmah, reached Port. Cornwallis, in the north of Grand Andaman, on the 11th of December. A preliminary reconnaissance of the country was effected without any opposition on the part of the inhabitants. In every direction the same exuberance of vegetation was met with — virgin forests covered the land. On the 12th, the steamer left Port Cornwallis for another station, where traces of the natives appeared, and they themselves were soon made out ; but, not- withstanding the signs of friendship made, and the placing of presents within their reach, they could not be induced to communicate with the visitors, and they hailed their re-embarkation with tumultuous shouts of defiance. On the 14th, another point was recognised, for there was no water, when the natives would not communicate. This system was persevered in for five or six days, during which various landing places were explored, various descents were made, a little shooting was carried on, and some sharp collisions with the Andamans took place. It was not. till the 21st that a place was found adapted for the establishment of a convict colony. The festivities of Christmas Day had been gaily cele- brated, and the next day the exploration of the coast was continued, when, on attempting to double the extremity of the tripartite Grand Andaman, the Pluto, being in a channel between the mainland and an island not wider than the Seine at Paris, the Andamans made their appearance armed, and in their war canoes, and at once made for the steamer. (See p. 256). Doctor Mouat, accompanied by Dr. Playfair, Lieut. Heathcote, and M. Mallite, wiih twelve men well armed, took to one boat. Mr. Topgrave and the surgeon of the Pluto, with eight men, manned another. The movement of the whites was carefully scanned by the natives. Crowding seven long canoes, they took the direction from South Reef Island towards Interview Island. The English did not hesitate, they secreted their arms and followed up the savages closely. No end of trifles had been got together as presents to conciliate, and handkerchiefs were waved in sign of friendship, but notwithstanding these demonstrations, the Andamans assumed a more and more hostile attitude, and a shower of arrows began to rain upon the boats occupied by the whites. The latter were thus obliged to have recourse to their arms, and several ravages were killed or wounded in this deplorable con- flict, and one of the aggressive warriors fell into the hands of the English. The combat did not pass over without disagreeable consequences to the whites : one of the English officers was struck by an arrow, a sailor was wounded, and M. Mallitte was somehow or other hit by a stray ball. The contest was, however, of brief duration, the Andamans soon gave way, and the channel was left open to the English. The latter, however, did not, after this untoward occurrence, persevere with their researches ; but they took their way back, with their prisoner, to Calcutta. The result of their explorations, as communicated to us by M. Mallitte is, that the Andamans are among the most savage and uncivilised races of the Indian ocean. Their habitations are of the most rudimentary character. Four stakes, covered with a roof of palm- leaves, is all that is necessary to constitute a mansion for an Andaman family, and in such a mild climate so primitive a construction is really all that is wanted. The number appears, however, from the photograph, to increase probably with the number of the family. Their huts are open to every breeze, and they are internally decorated with bones of wild boars, shells, or turtle, and great fish, tied together in festoons. No indication of the pretended cannibalism of the inhabit- ants was met with ; all the researches made upon this point were in vain, and no human bone came to testify to a horrible custom, too often a reproach against the dark races of Oceania. As far as the Andamans are concerned, it is quite sufficient to be without the fra- ternity of men, and murderers of all who are not of themselves, whether thrown by the tempest on their coasts, peacefully exploring the resources of the land, or desirous of opening it to intercourse and commerce, without adding to such savage barbarity the loathsome crime of anthropophagy. Such a practice is not, indeed, consistent with the climate. The origin of this race of people, so different in their appearance and state of civilisation from any of the races on the continent, or the neighbouring islands, whose determined hostility to Europeans, and disin- clination to intercourse with strangers, amounts to a passion, has been a subject for much speculation. It has been generally admitted that the people to whom they bear the greatest resemblance in their persons and dispositionsare themop-headedPapuansof New Guinea; but how they should have found their way to so great a distance in their frail canoes, it is difficult to imagine. M. Mallitte adds his testimony to this fact, that the Andamans belong to the dark race which is variously known under the names of Papuans, Alfurus, Enda- menes, or Andamans, Aetas, or Negritos; they arc indeed of a palpable black. In height they seldom exceed five feet, their heads are large and sunk in the shoulders, their hair is woolly as with their African congeners, and the abdomen is protuberant at the expense of the lower limbs, which are spare, among the generality of individuals. They live in a state of perfect nudity, unless we may consider as a kind of clothing the plastering their bodies with yellow ochre and clay, a practice rendered positively necessary as a protection against the attacks of insects, which swarm in the air and would otherwise be a constant torment to them. This plastering themselves with yellow, and the custom of painting their faces and woolly heads THE ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 237 with red ochre, does not tend to improve their natur- ally hideous appearance. The population of the Great Andaman, it is conjectured, does not exceed 2,500 persons, and they unite in small societies, that move about from one part of the coast to another in search of food. All the formulse of the most contemptuous disdain, says M. Mallitte, have been exhausted with regard to these savages. We find them ourselves to b3 much less hideous than many Australians. Is it quits true also that the Andamans are "among the lowest in the scale of humanity?" Have not the Burmese, who go to cut wood in their island, and to obtain edible nests, exaggerated the cruelty of these insulars i The prisoner who was taken to Calcutta, where he died of consumption, did not exhibit any ferocity; but he was always grieving and pining for his native country. Thanks to this poor savage, the certainty was acquired that the language of the Andamans had no affinity with that spoken at Tenasserim, no more than it had with the idiom in use at the Nikobar Islands. In order to better comprehend the first origin of these people, who seem as it were cast away upon the Indian Ocean, it would perhaps require to study better than has hitherto been done the barbarous idioms of the Island of Waigiyu in the centre of New Guinea, or even (corrupted as they are) more of the black Papuans who wander on the shore of Dorery, and of whose lan- guage the naturalist Lesson obtained a vocabulary, undoubtedly very limited, but still most precious to ethnographists. It is not a little remarkable that these negroes of the ocean, who from their persistent hostility to Europeans have been looked upon by so many travellers as next to brutes in point of intelli- gence, and as disinherited of almost all the prerogatives of the human race, have a system of enunciation more complete than that of some savages of America and of Polynesia, and who form considerable tribes, to whom it is customary to grant a reputation for a certain amount of civilisation. An examination, which was effected by force of arms, of some of the habitations of the Andamans, spread along the shores of the great island, afforded a few ethnological facts regarding these people which we were not previously in possession of. It was ascer- tained, for example, that their weapons of war and for hunting and fishing, were manufactured with rare skill. The bows of the Andamans are made of a kind of iron wood, which presents a great resistance, and, at the same time, assumes a most graceful form ; their arrows, which they direct with no small effect, are four feet in length, and are of three kinds, made out of very hard wood ; they are all armed with very fine points, some are simple, others barbed, and the third description has a moveable harpoon — no doubt used for fishing. The oars, or pagays, which the Andamans ply with dexterity, are short and coloured red, but the hatchets with which they construct their canoes are coarse instruments, consisting of a more or less rounded and sharp stone, fastened to a handle by cords of vegetable fibres. The Andamans are not an agricultural people, they are true ichthyophagists. The sea that bathes their islands abounds in excellent fish ; soles, mullet, and oysters constitute their chief alimentary resources. But sometimes, in bad weather, fish fails them, and they then devour the lizards, rata, and mice that abound in their woods ; some also say, snakes. A little more industry would enable them to find an abundant vegetable food in their woods. Hamilton, in his East Indian, Gazetteer, says, on the authority of Syme, that the bread-fruit tree exists there, and the same au- thority declares that there are quicksilver mines in the interior. Others declare that the fruit of the man- grove is almost the only vegetable substance in the islands that is fit for food. Cocoa-nut trees, which are so plentiful and so prolific both on the continent and in the neighbouring Nikobar Islands, are said never to have been planted in the Andaman Islands. The palm figured in M. Mallitte's beautiful photograph, and ascended by means of a remarkably ingenious bamboo or rattan ladder, is the Latania, or Bourbon palm, called latanier by the French. (See p. 241.) It is not a little remarkable, that notwithstanding the ill-feeling engendered by the natives of the An- daman Islands with the English, by their overt hostility and their murderous propensities, and which have, no doubt, given origin to some degree of acerbity in speakiug of them, which has been commented upon by more dispassionate foreigners, that the original charge of cannibalism did not come from the English, but actually dates far back before the Cape of Good Hope was doubled by Vasco de Gama, and any Euro- pean had navigated the Indian Ocean. When the Muhammadan travellers of the time of the Khalifat, and of whose travels Renaudot has given an account, describe the Indian Ocean, they make particular men- tion of the Ramni Islands, inhabited by cannibals, and which separate the Sea of Herkend from that of Chelaet ; they also mention others which they call Najabalus, and then they come to the Andamans, and we must judge by the exaggeration which they permit to themselves in their physical description of these unfortunate races, of the little faith that can be put in their statements. The people who inhabit the coast, they say, eat raw human flesh. They are black, have woolly air, eyes and face frightful, feet very large, and a cubit in length, and are quite naked. " They have no boats, and, if they had any, they would not eat all the peasants whom they could catch." We suppose the last paragraph is an oversight of Benaudot's, and that he meant, they would eat all they could catch. 1 1 The original, as given in the English translation from the Abbe Renaudot by Harris, and inserted in Pinkerton's collection, is as follows: — These islands (Islands of Ramni), separate the sea of Herkend from the sea of Shelahet, and beyond them are others called Naja- balus, which are pretty well peopled ; but the men and women there go naked. VVnen shipping is amongst their islands, the inhabitants come off to embarkations and bring with them amber- gris and cocoa-nuts, which they truck for iron ; for they want no clothing, being free from the inconveniences either of heat or cold. Beyond these two islands lies the Andaman Sea. The people on this coast eat human flesh quite raw : their complexion is black, their hair frizzed, their countenances and eyes frightful, their feet are very large and almost a cubit in length, and they go quite naked. They have no sort of barks, orother vessels; if tbey had, they would seize and devour all the passengers they could lay hands on. When ships have been kept back by contrary winds, they are often in these seas obliged to drop anchor on this barba- rous coast for the sake of water, when they have expended their stock ; and upon those occasions they commonly lose some of their men. Beyond this there is a mountainous and yet inhabited island, where, it is said, there are mines of silver ; but, as it does not He in the usual track of shipping, many have sought for it in vain, though remarkable for a very lofty mountain, which is called Kathenai. It once so happened, that a ship sailing in these lati- tudes had sight of the mountain, and shaped her course for it, and 238 ALL ROUND THE WORLD. It is to be clearly seen from this curious passage, that, in the time of Harun-al-Raschid, the sultan of the marvellous legends, the ferocious Andamans, with feet a cubit in length, must have infested the coast of Malacca, whence they have since been expelled to the islands which now bear their name. Unfortunately for those who might entertain ideas of instituting a limited liability company for working the Andaman quicksilver mines, it would appear that the same Arabian narratives of travel, of which Sinbad is only an episode, speak also of an island in the bosom cf which is the mountain of Katheuai — possibly the same as Saddle-peak — and from which the firing of the woods causes streams of pure silver to flow ! It would seem as if this Saracenic traveller's tale had been the basis for the legend of mines of quicksilver, but, as Sir James Emerson Tennant has justly remarked in his work on Ceylon, we ought not to be too hasty in casting ridicule upon these narratives of travel that anticipated those of Europeans. In a geographical point of view, they possess great value, and if some- times they contain statements which appear mar- vellous, the mystery is often explained away by a more minute and careful inquiry. A settlement was attempted by the English in 1791, on the south part of the largest island, which pettlement was, two years afterwards, removed to Port Oomwallis, near the northern end. One object for making this establishment was, the possession of a commodious harbour on the east side of the Bay of Bengal, which might be a place of shelter during the prevalence of the north-east monsoon. The place was abandoned in 1796, in consequence of its proving extremely prejudicial to the health of the settlers. It is probable that this disadvantage might have been remedied by clearing the adjacent district, which consists of lofty hills covered with trees and jungle. In 1814, when Port Cornwallis was visited by an English ship, very few vestiges remained of this British settlement. Subsequently, in April, 1 824, the British force, under Sir Archibald Campbell, despatched against the Burmese, assembled in the harbour, where some of the ships remained about a month ; but it was not found possible on that occasion, more than on any other, to establish any intercourse with the natives, who omitted no opportunity of discharging their arrows at all the Europeans whocame within their reach. The Little Andaman was visited in November, 1825, by the Earl Kellie transport, for the purpose of procuring water for the troops which she was convey- ing to Rangoon, when the inhabitants showed an equally fierce disposition, and endeavoured, as nearly as possible, to obstruct our people while filling their water-casks. This small island does not possess any harbour, but has tolerable .anchorage near the shore. The Andamans had a yearly custom of visiting the Nikobar islands withagreat number of small prahus,and killing or taking prisoners as many of the poor Niko- barians as they could overcome. The Nikobarians at last joined their forces, and gave the cannibals battle, fulling in with tlie lnnd, sent a boat on shore with hands to cut wood j the men kindled a fire and saw silver run from it, which plainly indicated there was a mine of this metal in the place; they shipped therefore as much of the earth or ore, as they thought fit, but, as tliey were proceeding on their voyage, they met with such II storm, that to lighten their ship, tbey were under the necessity of throwing all their ore overboard. Since that time the mountain has been carefully sought, but it has never since been found when they met with them, and one tirne defeated (hem, and gave no quarter to the Andamans. Captain Hamilton saw a native of the Andaman Mauds at Atchin in 1694. This man was about forty years of age. When a boy ten or twelve years of age, he accompanied his father in the wars, and was taken ■prisoner ; and his youth recommending him to mercy, they saved his life, and made him a slave. After he" had continued so three or four years, he was carried to Atchin, to be sold for cloth, knives, and tobacco, which are the commodities most wanting among the Nikobars. The Atchiners being Muhanmiadans, this boy's patron bred him up in that religion, and some years after, his master dying, gave him his free- dom. He, having a great desire to see his native country, took a prahu ; and the months of December, January, and February being fair weather, and the sea smooth, he ventured to the sea, in order to go to his own country, from the islands of Gomus and Gullo- liey, which lie near Atchin. Here the southernmost of the Nikobars may be seen, and so one island may be seen from another, from the southernmost of these to Little Andaman, which is the southernmost of the Andamans, that are distant from Atchin about one hundred leagues. Arriving among his relations, he was made welcome, with great demonstrations of joy to see him alive whom they expected to have long been dead. Having retained his native language, he gave them an account of his adventures ; and as the A ndamans have no notions of a deity, he acquainted them with the knowledge he had of a God, and would have per- suaded his countrymen to learn of him the way to adore God, and so obey his laws : but he could make no converts. When he had stayed a month or two, he took leave to be gone again, which they permitted, on condition that he would return. He brought along with him four or five hundred (Muhammadan) weight of quicksilver, and he said that some of the Andaman islands abound in that commodity. He had made several trips thither, and always brought some quick- silver along with him. Some fakirs would fit in have accompanied him in his voyages, but he would not suffer them, because, he said, he could not engage for their safety among his countrymen. 1 The native, whose photograph appears at p. 256, was captured by an English expedition, carried off to Cal- cutta, and died there of consumption. He was always sad and melancholy — like a wild beast in a den — not fierce, but gloomy and silent — and finally moped him- self to death. The British penal settlement wliich now exists in the Andaman Islands, can hardly be said to flourish ; indeed, the object of striking terror in the minds of the mutinous soldiery having been accom- plished, it will most probably soon be given up as 1 It does not appear from the notice given by .Captain Alex- ander Hamilton, in his account of the East Indies, that the Arabian story of a mountain from whence molten silver flowed, is what really gave origin to the story of quicksilver mines existing in the interior of the Andaman island, but rather Captain Hamilton's own statement, when he says he knew one Ferguson, who commanded a ship from Fort St. George, bound from Malacca to Bengal, in ce.mpany with another ship, going too near one of the Andaman islands, was driven, by the force of a strong current, on some rocks, and the ship was lost. The other ship was driven through a channel between two of the same islands, and was not able to assist the shipwrecked crew, but neither Ferguson nor any of his people were ever more heard of, which gave ground to conjecture that they were all devoured by those savage cannibals. VIRGIN FOREST IN KAR-NIKOBAR (INDIAN OCEAN). VCL. T. PALM TREE IN GREAT ANDAMAN. THE ISLANDS OF THE INDIAN AND EASTERN SEAS. 243 an experiment at once cruel and useless. To expect to reclaim savages by associating them with those whom civilised society has thrown out from itself, is like an attempt to bring up an infant child by feeding it with poison. V.— SINGAPORE. Fkom the Nikobar Islands the Austrian expe- dition made the best of its way to Singapore, where they were entertained at the "magnificent hotel," " Esperanza," at a cost of 3 J Spanish dollars, or 1 9 francs per diem. " Singapore," said our Austrians, " is a free port in the full acceptance of the word, open to the flags of all nations, without any distinction, and its houses of commerce belong to merchants who profess the most various religions. This unlimited liberty has impressed a prodigious activity upon the city, and gives to it the character rather of an American colony than of a town in Asia." Liberty of the press is also as extended as can be possibly desired, and intellectual development is consequently very rapid. The two principal journals would be creditable in Europe ; one is an hebdomadal journal, the Singapore Free Neios ; the other is an excellent monthly review, the Journal of the Indian Archipelago. In his character of ethnologist, M. Scherzer was permitted to visit the penitentiary colonies, in which are some 2,000 convicts, men and women, trans- ported from all parts of British India. Captain McNair, the governor, made a great number of these convicts, arranged according to their nationality, defile before the Austrian savant, and it was, he says, with the liveliest interest, that he passed in review the muscular bodies and energetic figures of Chinese, Ma- labarians, Hindhus, Lascars, and half-castes, people of all colours and description of hair. In the interior of the prison, they are separated according to the cate- gory of their crimes ; and thus one traverses the divi- sion of thieves, of murderers, of pirates,