UC-NRLF ^B S5t EIS i 'ill ! i r:;i|!iiiiilii|! " TlBanmrWrf I 1 .•I |i ,,>f|l H 1 •'(' ' 4 .11 lit \ i ■' i JOHK DAYWAK THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID ja Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2008 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.arcliive.org/details/curiositiesofmodOObogurich DESERT JOURNEY FROM CAIRO. Page 176. CURIOSITIES MODERN TRAVEL gl Year*33oofe of ^benture. •Tis pleasant by the cheerful hearth to hear Of tempests and the dangers of the deep. And pause at times, and feel that we are safe ; Then listen to the perilous tale again. And, with an eager and suspended soul. Woo Terror to delight us. Southey. LONDON : DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET; LATE TILT AND BOGUE. MDCCCXLIV. LONDOW : BRADBURY AND KVANS, PHINTER9, WHITEFRIARS. 64. i- ADVERTISEMENT. The present volume is intended as the first of a Series, which, year by year, will present to young readers a book containing numerous and striking incidents and narratives, from works published during the twelve months. This peculiar feature will ensure novelty ; and the contents of this volume, selected as nearly as possible by this rule, will show that neither interest nor variety will be wanting. CONTENTS. PASB Daguehreotype Portrait-Taking in Central America ] Curing the Biscos 8 The Exile op Prince and Princess Troubetzkoi . 19 A Night on the Highest Range of the Pyrenees . 25 Modern Visit op Ceremony prom an old Indian Rajah 35 The Visit Returned 37 Hazardous Voyage on the River Tay during a Spate 41 Colonel Hardy's Escapes in a Jungle op Ceylon . 46 A Long Day in Finland 60 A Fortnight on the Great Western Prairies . 56 Bull-Fight at Merida on the Feast op San Cristoval 92 A German Funeral, and the Dead-Room at Munich 102 VI CONTENTS. PAGE Storv of a Chamois Hunter . . . . . 112 Icebergs in the Atlantic 115 Houses and Streets of St. Petersburg . . .122 Cow -MILKING IN THE BuSH 133 Pom are, Queen of Tahiti 138 Jews in Poland 148 Rencontre with an Elephant near Moscow . .153 A Free Indian Gentleman 157 Ceremony of Taking the Veil at Mexico . .163 Desert Journey from Grand Cairo to Suez . .172 Fire at a German Inn on the Rhine . . .187 Juvenile Shopkeepers in Moscow . . . . 193 Modern Performance of the Ancient Norse S word- Dance 194 Retreat of the British Army through the Pass of Khoord-Cabul 206 Pilgrims at the River Jordan .... 208 A Desert in the Caucasus 214 Perils among the Alps of Savoy : — I. Narrow Escape of a Traveller . . . 216 II. Incident on Mont Collin . . . . 219 A Peasant Wedding in the Ukraine . . . 222 Story of the Black Peter 228 CONTENTS. VU PA6S Visit to the Pyramids of Gizeh .... 240 A Bathe in the Dead Sea 251 Extraordinary Instances of German Phlegm . .257 Interview with the King of Iddah . . . 264 Curious Customs among the Arrapahoe Indians . .271 Visit to a Spanish Village Curate .... 279 Breaking up of the Ice in the Neckar . . . 284 Interesting Maniac at Granada .... 289 Scene after the Taking of Chin-Kiang-Foo . . 293 Romantic Escape of an American from the Indians during the Early Wars 296 Herraderos, or Bull-marking, at Santiago . . 305 Artifices of Indian Jugglers 309 ' THE MODERN TRAVELLER. DAGUERREOTYPE PORTRAIT-TAKING IN CENTRAL AMERICA. We had taken with us a Daguerreotype apparatus^ of which but one specimen had ever before appeared in Yucatan. Great improvements had been since made in the instrument, and we had reason to believe that ours was one of the best; and having received assurances that we might do a large business in that line, we were induced to set up as Ladies' Daguerreo- type Portrait- takers. It was a new line for us, and rather venturesome, but not worse than for the editor of a newspaper to turn captain of a steamboat ; and, besides, it was not like banking — we could not injure any one by a failure. Having made trials on ourselves until we were tired of the subjects, and with satisfactory results, we considered ourselves sufficiently advanced to begin ; and, as we intended to practise for the love of the art, and not for lucre, we held that we had a right to select our subjects. Accordingly, we had but to 2 DAGUERREOTYPE PORTRAIT-TAKING signify our wishes, and the next morning put our house in order for the fair visitors. We cleared every- thing out of the hammock, took the wash-hand basin off the chair, and threw odds and ends into one corner ; and as the sun was pouring its rays warmly and brightly into our door, it was further lighted up by the entry of three young ladies, with their respec- tive papas and mamas. We had great difficulty in finding them all seats, and were obliged to put the two mamas into the hammock together. The young ladies were dressed in their prettiest costume, with earrings and chains, and their hair adorned with flowers. All were pretty, and one was much more than pretty ; not in the style of Spanish beauty, with dark eyes and hair, but a delicate and dangerous blonde, simple, natural, and unaffected, beautiful without knowing it, and really because she could not help it. Her name, too, was poetry itself. I am bound to single her out, for, late on the evening of our departure from Merida, she sent us a large cake, measuring about three feet in circumference by six inches deep, which, everything being packed up, I smothered into a pair of saddle-bags, and spoiled some of my scanty stock of wearing apparel. The ceremonies of the reception over, we made immediate preparations to begin. Much form and circumstance were necessary in settling preliminaries; and, as we were in no hurry to get rid of our sub- jects, we had more formalities than usual to go through with. Our first subject was the lady of the poetical name. IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 6 It was necessary to hold a consultation upon her costume, — whether the colours were pretty and such as would be brought out well or not ; whether a scarf round the neck was advisable; whether the hair was well arranged, the rose becoming, and in the best position ; then to change it, and consider the effect of the change, and to say and do many other things which may suggest themselves to the reader s imagination, and all which gave rise to many pro- found remarks in regard to artistical effect, and occupied much time. The lady being arrayed to the best advantage, it was necessary to seat her with reference to a right adjustment of light and shade; to examine carefully the falling of the light upon her face, then to consult whether it was better to take a front or a side view ; to look at the face carefully in both positions ; and, finally, it was necessary to secure the head in the right position, that it should be neither too high nor too low, too much on one side nor on the other ; and this required great nicety : it was sometimes actually indispensable to turn the beautiful little head with our own hands ; which, however, was a very innocent way of turning a young lady's head. Next, it was necessary to get the young lady into focus — that is, to get her into the box ; which, in short, means, to get a reflection of her face on the glass in the camera obscura, at that one particular point of view which presented it better than any other ; and when this was obtained, the miniature likeness of the object was so faithfully reflected, that, b2 4 DAGUERREOTYPE PORTRAIT-TAKING as artists carried away by enthusiasm, we were obliged to call in the papas and mamas, who pro- nounced it beautiful — to which dictum we were in courtesy obliged to respond. The plate was now cleaned, put into the box, and the light shut off. Now came a trying moment for the young lady ! she must neither open her lips, nor roll her eyes, for one minute and thirty seconds, by the watch. This eternity at length ended, and the plate was taken out. So far our course had been before the wind. Every new formality had but increased our import- ance in the eyes of our fair visitors and their respect- able companions. Mr. Catherwood retired to the adjoining room to put the plate in the mercury-bath, while we, not knowing what the result might be, a little fearful, and neither wishing to rob another of the honour he might be justly entitled to, nor to be dragged down by another's failure, thought best to have it distinctly understood that Mr. Catherwood was the maestro^ and that we were merely amateurs. At the same time, on Mr. Catherwood's account, I took occasion to suggest that the process was so complicated, and its success depended upon such a variety of minute circumstances, it seemed really wonderful that it ever turned out well. The plate might not be good, or not well cleaned ; or the che- micals might not be of the best ; or the plate might be left too long in the iodine-box, or taken out too soon ; or left too long in the bromine-box, or taken out too soon : or a ray of light might strike it on IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 5 putting it into the camera, or on taking it out ; or it might be left too long in the camera, or taken out too soon ; or too long in the mercury -bath, or taken out too soon : and even though all these processes were right and regular, there might be some other fault of omission or commission which we were not aware of; besides which, climate and atmosphere had great influence, and might render all of no avail. These little suggestions we considered necessary to prevent too great a disappointment in case of failure ; and perhaps our fair visitors were somewhat sur- prised at our audacity in undertaking at all such a doubtful experiment, and using them as instruments. The result, however, was enough to induce us never again to adopt prudential measures ; for the young lady's image was stamped upon the plate, and made a picture which enchanted her, and satisfied the critical judgment of her friends and admirers. Our experiments upon the other ladies were equally successful, and the morning glided away in this pleasant occupation. We continued practising a few days longer; and as all our good results were extensively shown, and the poor ones we took care to keep out of sight, our repu- tation increased, and we had abundance of appli- cations. In this state of things, we requested some friends, to whom we were under obligations, to be permitted to wait upon them at their houses. On receiving their assent, the next morning, at nine o'clock, Mr. C, in a caleza, with all the complicated apparatus packed around him, drove up to their 6 DAGUERREOTYPE PORTRAIT- TAKING door. I followed on foot. It was our intention to go through the whole family, uncles, aunts, grand- children, down to Indian servants, as many as would sit ; but man is born to disappointment. I spare the reader the recital of our misfortunes that day. It would be too distressing. Suffice it to say, that we tried plate after plate, sitting after sitting, vary- ing light, time, and other points of the process ; but it was all in vain. The stubborn instrument seemed bent upon confounding us ; and, covering our con- fusion as well as we could, we gathered up our Daguerreotype and carried ourselves off. What was the cause of our complete discomfiture we never ascertained, but we resolved to give up business as Ladies' Daguerreotype Portrait-takers. There was one interesting incident connected with our short career of practice. Among the portraits put forth was one of a lady, which came to the knowledge of a gentleman particularly interested in the fair original. This gentleman had never taken any especial notice of us before ; but now he called upon us, and very naturally the conversation turned upon that art of which we were then professors. The portrait of this lady was mentioned ; and, by the time he had finished his third straw cigar, he unburdened himself of the special object of his visit, which was to procure a portrait of her for himself. This seemed natural enough, and we assented, pro- vided he would get her to sit ; but he did not wish either her or her friends to know anything about it. This was a difficulty. It was not very easy to take IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 7 it by stealth. However strong an impression a young lady may make by a glance upon some sub- stances, she can do nothing upon a silver plate. Here she requires the aid of iodine, bromine, and mercury. But the young man was fertile in expedients. He said that we could easily make some excuse, pro- mising her something more perfect, and, in making two or three impressions, could slip one away for him. This was by no means a bad suggestion, at least so far as he was concerned ; but we had some qualms of conscience. While we were deliberating, a matter was introduced which, perhaps, lay as near Doctor Cabot's heart as the young lady did to that of our friend. That was a pointer or setter dog for hunting, of which the doctor was in great want. The gentleman said he had one — the only one in Merida — and he would give it for the portrait. It was rather an odd proposition ; but to offer a dog for his mistress's portrait was very different from offering his mistress's portrait for a dog. It was clear that the young man was in a bad way : he would lay down his life, give up smoking, part with his dog, or commit any other extravagance. The case was touching. The doctor was really interested ; and, after all, what harm could it do ? The doctor and I went to look at the dog, but it turned out to be a mere pup, entirely unbroken ; and what the result might have been I do not know ; but all further negotiations were broken off by tlie result of our out-of-door practice, and disgust for the business. ^Stephen's "Incidents of Travel in YticatcmJ* CURING THE BISCOS. There is no immediate connexion between taking Daguerreotype portraits and the practice of surgery ; but circumstances bring close together things entirely dissimilar in themselves, and we went from one to the other. Secluded as Merida is, and seldom visited by strangers, the fame of new discoveries in science is slow in reaching it, and the new operation of Mons. Guerin for the cure of strabismus (squinting) had not been heard of. In private intercourse we had spoken of the operation; and, in order to make it known, and extend its benefits. Doctor Cabot had offered to perform it in Merida. The Merida people have generally fine eyes; but, either because our attention was particularly directed to it, or that it is really the case, there seemed to be more squinting eyes, or biscos, as they are called, than are usually seen in one town, — and in Merida, as in some other places, this is not esteemed a beauty; but, either from want of confidence in a stranger, or a cheap estimation of the qualifications of a medico who asked no pay for his services, the doctor s philan- thropic purposes were not appreciated. We had fixed the day for our departure ; and the evening but one before, a direct overture was made CURING THE BISCOS. ^ to the doctor to perform the operation. The subject was a boy, and the application in his behalf was made by a gentleman whom we were all happy to have it in our power to serve. The time was fixed at ten o'clock the next day. After breakfast our sala was put in order for the reception of company, and the doctor for the first time looked at his instruments. He had some mis- givings. They were of very fine workmanship, made in Paris, most sensitive to the influence of the atmo- sphere, and in that climate it was almost impossible to preserve anything from rust. The doctor had packed the case among his clothing in the middle of his trunk, and had taken every possible precaution ; but, as usual upon such occasions, the most import- ant instrument had rusted at the point, and in that state was utterly useless. There was no cutler in the place, nor any other person competent to touch it. Mr. Catherwood, however, brought out an old razor- hone, and between them they worked ofi* the rust. At ten o'clock the doctor s subject made his appear- ance. He was the son of a widow lady of very respectable family, about fourteen years old, but small of stature, and presenting, even to the most casual glance, the stamp of a little gentleman. He had large black eyes, but unluckily their expression was very much injured by an inward squint. With the light heart of boyhood, however, he seemed in- different to his personal appearance, and came, as he said, because his mother told him to do so. His handsome person, and modest and engaging manners, 10 CURING THE BISCOS. gave us immediately a strong interest in his favour. He was accompanied by the gentleman who had spoken of bringing him, Dr. Bado, a Guatemalan, educated in Paris, the oldest and principal physician of Merida, and by several friends of the family. Preparations were commenced immediately. The first movement was to bring out a long table near the window ; then to spread upon it a mattress and pillow, and upon these to spread the boy. Until the actual moment of operating, the precise character of this new business had not presented itself to my mind, and altogether it opened by no means so favourably as Daguerreotype practice. Not aiming to be technical, but desiring to give the reader the benefit of such scraps of learning as I pick up in my travels, modern science has discovered that the eye is retained in its orbit by six muscles, w^hich pull it up and down, inward and outward; and that the undue contraction of either of these muscles produces that obliquity called squinting, which was once supposed to proceed from convul- sions in childhood, or some other unknown causes. The cure discovered is the cutting of the contracted muscle, by means of which the eye falls immediately into its proper place. This muscle lies under the surface; and, as it is necessary to pass through a membrane of tlie eye, the cutting cannot be done with a broad axe or a hand-saw. In fact, it requires a knowledge of the anatomy of the eye, manual dex- terity, fine instruments, and Mr. Catherwood and myself for assistants. CURING THE BISCOS. 11 Our patient remained perfectly quiet, with his little hands folded across his breast ; but while the knife was cutting through the muscle, he gave one groan, so piteous and heart-rending, that it sent into the next room all who were not immediately engaged. But before the sound of the groan had died away, the operation was over ; and the boy rose with his eye bleeding, but perfectly straight. A bandage was tied over it, and, with a few directions for its treat- ment, amid the congratulations and praises of all present, and wearing the same smile with which he had entered, the little fellow walked off to his mother. The news of this wonder spread rapidly ; and be- fore night. Doctor Cabot had numerous and pressing applications, among which was one from a gentleman whom we were all desirous to oblige, and who had this defect in both eyes. On his account we determined to postpone our departure another day ; and, in furtherance of his original purpose. Dr. Cabot mentioned that he would perform the operation upon all who chose to offer. We certainly took no trouble to spread this notice ; but the next morning, when we returned from breakfast, there was a gathering of squint-eyed boys around the door, who, with their friends and backers, made a formidable appearance, and almost obstructed our entrance. As soon as the door opened, there was a rush inside ; and as some of these slanting eyes might not be able to distinguish between mewn and tuum^ we were obliged to help their proprietors out into the street again. 12 CURING THE BISCOS. At ten o'clock the big table was drawn up to the window, and the mattress and pillow were spread upon it, but there was such a gathering round the window that we had to hang up a sheet before it. Invitations had been given to Dr. Bado and Dr. Munoz, and all physicians who chose to come ; and, having met the Governor in the evening, I had asked him to be present. These all honoured us with their company, together with a number of self- invited persons, who had introduced themselves, and could not well be turned out, making quite a crowded room. The first who presented himself was a stout lad about nineteen or twenty, whom we had never seen or heard of before. Who he was, or where he came from, we did not know, but he was a bisco of the worst kind, and seemed able-bodied enough to undergo anything in the way of surgery. As soon as the doctor began to cut the muscle, however, our strap- ping patient gave signs of restlessness ; and, all at once, with an actual bellow, he jerked his head on one side, carried away the doctor's hook, and shut his eye upon it with a sort of lock-jaw grip, as if determined it should never be drawn out. How my hook got out I have no idea ; fortunately the doctor let his go, or the lad's eye would have been scratched out. As it was, there he sat with the bandage slipped above one eye, and the other closed upon the hook, the handle of which stood out straight. Probably, at that moment he would have been will- ing to sacrifice pride of personal appearance, keep CURING THE BISCOS. 13 his squint, and go through life with his eye shut, the hook in it, and the handle sticking out ; but the instrument was too valuable to be lost. And it was interesting and instructive to notice the difference between the equanimity of one who had a hook in his eye, and that of lookers-on who had not. All the spectators upbraided him with his cowardice and want of heart ; and after a round of reproof to which he could make no answer, he opened his eye and let out the hook. But he had made a bad business of it. A few seconds longer, and the operation would have been completed. As it was, the whole work had to be repeated. As the muscle was again lifted under the knife, I thought I saw a glare in the eye- ball, that gave token of another fling of the head, but the lad was fairly brow-beaten into quiet ; and, to the great satisfaction of all, with a double share of blackness and blood, and with very little sym- pathy from any one, but with his eye straight, he descended from the table. Outside he was received with a loud shout by the boys, and we never heard of him again. The room was now full of people; and, being already disgusted with the practice of surgery, I sincerely hoped that this exhibition would cure all others of a wish to undergo the operation : but a little Mestizo boy, about ten years old, who had been present all the time, crept through the crowd, and, reaching the table, squinted up at us without speaking ; his crisscross expression telling us very plainly what he wanted. He had on the usual 14 CURING THE BISCOS. Mestizo dress of cotton shirt and drawers, and straw hat, and seemed so young, simple, and innocent, that we did not consider him capable of judging for himself. We told him he must not be operated on ; but he answered, in a decided, though modest tone, " Yo quiero, yo quiero,*' " I wish it, I wish it." We inquired if there was any one present who had any authority over him ; and a man whom we had not noticed before, dressed like him, in shirt and drawers, stepped forward, and said he was the boy's father ; he had brought him there himself on purpose, and begged Dr. Cabot to proceed. By his father s directions the little fellow attempted to climb the table, but his legs were too short, and he had to be lifted up. His eye was bandaged, and his head placed upon the pillow. He folded his hands across his breast, turned his eye, did in all things exactly as he was directed, and in half a minute the operation was finished. I do not believe that he changed his position a hairs-breadth, or moved a muscle. It was an extraordinary instance of fortitude. The spectators were all admiration, and, amid universal congratulation, he was lifted from the table, his eye bound up, and, without a word, but with the spirit of a little hero, he took his father's hand and went away. At this time, amid a press of applicants, a gentle- man came to inform us that a young lady was waiting her turn. This gave us an excuse for clear- ing the room, and we requested all, except the medical gentlemen, and the immediate friends, to CURING THE BISCOS. 15 favour us with their absence. Such was the strange curiosity these people had for witnessing a most dis- agreeable spectacle, that they were very slow in going away, and some slipped into the other rooms, and the yard ; but we ferreted them out, and got the room somewhat to ourselves. The young lady was accompanied by her mother. She was full of hesitation and fears, anxious to be relieved, yet doubting her ability to endure the pain, and the moment she saw the instruments, her courage entirely forsook her. Dr. Cabot discou- raged all who had any distrust of their own fortitude, and, to my mingled joy and regret, she went away. The next in order was the gentleman on w^hose account we had postponed our departure. He was the oldest general in the Mexican service, but for two years an exile at Merida. By the late revolution, which placed Santa Ana in power, his party was uppermost ; and he had strong claims upon our good feelings, for in a former expatriation from Mexico, he had served as volunteer aid to General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. This gentleman had an inward squint in both eyes, which, however, instead of being a defect, gave character to his face ; but his sight was injured by it, and this Dr. Cabot thought might be improved. The first eye was cut quickly and successfully, and while the bloody orb was still rolling in its socket, the same operation was performed upon the other. In this, however, fearing that the eye might be drawn too far in the opposite direction, the doctor had not thought it advisable to cut the 16 CURING THE BISCOS. muscle entirely through, and, on examining it, he was not satisfied with the appearance. The general again laid his head upon the pillow, and the operation was repeated, — making three times in rapid succession. Altogether, it was a trying thing, and I felt immensely happy when it was over. With his eyes all right, and both bandaged, we carried him to a caleza in waiting, where, to the great amusement of the vaga- bond boys, he took his seat on the foot -board, with his back to the horse ; and it was some time before we could get him right. In the meantime, the young lady had returned with her mother. She could not bear to lose the opportunity; and, though unable to make up her mind to undergo the operation, she could not keep away. She was about eighteen, of lively imagination, pictur- ing pleasure or pain in the strongest colours, and with a smile ever ready to chase away the tear. At one moment she roused herself to the effort, and the next, calling herself coward, fell into her mother's arms, while her mother cheered and encouraged her, representing to her, with that confidence allowed before medical men, the advantage it would give her in the eyes of our sex. Her eyes were large, full, and round, and with the tear glistening in them, the defect was hardly visible; in fact, all that they wanted was to be made to roll in the right direction. I have given the reader a faint picture of Da- guerreotype practice with young ladies; but this was altogether another thing, and it was very different from having to deal with boys or men. It is easy CURING THE BISCOS. 17 enough to spread a boy upon a table, but not so a young lady ; so, too, it is easy enough to tie a bandage around a boy's head, but vastly different among combs and curls, and long hair done up behind. As the principal assistant of Dr. Cabot, this complicated business devolved upon me ; and having, with the help of her mother, accomplished it, I laid her head upon the pillow as carefully as if it had been my own property. In all the previous cases, I had found it necessary, in order to steady my hand, to lean my elbow on the table, and my wrist on the forehead of the patient. I did the same with her ; and, if I know myselfj I never gazed into any eyes as I did into that young lady's one eye in particular. When the doctor drew out the instrument, I certainly could have taken her into my arms ; but her imagination had been too powerful ; her eyes closed, a slight shudder seized her, and she fainted. That passed off, and she rose with her eyes all right. A young gentleman was in attend- ance to escort her to her home ; and the smile again returned to her cheek, as he told her that now her lover would not know her. This case had occupied a great deal of time ; the doctor s labours were doubled by the want of regular surgical aid ; he was fatigued with the excitement, and I was worn out ; my head was actually swim- ming with visions of bleeding and mutilated eyes ; and I almost felt doubtful about my own. The repetition of the operations had not accustomed me to them ; indeed the last was more painful to me than the first, and I felt willing to abandon for ever 18 CURING THE BISCOS. the practice of surgery. Dr. Cabot had explained the modus operandito the medical gentlemen, and had offered to procure them instruments : and, consider- ing the thing fairly introduced into the country, we determined to stop : but this was not so easy ; the crowd out-of-doors had its opinion of the subject : the biscos considered that we were treating them outrageously, and became as clamorous as a mob in a western city about to administer Lynch-law. One would not be kept back. He was a strapping youth, with cast enough in his eye to carry everything before him, and probably had been taunted all his life by merciless schoolboys. Forcing himself inside, with his hands in his pockets, he said that he had money to pay for it, and would not be put off. We were obliged to apologise, and, with a little wish to bring him down, gave him some hope that he should be attended to on our return to Merida. The news of these successes flew like wildfire, and a great sensation was created throughout the city. All the evening Dr. Cabot was besieged with applications, and I could not but think how fleeting is the world's fame 1 At first, my arrival had been fairly trumpeted in the newspapers ; for a little while Mr. Catherwood had thrown me in the shade with his Daguerreotype ; and now all our glories were swallowed up by Dr. Cabot's cure of strabismus. Nevertheless, his fame was reflected upon us. All the afternoon, squint-eyed boys were passing up and down the street, throwing slanting glances in at the door; and toward evening, as Mr. CURING THE BISCOS. 19 Catherwood and I were walking to the plaza, we were hailed by some vagabond urchins with the ob- streperous shout—'' There go the men who cure the biscos !" [Stephens's ^^ Incidents of Travel in Yucatan" THE EXILE OF PRINCE AND PRINCESS TROUBETZKOI. Fourteen years ago, the Prince Troubetzkoi was condemned as a convict to hard labour in the mines of Ural. He was at that time young, yet had taken a very active part in the revolt, after the murder of the Emperor Alexander. The object of the conspi- rators on that occasion was to deceive the soldiers, as regarded the legitimacy of the Emperor Nicholas. They hoped, by the error of the troops, to produce a military revolt, and profit by this to work a political revolution, of which, fortunately or unfortunately for Russia, they alone at that time felt the necessity. The number of these reformers was too limited to afford any chance that the troubles excited by them could end in the result proposed. The conspiracy was defeated by the intrepidity of the emperor, who^ from the energy of his bearing on the first day of his authority, has drawn all the power of his reign. Tlie revolution crushed, it was necessary to pro- ceed to the punishment of the culpable. The Prince c2 20 THE EXILE OF PRINCE AND Troubetzkoi, one of the most deeply implicated, unable to exculpate himself, was sentenced to labour in the Uralian mines for fourteen years, and then to pass the remainder of his life an exile in Siberia, among one of those colonies that malefactors are destined to people. The prince had a wife, whose family was among the most distinguished in the land. This princess could not be dissuaded from following her husband. " It is my duty,*' she said, " and I will fulfil it ; no human power has a right to separate a wife from her husband ; I will share the fate of mine." This noble wife obtained the signal favour of being buried alive with her husband ! The govern- ment feared the friends of Troubetzkoi ; and, appre- hensive of exasperating several influential families, yielded to a kind of prudent compassion. The princess departed with her convict husband; and although the journey alone was a frightful trial — thousands of leagues in a telega^ a little open cart without springs, over roads which break both car- riages and human bodies, she was supported under these and other hardships and privations, and reached her destination. Till this time, the married pair had lived coldly together ; but love flows from many sources, and of these, self-sacrifice is the most abundant. On leaving St. Petersburg they had no children ; in exile they have had ^yg; while the prince, rendered distin- guished by the generous attachment of his wife, has become a sacred object in the eyes of all around him. PRINCESS TROUBETZKOr. 21 Who, indeed, would not look with respect on the object of such an affection ? Had the emperor been as great as he pretends to be, he would long since have pardoned the criminal ; but he believes, or affects to believe, that he owes it to his people and himself to maintain an impla- cable severity. Let us then glance at the condition to which the Prince Troubetzkoi, his heroic wife, and his children, are probably condemned for life. They have relations in St. Petersburg who would gladly send the means to render life supportable, but the exiles are not allowed to receive any money — provisions they are suffered to receive. Provisions ! there are few that could be forwarded to so great a distance without being rendered unfit for use . But the courtiers of the executioner always find the punishment too merciful for the crime. The health of the princess is much injured. Indeed,' it is difficult to understand how a woman, accustomed to all the delicacies and refinements of life in the highest ranks of a luxurious capital, has been able to support so long the privations of every kind to which she has voluntarily submitted. She wished to live — she did live; she even gave life. She reared her offspring under a zone where the length and tlie rigour of winter seem inimical to existence. The thermometer falls there yearly to a temperature that might suffice to destroy the human race. At the conclusion of seven years of exile, as the mother saw her infants growing around her, she 22 THE EXILE OF PRINCE AND thought it her duty to write to one of her family to beg that they would humbly supplicate the emperor to suffer them to be sent to St. Petersburg, or to some other civilised city, in order to receive a suit- able education. The petition w^as laid at the feet of the czar, and the worthy successor of the Ivans and of Peter I. answered, that the children of a convict — convicts themselves — would always be sufficiently learned ! After this answer, the family — the mother, and the condemned man — were silent for seven more weary years. The prince, having then completed his term of labour, is liberated, and, with his young family and devoted wife, is condemned to form a colony in the most remote corner of the desert. The locality of their new residence, designedly chosen by the emperor himself, is so wild, that the name of that howling wilderness is not even yet marked on the ordnance maps of Russia, the most exact and minute geographical maps that exist. It will easily be understood that the condition of the princess (I name her only) is more wretched since she has been permitted to inhabit this solitude. It should be observed, that in the language of the oppressed, as interpreted by the oppressor, permis- sions are obligatory. At the mines, she could find warmth in the bosom of the earth ; her family had companions in misfortune, silent consolers, admiring witnesses of her heroism. The human eye contem- plated and respectfully deplored her martyrdom — a circumstance which externally rendered it more PRINCESS TROUBETZKOI. 23 sublime. Hearts beat in her presence : in short, without even having to speak, she felt herself in society; for let governments do their worst, pity- will still spring to life wherever there are men. But what hope can there be of sympathy amid eternal ices, impenetrable woods, or marshes that have no bounds ? What means can be found of excluding the mortal cold from a hovel ? and how is subsist- ence for five children to be obtained a hundred leagues, perhaps more, from any human abode, unless it be that of the superintendent of the colonies ? — for this is called colonising in Siberia ! A mother, whatever dignity, whatever elevation of soul she might possess, could she see the fruit of her body perish rather than supplicate a pardon ? No ; she again humbled herself, and this time it was not through Christian virtue ; the lofty woman was con- quered by the despairing mother. She saw her children ill, and had nothing wherewith to administer to their wants. In this extreme misery her husband, his heart withered by his misfortunes, left her to act according to her impulse ; and the princess wrote a second letter from her hut of exile. The letter was addressed to her family, but meant for the emperor. The letter of the princess reached its destination ; the emperor read it ; and it was to communicate this letter to me that I was stopped at the moment of my departure from St. Petersburg. I have never read anything more simple and touching. In a few lines she states her situation, without declamation and without complaint ; she concludes by imploring this 24 THE EXILES. single favour — ^the permission to live within reach of an apothecary, in order to be able to get some medi- cine for her children when they are ill. The environs of Tobolsk, of Irkutsk, or of Orenburg, would appear to her a paradise. In the concluding words of her letter, she ceases addressing herself to the emperor ; she forgets everything except her husband. With a feeling and a dignity which would merit the pardon of the worst crime (and she is innocent of any ; the monarch she addresses is absolute ; God alone judges his acts!) "I am very miserable," she says; "but were it to come over again, I should do as I have done.'* There was in her family an individual bold enough to carry this letter to the emperor, and even to sup- port, with a humble petition, the request of a dis- graced relative. He spoke only of that relative as a criminal ; yet, after fourteen years of continued ven- geance, this woman, whose misery had been ennobled by so much heroism, obtained from the Emperor Nicholas no other answer than the following : — " I am astonished that any one again dares to speak to me (twice in fifteen years !) of a family, the head of which has conspired against me !" The reader may doubt this answer; I could yet do so myself, and nevertheless I have clear proof of its truth. What heart would not bleed at the idea of the anguish of this unhappy mother ? [Abridged from the Marquis de Custineh '* Empire of the Czar:' A NIGHT ON THE HIGHEST RANGE OF THE PYRENEES. We had been informed by the Master of the Baths there were two ways of reaching Bujarelo, besides that which we had pursued ; one that could be tra- versed by horses, although, according to Michel, most execrable — a journey of eight hours by the village of Panticosa ; the other, a scramble of five hours, with- out any track, passing across the wilderness of the highest Pyrenean range. We were very anxious to see, as well as to ascertain, the existence of these two passes, as they must necessarily traverse sublime scenery ; and one of them was the road we ought to have taken from Bujarelo. I must moreover tell you, that the weather during our stay at Panticosa had not only changed from sunshine to hail and rain, but from extreme heat to that of cold ; the torrents had swollen to twice their usual bulk — had carried away the little bridge of pines, and overflowed the lake so as to render the mule-path impassable ; besides which, the floods of rain had inundated the valleys, and fresh-fallen snow had covered the moun- tains in every direction. Under such inauspicious circumstances we started on the morning of the 25th, for Bujarelo, having been instructed to follow a torrent that came down to the Baths from an amazing height and great distance in 26 A NIGHT ON THE HIGHEST RANGE OF one continuous fall, until we reached a lake, and then to search for another stream flowing in the opposite direction, which, as was said, would in due time con- duct us to the Valley of Bujarelo. The morning was tolerable, although clouds were sweeping in various directions, and the cold was severe ; yet it appeared brilliant after the turbulent sky we had seen for several days; accordingly, we bade a temporary adieu to Michel, who cheeringly hinted at the impossibility of our finding the way, it being our intention to sleep that night at Bujarelo, and to return by the Panticosa road on the morrow. Climbing bodily upwards to a vast height by the course of the torrent, it was not long before a real difficulty occurred — the stream divided ; but we for- tunately determined on following the one on the left, which after another laborious ascent conducted us to the lake. The next point was to discover the stream we were to follow to Bujarelo : beyond rose a bare ridge, apparently inaccessible — the stream of course must be on the other side of it. "We clam- bered up the mountain and reached another lake, which was of considerable size, and from this point we espied a gap in the ridge, which we determined to gain, and accordingly waded our way, slowly enpugh, ankle-deep, and sometimes up to our knees in snow. On nearing the summit some dangerous places had to be crossed — sloping rocks that lay concealed under the snow, smooth and highly in- clined ; and many narrow escapes had we from being precipitated. But clouds came now sweeping up THE PYRENEES. 27 from below, and down from above, and before we could top the ridge everything beyond a limited circle was concealed from us. At length, however, we stood in the gap, shivering with the cold, that was intense, and scarcely able to withstand the force of the wind : the mist driving through the opening seemed to penetrate my very bones ; whilst all in front, except a chaotic mass of rocks, and a bed of snow that lay immediately beneath, was quite invisible. Such a state of things appeared sufficiently cheerless, the chance of finding our way to Bujarelo very unlikely, and we deliberated as to the prudence of a further progress. Upon consult- ing our watches we found there was just time enough to get back to our comfortable quarters before nightfall : we had a very faint idea of the direction to be taken to Bnjarelo; the mountain wilderness was wrapped in darkness, and we were both cold and hungry. A bright gleam of sunshine which chased away the mists, showed us, at this moment, far distant on the right a green mountain, and a portion of sky more brilliantly blue than the fairest sapphire. ^^ Allons — en avant" we both exclaimed, and on we went with renewed spirits. The mountain we had seen was at a very considerable distance, but we calculated upon finding some shepherd's hut under which we might pass the night should we fail in reaching Bujarelo. There was a kind of gap in the mass of rocks below in the same direction, to which my companion thought we had better 28 A NIGHT ON THE HIGHEST RANGE OF descend : I differed upon this point, and gave it as my opinion that the proper route lay in front, over the ridges of snow : I yielded, however, and we forthwith began a descent more difficult than any- thing we had yet encountered; for although the gap was not more than two hundred feet distant from us, the passage to it occupied no less than half an hour; after which we again descended, and reached a hollow scored by the tracks of sheep, and running down towards the desired green mountain, which to our snow-blinded eyes appeared an Eden. We therefore went on in the full confidence that all our perils were over : judge then of our disap- pointment when we observed the slope becoming steeper and steeper, and finding it, after an hour s walking from the dangerous descent above, to end in a system of hideous precipices. What was now to be done ? We gazed silently at each other, and then cast our eyes below at the torrent, which dashed more wildly along as its bed grew steeper^ until it fell through a rocky cleft, breaking into a series of cascades, and was finally lost in the abyss. It was evident that we were fairly in for a night among the crags and precipices, unless we could make our way below ; wolves too were in the mountains, the cold was intense, and our clothes were of the very lightest material. These were very potent reasons for deciding that the descent, however perilous, must be attempted, and we accord- ingly looked about for the way by which it might possibly be accomplished. There was a cleft in THE PYRENEES. 29 the ridge to the left, towards which we observed a sheep-track, and we made straightway for it : nothing, however, was gained by this ; the same hideous slopes ran down towards the valley, which now became visible far below, and we heard the busy murmur of its torrent, which looked a silver thread in the distance. We passed along the side of this infernal ridge, regarding with longing eyes the soft green mountain opposite, from which arose the tinkling of cattle-bells, although the animals themselves were not distinguishable ; but the night was coming on rapidly, so it behoved us to be prompt and decisive ; we therefore determined at once to lower ourselves down the slope until it might terminate in a precipice, when we trusted some way would present itself of attaining the valley. Down this we went with our hands and feet, my companion first, and I close upon his head, steadying ourselves by tufts of wiry grass, and perching upon small projections in the rock, — dizzy work I can assure you, requiring no little nerve and caution ; the different points of rest had to be felt, and their firmness ascertained before we ven- tured to trust our weight upon them : a slip would have been inevitable destruction. The thought oc- curred to me, and I afterwards learnt that I had shared it in common with my companion, that if one had gone, how dreadful would have been the situation of the other ; for no human aid could have been obtained for many mountain miles. Lower and lower we went, and more difficult at every step 30 A NIGHT ON THE HIGHEST RANGE OF became the descent ; the ledges grew smaller, the mountain side more smooth and perpendicular, the tufts of grass more rare ; at length we reached so frightful a pitch of the precipice that I shouted out to my companion to return, for it was madness to attempt any further progress. He, however, went two or three steps lower, and then called out to me for assistance, exclaiming that he could neither go downwards nor get back, nor could he hold on many minutes ! Here was an awful moment ! It was utterly impossible for me to render him the slightest aid, and his destruction appeared inevit- able; a precipice of several hundred feet was below, and then a mass of sloping granite rocks, highly inclined, ran down to the torrent, upon which, unless he could recover his step, he must be hurled in a few short moments. Providence, however, ordained it otherwise; he regained the presence of mind he had for the moment lost, and by a desperate effort got back to a place of comparative safety. We now determined to ascend, although that was no easy matter, and to find, if possible, some rocks that might afford us shelter for the liiglit. It was, however, most provoking to give up our enterprise after having achieved so much ; and we had not scrambled upwards more than a few yards, when I espied a place that seemed to promise a more practi- cable descent, so we determined once more to attempt it. O — as before went first, and I followed close behind. There was only one part that seemed utterly impassable ; but this my companion achieved by THE PYRENEES. 31 turning round in a very adroit manner, changing hands, and giving himself an indescribable twist — most perilous it must be confessed. Upon my reach- ing it I felt I could not succeed, whilst it was equally impossible for my companion to return ; I therefore determined at all events to attempt it, and after rest- ing a few moments to collect all my energies, I suc- ceeded in the manoeuvre, and we were in a few moments some way below. We had now passed the worst, and were soon by the side of the stream, which had been in our neigh- bourhood all the way, tumbling down the rock in a continuous fall ; into its black and slippery bed we slided, regardless of the water that fell upon us, and were shortly on the debris congratulating each other upon our escape. As day faded into night we reached the valley, and the long- coveted green mountain was opposite, but still unattainable, for a raging torrent rolled at the foot of it, which it was impossible to pass. We found ourselves in a cul-de-sac, from which we could not escape without the light of day — one of those bare Spanish water-courses without a tree or shrub that could aflford shelter. A little lower down the mountains closed in upon it, merely leaving a narrow channel for the stream, and in the other direction the valley rose steeply to distant heights covered with snow. We stood still for a few mo- ments to contemplate our position, when observing two shepherds high up on the opposite side, we shouted valiantly at the top of our voices ; but the noise of the rushing waters drowned our efforts, and 32 A NIGHT ON THE HIGHEST RANGE OF they vanished in the gloom. Nothing now was to be done but to make the best arrangements we could for passing the night : we had no food with us and were literally famishing ; the air was severely cold, and nothing could be more threatening than the aspect of the clouds. To build up some sort of pro- tection was of course our first determination; and after searching about we found a rock that we thought would serve well enough for a back to our proposed dwelling : we accordingly set to work about half- past eight collecting the great stones of the tor- rent; and by half-past ten I had built up a wall about five feet high on my side, but that of my com- panion s had not yet attained so great an elevation. We were very weary, and our hands were cut and bruised by the granite, but the labour served well to pass the time and to keep us warm. The clouds, however, that had been long threatening, now broke into rain, and drove us to our wretched walls; but they yielded not the slightest shelter, there being no roof or front to the dwelling, and the rain came from a quarter the very opposite to that which we had expected. We sat gloomily down on our two stone seats, with a prospect more wretched than can be well imagined. Happily the rain passed off before we were completely wet, and the moon shone forth brilliantly, though the sky, becoming more clear, increased the intensity of the cold. At length, however, at five o'clock the stars grew dim and faded, the green mountain loomed gradually through the darkness, and we arose wuth delight. ADVENTURE IN THE PYRENEES. Pa^e 33 . THE PYRENEES. 33 although in a dreadful state from cold and fasting. We looked at the precipices we had descended in astonishment and awe, as we became fully impressed with the extent of the danger we had undergone, and leaving our dwelling, the scene of so much suffering, we started up the valley in order to seek a passage over the torrent : it was not, however, to be found, and we continued our way until we came in sight of a flock of sheep and a shepherd's hut sheltered by an impending precipice. I think I never beheld a more savage-looking fellow than the Spaniard who came out to meet us, or a face rendered more hideous by matted locks and unshaven beard : but his scowling physiognomy proved the fallacious outside of a civil interior ; for he answered our questions and directed us with all proper complaisance^ telling us we had yesterday gone wrong from the summit of the ridge, by turning down to the right instead of keeping along the snows as I had proposed, and it seemed we had descended into the road by which we had intended returning, which indeed passed along the green moun- tain we had been so anxious to reach. Tired as we were, we yet resolved to follow up this road towards Bujarelo as far as the crest of the ridge in order to ascertain its direction, when we in- tended returning by the same path to the village of Panticosa. The scenery around us was amazingly fine ; we had left the granite and were now among mountains of a different character, the brilliant colours and grotesque figures of which called forth admiration, even from such weary wanderers as our- 34 A NIGHT ON THE HIGHEST RANGE OF selves. On our way back there was an extraordinary- sight that met our view: high above on the ridge from which we had made our frightful descent, there appeared the walls and towers of a castle of consider- able size, a true Chateau en Espagne^ for had we not been assured of the impossibility of any human structure standing there, we should have supposed it to have been the stronghold of some Spanish chief- tain : — A vision strange sucli towers to see Sculptured and wrought so gorgeously Where human art could never be. It proved a long weary way to Panticosa, and the descent seemed interminable. We halted in passing over the well-known green mountain to look down once more into the wild valley far below our feet, and upon our little hut that was plainly visible : we sat down for a short time, but such was my fatigue that I was in a few minutes asleep, and it was with diffi- culty my companion awoke me at the approach of a Spaniard. He was a herdsman : we pointed out to him the spot where we had descended ; he shook his head and said it was impossible, for no hunter could pass down that precipice : we assured him of the fact, and showed him our wall of stones where we had passed the night, and then our bruised hands; he seemed astonished, and looked after us in perfect wonder as we continued our way to Panticosa, which we reached in due time, and then bent our steps northwards to the Baths ; and at two o'clock, after fasting seven-and-twenty hours, and walking that day THE PYRENEES. 35 for nine hours, we happily rounded the last corner of the road, and beheld the long-desired posada and its staring peasants pacing to and fro upon its terrace as we had left them. Paris' s " Letters from the Pyrenees.''^ MODERN VISIT OF CEREMONY FROM AN OLD INDIAN RAJAH. This is the country of the old Rajahs, and they are very sociable, and fond of paying us visits. They think it a great incivility to appear without some- thing in their hands as a present. It is contrary to regulation to accept anything of value, so they bring limes, oranges, yams, &c. The other day we re- ceived a basket of oranges, with a message that a Rajah, whom we had not before seen, would come next day and pay us a visit; accordingly next day at the appointed hour, we heard a queer kind of twang- ing and piping, like a whistle and a jew's-harp. This was the Rajah's music, played before his palan- quin ; then came his guards, — men with halberds ; then his chief officer, carrying a silver mace ; then his principal courtiers, running by the side of his palanquin to keep him '^ pleasant company." When they all arrived, the halberdiers grounded their arms, and the whole cortege stopped at the military word of command, " Halt ! Present ! Fire !" but the firing consisted of the old gentleman's getting out of his palanquin, and quietly shuffling into the house, d2 36 MODERN VISIT OF CEREMONY FROM between two rows of his own servants and ours, salaaming him at every step. He was dressed in a clear muslin pelisse, with all his black skin showing through ; the hems of his ears stuck full of jewels, gold bracelets on his arms, and a diamond locket hung round his neck. I call him " Penny Whistle Row :" if that is not quite his real name, it is so like it, I am sure it must mean that. When he came into the drawing-room, he stopped at the entrance (N.B. we have no doors) to make us most profound salaams, which we returned to the best of our ability : then he presented us with an orange each, and there were more salaams on either side. At last, when we had all done all our mop- ping and mowing, he sat down and began his chirp. He paid a variety of set compliments, as they all do; but, those over, he was more curious about European matters than the natives in general are. In parti- cular, he wished to know whether it was true that our King was dead, and that we had a woman to reign over us. This was quite beyond his compre- hension — how she was to contrive to reign, and how men were to agree to obey her, he gave up in despair. He asked whether the King's death would make any difference to us : he was in hopes it might have given A a step in the service. He invited us to come and spend a week with him, which we fully intend to do as soon as the weather allows. When he had sat about an hour, he took his leave with the same ceremonies as at his arrival : salaams on all sides, pipe whistling, jew's-harp twanging, guards AN OLD INDIAN RAJAH. 37 recovering arms, courtiers putting on their shoes, and all marching off to the word of command as before, " Halt ! Present ! Fire /" At parting he shook hands to show how European his manners were, and he took leave of me in English : " My Lady, I now to your Excellency say farewell: I shall hope you to pay me one visit, and on one week go (meaning hence) I shall come again to see the face of your honour civilian." THE VISIT RETURNED. When the time came for us to start, according to appointment, the people told us the distance was fifteen miles ; so we expected that, starting at half- past five in the afternoon, we should arrive about ten o'clock, in time for a good night's rest. But it turned out to be thirty miles^, and no road ; we had to grope our way over cotton-fields ; a pouring rain during almost all the night coming down in such torrents, that I could not hear the bearers' song, pitch- dark and the ground almost all the way knee-deep in water. We were twelve hours splashing and wading through the mud, and "plenty tired," when we arrived. But a palanquin is much less fatiguing than a carriage, and an hour s sleep and a good breakfast, soon set us to rights. When we arrived at Dratcharrum, the Rajah's town, we were taken to a Choultry (a sort of cara- vanserai) which he had prepared, and ornamented with bits of old carpet for our first reception. I could not imagine why we did not go to his house at 38 MODERN VISIT OP CEREMONY TO once, according to his invitation ; but I found after- wards, that he had arranged our going first to the Choultry, in order that he might send for us in state to his mud palace. All his principal people came to pay their compliments, and he sent us a very good breakfast ; and when we had eaten it, his Gomashta (a sort of secretary, at least more like that than any- thing else) came to say that all things were ready for our removal. I expected something of a row at starting, but I was quite unprepared for the uproar he had provided for us. As soon as our palanquins were taken into the street, a gang of musicians started up to play before us, with all their might ; a sort of performance much like an imitation of one of Rossini's most noisy overtures, played by bagpipes, hurdy- gurdies, penny trumpets, and kettle-drums, all out of tune. Then came banners, swords, flags, and silver sticks ; then heralds to proclaim our titles, but we could not make out what they were ; and then dancing-girls. A looked rather coy at being, as he said, " made such a fool of;'* but when the dancing-girls began doing their antics, ankle-deep in the mud, the whole turn-out was so excessively ab- surd, that mortal gravity could stand it no longer, and he was obliged to resign himself to his fate, and laugh and be happy like me. When we arrived at the palace, on entering the gateway, the first thing I saw was a very fine ele- phant making his salaam, side by side with him a little wooden rocking-horse ; the court filled with crowds of ragged retainers, and about fifty or more AN OLD INDIAN RAJAH. 39 dancing-girls, all bobbing and bowing, mopping and mowing, salaaming and anticking, " nineteen to the dozen." At last we came to the Rajah's own hall, where we found him, the pink of Hindoo politeness, bestowing more flowers of speech upon us in a quarter of an hour, than one could gather in all England in a twelvemonth. He ushered us to the rooms prepared for us, and staid with us for some time to have a talk, surrounded by all his retinue. His palace con- sisted of a number of courts, walled in, unpaved, and literally ankle-deep in mud. One could not cross them, but all round there was a raised narrow path- way of hard earth, which we crept round, holding on by the wall for fear of slipping into the mud be- neath. Our apartments consisted of one of these courts and the rooms belonging to it. At one end was a room, or rather gallery, which they call a hall, open to the court on one side, without any doors or windows ; a smaH room at each end of the large one, and a sort of outer yard for the servants. The three other sides of the square communicated with other courts of the same kind, one opening into the Rajah's own hall. In the middle of our gallery there was a wooden alcove overhanging the street, in which Penny- Whistle sits and smokes when he is alone. The furniture was a table, a carpet, four chairs, two cane sofas, and a footstool. The room was hung with pictures of Swamies by native artists, two French looking-glasses in fine frames, fastened to the wall in their packing-cases, the lids being removed for the occasion, and two little shaving-glasses with the 40 MODERN VISIT OF CEREMONY TO quicksilver rubbed off the back. Penny -Whistle was very fond of his pictures, and sent for some other great coloured prints of hares and foxes to show us. They had been given him by an Englishman long ago, and the colour was rubbed off in many places, so I offered to mend them for him, which greatly pleased him. While I was filling up the holes in his foxes' coats with a little Vandyke brown, he stood by, crossing his hands and exclaiming, "Oh ! all same as new ! wonderful skill !" When we tired of him we dismissed him, as the natives think it a great impoliteness to go away till they are desired ; so, when we had talked as long as we could, A said that I was going to sleep, for that he (Penny- Whistle) " must be aware that sleep was a very good thing." This is the proper formula. When the peons (inter- preters) come to report their going away to eat their rice, they always inform me that I " must be aware that eating is a very good thing, and necessary to a man s life." After we were rested and brisk again, Penny sent us our dinner. We had brought with us, at his desire, plates, knives and forks, bread, and beer, and he sent us, besides, all his own messes, native fashion^ on brass trays lined with leaves, and a little different conun- drum on each leaf ; pillaus, quantities of pickles, ten or a dozen varieties of chatmis, different vegetables, and cakes made of grease, pepper, and sugar. The Bramins of Penny- Whistle's class always have their food served on the leaves of the banyan-tree. As a present I took Penny some drawings I had AN OLD INDIAN RAJAH. 41 made for him of subjects likely to suit his taste, particularly an eruption of IMount Vesuvius, on account of the red flames. I put the drawings in a blue satin portfolio, embroidered with scarlet and gold, and poor Penny was enchanted with the whole concern. We came home on a dry night, quite safely. " Letters from Madras ^ hy a LadyJ* HAZARDOUS VOYAGE ON THE RIVER TAY DURING A SPATE. Our boats were built on Tweedside for fly-fishing in small waters, and in warm weather were held for the fisherman by a man who waded in the water, lest the salmon should be scared away by the motion or appearances of the oars, or canting pole, as it might be. Being, therefore, of a very light and diminutive construction, they were not exactly calculated to endure the buffets of large and tempestuous waters ; one is not apt, however, to be over-nice about such things, and accordingly I resolved to put them to the proof. Nor was an opportunity long wanting. After a night of heavy rain, the Tay, which flowed through the park of Meikleour, rose to a fearful extent. This was exactly the sort of thing to suit me ; so I pro- posed to my fisherman, Charles Purdie, to go down the flood to Perth, a distance of about twelve miles by water. We did so ; and here I insert the parti- 42- HAZARDOUS VOYAGE ON THE culars of our voyage, as they may serve to give an idea of a Scottish spate. "We were standing at the foot of the sloping lawn before my house; and as Charlie Purdie bent his regards on the frightful violence of the flood, I thought he did not half like to embark on it. In fact, he did not only disapprove of the general conduct of the river, but also of the peculiar rocky nature of the channel in which it was its pleasure to gallop along to the ocean. Moreover, he knew there was an obstruction in the river at a place called the Linn of Campsie, about four miles below the proposed start- ing-place, where at the arrival of his little boat he did not anticipate much pleasure. In fact, neither Charlie nor his master conceived it would be possible to pass the falls into the Linn, since no boat could do so in the ordinary state of the water without being upset, or dashed to shivers. They would see how things looked, however, on their arrival at the spot, and act accordingly. " Now, then, loosen my boat, Charlie : I will go first ; and take care you do not run foul of me." The boats being unmoored, we shot down the river in a moment, and were soon at the end of the park, where the Isla comes into the Tay. This additional volume of water increased our velocity ; we guided our boats into the main currents, and away we went with the swiftness of a steam-engine. Rocks and woods opened to our view in an instant^ and in an instant vanished behind us. Thus we were driven along with great fury till we came within the sound of the RIVER TAY DURING A SPATE. 43 great falls of the Linn of Campsie : soon we descried before us the awful barrier of rocks which rose up right athwart the stream, extending from bank to bank. The waters had worn their way in some places through this barrier, and tumbled madly through the rocky gorges ; down they went, thun- dering with stunning sound into the enormous caul- dron below. Then arose the strife — the dashing of the spray — the buffeting against the banks — the swirling of the eddies, crested with large masses of foam — all was in hideous commotion. This state of things threatened to put an end to our projected voyage. To go right onwards through the centre gorge was to pass to certain destruction ; as well might one hope to shoot in safety down the falls of Schaffhausen. I was prepared for all this, and was quite aware of the impediment before I began my voyage ; so I did as I had made up my mind to do before I started. I pulled towards some alder-trees which grew on the bank above the fall, and held my boat fast by the branches; I then told Charlie to secure his boat also with a rope, and to land and reconnoitre. We were enabled to do these things without much difficulty, as the water was, in some measure, arrested in its course above the fall, being slightly bayed back by the barrier of rocks. Being on terra firma, my hero looked ruefully at the torrents; one alone appeared something like being practicable; and it was one that, in the mean state of the river, was nothing but a dry channel. Whether our small craft could shoot down it without foundering or not 44 HAZARDOUS VOYAGE ON THE was by no means evident to the eye, though a practised one, of the explorer. He was, however, somewhat encouraged by two fishermen who were mending their nets. They thought, they said, that we *' might possibly descend in safety, if we managed our boats well." Charlie looked, and sighed, and looked again ; the thing was evidently not in har- mony with his ideas ; for he could not swim himself, and he doubted whether his boat would either, when it arrived at the bottom of the fall. However, I decided that I would try the thing alone ; and if it should prove a failure, the example was not, of course, to be followed. So I brought my little boat some way above the cataract, with her head up the stream, and by rowing against it let her fall by degrees stern foremost, by which means I had a clear view before me, and could therefore steer to a nicety. She went down most agreeably, though in nearly a vertical position, but pitched upon a rock below the fall ; but before any harm happened, I swung her off by inclining my body to and fro. My fisher- man followed successfully; and having passed the wide-spreading Linn, the channel of the Tay became more contracted, and we resumed our former pace, shooting down the rapids like an arrow, and, by occasional swift snatches of the oars, avoiding the breakers around us. So we passed among the hanging woods and impending rocks of this romantic river, till we arrived at Stanley, where groups of people were assembled on the hill-top, who shouted to us with all their might, and made signs and RIVER TAY DURING A SPATE. 45 gestures, the meaning of which I could not compre- hend, but they seemed to be warning us of some impending danger : I could not catch the import of their words, as the sound was but faintly heard amidst the din of the waves. So I did not perplex myself with attending to them, but thought it wisest to trust to my own discretion, which fortunately carried the boats safely to their place of destination. I learned afterwards, that seeing our boats were mere insignificant cockle-shells borne down by the flood with great impetuosity, they were fearful that we should be carried down the mill-dam, and come in contact with the machinery. But a better fate awaited us than such a Quixotic one; and after a little rough work, in which we shipped a reasonable quantity of water, we at length approached the bleaching-grounds of Perth, where the river swept swift and ample in an even channel, under a wooded bank studded with villas ; we then darted through the middle arch of the beautiful bridge in the town, and hauled up our boats on a wharf below it. Scrape's " Bays and Nights of Salmon Fishing y COLONEL HARDY'S ESCAPES IN A JUNGLE OF CEYLON. The following story will give the reader a correct idea of a part of Ceylon ; but unless I had known the officer who met with such wonderful mishaps, and were fully convinced of the truth of what I am about to relate, I would not have ventured to do so. The hero of my tale is Lieut.-Colonel Hardy, Quartermaster-General of Ceylon, who, after a resi- dence of eighteen years in the island, has just returned to England. A short time before his departure (according to my memoranda), he went to Galle to superintend the removal of detachments to Trincomalie in country- boats; and as the soldiers composing them were volunteers from the regiments ordered home, and were very drunken and disorderly, he thought it requisite to accompany them part of the way in one of the boats which he had reserved for himself. Towards sunset, when he found the soldiers had become in some degree sober and more quiet, he made for the shore, intending to land at a place about five or six miles to the eastward of Hamben- totte, Mr. Farrell's abode, and to walk thither. He went on shore with a bottle of brandy in his hand, which he had brought with him ; and having also a COLONEL HARDY S ESCAPES. 47 small valise which held a change of clothes, he wanted one of the native boatmen to accompany him for the purpose of carrying it ; but, to his surprise, not one of them would do so ; and, pushing off the boat, they left the greatly ~ astonished Colonel alone on the sea-shore to shift for himself. But in place of being, as he supposed, only five miles from Ham- bentotte, he was, as they well knew, five-and- twenty, and in one of the wildest and least fre- quented parts of the island. Having no idea where he was, he set off, bottle in hand, and carrying his valise under his arm. The sun was about to set in his usual splendour : it soon did so, and in a few minutes it became almost dark. He did not recol- lect the features of the country through which he was passing ; he had not come, as he expected, to a river which he knew lay in his way ; nor could he imagine, well as he was acquainted with the geo- graphy of Ceylon, where he was. The night now became quite dark, and he heard all around the roaring or growling of wild beasts, and the howling or barking of jackals, or of Pariah dogs. Before he had gone far, the moon arose, giving only an uncer- tain light, but which enabled him to see, though indistinctly from the thickness of the jungle and the obstruction of a few tall trees, that the path before him was occupied by elephants. To retrace his steps from where he supposed himself to be was out of the question ; and to remain all night where he was, he felt convinced would be certain destruction. Having, therefore, nothing else for it, he made up 48 COLONEL hardy's ESCAPES his mind to endeavour to pass them. While he was doing so, they perceived and pursued him ; but, for- tunately, he had then got farther than the part of the path in which they were ; yet, as they run fast, and easily make their way through the thickest jungle, he was obliged, in order to escape, to throw away his valise ; and he was delighted to see that they stopped to look at and turn it over with their trunks — thus giving him an opportunity to make off. After several strange adventures, and very narrow escapes from buffaloes, other gigantic elephants, &c. (but how he succeeded in doing so he could not well tell), he now perceived through the trees two large black objects, moving in the very narrow path just before him ; and here he had again no alternative but, if possible, to pass them in the same way that he had passed the elephants. They soon saw or heard him ; and, to his horror, he found himself in a mo- ment almost within the grasp of two large terrific bears, which instantly made at him, and in so furious a manner, that he had scarcely time to call upon God to save him ! By some means or other, he eluded the hug of the first bear ; but he was hopeless of being able to avoid the claws and frightful teeth displayed in the jaws of the second, when a kind of impulse, for which he could not account, caused him to raise his arm, and to aim a blow at the monster with the bottle which he still held in his hand. This, striking against the teeth of the animal, was dashed to pieces with a great crash, and the brandy flying into the mouth and eyes of the astonished bear, so IN A JUNGLE OP CEYLON. 49 frightened him, as well as his companion, that, growl- ing loudly, they both made off into the jungle. Thus wonderfully preserved, he again set off, and ran and walked as fast as his legs could carry him ; but after many equally narrow escapes, especially from some terrific buffaloes, which he fell in with near a pond, he could not perceive, to his greatly increased astonishment and alarm (for he expected to have reached Hambentotte long before), any likeli- hood of termination to his dangers and labours. He was now, moreover, almost naked ; his clothes, and even his flesh, being torn off him in forcing his way through the thick, prickly, and in many places almost impassable jungle. At length, having walked or run, as he calculated, more than twenty miles, he came to the bank of a large river or pond, of which he had by moonlight but a faint recollection ; and, being com- pletely exhausted in both body and mind, he threw himself down in despair, and covered with blood, close to the root of a large tree, which stood very near the water s edge, yet which, from weakness, he was un- able to ascend. But, strange to say, he there fell into a profound sleep ; and God only knows how he could have been preserved from the wild animals, snakes, &c., which must have seen him lying in such a helpless state upon the ground during the remainder of the night ; yet the greatest wonder is, that the alligators, with which the large pond or rather lake abounds, did not devour him I He awoke — or, what is more likely, recovered from a kind of swoon— about sun- rise ; soon found the path which leads to the ford, So COL. hardy's escapes, etc. about half a mile higher up the Mallelle river, (it was upon the bank of the lake which it forms at its mouth that he had thrown himself down,) where he crossed it, and, after about two hours* walk, through a country with which he was well acquainted, he at last reached Mr. Farrell's house. But, unlike men in general who have been so awfully situated, and ex- posed to such imminent dangers, he said but little of what had happened to him, and only begged for a bath and clothes, and that a dhooly (or sort of palan- quin used for the removal of sick soldiers,) might be got ready for him, in which, after a few hours' rest, he returned to Galle, on his way to Colombo. Colonel CamphelVs ^^ Excursions, dhc. in Ceylon." A LONG DAY IN FINLAND. I AM writing at midnight, without any lights^ on board the steamboat, Nicholas the First, in the gulf of Finland. It is now the close of a day which has nearly the length of a month in these latitudes, be- ginning about the 8th of June and ending towards the 4th of July. By degrees the nights will reappear ; they are very short at first, but insen- sibly they lengthen as they approach the autumnal equinox. They then increase with the same rapidity as do the days in spring, and soon involve in dark- ness the north of Russia and Sweden, and all within A LONG DAY IN FINLAND. 51 the vicinity of the arctic circle. To the countries actually within this circle, the year is divided into a day and a night, each of six months' duration. The tempered darkness of winter continues as long as the dubious and melancholy summer light. I cannot yet cease from admiring the phenomenon of a polar night, whose clear beam almost equals that of the day. Nothing more interests than the different degrees in which light is distributed to the various portions of the globe. At the end of the year, all the opposite parts of the earth have beheld the same sun during an equal number of hours ; but what a difference between the days ! what a diver- sity also of temperature and hues ! The sun whose rays strike vertically upon the earth, and the sun whose beams fall obliquely, does not appear the same luminary, at least if we judge by effects. As for myself, whose existence bears a sympathetic analogy to that of plants, I acknowledge a kind of fatality in climates ; and, impelled by the influence the heavens have over my mind, willingly pay respect to the theory of Montesquieu. To such a degree are my temper and faculties subject to the action of the atmosphere, that I cannot doubt its effects upon politics. But the genius of Montesquieu has exaggerated and carried too far the consequences of this belief. Obstinacy of opinion is the rock on which genius has too often made shipwreck. Power- ful minds will only see what they wish to see : the world is within themselves ; they understand every* thing but that which is told to them. e2 52 A LONG DAY IN FINLAND. About an hour ago, I beheld the sun sinking in the ocean between the NN.W. and N. He has left behind a long bright track, which continues to light me at this midnight hour, and enables me to write upon deck while my fellow-passengers are sleeping. As I lay down my pen to look around, I perceive already towards the NN.E. the first streaks of morning light. Yesterday is not ended, yet to- morrow is begun. The sublimity of this polar scene I feel as a compensation for all the toils of the journey. In these regions of the globe the day is one continued morning, which never performs the promises of its birth. This singular twilight pre- cedes neither day nor night; for the things which bear those names in southern countries have in reality no existence here. The magic effects of colour, the religious dimness of night, are forgotten ; nature appears no longer a painting, but a sketch ; and it is difiicult to preserve belief in the wonders of those blest climates where the sun reigns in his full power. The sun of the north is an alabaster lamp, hung breast-high, and revolving between heaven and earth. This lamp, burning (for weeks and months) without interruption, sheds its melancholy rays over a vault, which it scarcely lightens ; nothing is bright, but all things are visible. The face of nature, everywhere equally illuminated by this pale light, resembles that of a poet rapt in vision and hoary with years. It is Ossian who remembers his loves no more, and who listens only to the voices of the tombs. A LONG DAY IN FINLAND. 53 The aspect of these unvaried surfaces — of distances without objects, horizons undefined, and lines half effaced — all this, this confusion of form and colouring, throws me into a gentle reverie, the peaceful awaken- ing from which is as like death as life. The soul resembles the scene, and rests suspended between day and night — between waking and sleeping. It is no lively pleasure that it feels ; the raptures of passion cease, but the inquietude of violent desires ceases also. If there is not exemption from ennui, there is from sorrow ; a perpetual repose possesses both the mind and the body, the image of which is reflected by this indolent light, that spreads its mortal cold- ness equally over day and night, over the ocean and the land ; blended into one by the icy hand of winter, and the overspreading mantle of the polar snows. The light of these flat regions near the pole accords well with the bright blue eyes, the inexpressive features, the pale locks, and the timidly romantic imagination of the women of the North. These women are for ever dreaming what others are enact- ing ; of them more especially can it be said, that life is but the vision of a shadow. In approaching these northerly regions you seem to be climbing the platform of a chain of glaciers ; the nearer you advance, the more perfectly is the illusion realised. The globe itself seems to be the mountain you are ascending. The moment you attain the sum- mit of this large alp, you experience what is felt less vividly in ascending other alps : the rocks sink, the precipices crumble away, population recedes, the earth is beneath your feet, you touch the pole. 54 A LONG DAY IN FINLAND. Viewed from such elevation, the earth appears dimin- ished, but the sea rises and forms around you a vaguely defined circle; you continue as though mount- ing to the summit of a dome — a dome which is the world, and whose architect is God. From thence the eye extends over frozen seas and crystal fields, in which imagination might picture the abodes of the blest, unchangeable inhabitants of an immutable heaven. Such were the feelings I experienced in approaching the Gulf of Bothnia, whose northern limits extend to Torneo. The coast of Finland, generally considered moun- tainous, appears to me but a succession of gentle, imperceptible hills ; all is lost in the distance and indistinctness of the misty horizon. This untrans- parent atmosphere deprives objects of their lively colours ; everything is dulled and dimmed beneath its heavens of mother-of-pearl. The vessels, just visible in the horizon, quickly disappear again, for the glim- mering of the perpetual twilight, to which they here give the name of day, scarcely lights up the waters ; it has not power to gild the sails of a distant vessel. The canvas of a ship under full sail in northern seas, in place of shining as it does in other latitudes, is darkly figured against the gray curtain of heaven ; which resembles a sheet spread out for the represen- tation of Chinese figures. I am ashamed to confess it, but the view of nature in the North reminds me, in spite of myself, of an enormous magic-lantern, whose lamp gives a bad light, and the figures on whose glasses are worn with use. I dislike compa- A LONG DAY IN FINLAND. 55 risons which degrade the subject ; but we must, at any rate, endeavour to describe our conceptions. It is easier to admire than to disparage ; nevertheless, to describe with truth, the feeling that prompts both sentiments must be suffered to operate. On entering these whitened deserts, a poetic terror takes possession of the soul ; you pause, affrighted, on the threshold of the palace of winter. As you advance in these abodes of cold illusions, of visions, brilliant, though with a silvered rather than a golden light, an indefinable kind of sadness takes possession of the heart ; the failing imagination ceases to create, or its feeble conceptions resemble only the undefined forms of the wanly glittering clouds that meet the eye. When the mind reverts from the scenery to itself, it is to partake of the hitherto incomprehensible melancholy of the people of the North ; and to feel, as they feel, the fascination of their monotonous poetry. This initiation into the pleasures of sadness is pain- ful, while it is pleasing ; you follow with slow steps the chariot of death, chaunting hymns of lamentation, yet of hope ; your sorrowing soul lends itself to the illusions around, and sympathises with the objects that meet the sight ; the air, the mist, the water, all produce a novel impression. There is, whether the impression be made through the organ of smell or of touch, something strange and unusual in the sensa- tion ; it announces to you that you are approaching the confines of the habitable world ; the icy zone is before you, and the polar air pierces even to the heart. This is not agreeable, but it is novel and very strange. Marquis de OastMs " Empire of the Cza/r,*'* A FORTNIGHT ON THE GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. The morning breezes of the 9th of June were bland, and a thousand young flowers gemmed the grassy plains. It seemed as if the tints of a brighter sky, and the increasing beauty of the earth, were lifting the clouds from the future and shedding vigour upon our withering hopes. We crossed the Osage river at eight in the morning ; passed through the groves which border it, and continued to follow the Santa Fe trail. The portion of country over which it ran to-day, was undulating and beautiful ; the soil rich, very deep, and intersected by three small streams, which appeared, from their courses, to be tributary to the Osage. At nightfall, we found ourselves upon a height overlooking a beautiful grove. This we supposed to be Council Grove. On the swell of the hill were the remains of an old Kauzaus encampment. A beautiful clear spring gushed out from the rock below. The whole was so inviting to us, weary and hungry as we were, that we determined to make our bed for the night on the spot. Accordingly, we fired signal-guns for the hunters, pitched our tents, broke up the boughs which had been used by the Indians in building their wigwams for fuel, and proceeded to cook our supper. This encampment was made by the Kauzaus six A FORTNIGHT ON THE WESTERN PRAIRIES. 57 years ago, when on their way south to their annual buffalo hunt. A semicircular piece of ground was inclosed by the outer lodges. The area was filled with wigwams, built in straight lines, running from the diameter to the circumference. They were con- structed in the following manner. Boughs of about two inches in diameter were inserted by their butts in the ground, and withed together at the top in an arched form. Over these were spread blankets, skins of the buffalo, &c. Fires were built in front of each ; the grass beneath, covered with skins, made a delightful couch, and the Indian s home was com- plete. Several yards from the outer semicircular row of lodges, and parallel to it, we found large stakes driven firmly into the earth for the purpose of securing their horses during the night. We appro- priated to ourselves, without hesitation, whatever we found here of earth, wood, and water that could be useful to us, and were soon very comfortable. About nine o'clock, our signal-guns were answered by the return of our hunters. They had scoured the country all day in quest of game, but found none. Our hopes were somewhat depressed by this result. We had but 100 pounds of flour and one side of bacon left ; and the buffalo, by the best estimate we could make, were still 300 miles distant. The country between us and these animals, too, being constantly scoured by Indian hunters, afforded us but little prospect of obtaining other game. We did not, however, dwell very minutely upon the evils that might await us ; but, having put ourselves upon 58 A FORTNIGHT ON THE short allowances, and looked at our horses as the means of preventing starvation, we sought rest for the fatigues of the next day's march. In the morning we moved down the hill. Our way lay directly through the little grove already referred to ; and, however we might have admired its freshness and beauty, we were deterred from entering into the full enjoyment of the scene by the necessity which we thought existed of keeping a sharp look-out among its green recesses for the lurking savage. This grove is the northern limit of the wanderings of the Cumanches, a tribe of Indians that make their home on the rich plains along the western borders of the Republic of Texas. Their ten thousand warriors, however, their incomparable horsemanship, their terrible charge that can scarcely be resisted by the troops of the Saxon race ; their loading and firing, outstripping the movement of minutes in rapidity, did not arrest our march. And merrily did we cross the Savannah between the woodland, from which we had emerged, and Council Grove — a beautiful lawn of the wilderness ; some of the men hoping for the sweets of a bee-tree ; others, for a shot at a turkey or deer ; and still others, that among the drooping boughs and silent glades might be found the panting loins of a stately elk. Council Grove derives its name from the practice among the traders from the commencement of the overland commerce with the Mexican dominions, of assembling there for the appointment of officers, and the establishment of rules and regulations to govern their march through GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 59 the dangerous country south of it. They first elect their commander-in-chief. His duty is to appoint subordinate leaders, and to divide the owners and men into watches, and assign them their several hours of duty in guarding the camp during the remainder of their perilous journey. He also divides the caravan into two parts, each of which forms a column when on march. In these lines he assigns each team the place in which it must always be found. Having arranged these several matters, the council breaks up ; and the commander, with the guard on duty, moves off in advance to select the tradk and antici- pate approaching danger. After this guard, the head teams of each column lead off about 30 feet apart, and the others follow in regular lines ; rising and dipping gloriously ; 200 men, 100 wagons, 800 mules ; shoutings and whippings, and whistlings and cheerings, are all there ; and amidst them all the hardy Yankees move happily onward to the siege of the mines of Montezuma. Several objects are gained by this arrangement of the wagons. If they are attacked on march by the Cumanche cavalry or other foes, the leading teams file to the right and left and close the front ; and the hindermost, by a similar movement, close the rear; and thus they form an oblong rampart of wagons laden with cotton goods, that effectually shields teams and men from the small-arms of the Indians. The same arrangement is made when they halt for the night. Within the area are put, after they are fed, many of the more valuable horses and the oxen. The 60 A FORTNIGHT ON THE remainder of the animals are " staked/' i. e., tied to stakes, at a distance of twenty or thirty yards, around the line of the wagons. The ropes by which they are fastened are from thirty to forty feet in length, and the stakes to which they are attached are carefully driven at such distances apart as shall prevent their being entangled one with another. Among these animals the guard on duty is stationed, standing motionless near them, or crouching, so as to discover every moving spot upon the horizon of night. The reasons assigned for this, by those who are wise in such matters, are, that a guard in motion would be discovered, and fired upon by the cautious savage before his presence could be known ; and further, that it is impossible to discern the approach of an Indian creeping among the grass in the dark, unless the eye of the observer be so close to the ground as to bring the whole surface lying within the range of vision between it and the line of light around the lower edge of the horizon. If the camp be attacked, the guard fire and retreat to the wagons. The whole body then take positions for defence ; sometimes sallying out and rescuing their animals from the grasp of the Indians ; or, concealed behind their wagons, load and fire upon the intruders with all possible skill and rapidity. And many were the bloody battles fought on the " trail," and such were some of the anxieties and dangers that attended and still attend the " Santa Fe trade." And many are the graves along the track, of those who have fallen before the terrible cavalry of the Cumanches. They GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 61 slumber alone in this ocean of plains. No tear bedews their graves. No lament of affection breaks the stillness of their tomb. The tramp of savage horsemen — the deep bello wings of the buffalo — the nightly howl of the restive wolf — the storms that sweep down at midnight from the groaning caverns of the " shining heights ;* or, when Nature is in a tenderer mood — the sweet breeze that seems to whisper among the wild flowers that nod over his dust in the spring — say to the dead " You are alone, no kindred bones moulder at your side." We traversed Council Grove with the same caution, and in the same manner, as we had the other. A platoon of four persons in advance, to see the first appearance of an ambuscade ; behind these, the pack- animals and their drivers, on each side an unincum- bered horseman ; in the rear, a platoon of four men, all on the look out, silent, with rifles lying on the saddles in front, steadily winding along the path that the heavy wagons of the traders had made among the matted under-brush. In this manner we marched half a mile, and emerged from the Grove at a place where the gentlemen traders had a few days before held their council. The grass in the vicinity had been gnawed to the earth by their numerous animals; their fires were still smouldering and smoking ; and the ruts in the road were fresh. These indications of our vicinity to the great body of the traders produced an exhilarating effect on our spirits ; and we drove merrily away along the trail, cheered with renewed hopes that we should overtake our countrymen, and be saved from starvation. 62 A FORTNIGHT ON THE The Grove that we were now leaving was the largest and most beautiful that we had passed since leaving the frontier of the States. The trees, maple, ash, hickory, black walnut, cotton-wood, oaks of several kinds, butternut, and a great variety of shrubs, clothed with the sweet foliage of June ; a pure stream of water murmuring along a gravelly bottom, and the songs of the robin and thrush, made Council Grove a source of delights to us, akin to those that warm the hearts of pilgrims in the great deserts of the East, when they behold from the hills of scorching sands the green thorn-tree by the side of the welling spring For we also were pilgrims in a land destitute of the means of subsistence, with a morsel only of meat and bread per day, lonely and hungry ; and although we were among grassy plains instead of sandy wastes, we had freezing storms, tempests, tornadoes of light- ning and hail, which, if not similar in the means, were certainly equal in the amount of discomfort they produced, to the sand-storms of the great Sahara. But we were leaving the Grove, and the protection it might yield us in such disagreeable circumstances. On the shrubless plain again ! To our right the prairie rose gradually, and stretched away for ten miles, forming a bold and beautiful outline of the horizon. The whole was covered with a fine coat of grass, a foot in height, which was at this season of the deepest and richest green. Behind us lay a dark line of timber reaching from the Grove far into the eastern limits of sight, till the leafy tops seemed to wave and mingle among the grass of the wild swelling GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 63 meadows. The eye was pained in endeavouring to embrace the view. A sense of vastness, beautiful vastness, was the single and sole conception of the mind I We had advanced a few miles in the open country, wlwn we discovered, on the summit to the right, a small band of Indians. They proved to be a party of Caws or Kauzaus. As soon as they dis- covered our approach, two of them started in different directions, at the top of their speed, to spread the news of our arrival among the remote members of the party. The remainder urged on with all practicable velocity their pack-horses, laden with meat, skins, blankets, and the other paraphernalia of a hunting excursion. We pursued our way, making no de- monstrations of any kind, until one old hrave left his party, came towards us, and stationing himself beside our path, awaited our near approach. He stood bolt upright and motionless. As we advanced, we noted closely his appearance and position. He had no clothing, save a blanket, tied over the left shoulder and drawn under the right arm. His head was shaven entirely bare, with the exception of a tuft of hair about two inches in width, extending from the centre of the occiput over the middle of the head to the forehead. It was short and coarse, and stood erect, like the comb of a cock. His figure was the perfection of physical beauty. He was five feet nine or ten inches in height, and looked the Indian in everything. He stood by the roadside, apparently perfectly at ease ; and seemed to regard all surround- ing objects with as much interest as he did us. This, \ 64 A FORTNIGHT ON THE everybody knows, is the distinguishing characteristic of the Indian. If a bolt of thunder could be embodied and put in living form before their eyes, it would not startle them from their gravity. So stood our savage friend, to all appearances unaware of o»r approach. Not a muscle of his body or face moved, until we rode up and preferred him a friendly hand. He seized it eagerly, and continued to shake it very warmly, uttering meanwhile, with great emphasis and rapidity, the words " How de," " how," " how," " how." As soon as one individual had withdrawn his hand from his grasp, he passed to another, repeat- ing the same process and the same words. From the careful watch we had kept upon his movements since he took his station, we had noticed that a very deli- cate operation had been performed upon the lock of his gun. Something had been warily removed there- from, and slipped into the leathern pouch worn at his side. We expected, therefore, that the never-failing appeal to our charities would be made for something ; and in this we were not disappointed. As soon as the greetings were over, he showed us, with the most solicitous gestures, that his piece had no flint. We furnished him with one ; and he then signified to us that he would like something to put in the pan ; and having given him something of all, he departed, at the rapid swinging gait so peculiar to his race. As we advanced, the prairie became more gently undulating. The heaving ridges which had made our trail, thus far, appear to pass over an immense sea, the billows of which had been changed to waving meadows, the GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 65 instant they had escaped from the embraces of the tempest, gave place to wide and gentle swells, scarcely- perceptible over the increased expanse in sight. Ten miles on the day's march ; the animals were tugging lustily through the mud, when the advance guard shouted "Elk! Elk! to the right!" a mile and a half away; and "Elk," and "steaks broiled," and " ribs boiled," and " marrow-bones," and " no more hunger;" "Oregon for ever, starve or live," were some of the ejaculations of my companions, as an appointed number filed off to the chase. The hunters circled around the point of the sharp ridge on which the elk were feeding, in order to bring them between themselves and the wind ; and lying closely to their horses* necks, they rode slowly and silently up the ravine towards them. While these movements were making, the cavalcade moved quietly along the trail, for the purpose of diverting the atten- tion of the elk from the hunters ; and thus were the latter enabled to approach within 300 yards of the game before they were discovered. But the instant — that awful instant to our gnawing appetites — the instant that the elk saw the crouching forms of their pursuers nearing them, tossing their heads in the air, and snuffing disdainfully at such attempt to deceive their wakeful senses, they put hoof to turf in fine style. The hunters attempted pursuit ; but having to ascend one side of the ridge, while the elk in their flight descended the other, they were at least 400 yards distant before the first bullet whistled after them. None killed ! none I and we were 66 A FORTNIGHT ON THE obliged to console our hunger with the hope that three hunters, who had been despatched a-head this morning, would meet with more success. We en- camped soon after this tournay of ill-luck — ate one of the last morsels of food that remained — stationed the night-guard — pitched our tent — and, fatigued and famished, stretched ourselves within it. On the following day we made twenty-five miles over a prairie, nearly level and occasionally marshy. In the afternoon we were favoured with what we had scarcely failed for a single day to receive, since the commencement of our journey, viz. : all several and singular the numerous benefits of a thunder- storm. As we went into camp at night, the fresh ruts along the trail indicated the near vicinity of the Santa Fe teams. No sleep ; spent the night in drying our drenched bodies and clothes. On the 12th under way very early ; and travelled briskly along, intending to overtake the traders before nightfall. But another thunder-storm for a while arrested the prosecution of our desires. It was about 3 o'clock, when a black cloud arose in the south-east, another in the south-west, and still an- other in the north-east ; and, involving and evolving themselves like those that accompany tornadoes of other countries, they rose with awful rapidity towards the zenith. Having mingled their dreadful masses over our heads, for a moment they struggled so terrifically that the winds appeared hushed at the voice of their dread artillery — a moment of direful battle ; and yet not a breath of wind. "We looked up for the coming GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 67 of the catastrophe foretold by the awful stillness ; and had scarcely beheld the troubled clouds, when they appeared rent in fragments by an explosion of electricity, that all my previous conceptions of gran- deur and sublimity could never have allowed me to believe might exist. And then, as if every energy of the destroying elements had been roused by this mighty effort, peal upon peal of thunder rolled around, and up and down the heavens ; and the burning bolts leaped from cloud to cloud across the sky and from heaven to earth in such fearful rapidity, that the lurid glare of one had scarcely fallen on the sight, when another followed of still greater intensity. The senses were absolutely stunned by the conflict. Our animals, partaking of the stupifying horror of the scene, madly huddled themselves together, and became immovable. They heeded neither whip nor spur ; but with back to the tempest drooped their heads, as if waiting their doom. The hail and rain came in torrents. The plains were converted into a sea. The sky, overflowing with floods, lighted by a continual blaze of electric fire ; the creation trembling at the voice of the warring heavens ! It was a scene fit for the pencil of a Raphael when sketching the bursting foundations of the world, as the ark of Scripture loosed its cable on the billows of the flood. After the violence of the storm had in some degree abated, we pursued our way, weary, cold, and hungry. About six o'clock we overtook a company of Santa Fe traders, commanded by Captain Kelly. The gloom of the atmosphere was such when we f2 68 A FORTNIGHT ON THE approached his camp, that Captain K. supposed us Indians, and took measures accordingly to defend himself. Having stationed his twenty-nine men within the barricade formed by his wagons, he him- self, accompanied by a single man, came out to reconnoitre ; and he was not less agreeably affected to find us whites and friends, than were we at the prospect of society and food. Traders always carry a supply of wood over these naked plains, and it may be supposed that, drenched and pelted as we had been by the storm, we did not hesitate to accept the offer of their fire to cook our supper and warm ourselves. But the rain continued to fall in cold shivering floods : and, fire excepted, we might as well have been elsewhere as in company with our countrymen, who were as badly sheltered and fed as ourselves. We therefore cast about for our own means of comfort ; and while some were cooking our morsel of supper, others staked out the animals, others pitched our tent, and all, when tasks were done, huddled under its shelter. We now numbered thirteen. This quantity of human flesh, standing upon an area of eighteen feet in diameter, gave oft' a sufiicient quantity of animal heat in a short time to render ourtrembling forms somewhat comfortable. We ate our scanty suppers, drank the water from the puddles, and sought rest. But all our packs being wet, we had no change of wardrobe that would have enabled us to have done so with a hope of success. We spread our wet blankets upon the mud, put our saddles under our heads, had a song INCIDENT ON THE PRAIRIE. Pa^e 69. GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 69 from our jolly Joe, and mused and shivered until morning. As the sun of the 13th rose we drove our animals through Cottonwood creek. It had been very much swollen by the rains of the previous day ; and our packs and ourselves were again thoroughly wet. But once out of mire and the dangers of the flood, our hearts beat merrily as we lessened step by step the distance from Oregon. Our hunters who had been despatched from Council Grove in search of game, had rejoined us in Kelly's camp ; and as our larder had not been improved by the hunt, another party was sent out under orders to advance to the BuflPalo with all possible alacrity, and send back to the main body a portion of the first meat that should be taken. This was a day of mud and discomfort. Our pack and riding animals, con- stantly annoyed by the slippery clay beneath them, became restive, and not unfrequently relieved them- selves of riders or packs, with little apparent respect for the wishes of their masters. And yet, as if a thousand thorns should hatchel out at least one rose, we had one incident of lively interest, for while halting to secure the load of a pack-mule, whose ob- stinacy would have entitled him to that name, what- ever had been his form, we espied upon the side of a neighbouring ravine several elk and antelope. The men uttered pleas for their stomachs at the sight of so much fine meat, and with teeth shut in the agony of starving expectation, primed anew their rifles and rushed away for the prize. Hope is very delusive 70 A FORTNIGHT ON THE when it hunts elk upon the open plain. This fact was never more painfully true than in the present instance. They were approached against the wind — the ravines that were deepest, and ran nearest the elk, were traversed in such manner that the hunts- men were within 300 yards before they were dis- covered by the wary elk ; and then never did horses run nearer their topmost speed for a stake in dollars than did ours for a steak of meat. But, alas ! the little advantage gained at the start from the be- wildered inaction of the game, began to diminish as soon as those fleet coursers of the prairie laid their nimble hoofs to sward, and pledged life upon speed. In this exigency a few balls were sent whistling after them, but they soon slept in the earth instead of the panting hearts they were designed to render pulseless : and we returned to our lonely and hungry march. We encamped at sunset on the banks of a branch of the Arkansas. This night our rations were reduced to one- eighth of a pint of flour to each man. This, as our custom was, was kneaded with water, and baked, or rather dried, in our frying- pan over a fire sufficiently destitute of combustibles to have satisfied the most fastidious miser in that line. Thus refreshed, and our clothing dried in the wind during the day, we hugged our rifles to our hearts and slept soundly. The sun of the following morning was unusually bright — the sky cloudless and delightfully blue. These were new pleasures. For the heavens and the earth had, till that morning, since our departure from GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 71 Peoria, scourged us with every discouragement within the laws of matter to produce. Now all around us smiled. Dame Nature, a prude though she be, seemed pleased that she had belaboured our courage with so little success. And to add to the joy of the occasion, a herd of oxen and mules were feeding and lowing upon the opposite bank of the stream. They belonged to the Messrs. Bents, who have a trading post upon the Arkansas. One of the partners and thirty odd men were on the way to St. Louis, with ten wagons laden with peltries. They were also driving down 200 Santa Fe sheep, and forty horses and mules, for the Missouri market. These animals are usually purchased from the Spaniards for the merest trifle ; and if the Indians prove far enough from the track to permit the purchaser to drive them into the States, his investment is unusually profitable. The Indians, too, residing along the Mexican frontier, not unfrequently find it convenient to steal large numbers of mules, &c. from their no less swarthy neighbours ; and from the ease with which they ac- quire them, find themselves able and willing to sell them to gentlemen-traders for a very easily arranged compensation. Of all or a part of these sources of gain, it would seem the Messrs. Bents avail them- selves ; since, on meeting the gentleman in charge of the wagons before spoken of, he informed us that he had lost thirty Mexican mules and seven horses. He desired us, as we intended to pass his post, to recover and take them back. A request of any kind from a white face in the wilderness is never denied. Accord- 72 A FORTNIGHT ON THE ingly we agreed to do as he desired, if within our power. We made little progress to-day. Our packs, that had been soaked by storm and stream, required dry- ing ; and for that purpose we went early into camp. The country in which we now were was by no means sacred to safety of life, limb, and property. The Pawnee and Cumanche war parties roam through it during the spring and summer months, for plunder and scalps. The guards which we had had on the alert since leaving Council Grove were, therefore, carefully stationed at nightfall among the animals around the tent, and urged to the most careful watch- fulness. But no foe molested us. In the expressive language of the giant of our band, prefaced always with an appropriate sigh and arms a-kimbo, '' We were not murdered yet." About twelve o'clock of the 14th we passed Little Arkansas. Our hunters had been there the previous night, and had succeeded in taking a dozen cat-fish. Their own keen hunger had devoured a part of them without pepper, or salt, or bread, or vegetable. The remainder we found attached to a bush in the stream, in an unwholesome state of decomposition. They were taken up and examined by the senses of sight and smell alternately ; and viewed and smelt again in reference to our ravenous palates ; and although some doubt may have existed in regard to the Hebrew principle of devouring so unclean a thing, our appetites allowed of no demurring. We roasted and ate as our companions had done. GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 73 I had an opportunity at this place to observe the great extent of the rise and fall of these streams of the plains in a single day or night. It would readily be presumed, by those who have a correct idea of the floods of water that the thunder-storms of this region pour upon these rolling prairies, that a few miles of the channels of a number of the creeks over which the storms pass may be filled to the brim in an hour, and that there are prenomina of floods and falls of water occurring in this vast den of tempests, such as are found nowhere else. Still, with this evidently true explanation in mind, it was with some difii- culty that I yielded to the evidences on the banks of the Little Arkansas, that that stream had fallen fif- teen feet during the last twelve hours. It was still too deep for the safety of the pack-animals, in an attempt to ford it in the usual way. The banks, also, at the fording place, were left by the retiring flood a most unfriendly quagmire ; so soft, that a horse without burden could with the greatest diffi- culty drag himself through it to the water below. In our extremity, however, we resorted to the Chilian mode of overcoming such difficulties ; — tied our lash- ing lines together, and attached one end to a strong stake on the side we occupied, sent the other across the stream by a vigorous swimmer, and tied it firmly to a tree. Our baggage, saddles, and clothing, at- tached to hooks running to and fro on this line, we securely passed over. The horses being then driven across at the ill-omened ford, and ourselves over by swimming and other means, we saddled and loaded 74 A FORTNIGHT ON THE our animals with their several burdens, and recom- menced our march. The 14th, 15th, and 16th were days of more than ordinary hardships. With barely food enough to support life — drenched daily by thunder-storms, and by swimming and fording the numerous drains of this alluvial region, and wearied by the continual packing and unpacking of our animals, and enfeebled by the dampness of my couch at night, I was so much reduced when I dis- mounted from my horse on the evening of the 16th, that I was unable to loosen the girth of my saddle or spread my blanket for repose. The soil thus far from the frontier appeared to be from three to six feet in depth — generally undulating, and occasionally, far on the western horizon, broken into ragged and picturesque bluffs. Between the swells we occasionally met small tracts of marshy ground, saturated with brackish water. On the night of the 16th, near the hour of eight o'clock, we were suddenly roused by the rapid trampling of animals in such numbers that made the ground tremble as if an earthquake were rustling beneath it. " Indians ! " was the cry from the guard: "Indians!" We had expected an encounter with them as we approached the Buffalo, and were consequently not unprepared for it. Each man seized his rifle and was instantly in position to give the intruders a proper reception. On they came, rushing furiously in a dense column till within thirty yards of our tent, and then wheeling short to the left, abruptly halted. Not a rifle-ball or an GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 75 arrow had yet cleft the air. Nor was it so necessary that there should, as it might have been, had we not discovered that instead of bipeds of bloody memory, they were the quadrupeds that had eloped from the fatherly care of Mr. Bent, making a call of ceremony upon their compatriot mules, &c., tied to stakes within our camp. 17th. We were on the trail at seven o'clock. The sun of a fine morning shone upon our ranks of beasts and men. Were I able to sketch the woe- shrivelled visages of my starving men, contorted with occasional bursts of wrath upon Mr. Bent's mules as they displayed their ungrateful heels to us, who had restored them from the indecencies of savage life to the dominion of civilised beings, my readers would say that the sun never looked upon braver appearances, or a more determined disregard of educated loveliness. A long march before us ; the Arkansas and its fish before us ; the bufialo, with all the delicate bits of tender loin and marrow-bones — the remembrance of them inspires me ; with all these before us, who that have the glorious sympathies of the gastric sensibilities within them can suppose that we did not use spur, whip, and goad, with right good- will on that memorable day. Thirty or forty miles — none but the vexed plains can tell which — were travelled by one o'clock. The afternoon hours too were counted slowly. High blufiB and butes, and rolls and salt marshes, alternately appearing and falling behind us, with here and there a plat of thick short grass of the upper plains, and the stray 76 A FORTNIGHT ON THE bunches of the branching columnar and foliated prickly pear indicated that we were approaching some more important course of the mountain waters than any we had yet seen since leaving the majestic Missouri. " On, merrily on," rang from our parched and hungry mouths ; and if the cheerful shout did not allay our appetites or thirst, it quickened the pace of our mules, and satisfied each the other of our determined purpose to behold the Arkansas by the light of that day. During this hurried drive of the afternoon, we became separated from one another among the swells over which our track ran. Two of the advance platoon took the liberty, in the absence of their commander, to give chase to an antelope, that seemed to tantalise their forbearance by exhibiting his fine sirloins to their view. Never did men better earn forgiveness for disobedience of orders. One of them crept, as I learned, half-a-mile upon his hands and knees to get within rifle-shot of his game — shot at 300 yards distance, and brought him down ! And now, who in the tameness of an enough-and-to-spare state of existence, in which every emotion of the mind is surfeited and gouty, can estimate our plea- sure at seeing these men gallop into our ranks with this antelope ? You may " guess," reader, you may <' reckon," you may " calculate," or, if learned in the demisemiquavers of modern exquisiteness, you may thrust rudely aside all these wholesome and fat old words of the heart, and " shrewdly imagine," and still you cannot comprehend the feelings of that GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 77 moment. Did we shout? — were we silent? No, neither. Did we gather quickly around the horse, stained with the blood of the suspended animal? No, nor this. An involuntary murmur of relief from the most fearful forebodings, and the sudden halt of the riding animals in their tracks, were the only movements, the only acts, that indicated our grateful joy at this deliverance. Our intention of seeing the Arkansas that night, however, soon banished every other thought from the mind. Whips and spurs, therefore, were freely used upon our wearied animals as they ascended tediously a long roll of prairie, covered with the wild grasses and stinted stalks of the sun-flower. We rightly conceived this to be the bordering ridge of the valley of the Arkansas, for on attaining its summit, we saw ten miles of that stream lying in the sunset like a beautiful lake curved among the windings of the hills. It was six miles distant. The sun was setting. The road lay over sharp rolls of land that rendered it nearly impossible for us to keep our jaded animals on a trot. But the sweet water of that American Nile, and a copse of timber upon its banks that offered us the means of cooking the antelope to satisfy our insufferable hunger, were motives that gave us new energy ; and on we went at a rapid pace while sufficient light remained to show us the trail. When within about a mile and a half of the river, a most annoying circumstance crossed our path. A swarm of the most gigantic and persevering mos- 78 A FORTNIGHT ON THE quitoes, that ever gathered tribute from human kind, lighted on us, and demanded blood. Not in the least scrupulous as to the manner in which they urged their claims, they fixed themselves boldly and with- out ceremony upon our organs of sight, smell, and whipping, the last not least in our situation^ in such numbers, that in consequence of the employments they gave ourselves, in keeping them at the distance which a well-defined respect for our divine faces would have rendered proper, and in consequence of the pain which they inflicted upon our restive ani- mals, we lost the trail. And now came quagmires, flounderings, and mud, such as would have taught the most hardened rebel in morals that deviations from the path of duty lead sometimes to pain, some- times to swamps. Long perseverance at length enabled us to reach the great " River of the Plains." We tarried for a moment upon the banks of the stream, and cast about to extricate ourselves from the Egyptian plagues around us. It appeared that to regain our track in the darkness of night, now be- coming mingled with a dense fog, was no easy task. We, however, took the lead of a swell of land that ran across it, and in thirty minutes entered a path so well marked that we could thread our way onward till we should find wood sufiicient to cook our supper. That was a dreary ride. The stars gave a little light among the mist, which enabled us to discern on the even line of the horizon a small speck that, after three hours' travel, we found to be a small grove of cotton- wood upon an island. We encamped near it; GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 79 and, after our baggage was piled up so as to form a circle of breastworks for defence, our weariness was such that we sank among it supperless, and slept with nothing but the heavens over us ; and although we were in the range of the Cumanche hunting as well as war parties, the guards slept in spite of the savage eyes that might be gloating vengeance upon our little band. No fear nor war-whoop could have broken the slumbers of that night. It was a tempo- rary death. Nature had made its extreme effort, and sunk in helplessness till its ebbing energies should reflow. The morning of the 18th of June brought us clear weather and fine spirits. We were early up — early around among our animals, to pull up the stakes to which they were tied^ and drive them fast again where they might graze while we should eat. Then to the care of our noble selves. We wrestled manfully with the frying-pan and roasting-stick; and anon in the very manner that one sublime act always follows its predecessor, tore bone from bone the ante- lope ribs, with so strong a grip and such unrestrained delight, that a truly philosophic observer might have discovered in the flash of our eyes, and the quick energetic motion of the nether portions of our phy- siognomies, that eating, though an uncommon, was nevertheless our favourite occupation. And then "catch up," "saddles on," "packs on," "mount," "march," all severally said and done, we were en route, hurry-scurry, with forty loose mules and horses leering, kicking, and braying ; and some six or eight pack-animals making every honourable effort to free 80 A FORTNIGHT ON THE themselves from servitude, while v^e were applying to their heads and ears certain gentle intimations that such ambitious views accorded poorly with their masters' wishes. In the course of the day we crossed several tribu- taries of the Arkansas. At one of these, called by the traders Big Turkey Creek, we were forced to resort again to our Chilian bridge. In consequence of the spongy nature of the soil, and the scarcity of timber, there was more difficulty here in procuring fastenings for our ropes than in any previous instance. We at length, however, obtained pieces of flood- wood, and drove them into the soft banks '* at an inclination," said he of the axe, " of precisely 43° to the plane of the horizon." Thus supported by the powerful aid of 45° of the firmament, the stakes stood sufficiently firm for our purposes; and our bags, packs, selves, and beasts, were over in a trice, and in the half of that mathematical fraction of time we were repacked, remounted, and trotting off at a generous pace up the Arkansas. The river appeared quite unlike the streams of the east and south and south-west portions of the States in all its qualities. Its banks were low, one-and-a-half foot above the medium stage of water, composed of an alluvion of sand and loam as hard as a public highway, and, in the main, covered with a species of wiry grass, that seldom grows to more than one-and-a-half or two inches in height. The sun-flower, of stinted growth, and a lonely bush of willow, or an ill-shaped sapless cotton-wood tree, whose decayed trunk trembled GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 81 under the weight of years, grew here and there. Bluflfs of clay or coarse sandstone occurring occa- sionally, relieved in some degree the monotony of this region. The stream itself was generally three- quarters of a mile in width, with a current of five miles per hour, water three-and-a-half to four feet, and of a chalky whiteness. It was extremely sweet, so delicious that some of my men declared it an excellent substitute for milk. Camped on the bank of the river where the common tall grass of the prairie grew plentifully, posted our night-guard, and made a part of our meat into a soup for supper. Here I shall be expected by those civilised monsters who live by eating and drinking, to give a descrip- tion of the manner of makiug this soup. It was indeed a rare dish. And my friends of the trencher, ye who have been spiced and peppered and salted from your youth up, do not distort your nasal protu- berances when I declare that of all the vulgar inno- vations upon kitchen science that civilisation has patched upon the good old style of the patriarchs, nothing has produced so beastly an effect upon taste as these selfsame condiments of salt, pepper, &c. Woeful heresy ! human nature peppered and salted ! an abomination, in my humble opinion, that calls for the full force of the world's moral and physical posse to exterminate. But to our soup. It was made of simple meat and water — of pure water, such as kings drank from the streams of the good old land of pyramids and flies, and of the wild meat of the wilderness, untainted with any of the aforesaid 82 A FORTNIGHT ON THE condiments, simply boiled, and then eaten with strong durable iron spoons and butcher-knives. Here I cannot restrain myself from penning one strong and irrepressible emotion that I well remem- ber crowded through my heart while stretched upon my couch after our repast. The exceeding comfort of body and mind at that moment undoubtedly gave it being. It was an emotion of condolence for those of my fellow-mortals who are engaged in the manu- facture of rheumatisms and gouts. Could they only for an hour enter the portals of prairie life, for one hour breathe the inspirations of a hunter s transcen- dentalism, for one hour feed upon the milk and honey and marrow of life's pure unpeppered and unsalted viands, how soon would they forsake that ignoble employment, how soon would their hissing and vulgar laboratories of disease and graves be forsaken, and the crutch and Brandreth's pills be gathered to the tombs of the fathers ! But as I am an indifferent practitioner of these sublime teachings, I will pass, and inform my readers that the next day's march terminated in an encampment with the hunters I had sent forward for game. They had fared even worse than ourselves. Four of the seven days they had been absent from the company — they had been with- out food. Many of the streams, too, that were forded easily by us, were, when they passed, wide and angry floods. These they were obliged to swim, to the great danger of their lives. On the 18th, however, they overtook Messrs. Walworth and Alvarez's teams, and were treated GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 83 with great hospitality by those gentlemen. On the same day they killed a buffalo bull, pulled off the flesh from the back, and commenced drying it over a slow fire, preparatory to packing. On the morning of the 19th, two of them started off for us with some strips of meat dangling over the shoulders of their horses. They met us about four o'clock, and with us returned to the place of drying the meat. Our horses were immediately turned loose to eat the dry grass, while we feasted ourselves upon roasted tongue and liver. After this we *' caught up," and went eight miles with the intention of encamping with the Santa Feans. We travelled briskly onward for two hours, when we came upon the brow of a hill that overlooks the valley of Pawnee Fork, the largest branch of the Arkansas on its northern side. The Santa Fe traders had encamped on the east bank of the stream. The wagons surrounded an oval piece of ground, their shafts or tongues outside, and the forward wheel of each abreast of the hind wheel of the one before it. This arrangement gave them a fine aspect when viewed from the hill over which we were passing. But we had scarcely time to see the little I have described, when a terrific scream of "Pawnee," "Pawnee," arose from a thousand tongues on the farther bank of the river ; and Indian women and children ran and shrieked horribly " Pawnee," " Pawnee," as they sought the glens and bushes of the neighbourhood. We were puzzled to know the object of such an outburst of savage delight as we deemed it to be, and for a time thought g2 84 A FORTNIGHT ON THE that we might well expect our blood to slumber with the buffalo, whose bones lay bleaching around us. The camp of the traders also was in motion ; arms were seized, and horses saddled in " hot haste." A moment more, and two whites were galloping warily near us ; a moment more brought twenty savage warriors in full paint and plume around us. A quick reconnoitre, and the principal chief rode briskly up to me, shook me warmly by the hand, and with a clearly apparent friendship said, " Sacre foedus" (holy league), " Kauzaus,** " Caw." His warriors followed his example. As soon as our friendly greetings were discovered by some of the minor chiefs, they galloped their fleet horses at full speed over the river, and the women and children issued from their concealments, and lined the bank with their dusky forms. The chiefs rode with us to our camping ground, and remained till dark, examining with great interest the various articles of our travelling equipage ; and particularly our tent, as it unfolded its broad sides like magic, and assumed the form of a solid white cone. Every arrangement being made to prevent these accomplished thieves from stealing our horses, &c., we supped, and pre- pared to make calls upon our neighbours. The owners of the Santa Fe wagons were men who had seen much of life. Urbane and hospitable, they received us in the kindest manner, and gave us much information in regard to the mountains, the best modes of defence, &c., that proved in our expe- rience remarkably correct. During the afternoon, GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 85 the chiefs of the Kauzaus sent me a number of buffalo-tongues, and other choice bits of meats. But the filth discoverable upon their persons generally deterred us from using them. For this they cared little. If their presents were accepted, an obligation was by their laws incurred on our part, from which we could only be relieved by presents in return. To this rule of Indian etiquette we submitted ; and a council was accordingly held between myself and the principal chief, through an interpreter, to deter- mine upon the amount and quality of my indebted- ness in this regard. The final arrangement was, that in consideration of the small amount of property I had then in possession, I should give him two pounds of tobacco, a side-knife, and a few papers of vermilion ; but that, on my return, which would be in fourteen moons, I must be very rich, and give him more. To all which obligations and pleasant prophecies I, of course, gave my most hearty concurrence. The Caws are notorious thieves. We therefore put out a double guard to-night to watch their predatory operations, with instructions to fire upon them if they attempted to take our animals. Neither guard nor instructions, however, proved of use ; for the tempest, which the experienced old Santa Feans had seen in the bank of thunder-cloud in the north-west at sunset proved a more efficient protec- tion than the arm of man. The cloud rose slowly during the early part of the night, and appeared to hang in suspense of executing its awful purpose. 86 A FORTNIGHT ON THE The lightning and heavy rumbling of the thunder were frightful. It came to the zenith about twelve o'clock. When in that position, the cloud covered one-half of the heavens, and for some minutes was nearly stationary. After this, the wind broke forth upon it at the horizon, and rolled up the dark masses over our heads — now swelling, now rending to shreds its immense folds ; but as yet, not a breath of air moved upon the plains. The animals stood motionless and silent at the spectacle. The nucleus of electricity was at the zenith, and thence large bolts at last leapt in every direction, and lighted for an instant the earth and skies so intensely, that the eyes could not endure the brightness. The report that followed was appalling. The ground trembled, the horses and mules shook with fear, and attempted to escape. But where could they or ourselves have found shelter ? The clouds at the next moment appeared in the wildest commotion, struggling with the wind. ^' Where shall we fly ?" could scarcely have been spoken before the wind struck our tent, tore the stakes from the ground, snapped the centre-pole, and buried us in its enraged folds. Every man, thirteen in number, im- mediately seized some portion and held it with all his might. Our opinion at the time was that the absence of the weight of a single man would have given the storm the victory — our tent would have eloped in the iron embraces of the tempest. We attempted to fit it up again after the violence of the storm had in some degree passed over, but were GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 87 unable so to do ; so that the remainder of the night was spent in gathering up our loose animals, and in shivering under the cold peltings of the rain. The Santa Feans, when on inarch through these plains, are in constant expectation of these tornadoes. Ac- cordingly, when the sky at night indicates their approach, they chain the wheels of adjacent wagons strongly together, to prevent them from being upset, an accident that has often happened, when this pre- caution was not taken. It may well be conceived too, that to prevent their goods from being wetted in such cases, requires a covering of no ordinary powers of protection. Bows of the usual form, save that they are higher, are raised over long sunken Pennsylvania wagons, over which are spread two or three thick- nesses of woollen blankets ; and over these, and extending to the lower edge of the body, is drawn a strong canvass covering, well guarded with cords and leathern straps. Through this covering these tem- pests seldom penetrate. At seven o'clock on the morning of the 27th, " Catch up, catch up," rang around the wagons of the Santa Feans. Immediately each man had his hand upon a horse or mule ; and ere we, in attempt- ing to follow their example, had our horses by the halter, the teams were harnessed and ready for the "march." A noble sight those teams were, forty odd in number, their immense wagons still unmoved, forming an oval breast- work of wealth, girded by an impatient mass of near 400 mules, harnessed and ready to move again along their solitary way. But 88 A FORTNIGHT ON THE the interest of the scene was much increased when, at the call of the commander, the two lines, team after team, straightened themselves into the trail, and rolled majestically away over the undulating plain. A band of buiBTalo cows was near us. In other words, we were determined upon a hunt. Our tent having been pitched, and baggage piled up, the fleetest horses selected and the best marksmen best mounted, we trotted slowly along a circling depression of the plain, that wound aground near the herd on their leeward side. When we emerged in sight of them, we put the horses into a slow gallop till within 300 yards of our game ; and then for the nimblest heel. Each was on his utmost speed. TVe all gained upon the herd. But two of the horses were by the side of the lubbers before the rest were within rifle reach, and the rifles and pistols of their riders discharged into the sleek well-larded body of a noble bull. The wounded animal did not drop ; the balls had entered neither liver nor heart ; and away he ran for dear life. But his unwieldy form moved slower and slower, as the dripping blood oozed from the bullet- holes in his loins. He ran towards our tent ; and we followed him in that direction till within a fourth of a mile of it, when our heroes of the rifle laid him wallowing in his blood, a mountain of flesh weighing at least 3000 pounds. We butchered him in the following manner: — Having turned him upon his brisket, and split the skin along the spine, and pared off the hide as far down the sides as his position GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 89 would allow, we cut off the flesh that lay outside the ribs as far back as the loins. This the hunters call " the fleece." We next took the ribs that rise per- pendicularly from the spine between the shoulders, and support what is termed the " hump." Then we laid our heavy wooden axes upon the enormous side ribs, opened the cavity, and took out the tender loins, tallow, &c., — all this a load for two mules to carry into camp. It was prepared for packing as follows : — The fleece was cut across the grain into slices an eighth of an inch in thickness, and spread upon a scafi'olding of poles, and dried and smoked over a slow fire. On the 23d the buffalo were more numerous than ever. They were arranged in long lines from the eastern to the western horizon. The bulls were forty or fifty yards in advance of the bands of cows to which they severally intended to give protection; and as the moving embankment of wagons, led by an advanced guard, and flanked by horsemen riding slowly from front to rear, and guarded in the rear by my men, made its majestic way along, these fiery cavaliers would march each to his own band of dames and misses, with an air that seemed to say " We are here," and then back again to their lines, with great apparent satisfaction that they were able to do battle for their sweet ones and their native plains. We travelled fifteen or sixteen miles. This is the distance usually made in a day by the traders. The face of the country was still an arid plain, almost without water — fuel, dried buffalo offal — 90 A FORTNIGHT ON THE not a shrub of any kind in sight. Another storm occurred at night. Its movement was more rapid than that of any preceding one which we had ex- perienced. In a few^ moments after it showed its dark outline above the earth, it rolled its pall over the whole sky, as if to build a wall of wrath between us and the mercies of Heaven. The flash of the lightning, as it bounded upon the firmament, and mingled its thunder with the blast that came groaning down from the mountains — the masses of inky dark- ness crowding in wild tumult along, as if anxious to lead the leaping bolt upon us — the wild world of bufiklo, bellowing and starting in myriads, as the drapery of this funeral scene of nature, a vast cavern of fire, was lighted up — the rain roaring and foaming like a cataract — all this, a reeling world tottering under the great arm of its Maker, no eye could see and be unblenched, nor mind conceive and keep its clayey tenement erect. I drew the carryall in which Smith and myself were attempting to sleep close to the Santa Fe wagons, secured the curtains as firmly as I was able to do, spread blankets over the top and around the sides, and lashed them firmly with ropes passing over, under, and around the carriage in every direction ; but to little use : the penetrating powers of that storm were not resisted by such means. Again we were thoroughly drenched. The men in the tent fared still worse than ourselves. It was blown down by the first blast ; and the poor fellows were obliged to lie closely and hold on strongly to prevent it and themselves from a flight less safe than parachuting. GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 91 The buffalo during the last three days had covered the whole country so completely, that it appeared oftentimes extremely dangerous even for the immense cavalcade of the Santa Fe traders to attempt to break its way through them. We travelled at the rate of fifteen miles a day — the length of sight on either side of the trail 15 miles, on both sides 30 miles: 15 X 3=45 X 30=1,350 square miles of country, so thickly covered with these noble animals that when viewed from a height it scarcely afforded a sight of a square league of its surface. What a quantity of food for the sustenance of the Indian and the white pilgrim of these plains ! ! It would have been grati- fying to have seen the beam kick over the immense frames of some of those bulls ; but all that any of us could do, was to " guess" or " reckon" their weight, and contend about the indubitable certainty of our several suppositions. In these disputes two butchers took the lead ; and the substance of their discussions that could interest the reader is, " that many of the large bulls would weigh 3,000 pounds and upwards ; and that, as a general rule, the buffa- loes were much larger and heavier than the domesti- cated cattle of the States." We were in view of the Arkansas at 4 o'clock, p. m. The face of the earth was visible again ; for the buffalo were now seen in small herds only, fording the river, or feeding upon the bluffs. Near nightfall we killed a young bull, and went into camp for the night. FofltnhamCs " TrmeU m the Oreat Western Prairies** BULL-FIGHT AT MERIDA ON THE FEAST OF SAN CRISTOVAL. The Plaza de Toros, or in English the bull-ring, was in the square of the church San Cristoval. The enclosure, or space for spectators, occupied nearly the whole of the square, a strange and very original structure, which in its principles would astonish a European architect. It was a gigantic circular scaf- fold, perhaps fifteen hundred feet in circumference, capable of containing four or five thousand persons, erected and held together without the use of a single nail, being made of rude poles, just as they were cut in the woods, and tied together with withes. The interior was enclosed by long poles crossing and in- terlacing each other, leaving only an opening for a door, and was divided in like manner by poles into boxes. The whole formed a gigantic frame of rustic lattice- work, admirably adapted for that hot climate, as it admitted a free circulation of air. The top was covered with an arbour made of the leaves of the American palm. The whole structure was simple and curious. Every Indian could assist in building it, and when the fiesta was over, it could be torn down, and the materials used for firewood. The corrida had begun when we arrived on the ground, and the place was already thronged. There was a great choice of seats, as one side was exposed to BULL-FIGHT AT MERIDA. 93 the full blaze of the sun. Over the doors were written Palco No. 1, Palco No. 2, &c., and each box had a separate proprietor, who stood in the doorway, with a little ricketty step-ladder of three or four steps, inviting customers. One of them undertook to pro- vide for us, and for two reals apiece we were con- ducted to front seats. It was, if possible, hotter than at the loteria; and in the movement and confu- sion of passing us to our seats, the great scaffold trembled, and seemed actually swaying to and fro under its living load. The spectators were of all classes, colours, and ages, from grey heads to children asleep in their mothers' arms ; and next to me was a half-blooded maternal head of a family, with the key of her house in her hand, her children tucked in between the legs of her neighbours, or under their chairs. At the feet of those sitting in front seats was a row of boys and girls, with their little heads poked through the rail- ing, and all around hung down a variegated fringe- work of black and white legs. Opposite, and on the top of the scaffold, was a band of music, the leader of which wore a shining black mask, caricaturing a negro. A bull was in the ring, two barbed darts trimmed with blue and yellow paper were hanging from his flanks, and his neck was pierced with wounds, from which ran down streams of blood. The picadores stood aloof with bloody spears in their hands ; a mounted dragoon was master of the ceremonies, and there were besides eight or ten vaqueros, or cattle- 94 BULL-FIGHT AT MERIDA tenders, from the neighbouring haciendas, hard riders and brought up to deal with cattle that run wild in the woods. These were dressed in pink-coloured shirts and trousers, and wore small hats of straw plaited thick, with low round crowns and narrow brims turned up at the side. Their saddles had large leathern flaps, covering half the body of the horse, and each had a lazo, or coil of rope, in his hand, and a pair of enormous iron spurs, six inches long, and weighing two or three pounds, which, contrasted with their small horses, gave a sort of Bombastes Furioso character to their appearance. By order of the dragoon, these vaqueros, striking their coils of rope against the large flaps of their saddles, started the bull, and chasing him round the ring, with a few throws of the lazo caught him by the horns, and dragged him to a post at one side of the ring, where, riding off" with the rope, they hauled his head down to the ground close against the post. Keeping it down in that position, some of the others passed a rope twice round his body, just behind the fore legs, and, securing it on his back, passed it under his tail, and, returning it, crossed it with the coils around his body. Two or three men on each side then hauled upon the rope, which cut into and compressed the bull's chest, and by its tightness under the tail almost lifted his hind legs from off the ground. This was to excite and madden him. The poor animal bellowed, threw himself on the ground, and kicked and strug- gled to get rid of the brutal tie. From the place where we sat, we had in full view the front of the ON THE FEAST OP SAN CRISTOVAL. 95 church of San Cristoval, and over the door we read, in large characters, " Hie est domus Dei — hie est partus eoeli." " This is the house of God — this is the gate of heaven." But they had got another goad for the bull. Watching narrowly that the ropes around his horns did not get loose, they fixed upon his back the figure of a soldier in a cocked hat, seated in a saddle. This excited a great laugh among the spectators. We learned that both the saddle and the figure of the soldier were made up of wood, paper, and gunpowder, composing a formidable piece of fireworks. When this was fairly secured, all fell back, and the picadores, mounted and with their spears poised, took their places in the ring. The band, perhaps in compliment to us, and to remind us of home, struck up the beau- tiful national melody of " Jim Crow." A villanous- lookiug fellow set oflp large and furiously -whizzing rockets within a few feet of the bull ; another fired in the heel the figure of the soldier on his back ; the spectators shouted, the rope was slipped, and the bull let loose. His first dash was perfectly furious. Bounding forward and throwing up his hind legs, maddened by the shouts of the crowd, and the whizzing and explosion, fire and smoke, of the engine of torture on his back, he dashed blindly at every picador, receiv- ing thrust after thrust with the spear, until, amid the loud laughter and shouts of the spectators, the powder burnt out, and the poor beast, with gaping wounds, and blood streaming from them, turned and 96 BrrLL-FIGHT AT MERIDA ran, bellowed for escape at the gate of entrance, and then crawled around the wall of the ring, looking up to the spectators, and with imploring eyes seemed pleading to the mild faces of the women for mercy. In a few minutes he was lazoed and dragged off, and he had hardly disappeared, when another was led in, the manner of whose introduction seemed more bar- barous and brutal than any of the torments inflicted on the former. It was by a rope two or three hundred feet long, passed through the fleshy part of the bull's nose, and secured at both ends to a vaquero's saddle. In this way he was hauled through the streets and into the ring. Another vaquero followed, with a lazo over the horns, to hold the bull back, and keep him from rushing upon his leader. In the centre of the ring the leader loosed one end of the rope, and riding on, dragged it trailing on the ground its whole length, perhaps a hundred yards, through the bull's nose, leaving a crust of dirt on one side as it came out bloody on the other. The bull, held back by the rope over his horns, stood with neck outstretched ; and when the end of the rope passed through, he licked his gory nose, pawed the ground, and bellowed. He was then lazoed, dragged up to the post, girt with the rope around his body like the other, and then, amidst bursts of music, rockets, and shouts, again let loose. The chulos went at him, flaring before him with the left hand red and yellow ponchas, and holding in the right darts containing fireworks, and ornamented with yellow paper cut into slips : these they thrust into his neck and flanks. ON THE FEAST OF SAN CRISTOVAL. 97 The current of air accelerated the ignition of the fire; and when the fireworks exploded, the paper still rattled about his ears. The picadores then mounted their horses; but after a few thrusts of the spear, the bull flinched, and the spectators, indignant that he did not show more fight, cried out, " Saca esa vaca !" " Take out that cow r The next was hauled on in the same way by a rope through the nose. He was girt with the rope, tor- tured with darts, speared by the picadores on horse- back, and, as he did not show good fight, they dismounted and attacked him on foot. This is con- sidered the most dangerous contest both for man and beast. The picadores formed in front of him, each with a black or yellow poncha in his left hand, and poising his spear with his right. They stood, their legs extended and their knees bent, so as to keep a firm foothold, changing their position by a spring backward or forward, on one side or the other, to meet the movement of the bull's head. The object was to strike between the horns into the back of the neck. Two or three struck him fairly, with a cutting, heavy sound, and drew out their spears reeking with blood. One man misdirected his blow; the bull threw up his neck with the long handle of the spear standing upright in it, and, rushing upon the picador, hurled him to the ground, and passed over his body, seeming to strike him with all four of his hoofs. The man never moved, but lay on his back with his arms outstretched, apparently dead. The bull moved on, with the handle of the spear still standing up in his 98 BULL-FIGHT AT MBRIDA neck, a terror to all the ring. The vaqueros went in pursuit of him with the lazos, and, chasing him round, the spear fell out, and they caught him. In the meantime, the fallen man was picked up by some of his companions, and carried off doubled up, and apparently cured for ever of bull-fighting. We heard afterwards that he only had some of his ribs broken. He was hardly out of sight when the accident was forgotten ; the bull was again assaulted, worried out, and dragged off. Others followed, making eight in all. At twelve o'clock the church bells rang and the fight ended, but as we were dispersing, we were reminded that another would begin at four o'clock in the afternoon. At four we were again in our places. Our special reason for following up this sport so closely was, because we were advised that in the morning common people only attended, but that in the afternoon all the gente decente^ or upper classes of Merida, would be present. I am happy to say, however, that this was not true, and the only sensible difference that we noticed, was that it was more crowded and hotter, and that the price of admission was double. This was the last corrida of the fiesta, and some of the best bulls had been kept in reserve. The first that was dragged on was received with acclamations as having distinguished himself before during the fiesta ; but he bore an ugly mark for a favourite of the people, having been dragged by the nose till the cartilage was completely torn out by the rope. The next would have been worthy of the best ON THE FEAST OF SAN CRISTOVAL. 99 bull-fights of Old Spain, when the cavalier, at the glance of his lady's eye, leaped into the ring to play the matador with his sword. He was a large black bull, without any particular marks of ferocity about him ; but a man who sat in our box, and for whose judgment I had conceived a great respect, lighted a new straw cigar, and pronounced him " muy hravo" There was no bellowing, blustering, or bravado about him, but he showed a calmness and self-pos- session which indicated a consciousness of strength. The picadores attacked him on horseback, and like the Noir Faineant, or Sluggish Knight, in the lists at Ashby, for a time he contented himself with merely repelling the attacks of his assailants ; but suddenly, as if a little vexed, he laid his head low, looked up at the spears pointed at his neck, and, shutting his eyes, rushed upon a picador on one side, struck his horse in the belly with his horns, lifted him off his feet, and brought horse and rider headlong to the ground. The horse fell upon the rider, rolled completely over him, with his heels in the air, and rose with one of his rider s feet entangled in the stirrup. For an in- stant he stood like a breathing statue, with nostrils wide and ears thrown back, wild with fright ; and then, catching sight of the bull, he sprang clear of the ground, and dashed off at full speed round the ring, dragging after him the luckless picador. Around he went, senseless and helpless, his whole body grimed with dirt, and with no more life in it, apparently, than in a mere log of wood. At every bound it seemed as if the horse must strike his hind H 2 100 BULL-FIGHT AT MERIDA hoofs into his forehead. A cold shudder ran through the spectators. The man was a favourite; he had friends and relatives present, and everybody knew his name. A deep murmur of "jE// Pohre' burst from every bosom. I felt actually lifted from my seat, and the president of the Life and Trust would not have given a policy on him for any premium. The picadores looked on aghast ; the bull was roam- ing loose in the ring, perhaps the only indifferent spectator. My own feelings were roused against his companions, who, after what seemed an age of the rack, keeping a special good look-out upon the bull, at length started in pursuit with lazos, caught the horse around the neck, and brought him up headlong. The picadores extricated their fallen companion, and carried him out. His face was so begrimed with dirt that not a feature was visible ; but, as he was borne across the ring, he opened his eyes, and they seemed starting from his head with terror. He was hardly out of the ring, when a hoarse cry ran through the spectators, "J. pie ! a pie I" " On foot ! on foot ! " The picadores dismounted and attacked the bull fiercely on foot, flourishing their ponchas. Almost at the first thrust he rushed upon one of his adver- saries, tumbled him down, passed over his body, and walked on without even turning round to look at him. He, too, was picked up and carried off. The attack was renewed, and the bull became roused. In a few moments he brought another picador to the ground, and, carried on by his own impetus, passed over the body, but with a violent BULL-FICHT AT MERIDA Pa^e 100. ON THE FEAST OF SAN CRISTOVAL. 101 effort recovered himself, and turned short round upon his prostrate prey, glared over him for a moment with a loud bellow, almost a howl, and, raising his fore feet a little from the ground, so as to give full force to the blow, thrust both horns into the stomach of the fallen picador. Happily, the points were sawed off; and, furious at not being able to gore and toss him, he got one horn under the picador's sash, lifted him, and dashed him back violently upon the ground. Accustomed as the spectators were to scenes of this kind, there was a universal burst of horror. Not a man moved to save him. It would, perhaps, be unjust to brand them as cowards, for, brutal and degrading as their tie was, they, doubtless, had a feeling of companionship ; but, at all events, not a man attempted to save him, and the bull, after glaring over him, smelling and pawing him for a moment — to all a moment of intense excitement — turned away and left him. This man, too, was carried off. The sympathy of the spectators had for a while kept them hushed ; but, as soon as the man was out of sight, all their pent-up feelings broke out in indignation against the bull, and there was a universal cry, in which the soft tones of women mingled with the hoarse voices of the men, ''Matalof matalo!" ''Kill him! kill him ! " The picadores stood aghast. Three of their companions had been struck down and carried off the field ; the bull, pierced in several places, with blood streaming from him, but fresh as when he began, was roaming round the ring, and they held back. 102 A GERMAN FUNERAL AND THE evidently afraid to attack him. The spectators showered upon them the opprobrious name of " Cohardes I cohardes I " " Cowards ! cowards ! " The dragoon enforced obedience to their voice, and, fortifying themselves with a strong draught of aqua ardiente^ they once more faced the bull, poised their spears before him, but with fainthearts and trembling hands ; and finally, without a single thrust, amid the contemptuous shouts of the crowd, fell back and left the bull master of the field. Others were let in, and it was almost dark when the last fight ended. With the last bull the ring was opened to the boys, who, amid roars of laughter, pulled, hauled, and hustled him till he could hardly stand; and, amid the solemn tones of the vesper-bell, the bull-fight in honour of San Cristoval ended. Stephens's " Incidents of Travel in YucatarrbP A GERMAN FUNERAL AND THE DEAD-ROOM AT MUNICH. While bargaining one day in a bookseller's shop, I observed preparations making for a funeral pro- cession in a house on the opposite side of the street ; and as I had not seen anything in Munich the least after the manner of a church-yard — a place above all others I delight to visit — I remained till the coffin was brought out. It was a rich massive piece of workmanship of a port-wine colour, having on the lid of it the sign of the cross. No mort cloth was DEAD-ROOM AT MUNICH. 103 put over it, or any kind of covering whatever. A band of mourners took the advance in the procession, holding each in his hand a wax candle lighted, and larger and longer than a scroll of paper. These were followed by about a dozen personages, appa- rently of some order of the priesthood. Each bore in his hand an open book, the Bible probably, and from it they read, or rather sang, portions with loud and plaintive tones. Now and then, as they went along, they chanted a prayer, or a hymn, or an Ave Maria, or a grand " Miserere," not only with the most earnest solemnity, but with great simplicity and beauty. Next in procession was the corpse and coffin, carried shoulder-high, and behind the rela- tions and acquaintances all uncovered. Their step was solemn and slow, and as they passed along, everybody on the street stood still, and uncovered their heads till the procession passed. Wreaths rested on the coffin, and were carried in the hands of the friends and followers. Forward we advanced through the city into the suburbs; and, fairly out of them, I asked if they were proceeding to some town in the country where the deceased might have been born, in which case I had made up my mind to turn back ; but I was told that the cemetery was just at hand, and almost on the instant, the deep long toll of a large bell confirmed the fact. In three minutes more we stepped up the broad stairs, and entered a gate ; and there I saw at one glance where I was — at what in Germany is emphatically called " God's Acre/' or sometimes the court op peace ; and a more in- 104 A GERMAN FUNERAL AND THE teresting spot than this silent city of the departed my eyes never beheld; — interesting not in any re- spect from the surrounding scenery, of which there is none, but from the manner in which things are managed within, so unlike in every respect, and so superior, to anything of the kind in Britain. The foliage of a few trees is seen around the outskirts, to relieve the eye, like a selvage to a garment. There are walks, at right angles, and laying oflP the field in such a way, that the graves of others need not be trampled upon by the stranger seeking the narrow bed of the remains of his own affectionate recollections. The first impression which arose in my mind was. How spacious, how neat, approaching almost to elegant, and, in a word, how comfortable an abode for the dead! Quite in the German style, there was nothing frivolous in the place; all was melancholy and massive, being a most judicious mixture of the useful, the ornamental simplicity, and although last, not least, the impressive^ taken as a whole. For far beyond and on both sides of the very extended square field, grave after grave was ranked in close succession, but there was no crowding or confusion. Here was the turf, rich in its green- ness as velvet itself. There the sod had been lately wounded by the rough spade of the sexton, the edges of it having not yet been skinned over. Yonder the red soil, remaining neatly broken and scattered on the surrounding turf, pointed out the grave of a day or two's existence ; and that heap of bare mould, sur- mounted by skulls and other bones, and that hole in the earth beside, with boards propping up its sides. DEAD-ROOM AT MUNICH. 105 and planks placed along its edges, must of course be the long-home of that rich apothecary, whose funeral I am now attending without having been invited. There were a vast number of crosses and grave-stones of various shapes, and other monuments of modest pretensions crowded together, yet not one of them was out of order. This, I thought, must be the grave of a schoolmaster or a scribe, for there are two pens engraved on the stone ; that of a blacksmith, with hammer and tongs ; and there too is our own tempus fugit^ with the winged sand-glass. But how beautiful, how sweet, and how fresh those flower- beds and borders which adorn every grave appear, and how touching to the heart of the living are those wreaths of flowers entwined around the grave-stones, as tokens of affection and respect. There were groups of visitors, old and young, at various places, and here and there a solitary individual bending in silence and sadness, each over the grave of his or her own friend; but by the side of the main walk, as we passed, there was a scene true to nature, and worthy of being painted by one of our best artists. There were two boys and a little girl weeding the flower- bed on their father s grave, and there was the widowed mother taking off the chaplet already faded, and in its stead placing another of flowers fresh and in bloom. The woman was neither very beautiful nor very handsome, but she was deeply affected; and the children were dividing their little anxieties between the dead and the living parent, and that with sin- gular activity and soothing composure. I had observed 106 A GERMAN FUNERAL AND THE stone basins filled with water, and placed carefully by the side of every grave ; I took it to be holy- water, to enable the Catholics to cross themselves with it when visiting the home of the departed. There was a hair brush too attached to the basin with a little chain, and it also, I thought, must have some use, and that not in the mere performance of any religious rite. But the conduct of the little girl explained it all. She had finished the weeding of her flower-plot, and now, while the mother was still watering the grave with her tears, the child took the brush and sprinkled the grave over with water from the fount. It was well-timed, for the soil was dry, and the sun was burning, and the delicate buds had be- come sickly. But the water instantly made them look up with renewed vigour. There was something very affecting in these acts, the effusions of a minute; for they were all that the living now could do to express their feelings of esteem and grief for the departed. While the procession was still proceeding up the broad centre walk to the open grave, as I supposed, I had unconsciously lingered, with a bleeding heart, beside this family group, who lost themselves in grief. But when I looked along, and saw that the procession had gone far past the open grave, and seemed as if proceeding out of the burial-ground altogether, I quickened my pace, and came up to it just as the mourners, with their wax-candles and open books, were filing off to the right and left, to allow the coffin to advance between. Here the song DEAD-ROOM AT MUNICH. 107 of wailing was raised louder and in full chorus, and the crossings, and sprinklings of holy- water, and the perfumery of incense, were all redoubled. There was right in front of us a splendid building, with piazzas, porticoes, and pillars, under which and within there was a glass front, through which were seen ladies and gentlemen, dressed in the gayest colours, apparently of all ages, as if reclining at their ease, while a brilliant flood of light blazed from hundreds of large wax-candles. The doors were instantly thrown open to receive the body ; and the large procession returned down the same broad walk, very much like people in our own country retiring from a funeral. The doors were then shut, and I mounted the flight of steps to the platform, which was partly crowded by silent spectators and some officials ; but what was my surprise on pressing forward, and looking into the interior through its glass front, to see that all who, at a little distance, looked so like a gay assemblage in a ball or supper- room, were neither more nor less than dead bodies ! dressed for the grave, seated in their coffins, and surrounded each with six or eight wax- candles. There were old men and women, withered and tooth* less — there was youth and beauty, with the hectic flush scarcely yet faded — there was the vigour of manhood cut down in the midst of his days, with milk in his breasts and marrow in his bones — there was the countenance of the weather-beaten rustic, and the inviting smile of the city mer- chant — there was the stern, grim, death-defiance 108 A GERMAN FUNERAL AND THE attitude and expression of the soldier still in his regimentals, and beside him the peaceful, tender sleep of an infant, whose eyes had scarce ever opened on this world; and already had they bolstered up my friend, who exhibited a full face, aged about sixty, with hair combed, linen pure as drifted snow, clothes new and fine, and silk stockings, such as he would have put on had he risen from his medicine and mortar, and dressed for dinner. Awed by what I had seen, I turned round to retire, as darkness was gathering fast, when at my very side there stood a coffin, with the lid off, and the body of a man, appa- rently about seventy, was exposed. He held in his hand a small wooden cross. He had a clean skin, a finely arched forehead, a Roman nose, and long chin. His expression seemed determined, and somewhat as if he had been disappointed in life. He had evidently been a person in the lower ranks of society ; yet everything was suitable, though coarse. Several poor people now advanced and blessed the body, and watered with their tears, and kneeled around it and crossed their own forehead, and prayed for a time for both the living and the dead ; and when, at length, the officials stepped up and put the lid on the coffin, screwed it down, and lifted it on their shoulders, then they walked to the grave, the followers raising the same melancholy song, or rather sounds, as before : but there were no large, long wax -candles. I again joined the procession, glad and grateful in my heart that even the dead body of the poorest man in Germany had friends to lament DEAD-ROOM AT MUNICH. 109 his death ; and still more gratified to see the priest and his attendants advance to the grave which I had seen open when I first entered the cemetery. The body having been lowered, the relations in succession threw in a small quantity of earth, which rattled on the coffin. The priest went through his service at the grave, and retired with great solemnity. The grave-digger then set to work in the usual business-like manner ; the friends waited till the grave was covered in, then they crossed themselves and went away. In going back towards the main gate, I saw arcades, and some simple but sumptuous monuments, pointing out the wealth or rank of the occupiers. Some of these had been newly erected, and others but lately painted. In various parts there were wooden, worn-out, triangular monuments on the totter, while others had evidently been so long exposed to the sun and rain, the wind and storm, that they had decayed into rottenness, like the body of the departed below, whose life and death they had vainly presumed to commemorate. Although the inscriptions recorded by these flattering, frail his- torians were scarcely legible, yet the roses and annual flowers, blooming on the graves, plainly showed that there was still in existence some friendly hand, some foot, some heart that moved with kindly recollections towards the dead. To my mind these roses, blanched as some of them seemed to be, and these little flowers, Bullied as they were, spoke a language of deeper and more lasting afibction than our large, cold, white marble monuments. Marble is dull and dead, and 110 A GERMAN FUNERAL AND THE children and females can do nothing for it; but flowers live as if along the dark avenue between time and eternity ; and thus to bestow a little care in weeding and in watering is seemly, and must afford a hallowed sort of pleasure to the survivors. On leaving the gate, I cast my eye back the last time to the gay and glittering chamber where the dead bodies were sitting in their coffins, awaiting the time appointed for their interment. But the twilight, now thickened into darkness, gave it a glare as if of triumph, very humbling, and somewhat terrifying, especially to a solitary wanderer so far from home ; nay, so much so, that for more than a week I never put out my candle at bed-time without remembering the expression of Qvery feature of the departed druggist of Munich. When I returned to the city, the lamps were lighted, within-doors many were laughing and talking amid mirth and music, and the streets were crowded with thousands all busied about time as if there were to be no eternity. Much solemnised and even awed by the contrast, which was not pleasant, I bent my steps to a house and home which 1 knew I was destined to occupy for a very short time, as a mere stranger and sojourner ; and I felt even that to be a fit emblem of my own journey through life, and of the short step which might, and ever must remain between me and that country, from whose bourne no traveller returns. I afterwards learned that within twelve hours after a death happens in a family, the public autho- rities step forward thus to remove the body of the DEAD-ROOM AT MUNICH, 111 deceased to this kind of intermediate state, even upon earth. Should the connections be poor, the dead-cart calls at the door at an appointed time, and the body is thus conveyed to an inferior sort of dead-room, lighted only by a dismal lamp ; and there the fingers of the corpse are placed in the loops of a bell -rope attached to an alarum clock, which is fixed in the apartment of an attendant, appointed to be on the watch : the least pulsation or quiver of the body would give the alarm, and medical aid would be on the spot in a minute. In the cases of those who can afford the expense of decorations, a funeral such as I saw takes place as soon after the death as the neces- sary arrangements can be completed ; and, instead of the mechanical apparatus already mentioned, matrons and medical men sit night and day for the time appointed by law. "With all our pretensions to good sense and fine feeling, every Englishman must admit that in the whole affair such matters are better managed abroad than at home. Should there have been any suspicions of foul play in the death of the departed, here are means afforded to detect the fact ; or should there be one chance in a hundred thousand of animation being merely suspended, the dead and living have both the benefit of it, in the wonderful precautions which they adopt to guard against the possibility of premature interment. ** Eight Weeks in Germcmy.*^ STORY OF A CHAMOIS HUNTER. One day I met a Styrian Chamois hunter, who related to me many interesting adventures he had met with in pursuit of those animals. Observ- ing that I occasionally made a note of what I heard, he said, " Ah, write it all down, and I '11 tell you something about the cunning of the chamois, that no one has heard before." The previous year he had found a geis (female chamois) ready to bring forth. He had followed for eight days to see where she would deposit her young. Sometimes he took off his shoes, and climbed on his bare feet like a cat ; and once, when he had to clamber up the steep face of a rock, he cut off all the buttons from his clothes that they might not make a "jingle." At last he discovered the two young ones in a niche at the top of a high rock, in a " kasth," as the hunters call it. Exactly in front of the niche the rock descended perpendicularly to an immense depth. At the back was another steep descent. Some fragments of rock formed a kind of bridge between the larger masses ; but these were placed too high to be accessible to the little ones, and could only be available for their mother. The hunter rejoiced as he contemplated this position, and pressed upon the animals, whose escape seemed impossible. When the old one caught STORY OF A CHAMOIS HUNTER. 113 sight of him, and measured with a glance the unfa- vourable disposition of the rocks, she sprang upon the hunter with the fury that maternal love will breathe into the most timid creatures. The danger of such attacks from the chamois is less from the thrust, which is not very violent, than from the endeavour of the animals to fix the points of their horns, which are bent like fish-hooks, somewhere in the legs of the hunter, and then press him back- wards round the precipices. It happens sometimes that the chamois and hunter, thus entangled, roll into the abyss together. Our hunter was in no condition to fire at the advancing chamois, as he found both hands necessary to sustain him on the narrow path ; he, therefore, warded off the blows as well as he could with his feet, and kept still advancing. The anguish of the mother increased ; she dashed back to her young, coursed round them with loud cries, as if to warn them of the danger, and then leaped upon the before-named fragments of rock, from which the second but more difficult egress from the grotto was to be won. She then leaped down again to her little ones, and seemed to encourage them to attempt the leap. In vain the little creatures sprang and wounded their fore- heads against the rocks that were too high for them^ and in vain the mother repeated again and again her firm and graceful leap, to show them the way. All this was the work of a few minutes, whilst the hunter had again advanced some steps nearer. He was just preparing to make the last effort, when the 114 STORY OF A CHAMOIS HUNTER. following picture, — which was the particular circum- stance he referred to in speaking of the chamois's cunning, — met his astonished eyes. The old chamois, fixing her legs firmly on the rock behind, had stretched her body to its utmost length, and planted her fore-feet on the rock above, thus forming a tem- porary bridge of her back. The little ones seemed in a minute to comprehend the design of their motlier, sprang upon her like cats, and thus reached the point of safety. The picture only lasted long enough to enable their pursuer to make the last step. He sprang into the niche, thinking himself now sure of the young chamois ; but all three were off with the speed of the wind, and a couple of shots, that he sent after the fugitives, merely announced by their echo to the surrounding rocks that he had missed his game. ICEBERGS IN THE ATLANTIC. There was a glorious sunset on the sea, Making the meeting-spot of sky and wave A path of molten gold. Just where the flush Was brightest, as if heaven's refulgent gate One moment gave its portals to our gaze — Just at that point uprose an awful form, Rugged and huge, and freezing with its breath The pulse of twilight. Even the bravest brow Was blanched, for in the distance others came — Sheer on the horizon s burning disk they came. Attendant planets on that mass opaque. They drifted toward us, like a monster-host, From Death's dark stream. High o'er old Ocean's breast. And deep below, they held their wondrous way, Troubling the surge. Winter was in their heart, And stern destruction on their icy crown. So, in their fearful company, the night Closed in upon us. The astonish'd ship, Watch'd by its sleepless master, held her breath As they approach'.d, and found her furrowing feet Seal'd to the curdling brine. It was a time Of bitter dread, and many a prayer went up i2 116 ICEBERGS IN THE ATLANTIC. To Him who moves the iceberg and the storm To go their way and spare the voyager. Slow sped the night-watch, and, when morn came up Timid and pale, there stood that frowning host. In horrible array, all multiplied, Until the deep was hoary. Every bay And frost-bound inlet of the arctic zone Had stirr d itself, meth ought, and launched amain Its quota of thick-ribbed ice, to swell The bristling squadron. Through those awful ranks It was our lot to pass. Each one had power To crush our lone bark like a scallop-shell, And in their stony eyes we read the will To do such deed. When through the curtaining mist The sun with transient glimpse that host survey'd, They flash'd and dazzled with a thousand hues. Like cliffs with diamond spear-points serried o'er, Turrets and towers, in rainbow banners wrapped, Or minarets of pearl, with crest of stars. So terrible in beauty, that, methought, He stood amazed at what his glance had done. I said, that through the centre of this host 'Twas ours to pass. Who led us on our way ? Who through that path of horror was our guide ? Sparing us words to tell our friends at home A tale of those destroyers, who so oft. With one strong buffet of their icy hands. Have plunged the mightiest ship beneath the deep. Nor left a lip to syllable her fate. ICEBERGS IN THE ATLANTIC. 117 O Thou, who spread us not on ocean s floor A sleeping- place unconsecrate with prayer. But brought us to our blessed homes again, And to the burial-places of our sires. Praise to thy holy name ! The morning of Sunday, April 18th, was serene but cold. Walking on the deck before breakfast, I could not but imagine that I detected the latent chill of ice in the atmosphere ; but the apprehension was not admitted by those who had more knowledge of those watery regions than myself. Our noble ship, the Great Western, vigorously pursued her way, and the deep, slightly agitated and strongly coloured, was exceedingly beautiful. We had divine worship in the saloon, and the dead-lights, which had been in for nearly a week, were removed. The service was read by Captain Hoskins, and the Rev. President Wayland gave an impressive discourse on the right education for eter- nity, from the passage, " Now see we through a glass darkly, but then face to face." At seven we went on deck to see a most glorious sunset. The king of day, robed in surpassing splen- dour, took his farewell of the last Sabbath that we were to spend at sea. While we were gazing with delight, a huge dark mass arose exactly in the bril- liant track of the departed orb. It was pronounced by the captain to be an iceberg three quarters of a mile in length, and its most prominent points 100 118 ICEBERGS IN THE ATLANTIC. feet high. Of course its entire altitude was 400 feet, as only one-third of the ice-mountains appear above the surface. It presented an irregular outline, tower- ing up into sharp and broken crags, and, at a distance, resembled the black hulks of several enormous men- of-war lashed together. Three others of smaller dimensions soon came on in its train, like a fleet fol- lowing the admiral. We were then in north latitude 43°, and in longitude 48° 40". We literally shivered with cold ; for, on the approach of these ambassadors from the frigid zone, the thermometer suddenly sank below the freezing point, leaving the temperature of the water 25°, and of the atmosphere 28°. On this strange and appalling scene the stars looked out, one after another, with their calm, pure eyes. All at once a glare of splendour burst forth, and a magnificent aurora borealis went streaming up the concave. The phosphorescence in our watery path was unusually brilliant, while over our heads flashed and dazzled this vast arch of scintillating flame. We seemed to be, at the same time, in a realm of fire and in a realm of frost; our poor, fleshly natures surrounded by contradictions, and the very elements themselves bewildered, and at conflict. And there they were, dashing and drifting around us, those terrible kings of the arctic, in their mountain majesty; while, like the tribes in the desert, our mysterious path was between the pillar of cloud and the pillar of flame. At nine, from the sentinels stationed at difibrent points of observation, a cry was made of " Ice ahead ! ICEBERGS IN THE ATLANTIC. 119 ice starboard ! ice leeward !" and we found ourselves suddenly imbedded in field-ice. To turn was im- possible; so a path was laboriously cut with the paddles, through which our steamer was propelled, stern foremost, not without peril, changing her course due south, in the teeth of a driving blast. When we were once more in an open sea, the captain advised the passengers to retire. This we did a little before midnight, if not to sleep, at least to seek that rest which might aid in preparing us for future trials. At three we were aroused by harsh grating, and occasional concussions, which caused the strong timbers of the ship to tremble. This was from floating masses of ice, by which, after having skirted an expanse of field-ice fifty miles in extent, we were surrounded. It varied from two to ^ve feet in thick- ness, viz., from eight inches to a foot and a half above the water, and was interspersed with icebergs, some of them comparatively small, and others of tremendous size and altitude. By the Divine blessing upon nautical skill and presence of mind, we were a second time extricated from this besieging and paralysing mass ; but our path still lay through clusters and hosts of icebergs, which covered the whole sea around us. The captain, who had not left his post of re- sponsibility during the night, reported between 300 and 400 distinct ones, visible to the naked eye. There they were, of all forms and sizes, and careering in every direction. Their general aspect was vitreous, or of a silvery whiteness, except when a sunbeam pierced the mist ; then they loomed up, and radiated 120 ICEBERGS IN THE ATLANTIC. with every hue of the rainbow, striking out turrets, and columns, and arches, like solid pearl and diamond, till we were transfixed with wonder at the terribly beautiful architecture of the northern deep. The engine of the Great Western accommodated itself every moment, like a living and intelligent thing, to the commands of the captain. " Half a stroke !'* and its tumultuous action was controlled ; " A quarter of a stroke !" and its breath seemed suspended ; " Stand still ! " and our huge bulk lay motionless upon the waters, till two or three of the icy squadron drifted by us ; " Let her go !" and with the velocity of lightning we darted by another detach- ment of our deadly foes. It was then that we were made sensible of the advantages of steam, to whose agency, at our embarkation, many of us had com- mitted ourselves with extreme reluctance. Yet a vessel more under the dominion of the winds, and beleaguered as we were amid walls of ice, in a rough sea, must inevitably have been destroyed. By nine in the morning of April 19th, it pleased God to set us free from this great danger. After- wards, when the smallest sails appeared on the distant horizon, our excellent captain caused two guns to be fired, to bespeak attention, and then, by flags and signals, warned them to avoid the fearful region, from which we had, with such difficulty, escaped. Two tiny barks came struggling through the billows to seek a more intimate conversation with the mighty steam-ship, who, herself not wholly unscathed from the recent contest, willingly dispensed her dear-bought ICEBERGS IN THE ATLANTIC. 121 wisdom. There was a kind of sublimity in this gift of advice and interchange of sympathy between the strong, experienced voyager, and the more frail, white-winged wanderers of the trackless waste of waters. It seemed like some aged Mentor, wayworn in life's weary pilgrimage, counselling him who had newly girded on his harness "not to be high-minded, but fear." As we drew near the end of our voyage, we felt how community in danger had endeared those to each other, who, during the sixteen days of their com- panionship upon the ocean, had been united by the courtesies of kind and friendly intercourse. Collected, as the passengers were, from various climes and nations, and many of them about to separate without hope of again meeting in this life, amid the joy which animated those who were approaching native land and home, the truth of the great moralist's axiom was realised, that " there is always some degree of sadness in doing anything for the last time." Hereafter, with the memory of each other will doubtless blend the terrific sublimity of that arctic scene which it was our privilege to witness, and the thrill of heartfelt gratitude to our Almighty Preserver. Sig(ywmey*8 " Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands" HOUSES AND STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG. Some of the private houses in St. Petersburg are of enormous extent. I knew one of which the ground- floor, on one side, was occupied by a public bazaar, in which thousands of the necessaries and conve- niences of life were offered for sale. On the other side, a multitude of German, English, and French mechanics and tradesmen had hung out their signs. On the first-floor dwelt two senators, and the families of various persons of distinction. On the second- floor was a school of very high repute, and a host of academicians, teachers, and professors, dwelt there with their families. In the back part of the build- ing, not to talk of a multitude of obscure personages, there resided several colonels and majors, a few retired generals, an Armenian priest, and a German pastor. Had all the rest of St. Petersburg gone to the ground, and this house alone remained, its inhabitants would have sufi&ced for the formation of a little political community of their own, in which every rank in society would have had its representa- tives. When such a house is burnt down, 200 fami- lies at once become roofless. To seek any one in such a house is a real trial of patience. Ask the policeman at the corner of the street, and he will tell you, per- haps, that his knowledge extends only to the one HOUSES AND STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG. 123 side of the house ; but that the names of those who live in the other half are unknown to him. There are so many holes and corners in such a house, that even those wlio dwell in it are unable to tell you the names of all the inmates ; and no man thinks another his neighbour, merely because they happen to live under the same roof. Many of these houses look unpretending enough when seen from the street, to which they always turn their smallest side; but enter the gateway, and you are astonished at the succession of side-buildings and back-buildings, of passages and courts, some of the latter large enough to review a regiment of cavalry in them. Few of the houses in St. Petersburg exceed two floors in height, except in one or two of the most central streets. A speculator, some time ago, built several houses of three stories, in one of the cross streets, and was completely ruined by the under- taking, for he could find no tenant who was willing to mount so high. On the other hand, even in the central parts of the city, there are not a few houses of only one floor in height, belonging to wealthy individuals, who, in the spirit of their national predi- lection, spread themselves out upon the ground, whereas a house of two stories, containing the same number of rooms, would only cost them half as much. To a Russian particularly, a wooden house holds out a multitude of recommendations. Firstly, wood is more easily fashioned into the wished-for shape than stone ; and then a wooden house is more quickly built, costs less, and is much warmer. The govern- 124 HOUSES AND STREETS ment discourages the erection of wooden houses in many ways ; nevertheless, the majority of the houses in St. Petersburg — perhaps two-thirds — are still of wood. The building of a house is a much more costly undertaking in St. Petersburg than in any other part of Russia. Provisions are dear, and the price of labour always comparatively high. Then the ground brings often enormously high prices. There are private houses, the mere ground-rent of which is valued at 200,000 rubles, a sum for which, in other parts of the empire, a man might buy an estate of several square leagues, with houses, woods, rivers, and lakes, and all the eagles, bears^ wolves, oxen, and human creatures that inhabit them. In parti- cularly favourable situations for business, as much as 1,000 rubles a year have been paid by way of rent for every window looking out into the street. The next thing that renders building so costly, is the difficulty of obtaining a solid foundation. The spongy nature of the soil makes it necessary for the builder to begin by constructing a strong scaffolding, underground, before he can think of rearing one over it. Every building, of any size, rests on piles, and would vanish like a stage-ghost, were it not for the enormous beams which furnish it support. Such is the pedestal on which stands the citadel, with all its walls ; and even the quays along the river- side, the foot-pavements, and the framework of the canals, must be secured in a similar way. The foundation alone for the Isaac's Church cost upwards of a OF ST. PETERSBURG. 125 million of rubles (£40,000), a sum for which a magnificent church might have been finished in most countries. Even with all this costly precaution, the builders do not always succeed in getting a solid basis to build on. After the inundation of 1824, the walls in many houses burst asunder, in consequence of the foundation having given way. The English Palace, as it is called, which lies on the road to Peterhof, has fairly separated from the steps leading up to it ; either the palace has drawn itself back one way, or the steps the other. On all the fine quays, the blocks of granite of which they are formed have settled more or less, and the street pavement in spring may be said to approach to a state of solu- tion ; when carriages drive over the ground, it shakes like a bog, and, in many places, the stones rise up or sink into the earth, forming often the most dangerous holes. The frosts of winter are particularly destructive to the buildings. The moisture, that finds its way during autumn into the pores of the stones, freezes in winter, and some of the largest stones are then rent and torn, and, on the return of spring, fall asunder. Most of the monuments of the capital have already suffered from this cause, and in another century will probably be falling into ruins. The rapidity with which buildings are run up in St. Petersburg is truly astonishing. This is partly owing to the shortness of the season during which building operations can be carried on, but partly also to the characteristic impatience of the Russians to 126 HOUSES AND STREETS see the termination of a work they have once com- menced. The new Winter Palace is one of the most striking examples of this. Within one year not less than twenty millions of rubles were expended upon the building ; the operations were not even allowed to suffer interruption from the frosts of winter, but fires were kept burning everywhere to prevent the materials from freezing, and to dry the walls. The same system has been acted on with respect to many of the private mansions of the nobility. Palaces, in short, are put together with a rapidity that can be compared only to that with which theatrical decora- tions are arranged ; this very rapidity, however, will make the city a more easy meal for old. Father Time to devour at a fitting season. He will have ground the brittle columns of bricks and mortar to powder, some thousands of years before his teeth will have been able to make an impression on some of the monuments of Egypt. The Russians build only to prepare ruins ; indeed, it is painful, in most of their cities, to see the early decrepitude of so many build- ings of a recent erection. They furnish a suitable picture of the precocious civilisation of the empire. It must, at the same time, be admitted, that similar remarks will apply to the modern architecture of other parts of Europe. Among the most magnificent ornaments of the mansions of St. Petersburg, must not be forgotten the splendid plate-glass of their windows. In most of the aristocratic saloons, there is at least one large window, composed of a single plate of glass, round OP ST. PETERSBURG. 127 which the ladies delight to range their work-tables, and their ottomans, whence they gaze out upon the animated tableaux vivans of the street. In some houses every window is fitted up on the same plan. They ought not, however, to be permitted on the ground-floor, for a poor milk-maid, or a porter with a load, passing by one of these costly windows, may be ruined by a single false step. A Russian is easily tempted to make changes in his house ; and the consequence is, that an abundance of building and unbuilding is at all times going on in St. Petersburg. A single dinner, or a ball, often causes a house to put on a new face. To augment the suite of rooms, a hole will perhaps be broken in a wall, and some additional apartments thus be gained, or a temporary room will be built over the balcony. The house of a genuine Russian rarely remains fourteen days without undergoing some change. The pavement of St. Petersburg, owing to the marshy nature of the soil, requires constant repair, and is, therefore, one of the most expensive that can be imagined. It is scarcely possible to obtain for it a firm foundation, whatever amount of rubbish or 'sand may have previously been laid down. The moisture penetrates through everywhere. I saw a riding-school, the bottom of which had been vaulted like a cellar, and, upon the solid masonry, sand and rubbish had been laid to the depth of two yards, and yet the horses were constantly wading through mud. It is not to be denied that the Russian pavements 1 28 HOUSES AND STREETS are in general very bad — good-looking enough when just laid down, but calculated rather for show than wear. One kind of pavement, however, is admirable in St. Petersburg; I mean the wood pavement, over which the carriages roll as smoothly and as noiselessly as ivory balls over a billiard-table. The pavement, however, is a matter of less importance here than in most of the European capitals. For more than six months of the year, the streets of St. Petersburg are filled with snow and ice, that form a more convenient road for man and horse than any that art has been able to construct. In autumn, vast quantities of snow begin to fall, and lie at first in loose and formless masses, through which the Russian steeds dash fearlessly, scattering showers of sparkling flakes around them in their progress. Gradually the snow is beaten down, and then forms a beautiful, solid, even way, and, in most of the streets, the mass remains compact throughout the winter. On the return of spring, all this undergoes a remarkable change. In German cities, the police usually take care to remove the snow; but in St. Petersburg, owing to the great accumulation in its broad streets, this would scarcely be possible. All that the police, therefore, do, when the thaw sets in in good earnest, is to cut trenches through the icy mass, to allow the water to run off in proportion as the snow melts. It is not difficult to imagine the filthy state in which the streets necessarily remain under these circumstances. The month of May is in general far advanced, when the pavement still pre- OF ST. PETERSBURG. 129 sents nothing to the eye but a lake of mud, with a dirty stream of water rolling through the centre, where the gutter is invariably constructed. The horses are often all but swimming, and a man may sometimes be thankful if he can get from the house- door into liis carriage without an accident. This season must be a regular harvest for the brushmakers. The lackeys and shoeblacks are heard to groan aloud over the condition of their masters' boots and cloaks, and to swear that they never hired themselves for such dirty work. A sudden return of frost often restores the whole mass to a solid substance. The streets are then covered again with ice, on which many an over-driven horse is doomed to break a limb. A Russian ishvoshtik (cabman) prefers his sledge to every other kind of vehicle, and continues to use it as long as an apology for snow is to be found in the streets. The consequence is, that sledges will often be seen on the shady side, when, on the sunny side, nothing but a wheeled carriage is able to get along. The dust in summer is intolerable, as in most Russian towns, and owing to the same reasons : the immense width of the streets, and the vast, open, unpaved squares or places that everywhere abound, leaving the wind to exercise its power without con- trol. If in some of our closely-built European cities, the want of open spaces is felt as an evil, the Russian cities, and St. Petersburg in particular, may be said to have gone into the other extreme. 130 HOUSES AND STREETS The unnecessary space allowed for their streets, makes it almost impossible to light them at night, or to obtain shade in them by day. During sum- mer, no lamps are necessary, the streets being then nearly as light at midnight as in London at noon, and the long days that prevail one half of the year, are, perhaps, in part answerable for the imperfect manner in which the streets are lighted during the long winter-nights. The small oil-lamps, then lighted, are large enough to be seen themselves, but not to make other objects visible. They are placed at the sides of the street, whence their rays are scarcely able to reach the centre. They diffuse light only to a distance of about four paces, and, when seen from a more remote point, look only like little stars. The broad long streets on a clear night look pretty enough with their double rows of little stars; but these serve more for ornament than use. In the Nevskoi Prospekt, indeed, there is no lack of illumination, the shops being for the most part brilliantly lighted up ; but, in some streets, even the glimmering oil-lamps are wanting, and in such a neighbourhood the poor wanderer is grateful for the little light that may escape from some social sitting- room, of which the shutters have been charitably left unclosed. Notwithstanding this gloomy darkness, the streets are not wanting in life, though it is often not without positive danger that a pedestrian can ven- ture from one side to the other. Sledges are every moment seen to emerge from obscurity, and to OF ST. PETERSBURG. 131 plunge again as rapidly into impenetrable gloom. Huge shadows seem to be pursuing each other over the snow, the incessant cry of the drivers, ''Padyee, padyee ! " (Place, place ! ) " Beregissa ! " (Have a care ! ) serving them as a mutual warning. The skill and care of these drivers are really deserving of great praise; for accidents, after all, are of rare occurrence. The quiet character of the Russians is shown by the great rarity of murders and other acts of violence during these long dark winter nights. Three ineffectual attempts have been made to light the city with gas. The huge placards and the colossal letters, by which the tradesmen of London and Paris seek to attract public attention, are unknown in St. Peters- burg. The reading public there is extremely limited ; and the merchant, who wishes to recommend himself to the multitude, must have recourse to a less lettered process. This accounts for the abundance of pictorial illustrations that decorate so many of the shop-fronts, or advertise the passenger that such and such an artist may be found within. The optician announces his calling by a profuse display of spectacles and telescopes ; the butcher suspends in the front of his establishment a couple of painted oxen, or perhaps a portrait of himself in the act of presenting a ruddy joint to a passing dame. The signs, that speak the only mute language intelligible to a Russian multi- tude, relieve in some measure the monotony of the streets. The baker is sure to have a board over his door, with a representation of every species of roll K 2 132 HOUSES AND STREETS and loaf offered for sale in his shop ; the tallow- chandler is equally careful to suspend the portraits of all his varieties of longs and shorts destined for the enlightenment of mankind. The musician, the pastry-cook, and, in short, every handicraftsman to whom the humbler classes are likely to apply, have adopted the same plan; and from the second and third floors huge pictures may sometimes be seen suspended, with appalling likenesses of fiddles, flutes, tarts, sugar-plums, sausages, smoked hams, coats, caps, shoes, stockings, &c. For a barber the customary symbol is the follow- ing picture : — A lady sits fainting in a chair ; before her stands the man of science, with a glittering lancet in his handj and from her snow-white arm a purple fountain springs into the air, to fall afterwards into a basin held by an attendant youth. By the side of the lady sits a phlegmatic philosopher, undergoing the operation of shaving, without manifesting the slightest sympathy for the fair sufferer. Around the whole is a kind of arabesque border, composed of black leeches and instruments for drawing teeth. This picture is of frequent occurrence in every large Russian town. Most of these pictures are very tolerably executed; and that of a Parisian milliner is particularly entitled to commendation, for the art expended on the gauze caps and the lace trimmings. Nor must it be sup- posed that the merchant is content with displaying only one or two of the articles in which he deals ; no, the whole shop must figure on the board, and not OF ST. PETERSBURG. 133 only the dealer, but his customers must be portrayed there. The coiFee-house keeper does not think he has done enough when he has displayed a steaming kettle and a graceful array of cups ; he must have a whole party making themselves comfortable over their coffee and cigars, and crying to the wavering passenger, " Go thou and do likewise." The jeweller must have not only rings, and stars, and crosses, but he must have generals and excellencies as large as life, with their breasts blazing with orders, and at least five fingers on each hand laden with rings. The Russians attach great importance to these signs ; and a stranger may obtain from them some knowledge of the man- ners of the people. Abridged from Kohl's ^^ Russia." COW-MILKING IN THE BUSH. We strolled on leisurely through the bush, and were within a short distance of New Norfolk, when our ears were suddenly assailed by a confusion of sounds that startled the quiet wilderness, and made us wonder what outbreak or disorder could occasion such a furious outcry. Presently we descried a horse- man riding with all his might through the trees beside us, now jumping over fallen timber, then ducking his head to avoid the branches of trees, but in spite of the dangers which he seemed ever to avoid 134 COW-MILKING IN THE BUSH. by some special miracle, still keeping at the top of his speed, and urging on his horse, which seemed to be as much excited as the rider. Presently the cracking, it seemed, of innumerable whips, making sharp reports like small fire-arms, was heard around, and a straggling multitude began to encircle us. * * My kangaroo-skin friend seemed to regard with a sort of scornful glee the hurly-burly around us. * * " Now," said he, " master, you '11 see how they manage some matters in this beautiful country." "What can the matter be?" said I. As I pro- nounced these words, a sudden crash of dead boughs and dry bushes, at no great distance from us, excited in me apprehension of danger. Instinctively I turned to the quarter whence the threatening sounds pro- ceeded, and stood ready with my fowling-piece against accidents. I saw my friend Crab give a grim smile at this movement, as I was inclined to do myself, had I not been, I must confess, rather frightened ; for at this moment I beheld a mad bull, as it seemed to me, making right to the spot where we stood. The animal appeared to be in a state of the most intense excitement, with its mouth covered with foam, its nostrils dilated, eyes wild, and its tail twisted into that corkscrew figure indicative of a disposition to mischief. I jumped aside as the creature made a plunge at me, glad enough to escape. " It 's a mad cow," said I. " I suppose this climate makes cattle very savage when they get worried ? " " Not madder than the people that are after her," said Crab ; " however, wait a bit till you see the end of it." By COW-MILKING IN THE BUSH. 135 this time we were in the midst of the crowd which was chasing the cow, but I could not yet divine their particular object. " What do you want to do with her ?" said I to a tall thin man, who had ceased for a moment to crack his whip ; " she seems terribly wild." " Wild !" said he, " the brute is always wild, but she 's one of the best milkers I 've got, and have her in the stock-yard I will this blessed evening, if I raise all New Norfolk for it." " I shall be glad to lend a hand," said I, " but I 'm not used to the ways of the country yet, and perhaps I might do harm instead of good." But my aid was not wanted on this occasion, for at this moment a general shout in the distance proclaimed that the victory was won. * '^ The cow, however, was not milked yet ; to arrive at that conclusion, some further steps were neces- sary. The animal was now standing with its legs firmly planted before it, its neck elongated, its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and kicking with its hind legs continuously. These refractory mem- bers were now secured by a loop, into which they were dexterously insinuated, and half a dozen men catching up the end, hauled it out, and kept it on the stretch, to prevent her from plunging about. The creature, it seems, was now in a correct posture to be milked. Crab gave me another look. The man with the one-legged stool and pannikin now advanced, speaking soothingly to the animal to be operated on, and using much ceremony and caution on his approach. Seizing a favourable opportunity^ he contrived to squeeze a few drops of milk into 136 COW-MILKING IN THE BUSH. his pannikin; but the sensitive cow, outraged, it seemed, at this indignity on her person, gave a sudden plunge, which upset the heel-rope holders, and, recovering her legs, she kicked man, stool, and pannikin over and over. Shouts of laughter proclaimed the amusement of the bystanders, and numerous were the gibes and jeers lavished on the occasion. And now, the pride of the stockmen being roused, and their honour being piqued by the presence, besides, of two strangers, the witnesses of their manoeuvres, they set-to again to manacle the almost spent animal ; and he of the pannikin, discarding the stool as a womanly encumbrance, boldly kneeling down, with the determination of a hero, and undaunted by the meanings and writhings of his victim, contrived to exude from her about half a pint of milk. This triumph achieved, the cow was set at liberty, the poles of the gateway were withdrawn, and the animal bounded into the bush. There were about thirty people assembled, among whom were one or two women. I observed that some of the men were provided with ropes made of bullock's hide twisted together, of great strength. I was still puzzled to know what was intended by all these preparations. Presently a farming man appeared, with a tin pannikin of a half-pint mea- sure, and a stool with one leg. The stool with one leg looked like a design to milk the animal, but what the tin pannikin was for was a mystery to me. Had there been a railk-pail, I should have made out their object at once; but this piece of COW-MILKING IN THE BUSH. 137 machinery was as yet but little known in the colony. I continued to watch the proceedings with great interest, when presently a man advanced with a stoutish long stick, or a small pole, with a hide- rope forming a large loop at the end of it ; the other part of the rope he held in one hand in a coil. Climbing over the rails of the stock-yard, which were formed of the solid trunks of trees placed lengthways, about six feet high, he stood within the space. The cow eyed him as if she was used to the game, and without waiting to be attacked, made a dart at him ferociously. This did not dis- concert the man with the pole and loop, who, stepping aside with the most perfect coolness, and with infinite agility, let the animal knock her head against the rails, which she did with a force that made the massive pile tremble. This process was repeated several times, to the great amusement of the spectators, some of whom applauded the pole- bearer s nimbleness, while others were inclined to back the cow. " That was a near go," said one, as the beast made a sudden plunge at her tormentor, tearing off, with her horn, a portion of his jacket ; *' she '11 pin you presently, Jem." " Never fear," said Jem, "a miss is as good as a mile. She is the most cantankerous varmint I ever seed : but I'll have her yet." "What are you going to do," said I, " kill her ? " " Kill her ! " exclaimed my tall friend ; " what ! kill the best, the nicest, and sweetest- tempered creature of the whole herd ; she's so tame, she'll almost let you pat her, only she 138 COW-MILKING IN THE BUSH. doesn t like to be milked ; that always puts her out. Now for it, Jemmy, that 's the way ; haul in quick, keep it up — don't slack — hold her tight; now we Ve got her. Where 's the foot-rope ? " Watching his opportunity, the man with the pole had succeeded in throwing the loop over the animal's horns, and two or three men on the outside of the yard, quickly gathering the end of it, hauled it taut, as seamen do a cable in getting up the anchor, round the thick stump of a tree. " Tales of the Colonies ; or, Adventures of an Emigrant.''^ POMARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. About nine o'clock, a. m., Queen Pomare was seen moving in state along the beach, escorted by her body-guards, numbering over a hundred, who, at the distance we viewed them, presented a very imposing pageant. Before the procession were borne the royal standards of Tahiti, red, white, and red, in horizontal bars ; then followed the queen and king ; and after them, their dashing soldiery, two by two, ''Hn proportione perturhata^' as the geometricians say. The rear was brought up by all who could make any pretensions to decency of appearance ; the whole pro- cession extending to a great distance along the beach, and, in this order, moving slowly along towards the church. Soon after they had passed, Captain Spring POMARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. 139 and I directed our steps thither, and entered a large thatched building upon the beach, within a few yards of the water. The body of the church was occupied by the queen and the military, and the galleries principally by women. We took seats near the pulpit, in full view of her majesty and her retinue. Queen Pom are is a good-looking woman, of a light olive complexion, with very dark expressive eyes, and black hair. In person she is about the medium height, and is rather inclined to embonpoint^ and as she stood up several times during the service, she rose with an air of dignity that was truly royal. She wore a white satin hat, flaring open and flattened upon the upper rim, after the Tahitian style, trimmed with broad satin ribband and then surmounted by three white ostrich feathers. Her dress was of satin or figured silk of a pink colour, with slippers to correspond. The husband of the queen, Pomare-tane^ — " Pomare's-man,'* as he is usually called, — sustains the relation of a Prince Albert to the government. He is a young man of about twenty-one years of age, while her majesty is not far from thirty ; a disparity, on the side of the lady, highly averse to our notions of propriety. In the afluirs of the government he has no power, as he was an inferior chief before his marriage with Pom are ; but, in domestic matters, is very tenacious of his rights. Pomare-tane is a good- looking man, with very much of the bon-vivant in his appearance, and an easy good-humoured way about him. Although so young, his hair is very gray, an indication of age, prematurely developed, I 140 POM ARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. doubt not, by the repeated floggings he received from her majesty many years ago, when he was but a mere boy — occurrences entirely contrary to the order of nature. Pomare-tane was, however, very restive under her authority, and, stimulated by the foreigners, had many desperate contests with his spouse, until she was compelled to succumb to his superior prowess. Since then, if reports speak true, he has not only administered wholesome chastisement for offences coming under his immediate supervision, but repays with compound interest her maternal care over him in his boyish days. Invested in a brilliant crimson uniform, decked with gold epaulets, a sword at his side, and his chapeau surmounted by white ostrich feathers, his majesty presented a highly imposing appearance. It would have been a matter of deep envy to all hen-pecked husbands, acquainted with the past history of his household, to have witnessed with what utter nonchalance his majesty attended his royal spouse, appearing entirely regardless of her presence. The oJB&cers of the royal household, eight or ten in number perhaps, were dressed in uniforms, but of various colours and fashions, which had been adopted as chance, or the visit of some man-of-war, gave them an opportunity for purchasing. White panta- loons were indulged in by all ; but the state of them indicated either a ludicrous deficiency of material, or a peculiar taste for imitating small clothes^ which they were essentially, as far as regards dimensions. One or two of these worthies wore a pair of stockings; POM ARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. 141 but most of them inserted their feet into thick leather boxes, without any intervening obstacle. The garb of one of these gentlemen struck me as being entirely anomalous : it consisted of a clergyman's black coat, of a most peaceful character, transmuted into the "horrid aspect of war," by means of sundry red stripes, about half an inch wide, bounding the outline of the coat, around which was buckled a bright red sword-belt — a combination of colours that was quite enchanting. The officers of the queen s guards are undoubtedly the highest chiefs of the nation ; no very illustrious personages, one would infer from the fact, that they have been seen paddling off to a man-of-war, with nothing but a maro around the waist, to solicit the privilege of washing the clothes of any one who would favour them with his patronage, from the officer who promenaded the quarter-deck down to Jack before the mast. These are specimens of much of the nobility of the Pacific Islands. Behind the officers were seated the privates, with an approach towards similarity in their uniforms, which were blue, and at a distance would have appeared very well, but whose diversity of trimming was revealed by our proximity. Some of these coats were buttoned together ; others had fastenings of hooks and eyes ; and not .a few were held together by drawing a threaded needle from side to side, which from ap- pearances must have taken wonderful strides in many instances. The nether garments of the soldiery were always white, but, in many instances, prepared 142 POMARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. without observing this invariable law of nature, that a large man requires garments of corresponding pro- portions. The ingenuity of one of these, displayed in devising expedients, was highly creditable to him. By some miscalculation, his coat and pantaloons, when adjusted to his person, were found not to be within six inches of one another, which disclosed a " hiatus valde deflendus " between the top of his nether garments and the edge of his coat. In this crisis, he had procured a large black silk neckerchief, which, encircling his waist, and secured in a huge knot in front, effectually concealed the unskilfulness of his tailor. The soldiers, agreeably to the advice of the missionaries, leave their muskets at their quarters on the Sabbath, and carry nothing but ramrods. Their principal employment, as well as that of their officers, appeared to be in criticising and admiring the peculiar taste each one had displayed in the decoration of his uniform. Queen Pom are seemed to be extremely anxious to exhibit her soldiery advantageously; and many were the searching looks she darted in among them, to see if any were indulg- ing in their propensity to avail themselves of the occasion for repose. The congregation was rather disorderly, owing to the constant restlessness of some who were running in and out of the church every few minutes. Tahitians are extremely fond of dress and show ; and although the maintenance of one hundred and fifty men, of which the royal body-guard consists, is impoverishing the nation, yet they are not discon- POMARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. 143 tented, as their ruling passion is gratified. The queen is constantly endeavouring to augment the grandeur of her appearance, much to the injury of the finances of her government ; and, notwithstanding the heavy expense she has incurred in the equipment of this body of men, she has sent orders to Sydney, in New Holland, for additional articles. Her principal object at present, in collecting together and keeping under arms so large a body of men — large in proportion to the population — is for the purpose of making a grand display in an intended excursion to some of the Lee* ward Islands, which has been determined upon every few days for the last six weeks, and as often post- poned. Several days after seeing her at church, we were alarmed on board the Flora by the discharge of artillery at intervals of every few minutes, the rolling of drums, and the gathering of a dense throng of natives upon the beach, in gay costumes. The three or four small vessels, belonging to her majesty, were crowded to overflowing, the sails were hoisted, and the national colours were gaily waving from the masthead, when an unlooked-for obstacle presented itself, which put a stop to all further proceedings. In the eagerness for commencing the excursion, the idea did not occur that these little vessels might not possess sufficiently ample dimensions for the large retinue that were to attend her majesty ; and it was not until it was demonstrated, in the present instance, that the fact was apparent, and the expedi- tion was, of necessity, postponed, much to the chagrin of her majesty. So desirous is she of 144 POMARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. making a constant display, that she never appears in public without being followed by half a dozen soldiers, who step with a becoming consciousness of a proximity to royalty. On a subsequent day, when she was returning to Papeete from a visit to Point Yenus, the attempt at magnificence had a semblance of the ludicrous. As soon as the royal barge — in this case, a whale-boat — was seen entering the bay, with the national ensign waving proudly over Her Tahitian Majesty, a salute was fired by one of her loyal subjects, who was stationed upon the beach with a musket in his hand, which he continued to load and discharge with as much rapidity as possible, until her majesty reached the shore, exhi- biting the most praiseworthy zeal upon the occasion. Pomare is a constant attendant upon church, but is scrupulously careful to appear in the afternoon in a different dress from the one she assumed in the morning. This is, however, the prevailing fashion among the elite of Tahiti, in which respect they imitate the fashionables at most of our watering- places, whose constant study, in some instances, appears to be the acquisition of the cameleon-like property of changing the hue of their garb every time they appear in public. The Tahitians are a finer- looking race than the Hawaiians ; for the features are more regular, and their complexion of a lighter shade of colour. Their men are generally tall and well-formed ; and the women are, many of them, very pretty, with their long dark hair hanging gracefully over their shoulders, relieved by some bright flower POM ARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. 145 interwoven with their tresses ; and my taste for the beautiful was in no instance shocked with ugliness, as was frequently the case at the Hawaiian islands. It is astonishing at what an early age they arrive at maturity. I saw numbers of them afterwards, whose ages were far from what I should have judged from their appearance ; for they look older at thirteen than American women do at the age of twenty-three or twenty-five. At the church, the congregation was very well dressed, and presented a neat appearance, that was highly creditable to them. The singing was very delightful, although it was entirely unlike anything I have ever heard before. The Tahitians have such a natural faculty for music, that they not only catch a tune with readiness, but even adapt symphonious parts to it; and their voices blend together in a strange but agreeable harmony. The church is a large and convenient edifice, and the rafters and framework supporting the roof are con- cealed in part by ornamental matting, extending ten or fifteen feet upwards from the wall. At the conclusion of the services, the soldiery were extended from the church door in two parallel rows, facing inwards, between which the royal party marched to the head of the column, and then led the way in solemn state along the beach, through the dust and over the stones, shells and bones, strewn plentifully in their path, instead of a direct course to the " palace," by a delightful road, which led along under the cool bread-fruit groves. This preference had no other object than to present an imposing pageant to 146 POMARE, QUEEN OF TAHITI. the shipping at anchor in the harbour. In company with my friend, I took a walk through the lovely grove at the back of the beach to the " palace,** by which appellation the queen s residence is designated by the natives. It is the largest house in Papeete, though but one story high, running up in a peaked roof of thatch, and having a wide piazza extending entirely across the front. It is situated within an inclosure of green grass, and presents a somewhat pretty appearance, although, as a royal residence, it would be thought rather humble. At the gate were lounging three sentinels, whose attitudes indicated a judicious regard for their personal comfort. As the royal cortege had not yet come in sight, we seated ourselves in the piazza to await its approach, and before long it was seen deploying through the trees. The officers of the household came first, who separated at the entrance, and, walking in solemn style up to the door-step, faced inwards, with hats doffed, while Queen Pomare and Pomare-tane passed between them, and took their seats in the piazza, as the soldiery were arrang- ing themselves in the form of a crescent upon the greensward before us. Meanwhile, I shook hands with the king, with whom I had previously been made acquainted, and was then presented to Her Tahitian Majesty by my friend. The " presentation** was divested of any Court formalities, and consisted in merely shaking hands, and saying " Your honour, boy,** which is the exact sound, when spoken rapidly, of the native salutation, " la ora na oe/* or " Peace be with you.*' Her majesty was not very communicative, POM ARE, QUEEN OP TAHITI. 147 as all her attention was absorbed in watching the movements of her guards, and in refreshing herself with plentiful draughts from a cocoa-nut^ which had been brought to her the moment she arrived ; while Pomare-tane produced some cigars, and, offering one to me, adjusted himself for smoking with the utmost tranquillity. In imitation of the queen, I called for a cocoa-nut, and refreshed myself with its delicious beverage, entertaining the most benevolent wishes for the prosperity of Her Tahitian Majesty. The soldiers, as I have before said, were marshalling themselves in a semicircle in front of the palace, to be reviewed by the queen. At the word of command they succeeded in averting their faces, although some of them manifested a strong indecision of mind with regard to those opposite positions of the body, "front" and "rear." After going through the intri- cate manoeuvres of presenting their faces and their backs to the royal vision^ they were dismissed, and my friend and I took our leave of their majesties. Olmsted* 8 '* Incidents of a Whaling Voyage,'* l2 JEWS IN POLAND. If anything is calculated to make a residence in Lemberg, or, indeed, in any part of Poland, disagree- able, it is the Jews — those torments of peasants and travellers. During our stay, we were generally sur- rounded with them, even before breakfast. While we were yet in bed, slumbering drowsily on our pillows, they were generally round us screaming their various offers into our ears. Three factors, each of whom announced himself as the one real factor of our hotel ; ten drivers, who offered to convey us safely and comfortably to any part of the world, at a mo- ment's notice — and whom we in vain assured that we had yet no intention of proceeding further ; a dozen brokers, who offered to transact business for us anywhere, of any kind ; and innumerable vendors of new and old wares, who importuned us to purchase wares we did not want : these officious tormentors often plagued us so, that we sought refuge in the street, in sheer despair. There, however, we were no better off. The stranger has no chance of escaping the eyes of these pitiless vultures, who follow and fasten on him like a swarm of bees. Nothing can exceed the officious and tormenting importunity of the Polish Jews ; no assurances, no declarations, suffice. One may give them all denials a thousand times a day without getting rid of one of them. JEWS IN POLAND. 149 A detailed history of the Jews in Poland, by the hand of any one who knew and understood them, would abound in extraordinary and interesting events and anecdotes; and a description of their present condition would combine pictures of the most squalid misery and of the greatest luxury. The extraordinary privileges with which the Polish nobles have some- times, and the degrading treatment with which they have at other times, loaded them, have given rise to the greatest extremes in their condition. Sometimes the Jews, who had their own deputies at Warsaw, and their own marshal over them, appeared to form a state within the state, preparing to face the Poles as nation to nation ; sometimes, on the contrary, they were made the slaves of slaves. The affairs of the Court at Warsaw have often been guided by some fair Jewish Esther. Conspira- cies and insurrections of the Jews have often taken place; and, in the wars of the Poles for independence, the Jews, who mourn with them for the downfall of the old republic, took an active part. Casimir the Great, upon whom a Jewish mistress exercised great influence, enacted many laws highly advantageous to them. He gave them a privileged court of justice, for settling their disputes with Gentiles, and other courts of their own for settling their disputes among themselves; he freed them from all state burdens, and endeavoured to relieve them from the tyranny and oppression of their masters. This tyranny and oppression have, however, continued ever since to be exercised upon them ; and the nobleman has always 150 JEWS IN POLAND. done what he pleased with the Jews on his estate. He fines, and increases at pleasure the taxes which they pay him ; and the fear of driving away these useful slaves, by overweening tyranny, is the only restraint upon his despotic caprice. The law forbids the nobleman to flog his Jews; but the Jew, dependent upon his master s humour in so many respects, dares not claim the protection of the law ; and, in reward for his endurance, he is allowed to tyrannise over the peasant, as the noble tyrannises over him. It was formerly a common custom for the Polish nobles to keep Jews at their castles as fools. Even now, these Jewish jesters are often met with in great families; they bear every kind of insult and ill- treatment with patience and servility. They are treated just like house-dogs, eat and sleep in their masters' rooms, but are the butts and scapegoats of the whole family, on whom each throws his own sins, and vents his own ill-humour. In a certain Polish household, there lived lately a house Jeio of this kind. He had received the brilliant name of Prince Friedrich, and was never called by any other. He was as elegantly dressed as the master of the house, and was fed by every one like a pet parrot. Each member of the family was continually popping things into his mouth, which he was compelled to swallow : if he was in favour, it was a lump of sugar ; if they wished to tease him, rhubarb and magnesia, and sometimes a rap on the knuckles at the same time. He was obliged to be alternately rocking-horse, dancing-bear, draught-ox, and jack-ass JEWS IN POLAND. 151 for the children, as they and their play required. On Sundays, they dressed him up and masked him, now as a negro, now as a Brahmin, now as a he-goat, and now as Jupiter, or Pluto. The master himself often played tricks upon his fool, even more piquant than those of his children, for they did not always pass off without bloodshed. One day the Jew met him in the castle-court, just as he returned from the chase in a great ill-humour, having shot nothing. " I hope the guddige Herr has had a good day's sport ?'* said the fool, bowing low. " Peace ! Jew ! I have n t so much as shot one chattering magpie. My gun is still loaded. But stay — I think I can bring down a magpie yet ! Up into the tree, sirrah ! Up ! no flinching ! Higher, higher, or 1 11 give you the ball in your head ! Up into that branch — now sit still, magpie !" So saying, he discharged the contents of the gun into the leg of the screaming Jew, who fell down from the tree into the court- yard, and the nobleman rode past him laughing heartily, and fully content with his day's sport. The Jew was taken up, cured, fed with honey and bonbons^ and remained in the house as before. At Lemberg, we were told of two young noble- men who had, a short time previously, played the following trick, by no means the worst of which I was told at the time. They had been riding along a yery dirty road, and came to a Jewish village, where some Jewish families, men, women, and children, all attired in their Sabbath splendour, were walking along the clean pathway, while the young noblemen 152 JEWS IN POLAND. were splashed with mud from top to toe. " Look at the Jews how fine they are, with their white stockings and bright black shoes. They go in finer clothes than the nobility of the country." " Let us make them dance in the mud a bit," proposed one. The proposal met with the greatest approbation. " Down, Jews, down from the foot-path ; you shall have a fine Sunday's sport. Come, dance a mazurka here in the mud. We will provide music." The Jews prayed the " good gentlemen" to have mercy, and not to turn the merry jest into mournful earnest ; but the latter ordered their servants to blow a mazurka on their hunting-horns, and, driving the Jews into the mud with their horsewhips, forced them to dance in pairs, to the united music of the hunting-horns and horsewhips, until they were covered with mud, when the young nobles rode on, delighted with their practical joke. To the honour of the Austrian government, however, it must be added, that such things very seldom happen in Galicia. All the Polish Jews have tall, meagre figures, that is to say, the men ; for the women, probably on account of their inactive way of life, are often stout. The men are wrapped in a long caftan, generally of silk, and always black, which is confined round the waist by a silken girdle. Their complexion is always pale ; and this does not appear to be occasioned by personal cares and troubles, but to be the common colour of the race. Their complexion, however, is at the same time delicate, so that their faces often JEWS IN POLAND. 153 look as if they had been carved of alabaster. Their hands are, in general, remarkably soft and delicate ; and I have seen such brilliant eyes, such bright dark hair, such beautiful forms, such noble countenances, among the Polish Jews, that I have often wondered how such beings could grow up in such deep social degradation and abasement. There are parts of Lithuania where every Jew is a handsome man. KohVs ^* Austria.* RENCONTRE WITH AN ELEPHANT NEAR MOSCOW. I AM now writing at a post-house between Vladi- mir and Moscow. Among all the chances and accidents by which a traveller is in danger of losing his life on a Russian high-road, the imagination of the reader would be at fault to single out the one by which my life has been just menaced. The danger was so great, that, without the address, the strength, and the presence of mind, of my Italian servant, I should not be the writer of the following account : — It was necessary that the Schah of Persia should have an object in conciliating the friendship of the Emperor of Russia ; and that, with this view, build- ing his expectations upon bulky presents, he should send to the Czar one of the most enormous black elephants of Asia : it was also needful that this 154 RENCONTRE WITH AN ELEPHANT walking tower should be clothed with superb hang- ings, serving as a caparison for the colossus, and that he should be escorted by a cortege of horsemen, resembling a cloud of grasshoppers ; that the whole should be followed by a file of camels, who appeared no larger than donkeys by the side of this elephant, the most enormous that I ever beheld : it was yet further necessary, that at the summit of the living monument should be seen a man with olive com- plexion, and oriental costume, carrying a parasol, and sitting cross-legged upon the back of the monster ; and, finally, it was necessary that, whilst this potentate of the desert was forced to journey on foot towards Petersburg, where the climate will soon transfer him to the collection of the mammoths and the mastodons, I should be travelling post by the same route, and that my departure from Vladimir should so coincide with that of the Persians, that, at a certain point of the deserted road, the gallop of my Russian horses should bring me behind them, and make it necessary to pass by the side of the giant : — it required nothing less, I say, than all these combined circumstances, to explain the danger caused by the terror that seized my four horses, on seeing before them an animated pyramid, moving as if by magic in the midst of a crowd of strange-looking men and beasts. Their astonishment as they approached the colossus was at first shown by a general start aside, by extra- ordinary neighings and snortings, and by refusing to proceed. But the words and the whip of the coach- NEAR MOSCOW. 155 man at length so far mastered them, as to compel them to pass the fantastic object of their terror. They submitted trembling ; their manes stood erect ; and scarcely were they alongside of the monster than, reproaching themselves, as it were, for a courage which was nothing more than fear of another object, they yielded to their panic, and the voice and reins of the driver became useless. The man was conquered at the moment when he thought himself the conqueror. Scarcely had the horses felt that the elephant was behind them, than they dashed off at full speed, heedless as to where their blind frenzy might carry them. This furious course had very nearly cost us our lives ; the coachman, bewildered and powerless, remained immovable on his seat, and slackened the reins; the feldjager, placed beside him^ partook of his stupefaction and helplessness; Antonio and I, seated within the caleche, which was closed, on ac- count of the weather and my ailment, remained pale and mute. Our species of tarandasse has no doors ; it is a boat, over the sides of which we have to step to get in or out. On a sudden, the maddened horses swerved from the road, and dashed at an almost per- pendicular bank, about ten feet high : one of the small fore-wheels was already buried in the bank side ; two of the horses had reached the top without breaking the traces ; I saw their feet on a level with our heads ; one strain more, and the coach would have followed, but certainly not upon its wheels. I thought all was over with us. The Cossacks who escorted the puis- sant cause of this peril, seeing our critical situation. 156 RENCONTRE WITH AN ELEPHANT had the prudeoce to avoid following us, for fear of further exciting our horses ; I, without even thinking of springing from the carriage, had commended my soul to God, when suddenly Antonio disappeared : I thought he was killed. The head and leather cur- tains of the caleche concealed the scene from me, but at the same moment I felt the horses stop. " We are saved,'' cried Antonio. This we touched me, for he himself was beyond all danger, after having suc- ceeded in getting out of the caleche without accident. His rare presence of mind had indicated to him the moment favourable to springing out with the least risk; afterwards, with that agility which strong emotions impart, but which they cannot explain, he found himself, without knowing how, upon the top of the bank, at the heads of the two horses who had scaled it, and whose desperate efforts threatened to destroy us all. The carriage was just about to over- turn when the horses were stopped ; but Antonio's activity gave time to the others to follow his example. TJfe^ coachman was in a moment at the heads of the two other horses, while the courier propped up the coach ; at the same moment the Cossack guard of the elephant, who had put their horses to a gallop, arrived to our assistance ; they made me alight, and helped my people to hold the still trembling horses. Never was an accident more nearly being disastrous, and never was one repaired at less cost. Not a screw of the coach was disturbed, and scarcely a strap of harness broken. At the expiration of a quarter of an hour, Antonio GIGANTIC ELEPHANT. Page 157 . NEAR MOSCOW. 157 was seated quietly by my side in the caleche ; in another ten minutes he was as fast asleep as if he had not been the means of saving all our lives. While they put the harness in order, I approached the cause of all this mischief. The groom of the elephant had prudently led him into the wood adjoining one of the side-alleys of the road. The formidable beast appeared to me yet larger, after the peril to which he had ex- posed me. His trunk, busy in the top of the birch- trees, reminded me of a boa twisted among the palms. I began to make excuses for my horses, and left him, giving thanks to God for having escaped a death which at one moment appeared to me inevitable. Marquis de Custine^s ^^ Empire of the Czar.*^ A FREE INDIAN GENTLEMAN. One of the trappers was from New Hampshire. He had been educated at Dartmouth College, and was, altogether, one of the most remarkable men I ever knew— a splendid gentleman, a finished scholar, a critic in English and Roman literature, a politician, a trapper, an Indian ! His stature was something more than six feet; his shoulders and chest were broad, and his arms and lower limbs well formed and very muscular. His forehead was high and expan- sive ; causality, comparison, eventuality, and all the perceptive organs, to use a phrenological description, 158 A FREE INDIAN GENTLEMAN. remarkably large ; locality was, however, larger than any other organ in the frontal region ; benevolence, wonder, ideality, secretiveness, destructiveness, and adhesiveness, combativeness, self-esteem, and hope, were very high. The remaining organs were low. His head was clothed with hair as black as jet, two feet and a half in length, smoothly combed and hanging down his back. He was dressed in a deer- skin frock, leggings, and moccasins; not a shred of cloth about his person. On my first interview with him, he addressed me with the stiflF cold formality of one conscious of his own importance; and, in a manner that he thought unobserved, scrutinised the movement of every muscle of my face, and every word that I uttered ; and when anything was said of political events in the States or Europe, he gave silent and intense attention. I left him without any very good impressions of his character; for I had induced him to open his compressed mouth but once, and then to make the no very agreeable inquiries, " When do you start ?" and " What route do you intend to take ?" At my second interview, he was more familiar. Having ascertained that he was proud of his learn- ing, I approached him through that medium. He seemed pleased at this compliment to his superiority over those around him, and at once became easy and talkative. His "Alma Mater" was described and re-described ; all the fields, and walks, and rivulets, the beautiful Connecticut, the evergreen primitive ridges lying along its banks, which he said " had A FREE INDIAN GENTLEMAN. 159 smiled for a thousand ages on the march of decay," were successive themes of his gigantic imagination. His descriptions were minute and exquisite. He saw in everything all that science sees, together with all that his capacious intellect, instructed and imbrued with the wild fancyings and legends of his race, could see. I inquired the reason of his leaving civilised life for a precarious livelihood in the wilderness. " For reasons found in the nature of my race," he replied. " The Indian s eye cannot be satisfied with a description of things, how beautiful soever may be the style, or the harmonies of verse in which it is con- veyed ; for neither the periods of burning eloquence, nor the mighty and beautiful creations of the imagi- nation, can unbosom the treasures of realities as they live in their own native magnificence on the eternal mountains, and in the secret untrodden vale. As soon as you thrust the ploughshare under the earth, it teems with worms and useless weeds : it increases population to an unnatural extent — creates the neces- sity of penal enactments — builds the jail — erects the gallows — spreads over the human face a mask of deception and selfishness — and substitutes villany, love of wealth and power, and the slaughter of mil- lions, for the gratification of some royal cut-throat, in the place of the single-minded honesty, the hospita- lity, the honour and the purity of the natural state. Hence, wherever agriculture appears, the increase of moral and physical wretchedness induces the thou- sands of necessities, as they are termed, for abridging human liberty ; for fettering down the mind to the 160 A FREE INDIAN GENTLEMAN. principles of right, derived, not from nature, but from a restrained and forced condition of existence. And hence my race, with mental and physical habits as free as the waters that flow from the hills, become restive under the rules of civilised life — dwindle to their graves under the control of laws, and customs, and forms, which have grown out of the endless vices, and the factitious virtues of another race. Red men often acquire and love the sciences. But with the nature which the Great Spirit has given them, what are all their truths to them ? Would an Indian ever measure the height of a mountain that he could climb ? No, never. The legends of his tribe tell him nothing about quadrants, and base lines and angles. Their old braves, however, have for ages watched from the cliffs the green life in the spring, and the yellow death in the autumn, of their holy forests. Why should he ever calculate an eclipse ? He always knew such occurrences to be the doings of the Great Spirit. Science, 'tis true, can tell the times and seasons of their coming ; but the Indian, when they do occur, looks through Nature, without the aid of science, up to its cause. Of what use is a Lunar to him ? His swift canoe has the green em- bowered shores, and well known headlands, to guide its course. In fine, what are the arts of peace, of war, of agriculture, or anything civilised, to him ? His nature and its elements, like the pine which shadows his wigwam, are too mighty, too grand, of too strong a fibre, to form a stock on which to engraft the rose or the violet of polished life. No. A FREE INDIAN GENTLEMAN. 161 I must range the hills; I must always be able to out- travel my horse ; I must always be able to strip my own wardrobe from the backs of the deer and buffalo, and to feed upon their rich loins : I must always be able to punish my enemy with my own hand, or I am no longer an Indian. And if I am anything else, I am a mere imitation, an ape." The enthusiasm with which these sentiments were uttered, impressed me with an awe I had never previously felt for the. unborrowed dignity and independence of the genuine, original character of the American Indians. Enfeebled, and reduced to a state of dependence by disease and the crowded hosts of civilised men, we find among them still, too much of their own, to adopt the character of another race; too much bravery to feel like a conquered people ; and a preference of annihilation to the abandonment of that course of life, consecrated by a thousand generations of venerated ancestors. This Indian has been trapping among the Rocky Mountains for seventeen years. During that time, he has been often employed as an express to carry news from one trading-post to another, and from the mountains to Missouri. In these journeys he has been remarkable for the directness of his courses, and the exceedingly short spaces of time required to accomplish them. Mountains that neither Indian nor white men dared attempt to scale — if opposing his right-line track — he has crossed. Angry streams, heavy and cold from the snows, and plunging and roaring among the girding caverns of the hills, he has 162 A FREE INDIAN GENTLEMAN. swum ; he has met the tempest as it groaned over the plains, and hung upon the trembling towers of the everlasting hills ; and without a horse, or even a dog, traversed often the terrible and boundless wastes of mountains, and plains, and desert valleys, through which I am travelling ; and the ruder the blast, the larger the bolts, and the louder the peals of the dreadful tempest, when the earth and the sky seem joined by a moving cataract of flood and flame driven by the wind, the more was it like himself, a free, unmarred manifestation of the sublime energies of Nature. He says that he never intends again to visit the States ; or any other part of the earth " which has been torn and spoiled by the slaves of agriculture." " I shall live/' says he, " and die in the wilderness." And assuredly he should thus live and die. The music of the rushing waters should be his requiem, and the Great Wilderness his tomb. FarnhaifrCs '* Travels in the Oreat Western Prairies." CEREMONY OF TAKING THE VEIL AT MEXICO. Having gone out in the carriage to pay some visits, I suddenly recollected that it was the very morning of the day in which a young girl was to take the veil, and also that it was necessary to inquire where I was to be placed ; for as to entering the church with the crowd on these occasions, it is out of the question, particularly when the girl being, as in the present case, of distinguished family, the ceremony is expected to be peculiarly magnificent. I accordingly called at the house, was shown up stairs, and, to my horror, found myself in the midst of a " goodlie companie," in rich array, consisting of the relations of the family, to the number of about a hundred persons ; the bishop himself in his purple robes and amethysts, a number of priests, the father of the young lady in his general's uniform ; she herself in purple velvet, with diamonds and pearls, and a crown of flowers ; the corsage of her gown entirely covered with little bows of riband of divers colours, which her friends had given her, each adding one, like stones thrown on a cairn in memory of the departed. She had also short sleeves, and white satin shoes. Being very handsome, with fine black eyes, good teeth, and fresh colour, and above all with the beauty m2 164 CEREMONY OF TAKING THE VEIL of youth, for she is but eighteen, she was not dis- figured even by this overloaded dress. Her mother, on the contrary, who was to act the part of madrina^ who wore a dress fac simile, and who was pale and sad, her eyes almost extinguished with weeping, looked like a picture of misery in a ball-dress. In the adjoining room long tables w^ere laid out, on which servants were placing refreshments for the fete about to be given on this joyous occasion. I was welcomed with true Mexican hospitality ; repeat- edly thanked for my kindness in coming to see the nun ; and hospitably pressed to join the family feast. I only got off upon a promise of returning at half- past ^^Q to accompany them to the ceremony, which, in fact, I greatly preferred to going there alone. I arrived at the hour appointed, and being led up stairs by the senator Don , found the morning party, with many additions, lingering over the dessert. There was some gaiety, but evidently forced. It reminded me of a mjirriage feast previous to the departure of the bride, who is about to be separated from her family for the first time. Yet how different in fact this banquet, where the mother and daughter met together for the last time on earth ! At stated periods, indeed, the mother may hear her daughter s voice speaking to her as from the depths of the tomb; but she may never more fold her in her arms, never more share in her joys, or in her sorrows, or nurse her in sickness ; and when her last hour arrives, though but a few streets divide them, she may not give her dying blessing to the AT MEXICO. 165 child who has been for so many years the pride of her eye and her heart. I have seen no country where families are so knit together as in Mexico, where the aflfections are so concentrated, or where such devoted respect and obedience are shown by the married sons and daughters to their parents. In that respect they always remain as little children. I know many families, of which the married branches continue to live in their father's house, forming a sort of small colony, and living in the most perfect har- mony. They cannot bear the idea of being sepa- rated, and nothing but dire necessity ever forces them to leave iheii fatherland. To all the accounts which travellers give them of the pleasures to be met with in European capitals, they turn a deaf ear. Their families are in Mexico — their parents, and sisters, and relatives, — and there is no happiness for them elsewhere. The greater, therefore, is the sacrifice which those parents make, who, from religious motives, devote their daughters to a con- ventual life. — , however, was furious at the whole affair, which, he said, was entirely against the mother s consent, though that of the father had been obtained; and pointed out to me the confessor whose influence had brought it about. The girl herself was now very pale, but evidently resolved to conceal her agitation, and the mother seemed as if she could shed no more tears — quite exhausted with weeping. As the hour for the ceremony drew near, the whole 166 CEREMONY OF TAKING THE VEIL party became more grave and sad, all but the priests, who were smiling, and talking together in groups. The girl was not still a moment. She kept walking hastily through the house, taking leave of the servants, and naming probably her last wishes about everything. She was followed by her younger sisters, all in tears. But it struck six ; and the priests intimated that it was time to move. She and her mother went down the stairs alone, and entered the carriage which was to drive them through all the principal streets, to show the nun to the public according to custom, and to let them take their last look, — they of her, and she of them. As they got in, we all crowded to the balconies to see her take leave of her house, her aunt saying, " Yes, child, despidete de tu casa^ take leave of your house, for you will never see it again ! " Then came sobs from the sisters, and many of the gentlemen, ashamed of their emotion, hastily quitted the room. I hope, for the sake of humanity, I did not rightly interpret the look of constrained anguish which the poor girl threw from the window of the carriage at the home of her childhood. They drove oflP, and the relations prepared to walk in procession to the church. I walked with the Count S , the others followed in pairs. The church was very brilliantly illuminated, and as we entered, the band was playing one of Strauss s waltzes ! The crowd was so tremendous, that we were nearly squeezed to a jelly in getting to our AT MEXICO. 167 places. I was carried off my feet between two fat Senoras, in mantillas, and shaking diamond pen- dants, exactly as if I had been packed between two movable feather-beds. They gave me, however, an excellent place, quite close to the grating, that is to say, a place to kneel on. A great bustle and much preparation seemed to be going on within the convent, and veiled iigures were flitting about, whispering, arranging, &c. Sometimes a skinny old dame would come close to the grating, and, lifting up her veil, bestow upon the pensive public a generous view of a very haughty and very wrinkled visage of some seventy years' standing, and beckon into the church for the major- domo of the convent, or for padre this or that. Some of the holy ladies recognised and spoke to me through the grating. But at the discharge of fire-works outside the church, the curtain was dropped, for this was the signal that the nun and her mother had arrived. An opening was made in the crowd as they passed into the church ; and the girl kneeling down, was ques- tioned by the bishop, but I could not make out the dialogue, which was carried on in a low voice. She then passed into the convent by a side door ; and her mother, quite exhausted, and nearly in hysterics, was supported through the crowd to a place beside us in front of the grating. The music struck up ; the curtain was again drawn aside. The scene was as striking here as in the convent of Santa Teresa, but not so lugubrious. The nuns, all ranged around, 168 CEREMONY OF TAKING THE VEIL and carrying lighted tapers in their hands, were dressed in mantles of bright blue, with a gold plate on the left shoulder. Their faces, however, were covered with deep black veils. The girl, kneeling in front, and also bearing a heavy lighted taper, looked beautiful, with her dark hair and rich dress, and the long black lashes resting on her glowing face. The churchmen near the illuminated and magnificently- decked altar, formed, as usual, a brilliant back- ground to the picture. The ceremony was nearly the same as on a former occasion, but there was no sermon. The most terrible thing to witness was the last, straining, anxious look which the mother gave her daughter through the grating. She had seen her child pressed to the arms of strangers, and welcomed to her new home. She was no longer hers. All the sweet ties of nature had been rudely severed, and she had been forced to consign her, in the very bloom of youth and beauty, at the very age in which she most required a mothers care, and when she had just fulfilled the promise of her childhood, to a living tomb. Still, as long as the curtain had not fallen, she could gaze upon her, as upon one on whom, though dead, the cofiin-lid is not yet closed. But while the new-made nun was in a blaze of light, and distinct on the fore-ground, so that we could mark each varying expression of her face, the crowd in the church, and the comparative faintness of the light, probably made it difiicult for her to distinguish her mother; for, knowing that the end AT MEXICO. 169 was at hand, she looked anxiously and hurriedly into the church, without seeming able to fix her eyes on any particular object ; while her mother seemed as if her eyes were glazed, so intently were they fixed upon her daughter. Suddenly, and without any preparation, down fell the black curtain like a pall, and the sobs and tears of the family broke forth. One beautiful little child was carried out almost in fits. Water was brought to the poor mother ; and, at last, making our way through the dense crowd, we got into the sacristy. I went home thinking by what law of God a child can be thus dragged from the mother who bore and bred her, and immured in a cloister for life, amongst strangers, to whom she has no tie, and towards whom she owes no duty. That a convent may be a blessed shelter from the calamities of life, a haven for the unprotected, a resting-place for the weary, a safe and holy asylum, where a new family and kind friends, await those whose natural ties are broken, and, whose early friends are gone, I am willing to admit; but it is not in the flower of youtli that the warm heart should be consigned to the cold cloister. Let the young take their chance of sunshine or of storm : the calm and shady retreat is for helpless and unprotected old age. , to whom I described these ceremonies, wrote some verses, suggested by my account of them, which I send you. 1 70 CEREMONY OF TAKING THE VEIL In tropic gorgeousness, the Lord of Day To the bright chambers of the west retired, And with the glory of his parting ray, The hundred domes of Mexico he fired, When I, with vague and solemn awe inspired. Entered The Incarnation's sacred fane. The vaulted roof, the dim aisle far retired. Echoed the deep-toned organ s holy strain, Which through the incensed air did mournfully com- plain. The veiling curtain suddenly withdrew. Opening a glorious altar to the sight, Where crimson intermixed its regal hue With gold and jewels that outblazed the light Of the huge tapers near them flaming bright, From golden stands — the bishop, mitre-crowned And robed, to minister a sacred rite, Stood stately near — in order due around The sisterhood knelt down, their brows upon the ground. The novice entered : to her doom she went. Gems in her robes, and flowers upon her brow. Virgin of tender years, poor innocent ! Pause, ere thou speak th' irrevocable vow. What if thy heart should change, thy spirit fail ? She kneels. The black-robed sisters cease to bow. They raise a hymn which seems a funeral wail, While o'er the pageant falls the dark, lugubrious veil. AT MEXICO. 171 Again the veil is up. On earth she lies, "With the drear mantle of the pall spread o'er. The new-made nun, the living sacrifice, Dead to this world of ours for evermore ! The sun his parting rays hath ceased to pour, As loth to lend his light to such a scene — The sisters raise her from the sacred floor, Supporting her their holy arms between ; — The mitred priest stands up with patriarchal mien. And speaks the benediction ; all is done. A life-in-death must all her years consume. She clasped her new-made sisters one by one : As the black shadows their embraces gave, They seemed like spectres from their place of doom, Stealing from out eternal night's black cave, To meet their comrade new, and hail her to the grave. The curtain fell again, the scene was o'er, The pageant gone, its glitter and its pride. And it would be a pageant and no more. But for the maid miscalled the Heavenly Bride. Say, if an utter stranger, unallied To her by slightest tie, some grief sustain, What feels the yearning mother from whose side Is torn the child whom she hath reared in vain. To share her joys no more, no more to soothe her pain ! Madame de la Barca's *' lAfe in Meodco^^ DESERT JOURNEY FROM GRAND CAIRO TO SUEZ. I REACHED Cairo early in February, after several months' tour in Upper Egypt. I immediately com- menced making preparations for my journey through the deserts to Mount Sinai, Akaba, and thence to Petra, and onwards througli Idumea to Palestine. My companion, unwilling to risk the dangers and fatigues of this route, had left me at Cairo, and departed for Alexandria. I was thus left to pursue my journey alone. Fortunately, two Englishmen in the service of Mohammed Ali, hearing of my inten- tions, joined me when on the point of starting. As they proposed to go only as far as Mount Sinai, I was obliged to lay in a large store of provisions. For several days I was busy with my dragoman Abdallah, in the bazaars, buying dates, coffee, tea, potatoes, maccaroni, water-skins, charcoal, a tent, and the other essentials of a journey in the desert. Mr. Gliddon, our estimable consul in Egypt^ was kind enough to volunteer his assistance in making our contracts with the Arabs. Twaylibb, one of the sheiks of the Tawarah tribe, was then encamped on the desert outside the walls of Cairo. These Arabs are the Gahfirs^ or protectors of the convent of Mount Sinai, and with the Dhuheiry, Awarimeh, and Aleikat, alone enjoy the privilege of conducting DESERT JOURNEY. 173 travellers between Cairo and the convent. Though the distance from the consul's to the tents of the Tawarah was but a few miles, yet, with the usual procrastination of the Arabs, nothing could be effected on the first day but an interchange of messengers. On the second day we met Twaylibb in the house of Mr. Gliddon. He received us with great courtesy, touching his head^ mouth, and breast, to signify that his thoughts, words, and heart were ours. He was short and spare in stature, of a keen eye, and a coun- tenance which was crafty, mild, and benevolent in its expression. As I had gained some knowledge of the craftiness and cunning of the Arabs in my dealings with the boatmen on the Nile, I was tolerably pre- pared for an encounter with a Bedouin sheik in the art of bargaining. The ceremony was opened, as usual, with pipes and coffee. It was only after we had smoked some half- dozen pipes that we got fairly under way. On the first pipe, the sheik commenced with a long account of the dangers and toils of the journey, expatiating at large upon the stoical virtues of the Bedouins — their poverty, fidelity, &c. On the second, the high prices paid by several Frank travellers were duly commented on. On the third, a compliment was rendered to the generosity and liberality of the Franks, with sundry indirect allusions to the good traits of Americans and Englishmen. On the fourth, after this ingenious preface, the bargain was broached, and continued under discussion until the demolition of not a few pipe-bowls, and the interchange of sundry 1 74 DESERT JOURNEY hard words, when we shook hands, and agreed upon the terms. I contracted with the sheik for five camels, at 250 piastres each, being 1250 piastres for all, for the journey from Cairo to Akaba, by Mount Sinai. Exclusive of this, Twaylibb was to receive 250 piastres for his services as conductor of the cara- van, so that the journey, according to this estimate, would cost 75 dollars. In the end, including back- sheesh on the route, it cost near 100 dollars to Akaba. In the presence of the consul, a written agreement in Arabic and French was drawn up, which was signed by the contracting parties. The terms being thus concluded on, the Arabs begged a day's grace to obtain provisions for their camels. In the meanwhile, I doffed my European habiliments, and assumed the guise of an Oriental. I put myself into the hands of a barber, who shaved my hair almost to the skull, leaving not even the usual tuft upon the crown of the head, which he explained by saying, that as the Franks were not admitted into the Mussulman heaven, there was no necessity for this appendage, by which the faithful are drawn into heaven. The head being shaved, the tailor entered. Having explained to me the mysteries of the Turkish toilette, he proceeded to envelop my head in a turban, the stainless hue and imposing dignity of which might have become the head of the pasha himself. I next encased my feet in a pair of red slippers, for in this country of dust and sand boots are unnecessary. Lastly, I buckled a Damascus scimitar around my waist, rammed a pair of silver- FROM GRAND CAIRO TO SUEZ. 175 mounted Albanian pistols in my belt, and strode out into the street, curling my moustache, and strutting in the best style of Turkish dandyism. It was amusing to see how the Arabs opened a path for me, who before, when costumed as a Frank, would not give me an inch of room. As I had mastered the every- day portion of the Arabic vocabulary, I was not at a loss for words to sustain my new character. But little time, however, was left for promenading, as on the morrow I was to leave behind me the walls of Cairo, and embark upon the desert. It was early in the morning, when the Arabs brought the camels to our inn. Here, near half the day was consumed in packing and unpacking the baggage. The dromedary which was assigned to me was a noble- looking beast, full ten feet high, with a spare body, long legs and neck, and an eye of exceeding softness and beauty. He was perfectly white, and was said to be very fleet, having, on several occasions, made eleven miles an hour. I did not fancy the lofty promontory on his back, upon which I was to stride the saddle, so I declined mounting in the city, and winding my way through the crowds of the narrow bazaars, seated upon the back of this graceful giant. With my companions, I followed the caravan upon a donkey, until we passed beneath the Bab el Nasr, the gate of Victory, and issued upon the desert. Proceeding some distance, we came to the encamp- ment of the Arabs, among the tombs of the Caliphs. Near to these magnificent mausolea lay the humble grave of Burckhardt, almost concealed from view by 176 DESERT JOURNEY the sand. It was rather disheartening thus to meet, on the threshold of our journey, the grave of a traveller, who had wasted his life in the gloomy deserts of Arabia. We dismissed our donkeys, bade our friends adieu, and turned to our future com- panions, the Ishmaelites of the desert. They, like all the Arabs we met, were armed to the teeth : thus answering the prediction concerning Ishmael, in Genesis — " He will be a wild man ; his hand will be against every man, and every man s hand will be against him." As the day was nearly spent, no further progress could be made, so we pitched our tents, spread our sedjeddahs^ or carpets, beneath them, lighted our pipes, and laid down to talk over the route. Around our tents there lay several encampments of Bedouins. As the night approached the hollow in which we lay was dotted over by numerous fires, atound which were gathered clusters of Arabs, whose loud voices, breaking out in rude songs, or in angry strife, were the only sounds that broke the deep silence of the desert. Each of these camp-fires was encircled by a line of camels, sleeping with their knees bent beneath their bodies, and their long necks thrust out upon the sand. There was no moon in the sky, but the blue roof above us was fretted with multitudes of dazzling stars, that cast a faint illumination upon the desert. The blue expanse of the firmament, and the desert stretching boundless and limitless, as far as the eye could see, produced a sensation of infinity that I never felt within the walls of the crowded FROM GRAND CAIRO TO SUEZ. 177 city. The mind felt something of religious awe in contemplating the majesty and grandeur of the scene around. Shut out from the noisy haunts of men, and launched upon the bosom of the desert, the imagination was impressed with the unearthly silence of the waste, and seemed to approach in silent com- munion with the Creator of the Universe, before whom nature here stood mute. As the night ad- vanced, the fires went out one by one, the sounds of human voices ceased, and darkness and silence reigned around. I threw myself down upon a carpet, with a camel saddle for a pillow, and turned to my first night's sleep in the desert. The stars streamed brightly through the door of the tent, before which my faithful servant was lying as a guard. The Bedouins slept around the embers of their fires in the open air, wrapped up in their abbas. Indeed, the air was so mild and pure, that the shelter of a tent was almost superfluous. We rose with the dawn, and bathed our eyes with a cupful of water, our scanty stock not permitting us to indulge in the luxury of a good wash. A cup of black coffee and a crust of bread, upon the first, as on all succeeding days, was the ordinary refresh- ment before mounting our camels for the day's travel. My companions being practised camel-riders, found no trouble in mounting their dromedaries, but with me it was a matter of serious difiiculty. An Arab was holding my dromedary down until I should get seated in the saddle. I saw that the beast was very impatient, so I made an effort to vault into the saddle 178 DESERT JOURNEY at a leap ; unluckily, I lodged upon the edge of the saddle, and, before I had time to secure myself, the angry beast rose with a sudden jerk, that completely " destroyed,," as Sir Harcourt Courtly would say, " the equilibrium of my etiquette," and pitched me over his head. The sand was too soft to break any bones, but, as I did not court a repetition of this manoeuvre, I begged of the Arab to give me a lesson before making another attempt to mount. I followed with no little trepidation the movements of my in- structor. I straddled firmly the huge colossus of flesh, and held strongly upon the high pommels in front and behind the saddle. He rose first upon his fore legs, which threw me violently against the pommel, bruising my back not a little ; then, with the lifting of the hind legs, I was thrown forward, . with my breast upon the front pommel, and the huge machine got in motion, swinging backwards and forwards in such a way as to put me in the most excruciating torture for the first half hour. A few more rough-and-tumble somersets, however, gave me such experience, that before the first day was over, I received the compliments of the sheik upon my skill in dromedary-riding. The next morning we had fairly got under way on our desert voyage. After a terrible dispute among the Bedouins, as to the division of the money, the order was given to fall into the line and march. We made quite a respectable caravan, there being nearly thirty camels, including those which cq^ried the family of the sheik. In an hour after starting, we FROM GRAND CAIRO TO SUEZ. 179 lost sight of the walls of Cairo, and nothing was to be seen but the sandy wastes of the desert. The camels stretched over the desert in a long file, treading one after the other in solemn march, occa- sionally stopping to snatch at some dry shrub or thistle in the path. The wind was very high. According to the Arabs, it was the pioneer of the simooms which were to sweep across the desert in the ensuing month. In the cloud of drifting sand, which swept before us, we saw a beautiful gazelle running before the wind. It bounded gracefully and buoyantly over the desert, light as the air, and swift as the wind. All chase was in vain. A few hours from Cairo we passed through a petrified forest. Here the desert was covered with the prostrate bodies, limbs, and trunks of trees, petrified as hard as rock, but still retaining their original form and structure, even to the very fibres. These petrifactions are found lying in a valley along the desert, for several miles. Whether an antediluvian forest once stood on the spot, or whether these trees have been swept here by some inundation of the Nile, which has borne them hither from its banks, is a curious subject of inquiry. All that we know is, that they have lain here from the times of the remotest tradition. We halted at sundown, under the lee of some friendly hills, after eight hours' continued march since starting. And thus ends our first day's journey in the desert. On the second day after leaving Cairo the caravan turned to the south, and stretched out into the n2 180 DESERT JOURNEY sandy ocean of the desert, towards the Red Sea. Our way lay over a rough and stony waste, broken by isolated hills of rock and narrow valleys, which wound their way between the sandy ridges that furrowed the desert. Nothing could be more deso- late than the prospect that lay before us the whole of this day. Not a shrub or plant was to be seen on the naked earth. The very rocks were black- ened by the scorching heat of the sun, and rendered the scene more dismal. The bones of camels and men, that lay bleaching on the sand, spoke of the fate of some unfortunate travellers, who had here been buried in the sandy whirlwind of a simoom. The sun glared intensely upon the dazzling surface of the desert, almost blinding me with the fierceness of its lustre. I kept my face enveloped in the folds of my turban, but the fitful gusts that swept across our path constantly snatched away the covering, and sometimes even rendered it difiicult to retain one's seat in the saddle. The dromedary never abated his pace, but walked undaunted on. I essayed once or twice to stop his progress, by jerking the rope, which, attached to a ring, passed through his nostrils, and served as a kind of bridle. It was all in vain, however. He indignantly tossed his head aside, and only strode along the faster, probably setting me down as a greenhorn, who had the presumption to teach a dromedary of the desert how to regulate his movements. At noon we made a temporary halt beneath the shadow of a sand-hill, and took a hurried repast of tea and eggs. By FROM GRAND CAIRO TO SUEZ. 181 sundown we reached an open plain. Here the sheik, who had gone ahead to select a place of encampment, directed us to halt for the night. The dromedaries and camels were made to kneel, and we descended, excessively fatigued by a march of more than ten hours, which was rendered the more annoying by the gusts which clouded the air with sand, and the intense heat of the noonday sun. We selected a smooth place for our tents, carefully swept the stones away, raised the tent-pole, drove the stakes into the ground, and spread the canvas roof, which was to cover us for the night. This done, the servants lighted our pipes, and we threw our- selves down upon the carpets, to await the prepara- tion of the dinner, for which the fatigues of the day had given us a good appetite. In an hour more dinner was prepared. Dinner being past, the tra- velling library was opened, the pipes relighted, the coffee-pot placed upon the fire, and the old sheik called in to give an account of the country over which we had passed during the day, or to entertain us with tales of Bedouin life. Among all our books, however, we found the Bible the most valuable guide in the route we were travelling, and the most faithful portraiture of the desert and its wandering inhabi- tants. The fixed customs, pursuits, and modes of life of the Bedouins, render the descriptions in Holy Writ, of the pastoral life of the prly patriarchs, perfectly applicable to the modern tenants of the desert. The dress, tents, and food of the Arabs of the desert have probably remained witliout a change 182 DESERT JOURNEY since Moses fed the flocks of Jethro, in the wilder- ness of Sinai. Our tents were always pitched in the centre of the encampment. Around us lay the Bedouins by their fires, which were kept blazing all night, and beyond them, on the outer verge, the camels were disposed in a circle, forming a bulwark to our little encampment. We rose at sunrise, refreshed by a sound sleep, and again continued our journey without intermission, (except a halt of a few minutes at noon,) to sunset. Such is the traveller's life in the desert. On the following, as upon preceding days, the desert was quite varied in its surface. We were constantly crossing plains, mounting hills, or winding through valleys. In the afternoon we entered Wady Ramliyeh, a long, narrow valley, running between high hills of limestone, in a very tortuous course. The desert here is not entirely desert. Several acacia trees bloom in the bottom of the pass^ but the inhospitable bed of thorns that fall from the tree, deny the traveller the pleasure of reposing beneath its shade. A thin growth of prickly shrubs afforded our camels a good pasture, which they availed them- selves of, in hurried and frequent snatches, as they passed along. At the mouth of the valley we passed a large herd of camels and goats, browsing among the shrubs. They were tended by a Bedouin girl, who ran screaming up the hills as soon as she saw the European costume of my companions. We saw no water on the route. It is surprising to see people living, with their herds, day by day, in a district FROM GRAND CAIRO TO SUEZ. 183 where there is not a single drop of water. Our sheik had expected on the previous morning to find water, but the sun had dried up all that the recent rains left. He was now out of water, and we were obliged to loan him a portion of our own scanty stock. As on the preceding day, we saw several small birds flying about the desert, also a fine plump hare, which after a hunt of more than an hour, we finally succeeded in capturing. This was a great prize, as we had consumed all our meat. The great- est wonder is, how these animals contrive to live here without water. Three hours after starting this morning, we saw the waters of the Red Sea glittering at a distance, in the rays of the sun. At sundown we arrived upon the " Red Sea Coast," probably upon the very spot where the Israelites first pitched their tents upon its shores, as we had followed upon one of the supposed routes of the children of Israel, on their flight from Egypt. We encamped upon the beach of the sea. The roar of the surf rang in our ears all night. The door of my tent opened upon the sea. The tumul- tuous and foaming waters reminded me of that dreadful night when its " waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian cavalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who heheld From the safe shore their floating carcasses And broken chariot wheels." We struck our tents with the rising of the sun, 184 DESERT JOURNEY and marched along the coast of the Eed Sea. We suffered not a little all the day for the want of potable water. The water is carried in goat-skins, being almost the only thing that is impervious to the consuming heat of the sun. We took care at Cairo to procure old and dry skins, but as they are placed upon the backs of the camels, the water has become so hot and fetid from the constant exposure to the sun, and so acrid from its having imbibed the smell of the skins, that it is now absolutely insupportable. Last night and to-day we had nothing else to moisten our parched throats with but the juice of a few withered lemons. The knowledge, too, that we had no longer any drinkable w^ater, excited our thirst to such a degree as to cause us the most extreme suffer- ing. A party of Arabs were out among the hills of the desert during the night to look for water, but they returned this morning without finding any. Had we not expected to reach Suez to-night, we should have left our bones in the desert with the other unfortunate travellers, whose bleaching remains have whitened the sands from Cairo. The camels had not tasted a drop of water since leaving Cairo, but as they were liberally fed upon hasheesh (green grass), they can go without anything to drink for twenty or thirty days to come. The Bedouins, like their camels, seem to possess the power of abstaining from water for an astonishing length of time ; for I believe no one of them has drunk more than half a tumbler full for the last &Ye days. A handful of dates and a few crusts of bread serve them for daily FROM GRAND CAIRO TO SUEZ. 185 food, notwithstanding the excessive fatigues they undergo, of walking by the side of their camels from morning till night. Of meat they have not touched a morsel, nor have we been able to give them any, owing to our deficiency. Meat is but seldom eaten by the Bedouins, their poverty only permitting them on rare occasions to indulge in this luxury. Their light fare, however, does not incapacitate them from enduring great fatigue. Though spare of form, they possess much muscular strength, and can suffer the fiercest extremes of heat, and bear the pinchings of hunger and want, amid the severest fatigue and sufferings of over-tasked labour. Faint with thirst and the heat of the sun, we pursued our way slowly along the narrow beach, between the mountains and the sea. The sight of the tossing waters of the sea excited in us all the horrors of Tantalian suffering. I rode my camel in an almost perfect state of insensibility, indifferent to existence itself. My companions uttered not a word, and the caravan marched on in gloomy, death-like stillness. The splashing of the waters upon the beach, and the hollow moan of the wind among the sandy caverns of the mountains, were the only sounds that smote upon the ear. Our faithful Arabs, suffering as they were themselves, endeavoured to cheer us with the rude snatches of an Arab song, but, as we no longer paid them any attention, or gave them any answer, they desisted, and left us to the communion of our dreary thoughts. Before night I became unable to hold my seat, and fell senseless 186 DESERT JOURNEY upon the sand. The Arabs made a couch of the tent, and swung it upon the side of the dromedary. Into this I was thrust, and there I remained, speechless and nearly senseless, for the rest of the journey. As our condition required the constant care of the few Arabs with us, we could not send any one ahead to obtain water for us from Suez. I fell into a deep sleep, from which I was not awakened until late in the night, when I heard the distant barking of dogs. I raised myself on to the saddle, and there I beheld the solitary minaret of Suez, tipped by the light of the moon, rising as a beacon of light and hope above the naked waste around. In one hour more we were encamped beneath the walls of Suez. Our first cry was " Water ! water !" Our servants arrested an Arab, who was returning, with an ass loaded with water-skins, from the well which stands in the desert, some miles to the north of Suez. They seized the poor fellow, and brought him and his beast to us, to his great alarm, which he manifested by loud cries of terror. As soon as he saw that he had fallen among Franks, he changed his tune to an incessant howl of " Howadji ! Backsheesh ! Backsheesh !" Impatient to desperation^ I seized my sword and ripped open a skin, and plunged my head through the opening into the cool element beneath. There I drank and drank, and should have continued to drink until I had killed myself, had not the sheik forcibly seized me and thrust me away. The water was brackish, but yet it was fresh and cool. Never did I drain a more delicious draught. I crawled into my tent, and fell FROM GRAND CAIRO TO SUEZ, 187 into a sound slumber, from which I awoke long after sunrise. The next morning found us restored to our wonted health, but suffering from the exhaustion of the preceding day. At ten o'clock we rode into the town of Suez. Monisms *' Tour through Twrlcey,